Evangelicals love their Devil, their Satan. They seem to have an omnipresent Devil who is everywhere in the world all at once. For example, Sunday morning all across the U.S. preachers rebuke the forked tailed, hoofed and horned, fiery red Satan out of their church, they have a big devil! If you consider Satan to simply be the personification of evil they will consider you a heretic, making belief in the Devil essential for salvation!
Christianity is belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection; this alone makes one a Christian.
I like to say that for most of us the only devil or satan that disrupts our lives is the one we look at in the mirror. We must take accountability for our choices and recognize we are subject to relational realities that are of human origin (no devil required). The problem of evil is unexplainable and often seems 'alive' like a spirit generated by forces we struggle to grasp.
I often hear evangelicals preach satan more than the Lord Jesus Christ.
For your consideration:
KJV
Is. 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
The Devil is nameless, the word Lucifer is a retention of the Latin Vulgate and means 'light bearer'. The Hebrew 'Helel ben Shahar' (translated as Lucifer in the KJV) is descriptive of one of the Ugaritic Pantheon of gods.
Consider the following parallel verses in 2Samuel and 1Chronicles. These two verses are in conflict over who ‘inticed’ or ‘provoked’ David to number Israel. It is accepted that the Chronicler writing later was uncomfortable with the idea that the LORD would ‘incite’ or ‘mislead’ David to number Israel and so makes satan responsible.
2Sam. 24:1 Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”
1Chr. 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
Further, in the book of Job the definite article ‘the’ precedes the word satan, reading 'the satan', suggesting that satan is not a name but a statement of function (adversary or accuser). Read beyond the prologue, the folk tale in the book of Job and you'll learn that he believes only in God and has no satan figure.
Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the eyes of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?
Consider when Jesus rebukes Peter and names him Satan; Peter is not possessed nor is Satan present, rather Peter is resisting the will of God and so stands in the place of the satan. I suggest that when Jesus uses the concept of satan in this manner it is instructive for us. Satan is all that opposes the will of God, the emergence of the Kingdom of God, the opposite of eternal life, the wrong way, existence outside of Christ, the unrest of Leviathan's chaos.
Mark 8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
While considering these thoughts and passages of scripture consider that in Genesis everything was created in the six day narrative and although some seek to identify the ‘hosts’ as angels, this is contrary to the text for the hosts are simply the stars in the heaven.
Likewise consider how Paul is careful to reference the serpent in the garden as a serpent.
2nd Cor. 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
