The Devil's Long Resume: A Historical-Theological Analysis of Satan from Divine Prosecutor to Cosmic Adversary

This is my sermon on Satan at The Table Church on Sunday, October 27. You can watch and listen to it here.

Introduction: From Barn Exorcisms to Systematic Theology

The question of evil's personification has haunted religious thought for millennia. My own encounters with supposed demonic forces—including an admittedly overzealous attempt to cast demons out of a barn during my hyper-charismatic teenage years—reflect how Christianity has long wrestled with understanding and confronting evil. But to truly grasp Satan's role in Christian theology, we need to trace a much longer historical development.

Our main thesis comes from 1 John 3:8: "God's Son appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil." This frames our entire discussion - not in terms of fear or fascination with evil, but through the lens of Christ's victory.

The Pre-Biblical Context: Chaos Dragons and Divine Warriors

Before Satan entered the theological stage, ancient Near Eastern cultures understood the universe as an eternal struggle between order and chaos. This worldview didn't conceive of evil as a moral category so much as a cosmic force threatening to unravel creation itself.

The Hebrew Bible preserves echoes of these pre-biblical ideas. In Isaiah 9:10, we read of God defeating Rahab, a chaos monster.

Awake, awake, put on strength,
arm of the Lord.
Awake as in times past,
generations long ago.
Aren’t you the one who crushed Rahab,
who pierced the dragon?

Isaiah 27:1 speaks of God punishing Leviathan, "the fleeing serpent...the dragon that is in the sea." These aren't just poetic flourishes - they're remnants of an ancient cosmological understanding where divine power was proved through victory over chaos.

Intriguingly, Genesis 1 itself reflects this worldview. Rather than describing creation ex nihilo (from nothing), it portrays God ordering and subduing pre-existing chaos. The Spirit hovering over the "deep" (tehom) - a word related to the Babylonian chaos goddess Tiamat - suggests God's authority over rather than elimination of chaotic forces.

From Many Gods to One: The Evolution of Israelite Theology

A crucial development in understanding Satan's emergence is tracking how Israelite religion evolved from henotheism (worship of one god while acknowledging others' existence) to strict monotheism. The early Hebrew Bible reflects this henotheistic worldview:

Consider Deuteronomy 32:8-9:

"When the Most High [Elyon] apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;
YHWH's own portion was his people,
Jacob his allotted share."

This text suggests a divine council where YHWH is one deity among many, albeit Israel's particular patron. Psalm 82 similarly depicts God taking "his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment."

This theological framework meant that all events - good and evil - were attributed to YHWH. First Samuel 16:14 states that "an evil spirit from YHWH tormented [Saul]." Isaiah 45:7 has God declaring "I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil." There was no theological need for a separate source of evil when everything came under divine sovereignty.

The Satan: From Heaven's Prosecutor to Cosmic Adversary

The character we know as Satan first appears in the Hebrew Bible not as God's enemy but as a member of the divine council with a specific job: heavenly prosecutor. The term "ha-satan" means "the accuser" or "the adversary" - a title rather than a proper name.

In Job 1, Satan appears among the "sons of God" (divine council members) and functions as a sort of quality control officer, testing human faithfulness. Similarly, in Zechariah 3:1, we see Satan standing as prosecutor in a heavenly court scene.

But a fascinating shift occurs in later biblical literature. Compare these parallel passages:

• 2 Samuel 24:1: "The Lord...incited David against Israel."
• 1 Chronicles 21:1: "Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel."

Chronicles, written later, reflects growing theological discomfort with attributing evil directly to God. Satan begins to emerge as an independent source of evil rather than a divine employee.

The Intertestamental Revolution: Satan's Promotion to Cosmic Villain

The roughly 400 years between the Old and New Testaments saw dramatic developments in Jewish theology, particularly regarding evil's origin and personification. This period produced rich apocalyptic literature that expanded Satan's role significantly.

