Satan is believed to have been a beautiful fallen angel. He does tempt man into sins of pride, fear, anger, and lust. However, this is not done against man's will but in accordance with it.

A careful reading of scripture reveals this widespread conception of Satan as the guardian of the throne of God appears nowhere in the Bible. Instead, scholars and popular culture alike conflated cherry-picked lines of scripture with the influential literary works of John Milton and Dante Alighieri to arrive at this conclusion.

In "Satan as He Wants to Be Seen," Bible teacher Jeffrey S. Robinson...