Is Satan real? The short, simple answer is yes. Biblical teaching is that Satan is real. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible’s writers (including the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles) describe Satan as a real, active being with a beginning and, thankfully, an end.
Most people don’t need convincing that evil exists in the world. Evidence for sin and evil abounds.
Still, the idea that evil is embodied in a specific being isn’t always widely received. Many prefer to believe that the wrong in our world is a symptom of miseducation or lack of education, economic imbalance, corrupt political systems, or faulty social constructs.
Some people attribute the world’s shortcomings to faulted humans and don’t believe there is any power beyond what people do to one another. While faulty or corrupt systems and human sin contribute to the world’s wrong, there is also a force of evil at work, the enemy of God, Satan, and his followers.
Those who struggle to accept the reality of the spiritual have, traditionally, rejected the notion of evil personified in Satan. But, while belief in the existence of God is shrinking, according to the Barna research group, belief in the existence of Satan is actually on the rise.
In a surprising Barna study conducted in 2020, researchers found that more Americans believe in Satan than in God. Roughly 51% of American adults believe in God (a decrease from 73% in 1991), but 56% believe in the existence of Satan.
Read more of this Bible Study Tools post.
John Piper writes well on God's control over Satan in his post Satan Always Asks Permission - Seven Ways God Reigns over Evil.
He writes under the following headings:
1. Satan is just God’s lackey.
2. Unclean spirits obey Jesus.
3. God determines our suffering.
4. Only God gives and takes life.
5. Satan cannot harm anyone without God’s permission.
6. Jesus is sovereign over Satan’s schemes.
7. Satan can blind, but God causes us to see again.
Read the whole post here
We often joke about the devil but at our peril. Martin Luther's hymn A mighty fortress is our God uses these sobering words...
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.
Here's a moving perfomance of the hymn...