Satan, An Angel of Light
We always hear the word “satan” or “devil” but do we really know how he works? First, let’s understand what that name means…
The Hebrew word satan (saw-tawn) means “an adversary, one who resists.” It’s important to note that Satan is an adversary, especially, of God’s people. Satan cannot truly oppose God. However, Satan is known for “accusing” the “brethren” [Rev 12:10].
We get a glimpse of this accusatory work and the nature of his accusations in the book of Job [Job 1:8–11]. To understand things a little more clearly, we have to shoot over to Genesis to see the nature of Satan’s rebellion. Satan made a subtle accusation of God’s character. In Gen 3:1–5, the serpent, or Satan, said, “You will not surely die”. Subtly, Satan was calling God a liar. He went on to further state that they “will be like God” as if to say that God was a tyrant who wanted to keep all the power to Himself.
Satan deceived man by attacking the character of God. This plan, however intelligent, could not hold up its argument very long as the antediluvian, or pre-flood, world went into terrible dismay. After God’s character is partially vindicated by the horrific violence that took place under the control of Satan and humanity [Gen 6:5], God then went into, what I like to personally call, phase 2 of His plan of saving us. This is not consistent with the Sanctuary Service which is the actual representation of the plan of Salvation but for simplicity sake let’s continue.
God set aside a people for Himself through the descendants of Noah and, eventually, Abraham. However, now that God’s character was already partially vindicated, Satan went into, what I like to call, phase 2 of his plan; mar the character of those who serve God. Those who are willing to model their life after how God wanted them to are a living and earthly example of God’s love and righteousness. If Satan can mar the character of God’s people, there is no one on Earth who can be a witness of God’s love for humanity.
It has been Satan’s mission to mar and accuse those who would serve God to then show all of humanity, and the angels watching, that God isn’t righteous and loving and neither are those who strive to reflect His image. If successful, Satan would have won at effectively tarnishing God’s character in front of the angels thus completing his deception of the rest of the angels [Rev 12:4]. This is an extreme oversimplification but bear with me.
We know Satan failed at accusing Job because with all the suffering he caused God’s servant, Job never cursed God. He may have complained a bit but he never cursed God [Job 42:1–5].
But we know the story doesn’t end there. We know Satan’s plan doesn’t stop there. We know God hasn’t ended the rebellion yet. Satan will be given a final opportunity to deceive the world and prove his case during the Mark of the Beast conflict [Rev 13], but he will fail according to Rev 20:10.
Now, you are probably wondering by now, where does the angel of light come in. Many believe that Satan is obvious. Many believe that Satan is easy to spot. However, as we see in the Garden of Eden, Satan is cunning and deceptive. In fact, the Bible paints a different picture of Satan than mainstream media portrays.
“And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”
2Co 11:14, NKJV
Just a quick note, while everyone will be looking for an obvious Mark of the Beast scenario, they won’t realize the “beast” represents a church that claims Christianity [2 Th 2:3–4]. Notice this “man of sin” sits in the temple of God. Satan has read the Bible too, he’s not going to make it obvious.
As we can see, Satan is extremely cunning and has mastered the art of deception for 6000 ish years. Do we mere humans really think we will see him coming? Some of his best agents are our ministers in our churches [2 Cor 11:13]!
However, God does not leave us in the dark. He has given us the book of Revelation which explains to us, in prophetic symbolism, the past, present and future events that involve this great controversy between Satan and God’s people. Some of Satan’s plan has been revealed in other ways as well. Here is an excerpt of what he is planning.
“We will thus lead them to conclude that the requirements of Christ are less strict than they once believed, and that by conformity to the world they would exert greater influence with worldlings. Thus they will separate from Christ; then they will have no strength to resist our power, and erelong they will be ready to ridicule their former zeal and devotion.”
Spirit of Prophecy, Vol.4, Ch.27
Visit this page to see the whole explanation but Satan employs extremely subtle and cunning methods of distracting people from Jesus and His Law. Just like in the garden, Satan will lead us to feel that obedience is not really that important. “Did God really say the wages of sin is death?” [Rom 6:23].
