The Devil in the New Testament

As soon as we turn from the Old Testament to the New we meet a big problem. There Satan is given a second name, the devil, and he is mentioned about as often in the very first book of the New Testament as in all 39 Old Testament books put together. It certainly looks as if the devil of the New Testament is a great spiritual monster. And the evil spirits of the New Testament appear to be doing the devil's work—not God's, as in the Old Testament.

Many unbelievers and Jews have a simple explanation for all this. They argue that the New Testament contradicts the Old. They agree that the Old Testament teaches there is no supernatural devil, but they say that the New Testament teaches the opposite.

No believer could accept that explanation. The Bible does not contradict itself. The Lord Jesus Christ commands us to believe everything in the Old Testament. (See Luke 24:25; John 5:45-47; Luke 16:31; John 10:35; Luke 16:17; Matthew 5:18.). No, the New Testament cannot possibly contradict the Old. There must be a better explanation than that. Let's see if we can find one.

The Key that Will Not Fit
Suppose that you have just taken on a new job, as caretaker over a large new building full of offices. The manager has given you what he calls a master key, which he says will open every door in the building.
After he has gone you decide to try out this key. The first lock you tackle opens easily. So does the next, and the one after that. The next lock is a stiff one, but with a little effort you are able to make the key turn this lock, too. Then come two more locks that open smoothly, and you put the key back in your pocket, satisfied. "This really must be the master key", you say to yourself. "It will open anything!" But the next day you have a disappointment. You attempt to open another door, and nothing you can do will make the lock turn. So you decide to go all round the building trying every door. At the end you realise that you were satisfied too easily on the previous day. This key opens many of the locks, but not all. Some will only turn if you force them. And several won't move at all, no matter how hard you try. You must have been given the wrong key.

This little story is a parable, of course. The "locks" represent all the passages in the New Testament where the devil, or Satan, is mentioned. The "key" that happens to fit many of them is the belief that Satan is an angel who has rebelled against God—a "fallen angel" as he is often described.

But there are a number of "locks" that this particular key definitely will not fit. Here are a few of them:

1. There was a man in the church at Corinth who had committed fornication.
The members of the church had been tolerating this wickedness, and Paul told them that they must now take action. He wrote:
"You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Corinthians 5:5). Now try the "fallen-angel key" on that "lock". Would Paul tell the church to hand over a sinful member to a fallen angel, to destroy his flesh? And would such an action be likely to lead to the sinner's spirit being "saved in the day of the Lord Jesus"? The rebellious-angel theory does not work for this verse. We need a different key.

2. Paul wrote about two other Christians who had sinned:
"Certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, among them Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom / have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme" (1 Timothy 1:19,20). There are two big difficulties here for those who believe that Satan is a supernatural being. First, why should Paul want to hand over these erring Christians to a wicked spirit? Would you want to do that to any member of your church, even if he was a sinner?
Secondly, would a fallen angel co-operate with Paul by teaching these Christians not to blaspheme? Surely a wicked spirit would try and help people to blaspheme, not to cure them of blasphemy! Obviously the fallen-angel key does not work here, either.

3. The church in a town called Pergamum was being persecuted. The Lord Jesus sent it a message of comfort, which included this statement: "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is" (Revelation 2:13).
How could this be, if Satan is a fallen angel? Did an evil monster really sit on a throne, as king over the city of Pergamum? If so, then how did a Christian church ever become established there? Why didn't the Christians all run away from such a centre of evil?

The Key that Really Fits
Those three passages are not the only ones where the idea of Satan being a great evil spirit does not fit. We shall look at some more, shortly. But first we must try the other "key" on those three "locks", to see whether those passages make sense if we regard Satan as a parable of human wickedness.

"Delivering to Satan"
The first passage was 1 Corinthians 5:5, where Paul said about the fornicator, "Deliver this man to Satan". A few verses further on, Paul explained what he meant: "Drive out the wicked person from among you" (verse 13).
The key fits! "Delivering to Satan" meant excommunication, or putting the sinner out of the church. He was sent back into the world where he came from —to the kingdom of wickedness, where "Satan" (that is, sinful human nature) reigns supreme. This drastic punishment was intended to bring him to his senses, to move him to repent, so that "his spirit may be saved".

This also explains 1 Timothy 1:20. Here Paul said he had delivered two sinful Christians to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. They, too, had evidently been excommunicated, because in 2 Timothy 2:16-17 Paul advised Timothy to avoid them. He must have hoped that in this case, too, the excommunicated Christians would repent, and thus "learn not to blaspheme".

Then we looked at Revelation 2:13, which said that Satan's throne was in the city of Pergamum. This makes sense when we realise that Pergamum was the capital city of a province of the Roman Empire.
At that time the Roman governor was persecuting the Christians and putting some of them to death. By these dreadful deeds he showed himself to be a man full of the wickedness of human nature. Thus he earned the name "Satan"— "The Enemy". And this wicked ruler's throne really was in the city of Pergamum.

Now we can understand another verse in the Book of Revelation: "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested" (Revelation 2:10). Which "devil" threw the early Christians into prison? A fallen angel? Or the wicked Roman government? The answer is obvious.

We can also make sense of another puzzling verse now. People who believe in a superhuman devil think that he glides about the world silently and invisibly. Yet Peter wrote:
"Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world" (1 Peter 5:8,9).

Look at the second sentence of that passage, with its reference to "suffering". Isn't it obvious that Peter was talking about the cruel rulers of the Roman Empire?

These men savagely persecuted the Christians and threw them to the lions. That, no doubt, is why Peter likens them to a roaring lion. Paul, incidentally, used a similar expression about the Roman authorities. When he was delivered from death at their hands he said, "I was rescued from the lion's mouth" (2 Timothy 4:17).

So it begins to look as if there is no contradiction between the Old Testament and the New, after all. Already we have looked at five New Testament passages where the idea of a rebellious angel does not fit, but where the Old Testament teaching—that Satan is a name for sinful human nature— fits perfectly. And we have not finished yet, not by a long way.

More Problems Solved
With this key in our hands we can now solve many more problems.

For example, the Lord Jesus Christ once called Judas "a devil", and once he called Peter "Satan". He did not say they were possessed by the devil or Satan; he said that Judas actually was a devil, and addressed Peter himself as Satan (John 6:70,71; Matthew 16:23). What did the Lord mean? It is not difficult to grasp Christ's words when we remember that both these disciples were, at the time, working against him. Judas had begun a course of action that would lead him to betray his Master. And Peter was at that moment trying to persuade Jesus to escape from his duty. Thus both these men were acting sinfully when Jesus rebuked them. They each deserved to be labelled "human sinfulness" that is, "Satan, devil".

Another interesting passage occurs in the story of the unfaithful Christian, Ananias. This man decided to cheat the church, and to tell lies to the Apostle Peter. But Peter was able to expose Ananias' deceit, because he possessed the Holy Spirit. He said:

"Ananias, why has SATAN filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? ... How is it that YOU have contrived this deed in your heart?" (Acts 5:3,4).
Look closely at the two phrases in italics in that quotation. The first says that Satan was responsible for Ananias' sin, and the second says that Ananias himself was responsible. If Satan really was a fallen angel, then these two phrases would contradict each other.

But now that we have the right key, there is no contradiction and no difficulty. Since Satan is a symbol of human wickedness, those two phrases are just different ways of saying the same thing. Ananias was opposing God: he was behaving as God's enemy, as "The Enemy", Satan.