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What the Bible says about Satan's Children
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Job 41:34

By means of symbolism, Satan's position is defined in terms of attitude. Pride is rightly considered to be "the father of all sin," and the word children is used in the sense "of showing the characteristics of" or "that which is descended from." The Bible uses "sons of Belial" in a similar way. They were not literally children of Satan, but they showed the same characteristics of Satan. Literally, "foolishness" would be a better definition of Belial. We can look at our own children and see that they definitely have our physical characteristics.

So children is used in this sense: Those who are the children of Satan show his characteristics. Jesus uses the same principle back in John 8:44, when He tells the Jews that they are of their father the Devil. Satan was not their literal father, but He alludes to the fact that they displayed the spiritual characteristics of their spiritual father, Satan the Devil. Specifically, He mentions lust: "and the desires of your father you will do."

So, God says here in Job that mankind's dominant sin, idolatry, has its roots in pride. It is usually self-worship.

John W. Ritenbaugh
What I Believe About Conspiracy Theories

Ezekiel 28:14-16

Satan was the first one with the attitude of murder, and he has promoted it ever since. A murderer is a child of Satan with the same arrogant pride. Such a person will not enter God's Kingdom (Galatians 5:21; I John 3:15; Matthew 15:18-19).

Martin G. Collins
The Sixth Commandment

Matthew 5:9

Jesus says that peacemakers "shall be called sons of God." Once we understand the Bible's usage of the words "sons" and "children," we can easily see that this beatitude does not apply to worldly people. Both "sons" and "children" not only describe those who are literal descendents, but also those who show the characteristics of a predecessor who is not necessarily a biological ancestor. For instance, in John 8:38, 41, 44, Jesus tells the Jews that Satan is their father. Their attitudes and conduct revealed who their true spiritual father was; they were in Satan's image. Those who fit the Matthew 5:9 description of godly peacemakers reveal that they are in the image and likeness of God!

As Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, God is called the God of peace (Hebrews 13:20). When we add the thought of Hebrews 2:11, interesting ramifications concerning us surface: "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren." If indeed we are His children and therefore united in the spiritual body of Christ, we will show the same peaceable disposition of the One who is the Head. Thus He has no shame in calling us brethren. Through us, His characteristics are being manifested to the church and to the world.

Peacemaking is more complex and involved than it first appears because it entails the way we live all of life. This produces peace both passively and actively: passively, because we are not a cause of disruption, and actively, because we create peace by drawing others to emulate our example and by them seeking for the tranquillity and pleasure we have as a result. Though a Christian has little or no control over others in mediating peace between disputing parties, this should not deter him from living the peacemaking way. It is the way a person lives that will prepare him to be a much more active and authoritative peacemaker in the World Tomorrow when Christ returns. Peacemaking is indeed a high standard and a worthy vocation, yielding a wonderful reward that is worth bending our every effort to submit to God and seek His glorification.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beatitudes, Part 7: Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Matthew 13:24-29

Satan's malicious intention in sowing tares among the wheat is to cause problems and confusion (James 3:16). The bad seeds grow to become poisonous weeds that allow only the healthiest of the wheat to survive. Tares, like weeds, have never been a marketable product. "Tares" are actually darnel, a seed hardly identifiable from the wheat seed, and immature wheat and darnel look alike. To try to destroy the darnel would mean destroying much of the wheat, and separating one from the other would be beyond the servants' abilities. Only when the wheat has matured can the tares be detected. Then the tares are gathered together in bundles in the field and destroyed by fire.

Many who are not in the process of conversion resemble those who are. Just like true Christians, they go to church, pray, and read the Bible, but they are only religious hobbyists. Jesus calls them "sons of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38), and being tares, they will be destroyed. The tares are not originally from the wicked one, but they develop character according to his strong influence. They are led by him and so are his children (John 8:44).

Martin G. Collins
Parables of Matthew 13 (Part Three): The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

John 8:42-45

Spiritually, Satan has been our father. We already have had his mark placed on us, and in our lifetime we have shown his characteristics. That is exactly what Jesus is talking about here: He knew that Satan was the spiritual father of these people because they carried his mark in the way they reacted to Him and each other.

Abraham had God as his spiritual Father, and Abraham did not attempt to kill the One who became Christ—in fact, He was hospitable to Him and honored Him. He was not hostile to Him in any way, but instead did everything in his power to submit to Him. But here were the people of Jesus' time trying to put Him to death. They were openly hostile to Him.

