Satan   By: Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952)

By

LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER

1909

Contents

Foreword, by Dr. C. I. Scofield

Author's Introduction

I. The Career of Satan II. The Ages III. The Course of This Age IV. This Age and the Satanic System V. The Satanic Host VI. Satan's Motive VII. Satan's Methods VIII. The Man of Sin IX. The Fatal Omission X. Modern Devices XI. The Believer's Present Position XII. The Believer's Present Victory

Foreword.

If any word of mine shall add to the number of the readers of this book I shall be glad to have written it; and I sincerely wish that all believers, and especially all ministers and Christian workers, might in some way be led to read it.

The subject is vital to any right understanding of the age in which we live, and of the personal conflict which we wage; for the existence, personality, and power of Satan are awful facts and of immense present significance.

We walk in the midst of his snares, hear on every hand his doctrines proclaimed by men of blameless lives "transformed as the ministers of righteousness," and are allured by the pleasure, place and power of his perfectly organized world system.

I know of no other book on Satan in which the dispensational aspects of the subject are so clearly stated, nor any other so severely Biblical.

C. I. Scofield.

Introduction.

The world has been willing to comply with the wishes and projects of Satan to the extent of ceasing to believe that he really exists; this unbelief being most advantageous to his present undertakings. Yet the opinions of men have never changed the facts of revelation, and, according to Scripture, Satan exists; still possessed with great power and influence over the affairs of men a power and influence to be increasingly dreaded as this present age advances.

The teachings of Scripture on this important subject are but little understood by Christians and seem to be entirely outside the thought of the world. It is, therefore, to be expected that any attempt to present this truth will seem, to many, mere folly and fiction.

The name Satan has by no means been lost. It has, however, been associated with a most unscriptural fancy. Without reference to revelation, the world has imagined a grotesque being, fitted with strange trappings, who has been made the central character in theatrical performances; and by this relation to the unreality of the theatre, the real character of Satan has come to be only one of the myths of a bygone age.

Scripture reveals a detailed description of the person and career of Satan; beginning with his creation; his original condition; his fall, and on to his kingdom with all its developments, and his final defeat and banishment. It presents a personage so mighty and so prominent in the world to day that the Christian heart would fail, were it not for faith in the One who has triumphed over all principalities and powers.

This attempt to outline the Scripture teaching on this character will be undertaken under certain general conditions:

First The authority of the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments will be accepted without question.

Second Evidence will be drawn from the Word of God alone, since no final light can be found on this subject other than it has pleased God to reveal in the Bible.

Third There will be no discussion as to the actual existence of Satan; this being both assumed and taught from Genesis to Revelation.

These pages are prepared especially for believers; knowing that this body of truth will be wholly unnoticed or rejected by the Satan blinded world (2 Cor. 4:4).