Tagged: Satan

Satan as the dragon – continued

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


The dragon thrown out of heaven (Rev. 12:7-12)

Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragonThe dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was thrown out ​— ​the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satanthe one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him. 

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down. They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows his time is short (emphasis added).

Revelation 12:7-12

We are spirited away from the pregnant woman and the fiery red dragon (vv. 1-6) to a cosmic battle between Michael and the dragon involving holy and evil angels. The conflict is severe. Michael and his angels prevail. Satan and his angels are cast down to earth. No longer does “the accuser of our brothers and sisters” have access to the throne in heaven. While the battle is won in the unseen spiritual realm, John is careful to record that it is the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of Christian martyrs that deliver the knock-out punches. The heavens rejoice, but the earth and sea brace themselves for a furious dragon onslaught.

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Satan as the dragon

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


The word dragon (drakon in Greek) appears fourteen times in thirteen verses in the CSB New Testament – all of them in the Book of Revelation. Other English translations, such as the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible, sometimes translate the Hebrew tanniyn as “dragon,” “serpent,” or “monster” (e.g., Neh. 2:13; Isa. 27:1; 51:9; Ezek. 29:3; 32:2). The CSB renders tanniyn “serpent” or “monster” in these same verses, but “dragon” never appears in the CSB Old Testament.

In the Septuagint, which includes various Greek translations of the Old Testament, drakon translates a number of Hebrew words for a variety of animals, including the lion (Job 4:10; 38:39), snake and asp (Job 26:13; Amos 9:3), and the jackal (Jer. 9:11; Lam. 4:3; Mic. 1:8). It is also used for the great monster Leviathan (Job 40:20; Ps. 74:14; 104:26; Isa. 27:1). In the Septuagint version of Esther, an apocalyptic battle between Mordecai and Haman is depicted as dragons locked in mortal combat. This is similar to the battle between Marduk and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation story. According to Peter Bolt, the same myth may lie behind the Septuagint addition to Daniel, the story known as Bel and the Dragon.

The apostle John uses drakon exclusively in Revelation as a symbolic representation of Satan. Further, he links “dragon” and “serpent” to identify this creature as the ancient tempter in the garden of Eden. The dragon is explicitly identified as “the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9; cf. Rev. 20:2). 

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Satan as the serpent

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


In Greek mythology, Medusa is a gorgeous woman who engages in a tryst with Poseidon in one of Athena’s temples. As punishment, the virgin goddess Athena turns Medusa into a Gorgon, a race of snake-women whose gazes turn people into stone. Gorgons have serpents for hair, long claws, sharp teeth, and scales covering their bodies. Athena later helps the hero Perseus slay Medusa, giving him a shiny bronze shield that enables him to watch Medusa’s reflection rather than look directly at her. After cutting off Medusa’s head, Perseus mounts it on his shield, using it to paralyze his enemies in battle.

Jump forward to a 15th century Polish yarn in which a fearsome dragon lives in a dark cave along the banks of the Vistula River. Day after day, this fire-breathing monster terrorizes civilians, pillaging their homes and devouring their livestock. King Krakus sends out his bravest knights to slay the dragon, but all fall prey to the winged beast’s deadly talons and bone-crunching jaws. In desperation, the king promises his beautiful daughter in marriage to the man who vanquishes the dragon. 

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Anointed Guardian Cherub – Part II

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

Check out Part I of this chapter.

When considered together, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 invite different interpretations. Three rise to the top: (1) the authors are describing the depravity of earthly kings, using exaggeration and/or sarcasm; (2) the authors are describing both earthly kings and – in Ezekiel 28 in particular – the fall of Adam; and (3) the authors are describing both earthly kings and Satan, peeling back the curtain to expose a supernatural creature who pulls the strings of his marionette monarchs. 

Trusted Bible scholars vigorously debate which interpretation best fits the text. So, let’s briefly survey each view.

View 1: earthly kings

Many commentators see Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 as graphic depictions of wicked earthly kings, with hyperbole and/or sarcasm employed to show the folly of the rulers’  bloated self-esteem.

Kenneth Boa and Robert Bowman favor this view. In Isaiah 14, the prophet directly addresses the king of Babylon (v. 4) and specifically refers to him as a “man” (v. 16). But the prophecy also draws on pagan mythology to depict the king’s fall from power. For example, in one Canaanite myth, a god named Athtar (meaning something like “son of Dawn” or “morning star”) wanted to rule on Baal’s throne from Zaphon, a sacred mountain to the north. Compare “the North” (CSB) with “Zaphon” (NRSV) in verse 13 and see the connection. So, according to this view, Isaiah likely is using religious imagery typical for his time to describe the humiliation of an arrogant earthly king.

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When and How Did Satan Fall?

This excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan from High Street Press. Order your paperback, Kindle, or Audible copy here.

Scripture offers no clear answers as to when and how Satan originally falls – or even why a sovereign God permits the evil one’s rebellion and all its horrific consequences. Genesis 3 does not introduce us to the origin of evil, but reveals the presence of unexplained evil in the serpent. Adam and Eve are created innocent, and shortly thereafter the already-fallen serpent shows up. John Piper’s candid perplexity is a welcome perspective.

In response to a listener’s question about where Satan even got the desire to sin, Piper replies, in part: “As far as I can see, no explanation is offered in the Bible for how Satan became evil…. How could a perfectly good being – with a perfectly good will and a perfectly good heart – ever experience any imperfect impulse that would cause the will to move in the direction of sin? The answer is that nobody knows ….”

Piper goes on:

Here is what I do know. God is sovereign. Nothing comes to pass apart from his plan, which includes things he more or less causes directly – things he more or less permits indirectly. There is no doubt in my mind that Satan’s fall and all the redemptive plan of God for the glory of grace afterward were according to God’s eternal plan….

God can see to it that something comes to pass which he hates. This is what he did, for example, when he planned the crucifixion of Jesus, according to Acts 4:27-28. The murder of Jesus was sinful, and it was planned down to the detail by God.… I think the Bible leads us to believe that he is sovereign over all sin and that he never sins. That is what I believe the Bible teaches. 

John Piper
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