Where did Satan come from? Does he really exist? Is there a devil who tempts human
beings to do evil? If God is all powerful, why would He permit such a being to exist?
What does the Holy Bible say about Satan and where he came from?
Some Christians claim that God needed a devil to tempt man to sin so that man would
learn to abhor sin. This idea is called revulsion therapy. It has been used by some
paychologists to cause people to quit tobacco and other bad habits. But did God create Satan
for that purpose?
Would God create Satan to tempt man to sin and then command man not to sin?
Let’s go back to the very beginning. In Genesis 1:1 it says, “In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.” Notice that God was the first. He was the one who made
the universe. The next verse says, “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was
on the face of the deep.” The Hebrew words for “without form and void” are tohu and bohu.
Translated into English they mean chaotic, in confusion, waste, empty.
When God created the earth and the heavens, did He create the earth in a state of chaos
and confusion? Did He create one big mess? Why would God create a confused and chaotic
mess and then have to set the whole thing straight?
Earth was not created in confusion
In 1 Corinthians 14:33 the inspired Apostle Paul said, “God is not the author of confusion.”
God is the author of order and law, of peace. In fact unless there are laws, a standard, a
cohesive force of order, there could be no existence.
Why would God create the earth in confusion and then have to straighten it out? One scholar
points out that bara the Hebrew word translated ‘created’ used in Genesis 1:1 implies a
perfect work. The Hebrew word translated ‘created’ implies perfect created order and
system, not confusion or chaos.
God told Job about the creation and said, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of
the earth?” Did Job direct the building of some great edifice? Perhaps the Great Pyramid of
Egypt? Job was proud of his righteousness and his ccomplish-ments God could have been
humbling Job by comparing his accomplishments with those of God’s creation. Still talking
about the earth God said, Job 38:
4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy.
According to Biblical interpretation of symbols the ‘morning stars’ are light (truth)
bringing angels or archangels. Because God created them, they are referred to as ‘sons of
God.’ The angels singing and shouting implies a glorious and perfect creation of the earth.
Then how and why did the earth become chaotic and in confusion?
In Genesis 2:7 and 19:26 The same word in the Hebrew hayah is translated ‘became.’ In
the first three chapters of the Bible and many other places where the word hayah is used it
means a condition different from a former condition. What happened was the earth became
chaotic. It had not always been that way.
How the earth became chaotic
In Genesis 1:2 the word hayah translated ‘was’ has the meaning ‘became.’ The
Rotherham transla- tion says, “Now the earth had become waste and empty.” It had not
been created that way.
In Jeremiah 4:23, Isaiah 34:11, and other places in the Bible, the same words tohu and
Bohu are used meaning chaotic and confused. In every case the chaos and confusion are a
result of broken laws.
“For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth
and made it, Who established it, Who did not create it in vain (margin has empty or waste)
Who formed it to be inhabited.” (Isaiah 45:18) The original Hebrew word translated ‘vain’ is
tohu. It is the same word used in Genesis 1:2, meaning ‘confusion,’ ‘waste,’ ‘empty’--a
result of disorder, a result of violation of laws. Isaiah 45:18 says the earth was not created in
chaos or disorder. But in Genesis 1:2 the earth was chaotic and in confusion because it had
become that way.
The earth became chaotic, empty, and in confusion after it was created in order, beauty,
and peace. What caused that confusion--that disorder? What violation of law could have
wrecked the earth and brought about that condition? “Darkness was on the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God was hovering (KJV has ‘brooding’) over the face of the water.”
(Genesis 1:2)
Another age of the earth before Adam
There was another age of the earth before Adam and Eve were created. God, in the ages
past, created the earth and put life on it, both physical life and spirit life. The fossils of the
dinosaurs attest to the physical life that was on the earth. The Holy Scriptures attest to
the earth being populated with angels led by a great archangel Lucifer. The Bible does not
reveal whether the two kinds of life were interactive, but only hints that they were.
