According to a popular Fox TV show, Lucifer is Satan and really isn’t all that bad of a guy after all. No, really, that’s not a joke. Here is the show synopsis from IMDB:

“Lucifer, bored from his sulking life in hell, comes to live in Los Angeles only to help humanity with its miseries through his experience and telepathic abilities to bring people’s deepest desires and thoughts out of them. While meeting with a girl in his nightclub (called Lux), a shootout involving him and the girl leads him to become a LAPD consultant who tries to punish people for their crimes through law and justice.”

The entertainment industry has made millions upon millions by “interpreting” the Bible for the masses that get their concepts of right and wrong, family life and religion from watching people that have no clue what any of those things mean.

Remember the movie “Noah” with Russell Crowe in the title role? Or what about Christian Bale as Moses in “Exodus”?

He received a lot of criticism — and rightfully so — because he said that Moses was a terrorist. But maybe we should give him a break if all he knows about Moses came from that movie script. The writers did make Moses look like a terrorist, not the hero of faith recorded in the Bible.

So, “Hollywood” has Noah fighting alongside rock monsters and looking more like a lunatic druid than the biblical hero of faith that he was, and Satan fighting for law and order every week on your TV. Sadly, this is what forms most people’s opinions of the Bible!

No, Noah was not a self-hating, mad-dog killer. He was a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Moses was not a terrorist! He was a very humble man (Numbers 12:3). And Satan is not a “good guy.” He is the father of lies and a murderer (John 8:44; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:14).

Not only is the show “Lucifer” grossly misguided in its portrayal of the devil, but even in the use of the name “Lucifer.” The Bible never refers to the devil, Satan, as “Lucifer.” The only time that name is found in the Bible, Isaiah 14:12, it is not referring to the devil but to the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:3).

Many try to justify the application of “Lucifer” to Satan based on Jesus’ statement in Luke 10:18. It is even given in the margin reference in many reference Bibles. However, the word translated “Lucifer” is literally “morning star” and refers to the brightness of the sunrise.

The king of Babylon was being compared to the glory of the morning sun in his greatness, the greatness from which he would be brought down by Almighty God. Jesus, in Luke 10:18, Jesus refers to the swiftness of Satan’s being cast down by the work of His disciples (cf. Romans 16:20).

There really is no parallel between the two passages. So, how can it be biblical to refer to Satan as “Lucifer” when the Bible never refers to Satan as “Lucifer”? It is not!

Did you get what the synopsis of the TV show “Lucifer” said? That the devil, whom they mistakenly name “Lucifer,” comes to earth to “help humanity.”

The Bible makes it very clear that Satan’s work in this world is the exact opposite of helpful. The biblical name, “Satan,” literally means, “adversary.” Your “adversary” is not trying to help you! No, he stands against God’s people (1 Chron. 21:1; Zech. 3:1; Mark 1:13; Luke 22:31).

If you want to see how “helpful” Satan can be just read Job 1-2. He accuses God of “buying off” His faithful followers. He accuses Job of only following God out of selfishness. He destroyed all of Job’s possessions. He killed all of Job’s family. He caused Job agonizing pain and anguish. And he enjoyed every minute of it!

You can almost hear Satan laughing as Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die. Its not hard to imagine Satan patting Job’s “friends” on the back as they falsely accuse Job of secret sin. Even though Satan, the adversary, stood against Job, Job maintained his faithfulness and God stood up for him in the end.

Satan’s primary goal is to keep us from what is best for us, the gospel of Christ (Mark 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:18). Satan likes to hurt us (Luke 13:16; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 12:7). Satan wants us to sin against God (Acts 5:3). He is not our friend!

Jesus died on the Cross to deliver us from the power of the devil, that is death (Hebrews 2:14). If we will hear the word of God (Romans 10:17), believe what it teaches about Christ and His kingdom (Acts 8:12), repent of our sins (Acts 17:30), confess that we believe Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 8:37), and be baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins (Acts 2:38), then we will be added to His church (Acts 2:47; Col. 1:13), to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3, 4). Be saved from this sin sick world under the hateful sway of Satan!