Satan

Oversimplified

  • Satan ("the accuser") is a fallen angel — a created spirit who rebelled against God in pride and now works to deceive and destroy. He is a creature, not God's equal.

Summary

Satan (Hebrew for "adversary" or "accuser"; also the devil, Greek diabolos, "slanderer") is a fallen angel who turned from God and drew other angels — the demons — with him. Scripture calls him "the great dragon… the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9), and Christ names him "a murderer from the beginning" and "the father of lies" (John 8:44). He is a creature — powerful but finite, and already defeated by Christ's death and resurrection.

Satan as The Serpent

See our vault entry The Serpent for more information.

The Fall

Christ says, "I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). The tradition also reads Isaiah's lament — "How has Lucifer, that rose in the morning, fallen from heaven!" (Isaiah 14:12) — as an image of this angelic fall through pride. Revelation depicts the war in heaven in which "Michael and his angels" cast down the dragon and his angels (Revelation 12:7-9).

Why It Matters

The devil is real, but he is not a rival god. Orthodoxy is not dualist: evil has no independent principle or eternal power of its own. Satan is a defeated creature, and his power over those united to Christ is broken.

Sources