The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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He was known as The Great Impostor and inspired a 1961 film by the same name. Ferdinand Waldo Demara began his nefarious career during World War II. He borrowed  an Army buddy’s name, went AWOL, and then faked his own suicide. A string of pseudo careers followed in which Demara portrayed a sheriff’s deputy, a doctor of applied psychology, and a child-care expert.

But Demara reached the pinnacle of his quest for fame during the Korean War, when he masqueraded as a surgeon aboard a Canadian Navy destroyer. There, he successfully completed a string of major surgeries before it was discovered that he was no more qualified to gut a fish than to cut open a human. Drummed out of the military but undeterred, Demara moved on to other mock roles. His final gig: a Baptist minister.

Demara’s life is a fascinating tale of one man’s hunt for genuine status in a make-believe world of his own creation. His success as a deceiver also exposes the soft underbelly of a society whose people are easily duped by one who talks smoothly and claims to serve the greater good.

For Christians, Demara’s story is a teachable moment. We are to guard against those who disguise themselves as “servants of righteousness” and infiltrate the church (2 Cor. 11:15). Even more important, we are to be ever vigilant concerning the greatest impostor of all: Satan.

 

There is no ultimate sense in which society regards deceivers positively. Consider just a few synonyms for deceiver: fraud, impostor, charlatan, double-dealer, faker, counterfeiter, bluffer, hypocrite, sham, fabricator, liar. So, when we call people deceivers, we are making negative statements about their character. They don’t commit isolated acts of duplicity; they habitually engage in deception. 

To borrow a biblical example: When Abraham, on two occasions, deceives kings by telling them his wife, Sarah, is in fact his sister, he commits acts of treachery. But when we read the entire story of Abraham’s life, we understand that his acts of deception are isolated sins, not true reflections of his character.

But what about the creature Scripture describes as the archetypal deceiver? Is deception an occasional work Satan employs to get his way? Or is he, by his very nature, a deceiver? In this chapter, we see that Satan is so cunning, he entices people to sin, often making us think we are doing something good, when in fact we are ruining ourselves and others.

The first and last deceiver

The words deceive, deceived, deception, and deceiver appear dozens of times in Scripture and refer to many different individuals. Not surprisingly, Satan is the first and last deceiver the Bible portrays. 

In Genesis 3:13, Eve complains to God that the serpent deceived her; thus, she ate from the forbidden tree. This is the first account of deception in human history. The Hebrew word rendered “deceived” in this verse is nasha and means “to beguile, deceive … lead astray, (mentally) to delude, or (morally) to seduce.” Referring back to this event, the apostle Paul uses the Greek apatao, which means “to beguile, deceive” or “seduce wholly” (1 Tim. 2:14).

Now, jump to Revelation 20:10, and we’re told that the devil who deceived the nations is thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and false prophet are. This is the last mention of deception in Scripture. 

Between these crucial events, we may trace an arc of the evil one’s atrocities, in which he often inspires human beings to deceive one another. Consider these examples:

Genesis 27:12 – Rebekah partners with her son, Jacob, to trick Isaac and thus steal Esau’s birthright. Jacob fears being exposed as a deceiver who brings a curse, rather than a blessing, on his head.

Genesis 29:23-25; 31:20-21 – Laban sends Leah, rather than Rachel, to Jacob’s honeymoon suite, thus deceiving Jacob. Jacob returns the favor, taking his wives and family away without notifying Laban, a move that invites a charge of deception.

Joshua 7:11 – God accuses the Israelites of deceiving him – or at least trying to deceive him – leading to their humiliating defeat at Ai.

Joshua 9:3-15, 22 – The Gibeonites deceive Joshua into making a treaty with them.

1 Samuel 28:7-12 – King Saul disguises himself in order to deceive the medium at Endor in an effort to recall the departed spirit of Samuel from the abode of the dead. 

Ezekiel 14:9-11 – The Lord gets into the act, but in a very different way. He deceives a  false prophet in order to expose him and punish him.

Matthew 24:4-5, 11 – Jesus warns against false prophets and false teachers who deceive the people.

Matthew 27:63; John 7:12 – The religious leaders falsely accuse Jesus of being a deceiver.

Romans 16:18 – Divisive people in the church at Rome use smooth talk and flattering words to deceive followers of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20; 6:9; 15:33 – Paul warns the Corinthians against falling into deception – including self-deception. 

Ephesians 4:14 – Mature believers are no longer “tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.”

Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 2:4 – False teachers use empty but persuasive arguments to deceive Christians. 

Revelation 19:20 – The false prophet of the last days deceives people. 

But in the end, the deceived and the deceiver belong to God (Job 12:16).

Satan’s fiercest work of deception occurs at the beginning and end of Scripture. He deceives Eve in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-7), which leads to Adam’s fall and initiates an unbroken string of liars, frauds, charlatans, and shams until the evil one is finally cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). The apostle Paul reminds us of Satan’s subtlety in the garden. He does this to brace us for the unyielding onslaught of deception the evil one commits through false prophets, false teachers, and false messiahs (2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14). 

By the time we get to Revelation, Satan has deceived the whole world (Rev. 12:9). He is imprisoned for a thousand years, a time during which he is prevented from leading the nations astray (Rev. 20:3). Then, released from the abyss for a short time, he picks up where he left off. And he succeeds famously – until Jesus casts him into the place prepared for him: the lake of fire, where he is tormented night and day forever (Rev. 20:8, 10; cf. Matt. 25:41).

From “trifling with” to “betray”

The verb deceive and its variants come from a number of Hebrew and Greek words. They range in meaning from “trifle with” to “mock,” and from “entertain false hopes” to “betray.” In the first appearance of the word, Eve complains to God that the serpent “deceived” her (Heb. nasha, Gen. 3:13). Citing this tragic event, Paul reminds Timothy that Adam was not “deceived,” but the woman was “deceived” and transgressed (Gr. apatao, 1 Tim. 2:14).

Other Greek words are applied elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, the noun  dolos means “deceit.” Jesus, Paul, and Peter include deceit among the vices (Mark 7:22; Rom. 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:1), yet Peter makes it clear that Jesus is free of any deceitfulness (1 Pet. 2:22; cf. Isa. 53:9). 

The verb empaizo denotes mocking or making sport of someone. Used only in the Gospels, it sometimes carries the meaning of being tricked. For example, the Magi succeed in outwitting King Herod (Matt. 2:16).

The noun plane and the verb planao include the concept of error or wandering. James writes of those who wander from the truth (Jas. 5:19), while John identifies those who try to deceive others (1 John 2:26). The devil is the prime deceiver (Rev. 12:9), but there are many who hope to deceive others (1 Cor. 6:9; 15:33; Gal. 6:7). However, the one seeking to deceive others often finds himself or herself a victim (2 Tim. 3:13). 

Finally, the noun pseudos typically is translated “lie,” but it also may indicate falsehood, deception, or anything counterfeit (e.g., 1 John 2:27). 

It’s evident from the Hebrew and Greek words used in Scripture that deception originates in Satan, and he has proven himself a very fine teacher.

Next: The deceiver’s quiver