Generally speaking, the Western evangelical church acknowledges that Satan exists, but rarely recognizes him when he shows up; after all, Paul says he masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). The Bible calls Satan by many different names. Each name has a slightly different meaning. The many names for Satan give a fuller picture of who Satan is and what he does. There are more names for Satan in the Bible than for anyone else except Jesus Christ:
“Abaddon, Accuser, Adversary, Angel of light, Angel of the bottomless pit, Anointed covering cherub, Antichrist, Apollyon, Beast, Beelzebub, Belial, Deceiver, Devil, Dragon, Enemy, Evil one, Father of lies, God of this age, King of Babylon, King of the bottomless pit, King of Tyre, Lawless one, Leviathan, Liar, Little horn, Lucifer, Man of sin, Murderer, Power of darkness, Prince of the power of the air, Roaring lion, Rulers of the darkness, Ruler of demons, Ruler of this world, Satan, Serpent of old, Son of perdition, Star, Tempter, Thief, Wicked one…”
Pretty impressive résumé, right? We need to face the fact that we are in mortal combat with the Devil and his minions. Among his principle weapons are threat, fear, seduction, and lies—he is the generator of chaos and conflict. He is the consummate opportunist, whispering into our disappointments, discouragements, depressions and defeats… “Where is your God now? There is no hope. You must rely on yourself. You are alone. You must fight back with self-assertion and manipulation…”
I will come back to this in the next Pacesetter, but briefly, how do we do spiritual warfare? We “dress for the battle” (Eph. 6:19-18), we test the spirits, we pray and fast, we stay in community, we rely on the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (I Jn. 4:4).