Quick Aside: "Lucifer" was not originally a name for Satan. The Latin term comes from Isaiah 14's description of the king of Babylon as a "morning star" (helel) brought low through pride. While this passage became a metaphor for Satan's fall in later Christian tradition, it originally targeted human hubris. Also, the serpent in the garden of Eden was not associated with Satan until later Christian tradition. Even the Dragon of Revelation was likely more related to Leviathan than Satan.

During this period, various origin stories for demons emerged. One fascinating tradition, building on Genesis 6's cryptic reference to "sons of God" mating with human women, suggested demons were the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim - the offspring of these unions. This differs markedly from the later Christian idea of demons as simply fallen angels.

These developments responded to pressing theological needs. Post-exilic Judaism, now strictly monotheistic and more faithfully observant than ever, struggled to explain continued suffering. If God was good and Israel faithful, why did evil persist? Satan's emergence as an independent cosmic adversary helped resolve this tension.

Enter Jesus: Confronting the "Ruler of This World"

By Jesus' time, Satan had been promoted from divine prosecutor to "ruler of this world" (John 12:31). The New Testament presents Satan as holding authority over earthly kingdoms - authority surrendered not by God but by human beings who abandoned their divine vice-regency.

• 1 John 5:19, "The whole world is given over to the evil one."
• Ephesians 2:2, "The prince of the power of the air."
• 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of those who don’t have faith so they couldn’t see the light of the gospel."
• John 12:31, "Now is the time for judgment of this world. Now this world’s ruler will be thrown out."
• Luke 4:6, "And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I want."

This frames Jesus' ministry in a new light. His exorcisms weren't merely acts of compassion but declarations of war. As he states in Matthew 12:28, "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you." Each demon cast out was a small-scale preview of Satan's ultimate defeat.

Luke 4's temptation narrative becomes particularly pointed: Satan offers Jesus authority over "all the kingdoms of the world," claiming "it has been handed over to me." The irony is palpable - the usurper offering the rightful king his own stolen property.

Jesus' Message and Mission

Jesus' ministgry was primarily about two things.

First, the announcement that God is King, or, more specifically, returning as the rightful King. This is what Jesus meant by, "The Kingdom of God is at hand." Or why He taught His disciples to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done."

Which means if the true King has come, the one in charge will have to be thrown out!

Secondly, Jesus was the Embodiment of God. Jesus was God in the flesh. If we want to know what God is like, what God would do, look at Jesus.

And remember, this message and mission was all pre-crucifixion. In Christianity, even in our creeds, there is a huge emphasis on Jesus' death and resurrection. And rightfully so. BUT this emphasis can too often come at the neglect of Jesus' life, which was just as much an embodiment and announcement of that message and mission!

If Jesus was going to be successful in enacting and proclaiming that mission and message, that meant a confrontation with Satan. That's why we see so many Jesus stories confronting demons. If God was going to show up on the scene, then confronting Satan was going to be part of the conflict.

The Now and Not Yet: Satan's Defeat in Progress

Early Christian writers, particularly Paul, understood Christ's victory over Satan as both decisive and ongoing. Colossians 2:15 declares that on the cross, Christ "disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public spectacle of them." Yet Paul also acknowledges continued struggle against "the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness" (Ephesians 6:12).

This has been known as a theology of the "Now and the Not Yet," or an Inaugurated Eschatology. We are living in the time between Jesus being crowned as king and Him taking up residence in the palace.

N.T. Wright helpfully compares this to a football match where one team has an insurmountable lead but the losing side continues playing dirty in garbage time. The outcome is decided but the game isn't quite over.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. 1 Corinthians 2:5-7

It's passing away. But as we look around us, it's not dead yet.

That's the situation. Jesus has been victorious. The powers, including Satan have been defeated. And the final victory is yet to be won. In part, because, we are called to join the fight. And we are called to fight constrained by the requirements of love.

Could God just snap their fingers and make the enemy lose? Maybe. But not a God defined by patience, non-coercion, gentleness.

Beyond Individual Temptation: Satan as Systemic Evil

Is there a real Satan? Is he a personal being? Or a malevolent force?

