Everyone knows that the devil gets up to some pretty weird things in the Bible, but there are some things you might not know about him and his actions.
The unusual request
You might not think that Satan would ask God for permission to do anything, but that’s exactly what happened with Job. He was a man who was known at the time for being very faithful to God. Satan, however, didn’t believe that Job was genuine in his faith. He decided to test him.
God actually agreed to allow Satan to test Job. It’s kind of weird to imagine the two of them ever agreeing on anything. Satan wasn’t allowed to hurt Job himself at first, and it was only later that he was given permission to cover Job in painful sores.
The city with a throne
It turns out that Satan had a throne in a real city on Earth. At least, that’s what Revelation 2:13 says. It states that the city was known as Pergamum. You can find that city today in modern Turkey, and at the time, it was quite an important place.
The city featured several temples dedicated to different gods. Kind of ironic, really. But that’s not all, as there was also a large altar to Zeus, although there’s no specific mention in the Bible about which building was supposed to be his throne.
The ruler who isn’t
Funnily enough, the image of Satan ruling hell is completely wrong, too. A lot of us have an image of him sitting on a throne, ordering demons around and deciding who gets punished. That’s not what the Bible says.
It actually suggests he doesn’t have any power whatsoever over hell, and Matthew 25:41 talks about how an eternal fire was prepared for him and his angels. It’s not a place that he’s the king of, that’s for sure.
The temporary prisoner
You’d think that God would want to imprison someone as evil as Satan forever, but no. Revelation 20 specifically states that Satan will eventually be released after 1,000 years of being locked up. The story about it starts with an angel who comes down from heaven.
The angel uses a huge chain to tie Satan up, and he locks him up inside the Abyss for, you guessed it, a thousand years. It doesn’t end there, though, because Satan gets released for a bit of time, and that’s when he starts gathering an army for battle. Let’s hope that the 1,000 years aren’t over anytime soon.
The approaching deadline
Speaking of time, the devil doesn’t actually have an unlimited amount of it, and Satan himself is aware of that fact. It’s mentioned in Revelation 12:12 how furious he is that his remaining time is rather short.
The thing is, though, we’re never given an exact deadline for what happens next after Satan’s time is up. It’s mentioned that his time is ‘running out’ and that he’s angry, but that’s pretty much all there is. You’d assume the Bible would give us a heads-up on these plans.
The warning for married couples
Time for something that you almost certainly weren’t expecting to see in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 7:5, the Apostle Paul talks about the importance of married couples sleeping with each other. He actually says that Satan could take advantage of them if they stopped having **x.
Yes, really. He said they should make sure not to avoid intimacy unless it was for reasons like prayer. Then he told them they should resume afterward. It’s a little strange to imagine that Satan would care so much about what happens beneath the sheets, but anyway.
The mysterious teachings
Even Satan had his secrets, and the people living in the ancient city of Thyatira seemed to know them. Nobody else does, though. Revelation 2:24 explicitly talks about Satan’s teachings while talking about the city’s Christian community.
One of those who supposedly knew was a woman named Jezebel. She caused all sorts of trouble, including claiming to be a prophet and encouraging other people to be immoral. But whatever Satan’s secrets were, they stayed a secret. We’re never told what they were.
The missing story
The story about Satan tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden is probably one of the most famous ones in the Bible. But that’s not exactly what happened. Genesis 3 talks about how the creature that tempts Eve is a serpent, and there’s no clear reference to it being Satan.
In fact, Satan is surprisingly absent from a lot of the earlier parts of the Bible, including Genesis and Exodus. It’s only far later, in Revelation 12:9, that he’s explicitly identified with the ancient serpent. Genesis never says that.
The unexplained transformation
A common Christian interpretation says that Satan wasn’t always evil. That makes sense. Except, we don’t actually know when he turned against God, as there’s no complete account of that happening in the Bible.
We hear about someone falling from heaven in Isaiah 14. We learn about someone who used to be perfect until he became wicked in Ezekiel 28. It makes sense to put those two together and believe it’s Satan they’re describing, yet that’s never actually said in Scripture.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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