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Most Christians feel a kind of reticence in considering the operation of Satan and his kingdom. There is a hesitation, a kind of trepidation on our part to delve into this unknown dark area of reality we would prefer to avoid. Nonetheless, it is part of the spiritual warfare with which we must daily contend as believers, and so we would do well to understand as much as we can since, in war, it may prove disastrous to be without accurate intelligence of the enemy and his forces. Granted that we do not want to give way to an unhealthy fascination with this realm, we must still be willing to venture into it with the light of Scripture, the leading of the Holy Spirit and without fear because we have nothing to fear. Jesus said, "I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall be able to hurt you" (emphasis mine Lk. 10:19). His disciples returned from their first encounter with the demonic realm joyfully exclaiming, "Even the demons are subject to us in your name!" (Lk. 10:7) And the Apostle John encourages us that "Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world" (1 Jn. 4:4). True, we can live in blissful ignorance of our enemy and his tactics like children too afraid to venture into a darkened attic, but with the light of God's word and faith in his guidance and protection, we will discover in a new way the power and prerogatives Jesus has given his followers to joyously and victoriously deal with the forces of darkness. In this article we will endeavor to better understand this opaque dimension in order to more effectively combat it in light of Scripture and the Spirit around the world.

Satan's Overall Program

Satan is a highly organized, intelligent spirit being dedicated to destroying human beings made in the image of the Creator he hates. He is the master deceiver and the author of idolatry, seeking to bring the whole world under his dominion by undermining faith in God, twisting values, and promoting false ideologies. He does this through infiltrating institutions, government administrations, communications media, educational systems, and religious bodies. He seeks to divert humankind from worship of their Creator through substitution of money, fame, power, pleasure, science, art, politics, or religious idols. His three-point agenda is deception, dominion and destruction. The ultimate objective is to gain such control over nations and governments so that eventually he can turn them against one another through the destruction of war and/or to turn them against their own citizens in selective murder. We might think of the genocidal crimes of Hitler, Stalin and Saddam Hussein, or the massive killing of the unborn through legal abortion practiced increasingly in our own and other societies.

Satan Works Through Controlling Spirits

Although Satan is not omnipresent or omniscient, he is a master networker who works through a vast organization of spirit beings who apparently communicate with each other and work in some sense cooperatively to undermine humanity's encounter with the kingdom of God in every way they can. Towards this end evil spirits attempt to get influence over government leaders, legal systems, educational systems, and religious movements. Admittedly, Scripture is not entirely lucid as to how these spirits are organized or how they operate, but there is enough Scriptural warrant to make some conclusions regarding this.

Both Israel and the early church perceived that God had given his angelic hosts a special role in the administration of human affairs. The Septuagint rendering of Deuteronomy 32:8 says, "He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God." Biblical scholar F.F. Bruce writes, "The biblical evidence for the angelic government of the world is early: it goes back to the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32.... This reading implies that the administration of the various nations has been parcelled out among a corresponding number of angelic powers." In Daniel, these powers reveal themselves as both good and evil. Michael the Archangel is "the great prince" who has charge of the people of Israel, looking after their interests in the unfolding of history (Da. 12:1). The messenger of the Lord, presumably Gabriel, is detained by the "prince of Persia" against whom he must fight. The prince of Greece is also mentioned. Apparently these last two high-level angelic powers were standing in resistance against the revelation made to Daniel about the future of God's people Israel. Theologian Walter Wink wonders at the power of these evil beings who are able to hold God's messenger back for 21 days:

The angels of the nations have a will of their own and are capable of resisting the will of God, God is perhaps omnipotent but certainly not able to impose the divine will on recalcitrant powers due to God's own self-limitation: God will not violate the freedom of creatures.

How and why did some of the angels turn against the Lord their Creator? We don't know exactly but may surmise that they joined Satan in his rebellion and since that time have become foes of God and the nations of humankind whom they seek to hinder rather than to help. In much of the Old Testament we probably see their baleful influence as the false "gods" of the nations the gods of Egypt, the Amorites, Canaanites, Edomites, etc. whose worship, Israel was warned, would bring oppression, slavery, foreign invasion and poverty (Judges 6:6 and 10:6-16). The Lord is portrayed as bringing judgement upon the gods of Egypt under Moses (Ex. 12:12) and "driving out nations and their gods" from before Israel during the conquest (2 Sam. 7:23). Of course, in relation to Yahweh, the incomparable Creator, they are not really gods but only demons impersonating deities worshipped through the medium of idols. "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens" (Ps. 96:5), and in Ps. 95:3, he is referred to as "...the great God, the great King above all gods." Later the apostle Paul acknowledges the reality of these spirit beings and their deception of the Gentiles (the nations), whose sacrifices to idols are made to demons (1 Co. 10:20) and who are "slaves to those who by nature are not gods" (Gal. 4:8). Scripture, therefore, seems to indicate that these corrupted angels have joined Lucifer in seeking to deceive the nations so that they will not recognize the true God.

Their Agenda: Achieving Dominion

Domination and control appear to be the main objectives of these demon "gods" which the apostle Paul appropriately calls "principalities," "powers," "thrones," "dominions." The acquisition of power and influence over human beings and their societies seems to be their obsession. This dominating nature may be revealed in their very names. For example, the meaning of Molech, god of the Ammonites, is "ruler." He managed to get such control over the people of Ammon that they offered their firstborn children to him as sacrifices by fire. Chemosh, the national god of Moab, possibly means "subduer," perhaps a reflection of the degree of dominion he had obtained over this people, as well as of the successes he gave Moab in wars against their enemies. Heinrich Schlier writes of these fallen spirit beings:

Principalities do not merely possess power; they are power... pure power... capacity, dominion in person... these principalities exercise their being by taking possession of the world as a whole and of individual men, the elements, political and social institutions, historical conditions and circumstances, spiritual and religious trends.

In referring to Paul's teaching in Romans 8, Hendrik Berkhof concurs with the idea that the principalities and powers seek a totalitarian form of control:

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