In Matthew 12:26 the Lord Jesus clearly speaks of Satan’s kingdom. In Acts 26:18 and Colossians 1:13, the apostle also speaks of Satan’s authority. According to these verses we know that Satan has a kingdom and authority.
Ephesians 2:2 says that Satan is the ruler of the authority of the air. John 12:31 says that he is the ruler of this world. He is the ruler of the air, and he is also the ruler of this world. The sphere of his kingdom includes the air and the earth.
Satan’s subordinates can be divided into five categories: fallen angels serving at a higher level as his authorities; a group of angels serving as his army in the air; numerous angels serving as his messengers; people on the earth serving as his ministers; and countless unclean spirits and demons serving as his subordinates.
Ephesians 6:12, 2:2, and 1:21 speak of Satan’s authorities in the air. These authorities are also called princes, such as the prince of Persia and the prince of Javan spoken of in Daniel 10:13 and 20. These evil princes are the authorities in the air. According to the Bible, the authorities in the air are a group of angels who had authority under Satan when he was anointed to rule over the universe. When Satan rebelled against God, they followed him in his rebellion and became a group of authorities under him.
In the kingdom of Satan there are not only authorities in the air but also an army. Isaiah 24:21 says, “And in that day Jehovah will punish / On high the host on high.” A careful reading of the context of this chapter shows that the host on high refers to Satan’s army in the air. Revelation 12:7 also clearly shows us that Satan has an army; the host of Satan is in the air.
Satan also has angels. Matthew 25:41 indicates that Satan’s angels will be cast with him into the lake of fire in the future. This shows that there are many angels under Satan. These angels are the ones who rebelled with him, as indicated in Revelation 12:4 and 9. These verses indicate that the tail of the great dragon dragged away the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth; stars refers to the angels. From these verses we can conclude that at least a third of the angels followed Satan when he rebelled against God. Of these angels, some are the authorities in the air spoken of in Ephesians 6, who are on high, and some are common angels.
In 2 Corinthians 11:15 the apostle Paul said that Satan has ministers. These ministers do not refer to fallen angels or to unclean spirits; they refer to people who are used by Satan. When the apostle spoke this word he was referring to false apostles. False apostles are sent by Satan into the church to do a damaging work; they are ministers of Satan who serve him by running errands for him.
According to the four Gospels, the demons cast out by the Lord Jesus when He was on the earth were unclean demons and evil spirits. Many who read the Bible confuse unclean demons and evil spirits with angels, thinking that the demons are fallen angels. Actually, these are two different groups. The fallen angels dwell in the air. Even though they have no physical body, they have a spiritual body. However, unclean demons and evil spirits dwell on the earth, as seen in the Gospels. They particularly dwell in the sea and in the water; they are a group of disembodied spirits. They must have had a body in the past, but they became disembodied spirits because of God’s judgment; this is the reason they love to enter into man’s body and dwell in it. If they are unable to possess the body of a man, they will possess the body of an animal. When demons came out from the two demon-possessed men in Matthew 8, they went into the hogs and rushed into the sea; this shows that they also can possess animals. Their dwelling place is different from the fallen angels, and their nature is also different from the fallen angels.
Those who have seriously studied the Bible have concluded that the unclean demons and evil spirits must be from a group of living creatures who were on the earth in the preadamic world. It is hard for us to say what they were exactly, but they must have been a group of living creatures, and when Satan rebelled against God, they followed in the rebellion and were judged by God.
The Bible clearly shows us that God judged the earth by flooding it with water. The living creatures on the earth were judged by God and drowned in the water. During God’s six-day re-creation, He said that all He had created were good except for two things: one was the air and the other one was the water upon the surface of the earth. This is because the evil power of Satan and his authorities were in the air, and the unclean demons and evil spirits were in the water upon the surface of the earth.
Concerning this matter, we can say that all of the attacks in the Bible against God’s children come either from the air or from the sea. This can be seen in the four Gospels. When the Lord Jesus crossed the sea, the wind came and the waves in the sea also rose. We should not assume that this was merely a natural phenomenon. The wind came from the air because Satan’s authorities were in the air; the waves rose up from the sea because Satan’s unclean demons were in the sea. These two parties cooperated and stirred up a storm. This storm did not occur naturally; rather, Satan’s evil powers were causing trouble in order to hinder the Lord Jesus’ journey because He was preparing to cast out many demons after He crossed over the sea. The Lord Jesus came to the earth to purge Satan’s kingdom of its power. This is the reason the Lord encountered resistance from storms everywhere.
The citizens of Satan’s kingdom are the fallen people in the whole world. First John 5:19 says, “The whole world lies in the evil one.” According to the sense of the word in John 3:16, world refers to the people in the world. All the people in the world lie in the evil one; all of them are citizens of his kingdom. There are five categories of Satan’s subordinates, together with all the fallen people in the whole world as his citizens.