Satan: More Real Than the Boogeyman

If you ask a Christian whether Satan is real or not, you will probably get a variety of different answers. Some will say that he is real because the Bible states that he is. There are some that believe he is real, but think of him incorrectly (such as him being born a monster). However, others don't believe he exists at all, and will say that he is just a a symbol of evil (like the Boogeyman) used to trick Christians into doing good instead of evil.

The truth, according to the Bible, is that Satan is very much real; however, he was not born as a monster with horns (like many cartoons and movies like to show him as).

Remember, it's more important for a Christian to believe that Jesus and His sacrifice was real. However, it's also important to remember why Jesus had to die in the first place, and that is because of Satan's influence of sin in the world which caused the Fall of Man. Therefore, it is also important to remember that Satan is also real. So let's find out what the Bible really says about Satan.

1. Satan, once an angel that lived with God in heaven, was kicked out because he wanted to become God.

Sometime before Adam and Eve were created, Satan existed as an angel that lived in heaven with God (Isaiah 14:12-15, NIV). The King James Version translation of the Bible refers to Satan as "Lucifer" (Isaiah 14:12-15, KJV). Other translations, however, may refer to Satan as some other word. For example, in Isaiah 14:12-15 (NIV), the New International Version of the Bible refers to Satan as "morning star." Regardless of the word used, they are both referring to Satan and state that he was kicked out of heaven. Other angels were also kicked out with him (Revelation 12:9, NIV).

Additionally, Jesus says that He "saw" Satan fall from heaven in Luke 10:18 (NIV).

2. Satan came to Adam, Eve, and Jesus in a physical form.

Today, Christians (and even non-Christians) fight Satan and his influence of sin in the unseen spiritual realm (Ephesians 6:12, NIV) because if you think of even one sinful thought, that means you have already allowed Satan's influence of sin to enter your mind. However, the Bible tells us that Adam, Eve, and Jesus were originally born without sin. This means that Satan was forced to appear in physical form to tempt them.

1. Adam and Eve were originally born without sin, so their minds were always on pure things. This means that it was impossible for Satan and his influence of sin to enter their minds naturally like it does to us today. Therefore, in order to tempt the two of them to sin, Satan was forced to take a physical form (a serpent) and tempt Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1, NIV). Revelation 12:9 (NIV) and Revelation 20:2 (NIV)also state that Satan was the serpent that tempted them -- which eventually lead to the Fall of Man.
   
   
   
2. Jesus Christ, just like Adam and Eve, was born without sin. Since His mind was always on pure thoughts (meaning Satan and his influence of sin could not naturally enter Jesus' mind), Satan had to take on physical form and attempt to make Jesus sin (Matthew 4:1-11, NIV; Mark 1:12-13, NIV; Luke 4:1-13, NIV). However, the difference between Jesus and Adam and Eve is that Jesus did not give in to temptation like Adam and Eve did. You can read more about this in The Secret to How Jesus Defeated Satan and How You Can Do it Too.

3. The Bible compares the human king of Tyre to Satan.

In Ezekiel 28:12-19 (NIV), these verses are comparing the human king of Tyre to Satan; however, we know that some of these verses could only specifically apply to Satan. For example:

1. Ezekiel 28:13 (NIV): "You were in Eden, the garden of God."
2. Ezekiel 28:14 (NIV): "You were anointed as a guardian cherub," and also states that he had access to the holy mount/mountain of God.
3. Ezekiel 28:16 (NIV) states that he was eventually expelled from the holy mountain of God.
4. Ezekiel 28:17 (NIV) states that he was thrown to the earth.

4. Satan will be defeated.

All of this talk about Satan may have you worried or scared that his presence will last forever. Thankfully, the Bible states he will be defeated in Revelation 20:7-10 (NIV). Specifically, Revelation 20:10 (NIV) tells us that he will be thrown into a lake of "burning sulfur" or fire.