John Piper's Take on Why Satan Is Called the 'Prince of the Power of the Air'

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Author and theologian John Piper recently explained the Bible’s description of the devil as “the prince of the power of the air” and how it doesn’t mean that Satan is omnipotent. According to The Christian Post, Piper answered a listener’s question about Ephesians 2, where Satan is “the prince of the power of the air.” Piper noted that although he and other scholars are unsure why the devil has that title, Scripture provides “pointers” to help understand this term.  

“It would be unwise to put too much emphasis on what I’m about to say because even though it’s important — it’s in the Bible — it’s not nearly as important as other clear things, I think, even in these verses and elsewhere in the New Testament,” Piper said.

“The fact that Satan has some measure of authority in the air does not imply that he’s omnipresent or omniscient,” he continued, adding that “he has many unclean spirits, demons, at his disposal, and they are deployed all over the world in the air.”

Additionally, Piper shared that “the air is simply what Paul and people in his time called the space above the Earth, and they had no scientific awareness of how high the air went,” so the word “air” in the verse was “just a general statement about the sphere of our life.”

When it comes to the term “prince of the power,” Piper believes this means “ruler of authority,” saying that “Satan’s rule in the power of the air, or the lower air of the heavens, is not supreme.”

“I think ‘god of this world’ and ‘ruler of the authority of the air’ are virtually interchangeable terms, with the world being the sphere in which we live and the air being the sphere in which we live,” Piper continued, citing 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Overall, Piper believes that “Satan is a spirit who is invisible like air, not like flesh and blood,” and “there’s no place to go while we breathe air where the flaming arrows of Satan will not fly through the air at us” and “any place we go where there’s air, Heaven, sky, space, we will need to wear the armor of God.”

“Christ is exalted as King to the highest Heaven, above all rule and authority. The prince of the power of the air is not sovereign. He is on a leash,” he said.

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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.