“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe – a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference [from Dualism] is that Christianity thinks that this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.”
(Bill Muehlenberg – Culture Watch) Contrary to the claims of some, Satan most certainly exists:
Given all that the Bible has to say about the devil, only a cultist or theological liberal could claim to understand Scripture yet state that he does not exist. The Bible everywhere assumes the existence of a real, volitional and personal malevolent being known as the devil, or Satan.
Indeed, if we simply use a concordance, we find how often he is directly referred to – not to mention all the indirect references. If we run with the ESV, we see the two main words used as follows: “Devil” is used 33 times; “Satan” is used 49 times.
Of course numerous other names are used, such as Beelzebub, Belial, adversary, evil one, enemy, deceiver, father of lies, tempter, great dragon, murderer, and so on. As Graham Cole says in his new book Against the Darkness: The Doctrine of Angels, Satan, and Demons (Crossway, 2019):
The serpent is revealed as the enemy of the word of God, the enemy of the integrity of God, and the enemy of the people of God. At times, this spiritual being of immense power and cunning works his mischief as an angel of light. Other times he is like a ravenous lion on the prowl. He is a spoiler. He is a disuniter. He is the enemy of the interpersonal. Temptation is his specialty from the beginning. Christians need to have a worldview that takes the devil seriously in its awareness of evil.
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