What Will Happen to Satan?

Question:
I’m reading your book and just finished at least one section on satan. I don’t put any expectation on you to know this because I know the Bible is so cryptic about satan. What you wrote makes definite sense and helps me put him in his place, but two questions are bothering me:

1. If he was created as an angel first (before the beginning of time maybe?) how did he choose to be proud in the presence of God’s full goodness? If he is able to fall from such obvious love, then does that mean evil will always be a possibility in eternity or will we know the truth that he didn’t know?
2. What will happen to satan? If all things will be made new, wouldn’t the father of lies be made new?  Why do we assume God’s love wouldn’t transform him? Does he know too much and is now responsible? But see, that comes back on us too, doesn’t it? If something can become “nothing” by choosing to live in evil . . . will God allow some to simply not exist also by their choice of nothingness? I don’t know if that makes sense. How do we choose evil when we experience the goodness of God? Doesn’t that goodness lead us to repentance? So why hasn’t it led to satan’s repentance?

Response:
Great questions and, believe it or not, I once asked Jesus and He answered—sort of.

You must’ve read pages 115-117 of The History of Time and the genesis of you, correct? In it, I point out that in the Old Testament, (Is. 14:12), it’s not clear that “Lucifer” (Day Star) is satan or that Ezekiel is referring to satan when he speaks of the “king of Tryre” in Ezekiel 28. In those pages, I also tell two stories about praying for “Evelyn” (not her real name). In the text of the book, I tell about asking Jesus if satan were a somebody, and how he answered, “No, He’s a nobody.” In the footnote, I share how my friend asked Jesus why He didn’t throw satan into the Lake of Fire, and she heard Him answer, “I am, all the time.” I also reference what we learned on a third occasion, but I didn’t tell the story.

I hesitate because I don’t know of others that have experienced satan manifesting in another person and I know it all sounds hard to believe.

We spent seven years praying through various levels of demonic oppression related to things that had been done to Evelyn in the past. She didn’t want these things but was abused by her father in a satanic coven, and at one point ritually wed to satan. Well, after seven years we encountered this “thing” that claimed to be satan. He was different than the demons; he was pure arrogance. . .

This is all so hard to talk about because there’s much I don’t understand, most people haven’t had these experiences, and yet, many people have faked such things. It freaks people out, so I hope you don’t freak out. But we all wrestle against “principalities and powers,” that have been “disarmed” by Jesus, but still lie to us all . . . and in some instances, they reveal their presence or are forced to reveal their presence. I digress…

Like I was saying, we encountered satan. At first, I thought, “It can’t be him!” But in visions and other ways, Jesus confirmed that is was satan (I know, I still sound like a bit of a freak!).

In these prayer times, Evelyn would have visions and my wife, Susan, would have the same vision. I’m a science Geek, and a doubter, so this really amazed me—I’d run my own little tests: and yes, they were encountering and experiencing the same reality.

Well, in one of these episodes, we put satan in a metal box (Jesus revealed that the inside was labeled “abyss”). Jesus was standing outside the box, and answering questions. I loved when this happened because His answers would always cut to the heart of Evelyn’s struggle and reveal the wonders of His Love. However, they usually wouldn’t have much to do with details… but rather the intentions of the heart. Well, this one particular night I was wondering about the questions you asked above. So I took a shot!

I said, “Evelyn, ask Jesus if He made satan.” She did. And then my wife just started laughing out loud. She said, “Peter, I see Jesus laughing… He’s laughing at you and shaking His head as if to say, ‘Peter you couldn’t even begin to understand the answer to your question.”

So I know that I don’t know, but I do know that it’s not as simple as some would suggest.

Because of the story I tell in the book (that satan is a “nobody”) and because of what Jesus said in John 8:44, I don’t think satan is a person, or what people mean by “fallen angel.”

“He was a murderer from the beginning,” said Jesus, “and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

The expression “fallen angel” is problematic, for it doesn’t refer to a thing’s essence, but rather its function. “Angel” just means, “messenger.”  I don’t think he’s a “fallen angel,” for Jesus seems to refer to him as always fallen. And I don’t think he’s a person because he has no truth in Him.

