Our Sunday School teaches children about the righteousness of God and the wickedness of Satan.  We teach children that God is the loving, powerful, and all-knowing Creator who wants them to go to heaven.  We teach them that Satan is evil who is doing all he can to keep them out of heaven.  If children are not taught the truth about the origin of Satan, many begin to form an image in their minds of two “gods” that are at a tug of war with each other.  They see God pulling  their right hand toward Himself and Satan pulling their left hand trying to keep them from God.  Of course, if Satan had the power to keep one person from God, he would have the power to keep all people from God.  This is very convoluted theology:  A person that is saved would have to thank the Devil for allowing it to happen.

Although little is mentioned in the Bible about Satan’s beginning, we can know that Satan is a created being.  Unlike God, the Bible teaches that Satan is not omnipotent (I John 4:4). omnipresent (Job 1-2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Luke 4:6; Revelation 20:1-10; or eternal (Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 102:27).  Additionally, in speaking of Jesus, Paul wrote:  “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.”  (Colossians 1:16)

God did not create an evil Satan.  Rather, God created him good, and then he chose to become evil.  The Bible indicates that Satan was one of the angels who lived in heaven, but he (along with other angels) rebelled against God and was cast out of Heaven.  The apostle Peter said that “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4)  Since the Bible also refers to the devil as “the ruler of demon’s” (Matthew 12:24), and speaks of “the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:4), it is very likely that the devil is the leader of a group of rebellious angels that was expelled from heaven to eventually spend eternity in hell.

The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

Although Satan is not to be taken lightly, it is good to know that he cannot snatch us from the love of the God (Romans 8:37-38), nor can he tempt us beyond what we are able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).  God alone is deity.  God alone is eternal.  He alone deserves our worship and adoration.  Do not flatter Satan by equating him with God!

God did not create the evil Devil; He created the good Lucifer (the shinning one), who became the Devil because of the sin of pride.