So what was the lawlessness that caused the physical destruction of the earth? Because
sin is the breaking of the law I John 3:4, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness,
and sin is lawlessness,” sin and lawlessness are interchangeable terms. That sin was not
committed by man, for man was not yet on the earth. Man did not appear until the sixth day
of the re-creation or the remaking. In I Corinthians 15: And so it is written, “The first man
Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Adam is called the
first man on the earth. In Genesis 3: And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was
the mother of all living. Eve is called the mother of all living human beings. There was no
other race of man prior to Adam and Eve.
Therefore the lawlessness that brought the chaos was not a sin by man because man was
not yet created. The answer is given in 2 Peter 2:4 “For if God did not spare the angels who
sinned, but cast them down to hell (margin Tartarus) and delivered them into chains of
darkness, to be reserved for judgment...” Here the sin of angels is mentioned. In verse 5
Peter says, “and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a
preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.”
The sins of mankind from Adam to Noah brought about the destruction of the world by a
flood. It was a chaotic physical condition brought about by the sins in that era.
Before Adam and Eve were created was there a chaotic, confused condition brought on
the earth by the sins of angels? In 2 Peter the sins of the angels are mentioned first, and it
occurred first. Satan was in existence when Adam was created. The sin of the angels was
before the creation of man. Physical destruction came to the earth as a result of the
lawlessness of angels, which happened before Adam.
Jude speaking of the fall of the angels said in verse 6, “And the angels who did not keep
their proper (margin says own) domain, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in
everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.” Notice it is the
sinning angels who are kept in those chains reserved for judgment. They are restrained
from truth until their time of judgment.
The angels inhabit the earth
The angels had a domain and a habitation, which they left. Hebrews 2:5, “For He has not
put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels.” The World to come in the
millennium will not be under subjection to angels. The present world is in subjection to
fallen angels, to demons. Satan is their head. They rule this present world by influencing the
inhabitants. The Bible in many places affirms this. Where did Satan get the power to
control and rule this world? Satan is the leader of the fallen angels as the scripture says in a
number of places.John 12: 30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of
Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will
be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33
This He said, signifying by what death He would die. Matthew 12: 24 Now when the Pharisees
heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of
the demons.” 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself
will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his
kingdom stand? Matthew 25: 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart
from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
Revelation 12: Now a great sign ap-peared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she
cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads
and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven
and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give
birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all
nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the
woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should
feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 7 And war broke out in heaven:
Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but
they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great
dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Satan became the god of this world. 2 Corinthians 4: 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not
believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine on them. Satan rules over the evil world we live in today.
In the age or ages before Adam the angels in- habited the earth and a great archangel,
or ruling angel, was their ruler and king. God had placed him here on the earth to carry out
his purpose under His laws to administer whatever program that He had the angels working
on. The system must have functioned in harmony until problems arose.
The rebellion of Lucifer
The great archangel Lucifer was the leader of all the angels in charge of the earth.
Looking at Isaiah 14: 3 It shall come to pass in the day the LORD gives you rest from your
sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 that
you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
The golden city ceased.
A king of Babylon is described here who was an invader, a conqueror. He was one who had
the opposite philosophy of God. God is one who believes in giving to others. This king was
overrunning and taking everything others had. He had the same attitude as Satan. He was
Satan’s tool and instrument.
This “King of Babylon” will be the future ruler over the prophesied coming revival of the
Holy Roman Empire, the “United States of Europe,” described in Revelation 17 and 18. It is
a system prophesied in Revelation 13, which was given its power by Satan.
Back to Isaiah 14: in verse 12, the type of Satan, the human king of Babylon, lifts to the
arch-antitype, Satan. This shows that Satan was the former great archangel, Lucifer. Isaiah
14:
12“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit. Verse 15 drops back to the type talking about the king of
Babylon.
The great archangel Lucifer had been given a throne, and had been placed over the
angels on the earth. He said he would exalt his throne above the stars (angels by Bible
interpretation) of God. He was already ruling over the angels on the earth. Now he was going
to invade heaven, take over the throne of God and rule over all the hosts of heaven and the
entire universe.
