It is hard to imagine a being like Lucifer (Satan) believing he could even do battle with God, much less defeat Him. Even the most depraved mind should be able to see that a creature cannot possibly contend with the Creator. Yet Satan attempted to dethrone God and strives to this day to defy God\u2019s authority, thwart His plans, and harass His people.
Perhaps part of the explanation is that pride has blinded Satan to reality. Two Old Testament passages (Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19) discuss Satan\u2019s original position and the reasons for his loss of that position. They tell of an exalted angelic being, one of God\u2019s creatures, who became proud. He determined to take the throne of God for himself. But God removed him from his position.
Satan\u2019s influence in worldly affairs is clearly revealed (John 12:31). Satan is extremely intelligent. Through his intelligence he deceived Adam and Eve and took over their rule of the world for himself (Genesis 1:26; 3:1-7; 2 Corinthians 11:3). His cleverness enables him to carry out his deceptive work almost at will, although his power is subject to God\u2019s restrictions (Job 1:12; Luke 4:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8). He does have certain victories\u2014although within the boundaries God has set for him\u2014and perhaps these victories allow him to continue the illusion that he can have victory over God Himself.
The reins of God on Satan\u2019s activities are illustrated by Satan\u2019s request to God for permission to afflict Job (Job 1:7-12). Satan is permitted to afflict God\u2019s people (Luke 13:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:18; Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 2:14), but he is never permitted to win an ultimate victory over them (John 14:30-31; 16:33). A part of Satan\u2019s continuing ambition to replace God is his passionate yearning to have others worship him (Mathew 4:8-9; Revelation 13:4, 12). Satan is “the wicked one” (Mathew 13:19, 38), while God is “the Holy One” (Isaiah 1:4).
Satan\u2019s nature is malicious. His efforts in opposing God, His people, and His truth are tireless (Job 1:7; 2:2; Mathew 13:28). He is always opposed to man\u2019s best interests (1 Chronicles 21:1; Zecharia 3:1-2). Through his role in introducing sin into the human family (Genesis 3), Satan has gained the power of death\u2014a power which Christ has broken through His crucifixion and resurrection (Hebrews 2:14-15). Satan tempted Christ directly, trying to lead Him into compromise by promising Him worldly authority and power (Luke 4:5-8).
Despite Satan\u2019s self-delusion that he can defeat God, Satan is destined to fail. His final defeat is predicted in John 12:31, Revelation 12:9 and 20:10. The death of Christ on the cross is the basis for Satan\u2019s final defeat (Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Peter 3:18, 22). That event was the grand climax to a sinless life during which Jesus triumphed over the enemy repeatedly (Mathew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13) Satan probably rejoiced in the death of Christ, believing it to be a victory for him, but like all his victories, that one, too, was short-lived. When Jesus rose from the grave, Satan was once again defeated. The final victory will come when Jesus returns and Satan is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:1-15).
The death and resurrection of Christ provide the believer strength for victory over sin. We have assurance that “the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). But such personal victory depends on God\u2019s grace and power in our lives and our will to offer resistance to Satan\u2019s temptations ( Ephesians 4:25-27; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-9). To help Christians win this battle against Satan, God has provided the power of Christ\u2019s blood (Revelation 12:11), the continuing prayer of Christ in heaven for believers (Hebrews 7:25), the leading of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16), and various weapons for spiritual warfare (Ephesisans 6:10-18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is hard to imagine a being like Lucifer (Satan) believing he could even do battle with God, much less defeat Him. Even the most depraved mind should be able to see that a creature cannot possibly contend with the Creator. Yet Satan attempted to dethrone God and strives to this day to defy God\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geniusnewton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}