The Devil – Who is the Real Enemy?

 There are 2 primary Scriptures that are used to show the origin of “the devil/Satan/Lucifer”.  However, both of them are easily shown within scripture that they do not support the story.  

The first is in Isaiah 14:12-13:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”

Yet within the very chapter of the text - just a few verses above - it clearly says that this is a proverb about the king of Babylon that had elevated himself to think he was a god on earth.

Verses 4-7 “That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! 

A simple explanation for a verse that has been held as overwhelming proof of a supernatural fallen angel.

The second scripture universally quoted for Satan’s origin is:

Revelation 12:7-12 “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,8 And prevailed not….9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

We are told in the first verses of the whole book of Revelation what precisely this “revelation” is, and what its purpose was:

Revelation 1:1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; …3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy”

The whole book of Revelation was given to the apostle John while on the isle of Patmos around 96 AD (over 60 years AFTER Christ had been crucified and ascended to heaven).  And the VERY FIRST VERSE of the book tells us the entire book is concerning “things which must shortly come to pass”, that it is all PROPHECY…in other words, future events starting from AD 96.  

That point is clear.  So then, if the war in heaven referred to in Revelation occurred after AD 96, it cannot possibly be used to say the devil was cast out of heaven aeons past and has been running rampant throughout the earth ever since.

So the 2 biggest pillars in the Bible that are used to teach the origin of the devil, simply crumble under a small bit of investigation within the surrounding verses/chapters.

This says nothing of the overwhelming volume of scripture that fully demonstrate and speak to what the real enemy is - that we all battle 🡪sin.

The devil is SIN, or “sin in the flesh”, the lusts and desires within each of us that is contrary to God’s will and purposes. The scripture makes this very plain all throughout, in describing the real enemy, and where sin comes from.

• “In me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing…the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:18-23)
• “Sin… deceived me and slew me.” (Romans 7:11) “sin working death in me” (verse 13)
• “Sin hath reigned unto death” (Roman 5:21)
•  “From whence come wars and fightings among you?  Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members” (James 4: 1-7)
• “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed” (James 1:14)
• “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:19)
• The works of the flesh are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, hatred, wrath, strife, envy, murder, drunkenness.” (Galatians 5:17)
• “Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14)
• “Crucify the flesh with all its lusts” (Galatians 5:24)

The confusion can come when the scripture personifies sin.  Personification (giving attributes of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman/inanimate) This is found all throughout the bible.  Below are a few of the many examples:

• Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together Psalms 98:8
• Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: Proverbs 1:20

There are many other examples, but the same personification applies to sin in the Bible 

• “Sin hath reigned unto death” (Roman 5:21)

The devil is the enemy.  We must identify the enemy if we are to have any hope of defeating it. Christ defeated the enemy.  We know this, because we are told he did.

• Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Christ] himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14)
• “… God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3)

Christ “destroyed the devil”.  If the devil is a person/entity, then it is dead and we should have nothing else to worry about.  If the devil is still running around tempting people, why would the apostle Paul say it was destroyed by Christ?  

However, if we understand the devil to be sin personified, we can understand the passage.  Christ had the same sinful flesh and lusts and temptations as all of us but without sin.   

• “Seeing … we have a great high priest, … Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:14-15)

If we follow Christ’s example, we would follow the words of Paul in Romans…

• Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve SIN (i.e. the devil) (Romans 6:6)