This is a continuing series based on short papers I wrote for my church’s elder class, based on prompts and reading we are doing from James Montgomery Boice’s book Foundations of the Christian Faith. This week’s question: What does the Bible teach about Satan and hell?
Approaching this subject is difficult because really, they are two different subjects. But they do have commonalities: they are subjects that are commonly in the popular imagination of both Christians and non-Christians, and they are subjects that have become misconstrued through centuries of cultural representations and myth-making that leave Scripture behind.
The name “Satan” is a title rather than a proper name, used in the Old Testament to refer to a spiritual creature that, in all its appearances, opposes God’s good work in His creation. The serpent in Genesis 3 is implied to be a spiritual being, and he slanders God and leads Adam and Eve to disobey God’s command not to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – that is, to take God’s role as the one who declares the rules of existence into their own hands. The title “Satan,” which when referring to this character in Hebrew is always found joined with the definite article, so “the Satan,” can be rendered as “the adversary,” and he plays that role in every appearance from beginning to end of Scripture.
It’s unclear if there is a singular being that carries this title, as is commonly understood, or if it’s a more broad term being applied to the spiritual enemies of God who war against Him in creation, who dominate wicked human power structures spiritually. In either case, the enemy clearly is one that despises the good of God’s creation and seeks for nothing but its destruction, by leading God’s image-bearers deeper and deeper into disobedience. What is clear from Scripture is that spiritual opposition to God is very real, and very personal in the rebellious creatures that carry out their war against God in this world.
Satan is seen as one who attempts to slander and malign humanity, such as in Job where he claims that Job only worships God because God has given him good things, and would stop doing so if God took them away. Indeed, the Greek word διάβολος which is commonly translated into English as “devil” means “slanderer.” This is also where our word “diabolical” comes from, and the idea of malevolent intent is clearly carried forward in the English word.
Matthew 4:1-11 depicts Jesus going into the wilderness after His baptism “to be tempted by the devil,” and shows three instances of the devil trying to tempt Jesus to repeat the fall of man, in turning away from full reliance on the Father for all things. Jesus speaks often about Satan and directly attaches his human enemies’ plans to His spiritual enemy’s work. In John 8:43-45 Jesus tells Jewish religious leaders that their refusal to listen to Him is rooted in their obedience not of God, but of their “father the devil,” who He says is “a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” Satan, the devil, is the absolute opponent of everything that is good or true in this world, and of life itself.
Often confusion comes in when scriptural teaching about Satan clashes with cultural ideas, such as the classic image of a red goat man with horns and a pitchfork, or the idea that Satan is the ruler of hell. Satan’s often-quoted line “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost is arguably one of the most foolish thoughts ever attributed to any creature, but it also demonstrates a major misconception about Satan and demons: namely, that they play some sort of ruling or administrative role in the punishment of humans in hell. 2 Peter 2:4 says that the rebelling angels cast into hell are in “chains of utter darkness,” not exactly a position of authority over anyone. And Revelation 20:10 shows the enemy cast into the lake of fire alongside the beasts of Revelation to be tormented forever, not to hand out torment.
That leads to hell, seen as a place of punishment for those who oppose God. The Old Testament uses the word Sheol, the grave, but doesn’t have a strong depiction of the afterlife other than simply that it is the destination of all humans once they die. The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, uses the word ᾅδης or Hades in place of Sheol, and likewise when the word hell is in view in the English New Testament, ᾅδης is the word that is being translated. Jesus speaks often on hell and describes it, and more broadly, death itself, as the punishment for sin and rebellion against God. For example, Matthew 8:10-12 sees Jesus praising the faith of the centurion, saying that many from all over the world will come into God’s reward while “the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1 that those who don’t know God and obey the gospel “will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and his glorious strength” when Jesus returns.
Hell as a current place where the dead go versus final judgment against sin and rebellion is often confusing, but Scripture differentiates between the two. Revelation has several instances where “death and Hades” are paired together, such as chapter 1 where Jesus says He holds “the keys of death and Hades;” in 6:8 where Death rides a pale green horse “with Hades following after him;” 20:13 where “death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them” for judgment, and then in the next verse where both are thrown into the lake of fire, to final destruction. I’m certainly not a Greek scholar but I’ve wondered if a better translation might be “death and the grave,” given the meaning of the concept to these earliest believers who would have referred often to the Greek Old Testament.
One more commonality between Satan and final judgment against sinners is that for many, the question “Why?” hangs over them. Why would God create creatures that He knew would turn against Him so malevolently, and why would He declare total destruction against so many humans? The answer to the first question is not in view, and the enemy’s real motives are not known except that he desires to lead us to the same deadly rebellion he engages in. A hatred of creation is in view, and the spiritual enemy of man is directly connected in Scripture with the forces of chaos. Death and entropy war against life and order. But God has already declared victory through the work of Jesus, and He has warned over and over that to follow any other way will only lead to judgment and wrath. His wrath is not petulant human anger, but a reflection of His justice. When unbelievers mourn evil in this world and decry that injustice exists, we do the same, not hopelessly but in hope that Jesus will set all things right. Death and the grave are themselves utterly destroyed in the final judgment, and perfect, eternal life exists in all creation through and by the reign of Jesus.
The only point I haven’t spoken to is the nature of existence for those who are sent to the lake of fire after final judgment. The most common view in the church is what is called “eternal conscious torment,” where all of God’s enemies both human and spiritual experience unending torment of some sort in the lake of fire, an idea supported by phrases such as “the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever” from Revelation 14.
Another view is annihilationism, the idea that the second death is literally that – total, absolute destruction, an end to existence, whether after a period of torment or not. While this position is often associated with seriously heretical views like those of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, there is a tradition of faithful believers who have argued its possibility as a legitimate interpretation, such as the Anglican theologian John Stott. I tend towards the former position but I have sympathy for the latter, though I don’t have time here to get into the matter in depth.
What we can take away in either case, however, is that we are made as humans to know God, to reflect His glory and enjoy His love in eternity. To walk in the way of God’s wisdom is to endure life in a way that says, there is so much more to hope in and live for than my desires of the moment. But to reject God’s wisdom and substitute our own is to say, there is no reason to care about anything beyond myself or this moment, and no matter what your pursuits look like, it will not bring true life. It is the distinction of Proverbs 8:35-36:
“For the one who finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord,
but the one who misses me harms himself;
all who hate me love death.”
To speak on hell is not simply a matter of “trying to scare you into heaven.” But it is to call our fellow humans to see that God is calling us to something so much better, more lasting and more satisfying, than anything the world and our sinful desires can ever provide – even when it’s something that we might consider “good” culturally. It is to say, don’t throw away what God has given you, but look to Christ and embrace what humanity is meant to be in true intimacy with God in Christ.
How have you wrestled with these concepts? What questions do you have, or what do you want to see addressed that isn’t covered here? Leave a comment below or email us here.
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