The Monster Among Us

I awoke not long ago to a truly horrifying headline. A 16-year-old boy and his dog were shot dead in their own home. A young life and his beloved companion were snuffed out in an instant with a senseless act of violence.

What made this particularly shocking is that it wasn’t in a bad area of town or late at night where drug deals often go bad. It was in a rural part of North Carolina on an early Saturday morning, where a boy and his dog should feel perfectly safe.

“There are times in my life when I have questioned the moral compass of society, and this is truly another one of those times,” Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, Jr. said in a news release dated May 2, 2026. “When a 16-year-old child and his pet can be gunned down in the quiet of the morning hours, it causes me to question our sense of morality and brings true anguish. Make no mistake about it, there is a monster among us.”

Sheriff Kimbrough is more accurate than perhaps he realizes. The monster isn’t merely the one responsible for this heinous act. It’s not youth violence, guns or drugs. It’s not even the moral decay that he so rightly points out is occurring in our world today. This particular monster works behind the scenes on a grand scale, his influence pervading into the details of individual human lives across the globe. The monster’s name is Satan the devil.

The monster

While that might sound trite and make you think, well, obviously, our world today often has no clue who the true enemy is.

Scripture warns us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Make no mistake—Satan the devil wants you dead. Only, it’s more than that.

The heartbreaking murder of a boy and his dog in the country, a shootout in a bad part of town over drug territory or even tens of thousands of soldiers killing one another on a battlefield is not enough for our enemy. No, it’s actually much bigger than that. His objective is to separate people from God, destroy humanity and thwart God’s purpose for mankind.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14).

The powerful, angelic being Lucifer wanted to be ruler over not just earth, but the universe and its creator, God. After attempting to overthrow God’s throne, Lucifer was cast to the earth where he became Satan the devil (Luke 10:18). Unable to conquer God, Satan turned his attention toward destroying everything God loves, especially his greatest creation, mankind. For more on this topic, see our free study aid Is There Really a Devil?

The monster’s weapons

While Satan uses things like war and greed to get humanity to kill one another, these are but a few of his weapons. The apostle Paul reminded the congregation in Corinth that Satan would use every trick in the book in his war on mankind. Speaking specifically of an attitude of unforgiveness, Paul reminds us to be careful, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

It’s not guns or bombs the monster uses to hunt us. The far deadlier weapon in the war he is waging is sin.

Remember our enemy’s main goal—the annihilation of mankind. Not just now, but forever. He wants us to reject God and our opportunity for eternal life, and the temptation of sin is Satan’s weapon of choice. If he can lead us into persistent sins that we refuse to repent of, we separate ourselves from God eternally by rejecting Him, His laws and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The result is then eternal death (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23). To be sure, Satan’s tactic can work on us. Although Satan powerfully influences this world, individuals remain responsible for the choices they make and the sins they commit.

Paul put it quite simply in Romans 6:23 that, “the wages of sin is death.” If we sin, we earn the penalty for sin, which is death. If Satan can persuade us to commit to a life of sin without repentance, then he doesn’t need to do anything else.

This of course presents a very big problem. We all sin (Romans 3:23). Thus, we all have earned death.

So, has Satan already won?

No. And he won’t.

Given a vision of what will happen, the apostle John recorded, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more . . .” (Revelation 20:1-3). Scripture goes on to explain that Satan will be released for a short time, followed by his final punishment in the lake of fire, where he will be permanently confined and prevented from ever deceiving or influencing humanity again (Revelation 20:7-10).

But why?

That brings up another question: If Satan will eventually be prevented from causing harm to mankind, why does God allow this enemy to wreak such havoc now?

Satan is the “god of this age” and God is allowing—for now—the devil to blind people’s minds to the point where they are unable to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).

So why allow this monster to torture our existence? And what about the damage that he’s doing now, tempting and influencing you, me and everyone who has ever lived into sin, which separates us from God?

Satan was not created as an evil monster. In fact, Satan was not created at all. God created Lucifer, who was, quite literally, a perfect angel.

In a passage understood to describe Lucifer, the anointed cherub who became Satan, we read, “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you’” (Ezekiel 28:12-15).

God created Lucifer perfect in his ways. But in time, through his own pride, choices and rebellion, his behavior became wicked. As we saw earlier in Isaiah 14, he determined to exalt himself and attempt to overthrow God.

Lucifer became Satan as a product of his choices. He was then cast out of the heavenly realm (Luke 10:18), and he continues to torment the earth and its inhabitants to this day.

As to why God would allow this for now, the pain and suffering we see do have a point. God permits humanity to experience the consequences of rejecting His way. Ultimately, mankind must learn that humans are incapable of successfully governing themselves apart from God. For a deeper dive into this topic, watch the Beyond Today program or read our study aid Why Does God Allow Suffering?

By blinding much of mankind to the gospel and spreading his wrong attitudes, Satan draws society into the moral decay we see today. Without understanding the right principles to guide our lives defined through God’s Word, we are left to our own carnal desires, which are amplified through Satan’s influence to produce the pain and suffering brought about by sin.

The monster’s defeat

As we saw earlier, Satan will ultimately be defeated. But in his path, he will have left a wake of destruction. Notably, the consequences of sin that humanity has heaped up for itself under his influence.

Just as Satan has a weapon of choice, God provides a means to victory—Jesus Christ!

In lamenting the struggle we all face with sin and its inevitable outcome, the Apostle Paul said, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Romans 7:15).

He goes on to say, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (verse 18). The challenge isn't just knowing right from wrong; it’s having the determination and resolve to actually do it.

Frustrated with this struggle, Paul exclaims: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (verse 24).

Then, when it seems the battle is lost, Paul identifies our secret weapon—our deliverance from sin. “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (verse 25).

Paul expands this concept in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

These “arguments” and “high thing[s]” are synonyms for sin of every type that oppose the knowledge and authority of God. A senseless killing of an innocent boy, Lucifer’s pride that led him to try and ascend above God, our own faults and shortcomings. These all reflect sin’s destructive influence and are spiritual strongholds we cannot defeat on our own. Because sin is a spiritual problem, it can't be defeated by mere physical attempts.

When we accept that God’s law is good and right and strive to bring our thoughts and actions into captivity through true, heartfelt repentance and obedience to Christ, God gives us the help and strength to overcome. Through Christ living in us by the Holy Spirit, victory over sin is possible.

Victory declared!

Satan’s most powerful weapon, sin, has no power over our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is a monster lurking out there. Satan the devil, who chose rebellion and himself succumbed to sin, works tirelessly to tempt us to do the same. The results from his influence and human choices are wars, random murders of innocent children and all sorts of vile acts and evil thinking that violate God’s laws and statutes.

The monster’s defeat is certain. While still very active in our world today, the time is coming when his weapon of choice will no longer have power over us. Through Jesus Christ, God provides forgiveness and removal of sin (Mark 2:10; 1 John 1:9). In time, all humanity will have the opportunity to know God, understand Christ’s sacrifice and choose His way of life. Millennia of hurt and pain brought on by Satan’s influence will be healed.

We do not have to live in fear of Satan or his chief weapon, sin. James 4:7 tells us: “Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When we turn to God, repent of our sins, accept salvation through Jesus Christ and yield ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, the monster that rules our world is defeated.