Our problem is not worrying about taking on Satan's mark—we already have it. Our concern is to control and overcome it because God is now our Father, and He has already enabled us to resist that mark in our lives. It is our worshipful duty to work with God, to strive to break free of that foul spirit's enslaving hold on us.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Spiritual Mark of the Beast

John 8:44

Notice that Christ pointedly tells these people that they want to do what their spiritual father does. In addition, he speaks what is natural to him. There is a strong drive in all of us to follow the path of least resistance, that is, to do what comes naturally.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Revelation 2-3 and Works

John 8:44

This is the spirit—the attitude, the mind, the heart—that is driving humanity. For anybody whose father is Satan, it is in his or her nature to break the commandments. This is why God says that "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). It is impossible! There has to be a change, a conversion, to the divine nature. Thus, Satan cannot help himself. He gathers things to himself because he is self-centered, and he gathers them for the purpose of killing or abusing them.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Love's Importance and Source

Romans 8:14-17

If we are regenerated children of God and led by His Spirit, we will exhibit His character and spiritual image. Before God summoned us, began to reveal His truth to us, forgave us, justified us, and imparted His Spirit to us, our spiritual father was Satan! We were no better than the Pharisees, whom Christ told that they were of their father, the Devil, because they were doing Satan's works (John 8:39-47). Children display the characteristics of their parents, so Christ judged the Pharisees to be the children of Satan because they were exhibiting the Devil's characteristics.

Before God intervened in our lives, we, too, were the children of Satan (Ephesians 2:1-3) because we were exhibiting his spiritual characteristics. However, God began to redeem us and called us into a relationship with Him, which, as Romans 8:15 says, was symbolically an adoption. God was not our original father, but He took on that role after He extracted us from the grasp of Satan, sin, and this world.

Verse 16 reiterates that the Holy Spirit is intended to provide a witness of who we are and who God is. If we allow the Spirit to lead us, we are sons of God. It follows that, if we are sons of God, then we will be exhibiting the same characteristics as our Father! When we exhibit God's characteristics, we are a witness to the world of His character and the way He lives.

Under the New Covenant, with access to the Holy Spirit, the quality of our witness must be much higher than what God expected of physical Israel. To whom much is given, much also is required (Luke 12:48)! If our neighbors, co-workers, or family members look at us, and all they see are people who go to church on different days, do not eat certain foods, give multiple tithes on their income, and do not believe in the Trinity, are they seeing anything different than Old Covenant Israel, who did not have the Holy Spirit? Certainly, God's law will set us apart from the world because the world is against God, but merely keeping the letter of the law will not provide the complete witness that God is looking for.

This is not to denigrate the royal law of liberty to any degree. Acts 5:32 says God gives His Spirit only to those who obey Him. However, one can be nominally obedient, keeping God's law in the letter, without making a truly effective witness for God.

David C. Grabbe
The Pentecost Witness

2 Corinthians 4:4

By blinding the minds of men to the true gospel of God, Satan has set himself up as a counterfeit of the Creator God. As the prince of the power of the air, he broadcasts his evil, rebellious attitudes to all humanity, and except for a few whom God has called out of his deceptions, the whole world lives under his sway (Ephesians 2:1-3; I John 5:19; Revelation 12:9).

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Basic Doctrines: Satan's Origin and Destiny

2 Corinthians 4:4

This verse defines or reveals Satan's religious position. He receives homage as the one worshipped by the unconverted. Thus, the world pursues his plan and yields to his temptations while at the same time neglecting or rejecting the reign, the realm, the Kingdom, the rule of God.

John W. Ritenbaugh
What I Believe About Conspiracy Theories

Ephesians 2:2

There is a direct connection between the prince of the power of the air - Satan - and this world. This must be true because this world is Satan's creation through unconverted men and women - the sons of Adam, as the Bible puts it. All of us have been sons of Adam.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Revelation 2-3 and Works

Ephesians 2:2

The "course of this world" is the spirit of the world (I Corinthians 2:12).

Paul's use of "sons" does not necessarily mean direct descent." It suggests "showing the characteristics of." A son of disobedience would show the characteristics of a disobedient person.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Satan (Part 3)


 




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