Is Satan God? The Bible Says Yes! -

written by Ijaz Ahmad

2 Corinthians 4:4 speaks of Satan as being the "God of this age/ world" (the more accurate is age because the word world is not used in the Greek):

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (NIV)

The English translations use a small "g" for God but there is no such distinction in the Greek, so a more accurate representation of the verse should be:

"The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

As far as we can understand here, the Biblical God is referring to another God as co-existing alongside Him. Therefore if we were to ask, how many Gods are there, a Christian should naturally answer two, not one. There is a God of this age and a God of all ages, nonetheless, two Gods.

One might argue that Satan does not have the qualities of God and so cannot be a "true God", but this is not what the Bible actually teaches. Most of us are familiar with Satan tempting Jesus and apparently failing, but there is an important teaching that is often missed. Matthew 4:5 reads:

"Then the devil took Him up into the holy city..." (NIV)

The devil had the power to spatially move Jesus - the God man. Previous to this, it had been the "Spirit" leading Jesus, as Matthew 4:1 says:

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." (NIV)

However the Spirit is not said to lead Jesus to the holy city, but Satan is the one taking Jesus. The word "take" here is worrying because the Greek "παραλαμβάνει" (Strong's 3880) means not only to physically go from one place to another but also to "join to one's self" or to "one to be led off as a prisoner" as Luke 17:34-36 states. In other words, Jesus - the God man - is under the authority of Satan and is taken as a prisoner by him.

This may seem fantastical to some, but it is the Biblical teaching. We know this because the Bible teaches that death had mastery over God (Jesus in this case):

"For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him." - Romans 6:9 (NIV).

According to the Bible, who had the keys of death?

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil". - Hebrews 2:14 (NIV).

Please note that the author of Hebrews is writing after the crucifixion, so it is actively teaching that even after the crucifixion, Satan continued to hold on to the keys of death, which is a direct contradiction to Romans 6:9.

Some exegetes of the Bible teach that Satan was only temporarily called the God of the world, but after the crucifixion, Jesus retook the keys of death and once again became the God of this world. If that is the case, it creates more problems because it means that God lost the authority to be God and someone took the authority from God to become a God themselves and according to Hebrews 2:14, that person is Satan, which means there is always the possibility that anyone else can take the keys and become God. Very strange. Let us however continue with 2 Corinthians 4:4:

"The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

Exegetes of the Bible argue that this is temporary, we dealt with this argument in one sense above and now we will in another. We know that this is not temporary because of a verse from the Gospel of Mark from the 4th/ 5th century CE in Codex Washingtonensis, which is also attested by Jerome, the architect of the Latin Vulgate (the Latin version of the Bible), so it is not some verse that only one scribe added, as Jerome notes multiple "exemplars", especially in the "Greek manuscripts", the point here being that he notes this in the plural and not the singular. This verse reads:

“This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who does not allow the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of the spirits.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 was written before Mark, which means that if the role of Satan as a God was temporary, then this was not the case when Mark was written, as this verse in Mark says that Satan is presently, in "this age", as in at this moment, right now, Satan still has power over the truth of God.

Therefore we end on four points:

1. The Bibles teaches there are atleast two Gods.
2. Satan is a God.
3. Satan had and continues to have attributes of a God.
4. Satan had and continues to have power over the Trinitarian God.