MANY NAMES AND TITLES
It is very common in the Bible to refer to one person by more than one name. Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel, Saul/Paul are well-known examples. Probably no character has more names, however, than the Devil/satan as we see in the following list:

The Devil, also called Satan and Lucifer, is perhaps best known as the deceiver who tempts people to sin. For that reason, these supernatural characters are perceived as God’s enemy in an ongoing conflict between good and evil.

These Biblical images and themes have been strongly reinforced in popular culture. Entire careers, ministries and organizations of one kind or another have been created on the strength of acceptance of the myths. It is bad enough that angels, demons and Satan have attracted so much attention in religion and in the broader culture, but worse yet is the fact that the beliefs around these entities divert people from the truth about God and their relationship to him.

It is well known that these iconic images have such an enduring place in religion and culture (e.g preaching, books, movies, art and music.) They are worthy of study because so many religious people in many religions hold on to the belief that they are real and make spiritual decisions based on that belief. Thus they are ripe topics for money-making enterprises (e.g. books, ministries, etc.) whereby religious leaders prey on ignorant followers. Worse yet, wrong thinking about these mythical beings has a way of diverting ignorant people from the truth about God, themselves, and false prophets. This provides the justification we need to report on what the Bible really says.

To make this point more finely, we will say that religious people in a wide spectrum of religions are deceived by religious leaders who preach heresy and, engage in Commercial Religion by marketing the myths that cause people to believe that mythical characters do actually exist.

Maybe preachers of these myths believe what they say, or maybe not. It does not matter what their conscious motives are — unless they really believe that these entities are real and that they are somehow doing God a favor by marketing their products. What matters is that they peddle heresies for their benefit while exploiting ignorant followers who make decisions, both financial and spiritual, based on their teaching.

As long as religious people continue to believe that characters such as demons, the devil and angels exist, religious leaders will have a place in the hearts of religious people. Religious people will honor and give credibility and position to religious leaders as long as they believe that evil characters exist and as long as they believe that religious leaders have some special spiritual power to limit (in the case of demons and the devil) and/or expand (in the case of angels) the influence of those characters on the lives of people.

If religious people knew the truth that characters such as demons, and the devil do not exist, there would be nothing to fear. And if religious people knew that God uses demons and the devil to symbolically represent religious leaders, religious people would fear religious leaders and avoid them. This, of course, what God wants his people to do. He wants his people to listen to his voice only — not to the voices of religious leaders (i.e. False Prophets, Judas, Balaam, Kings, Queens and Princes, Pharisees and Scribes, Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits, Anti-Christs, foolish, worthless, stupid shepherds).

Considering all of the above, it is fair to say that we live in a culture that has generally adopted the myths of these so-called spiritual entities and accepted them as truth. Sadly, this acceptance exists in the spectrum of Christian subcultures that have based their theologies on literal interpretations of the Bible where many scriptures create and reinforce the image of the devil and demons as a unique spiritual entities moving at will across the entire physical world and even into the physical heavens to perpetrate evil upon human victims.

Worse yet, religious people do not understand that the real devils and demons they should be fearing are their own revered religious leaders.