4 Myths People Believe About the Devil or Satan

Here are four myths about the devil that many people believe.

He Doesn’t Exist

Satan loves it that most of the world doesn’t believe he even exists, but that makes him even more deadly because an invisible enemy is even more dangerous. He’s happy to just go around and seek those whom he could hinder or devour, but like a lion, he roams about being unseen (1 Peter 5:8). When a lion seeks his prey, he doesn’t make himself visible. How much worse of a threat is someone who people don’t believe exists? So the greatest myth about the devil is that most of the world thinks he’s a myth, even though he has actually blinded the minds of those who don’t believe (2 Corinthians 4:4).

His Own Preachers

Even though people might believe that they are hearing from a biblical or godly preacher, they might actually be hearing a sermon inspired by the devil, for Satan has his own preachers who appear as angels of light. Paul warned the Corinthians that there are “deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Corinthians 11:13b-15).

His Own Gospel

Any gospel that doesn’t originate from God has to come from only one other source: Satan. Any gospel that is man-centered is not from God. Again, Paul warns the Corinthians that he was “afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4). What type of “different spirit from the Spirit” was Paul talking about? It could have been a wicked or demonic spirit compared to the Spirit of God, which always points to the truth. Satan is a deceiver and mixes truth with error.

He’s Powerless

People who don’t believe in the Gospel don’t even know that he’s the god of this world. And before believers were saved, they were “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:2-3). Don’t think that just because Christ had victory over Satan at the cross that he is not still trying to attack believers. Christians are still under spiritual attack by his demons, so the believer must put on the armor of God daily (Ephesians 6:10-18).