John 8:44--"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father
of it." 1 John 3:8--"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for
the devil sinneth from the beginning." Satan is here set forth as
a murderer, a liar, a sinner--all elements of personality. He had
the "power over death" (Heb. 2:14), and is the "prince of this
world" (John 14:30).
The narrative of Satan in Job. (cc. 1, 2) strongly emphasizes his
personality. He is as much a person as the "sons of God," Job,
and even God himself. Zech. 3:1, 2; 1 Chron. 21:1; Psa. 109:6 also
emphasize the fact of Satan's personality. Throughout all these
Scriptures the masculine personal pronoun is used of Satan, and
attributes and qualities of personality are ascribed to him. Unless
we veto the testimony of the Scriptures we must admit that Satan
is a real person. How can any one read the story of the temptation
of Christ (Matt. 4:1-11) and fail to realize both parties in the
wilderness conflict were persons--Christ, a person; Satan, a person?
Such offices as those ascribed to Satan in the Scriptures require
an officer; such a work manifests a worker; such power implies
an agent; such thought proves a thinker; such designs are from a
personality.
Our temptations may be said to come from three sources: the world,
the flesh, and the devil. But there are temptations which we feel
sure come from neither the world nor the flesh, e.g., those which
come to us in our moments of deepest devotion and quiet; we can
account for them only by attributing them to the devil himself.
"That old serpent, the devil, has spoken with fatal eloquence to
every one of us no doubt; and I do not need a dissertation from
the naturalist on the construction of a serpent's mouth to prove
it. Object to the figure if you will, but the grim, damning fact
remains." --_Joseph Parker._
There can scarcely be any doubt as to the fact that Christ taught
the existence of a personality of evil. There can be but three
explanations as to the meaning of His teaching; first, that He
accommodated His language to a gross superstition, knowing it to be
such--if this be true then what becomes of His sincerity; second,
that He shared the superstition not knowing it to be such--then
what becomes of His omniscience, of His reliability as a Teacher
from God? third, that the doctrine is not a superstition, but
actual truth--this position completely vindicates Christ as to His
sincerity, omniscience and infallibility as the Teacher sent from
God.