istles
Satan is opposed to Christ. Sinner and murderer from the beginning (1
John iii. 8) and liar by nature (John viii. 44), he enslaves men to sin
(viii. 34), causes death (verse 44), rules the present world (xiv. 30),
but has no power over Christ or those who are his (xiv. 30, xvi. 11; 1
John v. 18). He will be destroyed by Christ with all his works (John
xvi. 33; 1 John iii. 8).

In the common faith of the Gentile churches after the Apostolic Age "the
present dominion of evil demons, or of one evil demon, was just as
generally presupposed as man's need of redemption, which was regarded as
a result of that dominion. The tenacity of this belief may be explained
among other things by the living impression of the polytheism that
surrounded the communities on every side. By means of this assumption
too, humanity seemed to be unburdened, and the presupposed capacity for
redemption could, therefore, be justified in its widest range"
(Harnack's _History of Dogma_, i. p. 181). While Christ's First Advent
delivered believers from Satan's bondage, his overthrow would be
completed only by the Second Advent. The Gnostics held that "the present
world sprang from a fall of man, or from an undertaking hostile to God,
and is, therefore, the product of an evil or intermediate being" (p.
257). Some taught that while the future had been assigned by God to
Christ, the devil had received the present age (p. 309). The fathers
traced all doctrines not held by the Catholic Church to the devil, and
the virtues of heretics were regarded as an instance of the devil
transforming himself into an angel of light (ii. 91). Irenaeus ascribes
Satan's fall to "pride and arrogance and envy of God's creation"; and
traces man's deliverance from Satan to Christ's victory in resisting his
temptations; but also, guided by certain Pauline passages, represents
the death of Christ "as a ransom paid to the 'apostasy' for men who had
fallen into captivity" (ii. 290). He does not admit that Satan has any
lawful claim on man, or that God practised a deceit on him, as later
fathers taught. This theory of the _atonement_ was formulated by Origen.
"By his successful temptation the devil acquired a right over men. God
offered Christ's soul for that of men. But the devil was duped, as
Christ overcame both him and death" (p. 367). It was held by Gregory of
Nyssa, Ambrose, who uses the phrase _pia fraus_, Augustine, Leo I., and
Gregory I., who expresses it in its worst f