"Beliefs about Satan are a matter of debate. The experience of Satan is a brute and terrifying fact." Walter Wink

There are clearly evil forces in the world. Perhaps we even experience them today.

We can related to hearing the voice of the accuser. "You're not good enough. You suck. You're awful. Everyone hates you. Why don't you hurt yourself? Why not just end it? Why not sabotage that relationship?"

Is he a personal being? We're never going to make a scientific claim about it. But people definitely experience Satan and demons as personal beings. And we should pay attention to the fact that the more colonized and privileged a society, the more likely they are to dismiss the spiritual and supernatural. Christianity that thrives in the global south and in spaces less influenced by Western thought are still experiencing "personal" realities of evil.

On the other hand, reducing Satan down to merely individual, personal temptations can be all too convenient as well.

There is something sad in the moralistic tirades of fundamentalist preachers terrifying the credulous with pictures of Satan lurking in the shadows, coaxing individuals to violate rules which are often enough satanic themselves and deserve to be broken, while all the time ignoring the mark of the cloven hoof in economic or political arrangements that suck the life out of whole generations of people.

The media have made a sensation out of a few rare cases of possession of pubescent youth, with no comprehension whatever of Satan’s grip on our entire civilization. Why should Satan reveal himself more often in individual cases, when he can, from invisibility, preside over an entire global culture that spreads out over the whole surface of the planet like a cancer:

a civilization that systematically erodes traditional religions, that treats people as robots for producing and serving things, that denies not only the spiritual but even the poetic, the artistic, the inner, that propagates belief in the ultimate power of money, and that organizes an economic system exploitative of most of the peoples of the world and anchored in a permanent war economy? —Walter Wink

So, yes, I do believe in a Satan. A Satan that is clearly still doing his best to corrupt not just me, but the world.

Satan is the real interiority of a society that idolatrously pursues its own enhancement as the highest good. Satan is the spirituality of an epoch, the peculiar constellation of alienation, greed, inhumanity, oppression, and entropy that characterizes a specific period of history as a consequence of human decisions to tolerate and even further such a state of affairs. —Walter Wink

But the good news is:

You are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. John 4:4

For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 2:13

Satan is one worth contending with. The world's systems, Satan's systems, are worth denouncing, decrying, dismantling, and exorcising. And also Satan is someone I am absolutely not afraid of.

Spiritual warfare is the call of each follower of Christ. And spiritual warfare is not merely waving around holy water and saying "In the name of Jesus."

Spiritual Warfare Reconsidered

This broader understanding transforms our concept of spiritual warfare. Yes, Satan can manifest in individual temptation and torment - my teenage barn exorcism wasn't entirely misguided. But authentic spiritual warfare encompasses much more:

• Creating inclusive communities is spiritual warfare
• Working for economic justice is spiritual warfare
• Dismantling racist structures is spiritual warfare
• Environmental protection is spiritual warfare
• Fighting homophobia and transphobia is spiritual warfare

Every act of justice and compassion makes Satan shake in his red pointy boots. Every movement toward collective liberation causes hell's gates to tremble.

Conclusion: Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Understanding Satan's development from divine prosecutor to cosmic adversary helps us better grasp both evil's reality and its limitations. The biblical narrative shows evil's power diminishing over time - from chaos dragon to member of God's court to defeated usurper awaiting final judgment.

This should inspire confidence, not fear. As 1 John 4:4 declares, "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Satan's defeat is certain, though its completion awaits our participation in Christ's ongoing victory through acts of justice and love.

We're called to join Jesus in revealing God's kingdom - a reality where no one goes hungry, no one is excluded, and joy comes with every morning. That's not just wishful thinking; it's the inevitable result of Christ's victory over the powers of evil, a victory we're invited to help implement through every act of love and justice.

The devil's long resume is impressive but ultimately a record of defeat. Our task isn't to fear evil but to participate in its ongoing overthrow through the patient, persistent work of love.