In other words, I strongly suspect that there is no “breath of God” in him. The breath of God is the Spirit of God. And the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Jesus is the Truth. Genesis 2:7 explains that it’s the breath of God that makes us “living souls.” It’s the breath of God in us that recognizes our source—the One who breathes us into existence. It’s the breath of God that gives us the capacity to choose the Good in Freedom.

So, to respond to your questions:

IF satan is a “fallen angel,” in the way that people are “fallen souls,” then I think he will be redeemed for “God makes all things new” (and if he is a “fallen angel,” I don’t know how to answer the other questions.)

BUT, I don’t think satan is a “fallen angel,” or person. Actually, I’m not even sure that we could even call him a “thing,” but something more like the absence of a thing, like a shadow. So, did God make him? Well, did God make shadows?

A shadow really isn’t a thing, but the absence of a thing called Light, and God is Light. One day, God will fill all things with Himself—so does He annihilate shadows or transform shadows into light? I suppose it’s a matter of semantics. But shadows, lies, death and darkness really are our enemies, even though they are ultimately nothing but the absence of Truth, Life, Light and the manifestation of “I AM.” The manifestation of “I AM not” is Hades, and the Gospel is that “I AM” will fill all things through Christ Jesus. He will fill chaos with Logos; He will fill the Void with Himself.

Recently, we’ve been praying for another friend that was abused, and once again satan manifested. I told him to go to the void in Jesus’ name. And I heard him say, “I am the void.” I know he’s a liar, but I also know that Jesus will sometimes make him confess the truth; it’s not “in him,” but Jesus runs it through him like a sword . . .  I think satan is entirely void on the inside. He is entirely empty.

In the words of C.S. Lewis:  “Indeed no imagined horror could have surpassed the sense which grew within him [Ransom, the protagonist] as the slow hours passed, that this creature [The un-man, satan] was, by all human standards, inside out—its heart on the surface and its shallowness at the heart. On the surface, the great designs and an antagonism to Heaven which involved the fate of worlds: but deep within, when every veil had been pierced, was there, after all, nothing but a black puerility, an aimless empty spitefulness content to sate itself with the tiniest cruelties, as love does not disdain the smallest kindness?” (Perelandra, pp.123-124).

• So did God make him?

Well, I’m guessing He made him in the sense that He made shadows.

• Will he be made new?

Well, I’m guessing he’ll be made new like a shadow is made new.

• Will he be annihilated?

Well, yeah, I’m guessing, the same way that darkness will be annihilated.

• Could he have chosen God, who is love?

Well, I’m guessing, no ‘cause there’s nothing in him capable of choosing or comprehending Love or Light, who is God. John 1:5 “The Light (Life, Word) shines in the darkness and the darkness has not comprehended (understood, overcome) it.”

• Could he repent?

I’m guessing no, ’cause there’s nothing actually there to do the repenting or be repented.

• Will we know a truth that he did not know?

Yes. And you already do, but when you see Him (Truth) in all His fullness, you will choose to endlessly worship in freedom. I think that means that you’ll technically be free to do whatever you want, but you will always want to “love as you’ve been loved.”

If I remember correctly this was the idea of the “beatific vision” among the early church fathers—that if we see Him as He is, we naturally respond in worship. Adam and Eve couldn’t respond this way in the Garden because they did not yet know the Good, and God is “the Good.” “The Good is Mercy, Hesed, Love. As Paul writes in Romans 11:32 “God consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.”

It’s through the process of our fall and redemption that we come to see the heart of God for us. This is why I say that Jesus was “the Good” in flesh hanging on the tree. The tree is the cross. We take the Good, crucify the Good, and die. But God for-gives the Good, gives His Life, and when we see it, we live. Life is constantly choosing the Good in Freedom; Life is the continuous eternal dance of Love. God creates free will in us, and brings us into the dance, through His work on the cross—the Tree of Life.

• Will God allow some to not exist by their choice of nothingness?
  I don’t think so. I think this “choice of nothingness” is exactly what we are saved from, by the Savior, and He is entirely successful. He is God’s choice of Somethingness. He is the Judgment of God. He is the Word with which God creates all things, including you.

I hope that helps, and like I said, I really can’t answer. I can only share my best guesses.