Does Satan Have Authority Over Us?

 Where does the Bible teach that sin grants legal rights for demons to cling to someone (or something)?   Nowhere — and if that was true, the demons have bona fide legal reason to behave they do when they oppress people. On that view Adam & Eve forfeited dominion in part or in whole. That view is congruent with the view that the debt Christ paid was owed (in part or in hole) to Satan nor God. 


None of that is true. Ceding legal rights to Satan/demons means that Satan/demons have the right & a measure of authority over sinners, even regenerate & justified sinners. The Bible, in Jude, does not support this idea. The author of Jude states that demons left their places of authority, & the covenants between God &’man in the Bible are all about the exercise of dominion in God’s name as well as our own. 


In truth demons have no real authority over us. That’s just a sales pitch just the temptation to bow & worship them/Satan in Matthew & Luke. One of the major points of that narrative is that the power, prestige, & position temptation is a bold statement & an outright lie. In other words, Satan was attempting to beguile Yeshua to recognize Satan’s authority over the cosmos, when it fact it was bogus claim all along. 


This sort of poor theology sometimes built upon misunderstanding of the Ransom Theory of the Atonement.   According to some (like Origen),  when Adam & Eve fell, they ceded dominion to Satan as if they became Satan’s slaves, and God owed Satan a ransom.   Consequently, Satan allegedly has authoritative dominion over the Earth (and the created order in part or in whole).    


That’s just plain not true.   Any ransom like the debt we owe, is not owed to Satan by God nor us, & at no point was dominion taken from us in part or in whole.  


O LORD, Hear our prayer(s). 

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