In our middle school program we have been dealing with the topic of tempation, sin, and satan. Many questions have come up and they have pushed me to pursue answers to these questions. I have found that we often don't talk about satan, demons, and their origin. We just take the stories that have been told to us over the years and put them in our back pocket. So I want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about where satan come from and take a look a few different views on what those scriptures actually say.

Oddly enough, Genesis does not explain any of the details about how Satan came into being. All of the sudden he is just there in the form of a serpent, tempting Eve. So - lets look to a couple of scripture references that can help us get some answers.

Job 1 begins the story that we all now about Job and his persecution. We can glean a few things from these first few chapters.

1 - Satan somehow has access to heaven and can communicate with God. (Job 1:6-7)
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before theLord, and l Satan [2] also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From m going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”


2 - Satan and God know one another and don't get along very well - Satan obviously believes that the reason Job love God so much is because he has been given so much. He incites God against Job (Job 2:3) God and Satan go back and forth like brothers almost. They're conversation is not that of people who do not know one another. 


3 - God has power of satan - Job 1:10-12 - Have you not put q a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have r blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But s stretch out your hand and t touch all that he has, and he will u curse you v to your face.” 12 And theLord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
God has the power to control how much and how far satan is able to go with his temptation of Job. Later in Job 2, satan comes back, before pushing Job farther, to ask permission from God to do so. 


So...we know these few things. 


What else can we glean from scripture that is clean cut and plain to us? 
We can see that satan is the leader of a group of other evil beings called evil spirits, demons, or his angels throughout the new testament. Matthew 25:41; Rev 12:9;Luke 7:21; Mark 3:22-23; Acts 19:11-18  and many others)


Now. To the heart of my question for this post. My next post will deal with what satan and demons do right now and tempation on earth. But I want to talk briefly about how satan came into being. We know a little bit about who he is, but not much about how he got here. 


Lets begin with this truth. God created satan and He did so for himself. We can dig into the theology of that at another point, but Colossians confirms this.
Colossians 1:16 For by[1] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.


It is also true that everything was created good. God didn't make anything bad, so satan was good - to begin with. (Gen 1:31) 


So, God created satan, and he was good -  What then?
Thats a good question, and the answer is somewhat split. Some scholars would say that the Bible is quite clear on what happened next, and others would say that we still really don't know, and that God has chosen to keep that information from us. 


There are 2 main passages in the Old Testament that are debated over.
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. In both of these passages prophecy is being laid out on 2 different kings; the King of Babylon and the King of Tyre. In both of these oracles there is reference to "shining star" or in the Hebrew heylel, which is translated today as Lucifer - sound familiar.


I won't go into the debate about whether or not these passages contain reference to satan or not because that is a lonk argument, but I encourage you to do some research. 


To read more on this debate, my suggestion would be "Sense and Nonesense About Angels and Demons" by Kenneth D. Boa. He makes great arguments and uses scripture, not his own ideas, to draw well thought out conclusions on this debate. 


David Jeremiah, another well-know scholar, lands on the other side of the argument, and you can read his thoughts in "What The Bible Says About Angels"


Enjoy!