The idea to research how many times the word Satan appears in scripture came when I was thinking about plain and precious truths. If you are wondering how Satan and plain and precious can coexist in the same sentence, this is the connection. Nephi explains in 1 Nephi 13:26-28 how plain and precious truths were taken away from the Bible. Taken away implies intentionally removing. Years ago, I realized the word plan is not found in the Old or New Testaments. Can you imagine that Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation, mercy, redemption, deliverance from death, restoration, and happiness goes unnamed in the Bible? Thankfully, the Book of Mormon restores this vital truth.

As I was looking up plan in the Book of Mormon, I was surprised to find that approximately one quarter of the times plan is used, Satan’s strategies to thwart Heavenly Father’s plan is exposed. This awareness of Satan can alert and arm readers to prepare for temptations.

2 Nephi 9:28: O that cunning plan of the evil one!

Alma 10:18: Ye are laying plans to pervert the ways of the righteous, and to bring down the wrath of God upon your heads, even to the utter destruction of this people.

Alma 12:4: And thou seest that we know that thy plan was a very subtle plan, as to the subtlety of the devil, for to lie and to deceive this people.

Helaman 6:30: And behold, it is he who is the author of all sin. And behold, he doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness.

Ether 10:33: In the days of Com there began to be robbers in the land; and they adopted the old plans, and administered oaths after the manner of the ancients, and sought again to destroy the kingdom.

Satan is found 26 times in Book of Mormon’s 239 chapters, devil 99 times, and Lucifer once. Satan’s methods and the consequences that result from choosing to follow him are seen in the lives of evil men such as Ammoron: the unprincipled Nephite traitor; Giddianhi: the prideful chief of the Gadianton robbers; Korihor: the antichrist who demanded a sign from Alma; Sherem: who used flattery and the power of the devil to confuse the doctrine of Christ; and Nehor: who practiced priestcraft and killed righteous Gideon.

The Book of Mormon also shows how to break free from Satan’s grasp. Readers vicariously experience the repentance process and see that Satan’s grasp is reversable. Consider the lives of Alma1, Alma2, Aaron, Ammon, Omner, Himni, Corianton, and King Lamoni who came to a knowledge of their Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Truly, the Book of Mormon restores life-saving information about our foremost enemy, so when “the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built…” (Helaman 5:12). Watching real men suffer under the weight of sin, helps to foreworn readers and prepare them to say no to temptation. As the saying goes, “Forewarned is forearmed,” that is “prior knowledge of possible dangers or problems gives one a tactical advantage” (https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/).

The word Satan is found 19 times in the 929 chapters of the Old Testament. Of those 19 times, 14 of them are in the book of Job, which means other than in the book of Job, Satan is found only five times in the entire Old Testament. Devil is not found and Lucifer is found just one time in Isaiah 14:12. This seems to be a purposeful purging of Satan, devil, and Lucifer. Even though the Old Testament drips with wickedness, the father of evil, the instigator, is not identified by name. The Old Testament has nearly been wiped clean of Satan, allowing him to deceive and tempt undercover. Nephi was correct—plain and precious [crucial] truth has gone missing from the Old Testament.

It is good that Satan’s methods are disclosed in the New Testament: Satan and devil are found in the New Testament’s 280 chapters, 36 and 61 times respectively. In the 138 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, Satan is found 35 times, devil 26 times, and Lucifer 1 time. In the 16 chapters of the Pearl of Great Price, Satan is found 34 times and devil 2 times.

Totaling up, in the Bible’s 783,137 words, Satan/devil are found 116 times.

Of the 406,120 words in Restoration scripture (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price), Satan/devil are found 222 times.

The most concentrated information about Satan is in the book of Moses, the first book in the Pearl of Great Price. In Moses’ eight chapters, Satan is found 33 of the 34 times in the Pearl of Great Price.

In Moses 1, Satan tempts Moses to worship him. He claims to be the Only Begotten. Since Moses knows what it is like to be in the presence of Deity, he feels the absence of light when Satan comes.

This is how the conversation went:

Moses: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve. Deceive me not. Depart hence, Satan.

Satan [crying and ranting]: I am the Only Begotten, worship me.

Moses [praying for strength]: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory.

Satan: [Trembles but doesn’t’ leave.]

Moses [praying]: In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence, Satan.

“And it came to pass that Satan cried with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; and he departed hence, even from the presence of Moses” (Moses 1:22).

In Moses 4, God teaches Moses about Satan’s behavior in premortal life and refers to Satan as “that Satan,” which may indicate that Satan is a title. God tells Moses that Satan had the audacity to ask Him for his honor, which shows Satan’s misunderstanding of who God is and why He is God. God tells Moses what Satan said: “That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor” (Moses 4:1). Satan’s egotism is obvious. He uses “I” four times and “me” one time. This is his pattern. Isaiah quotes Lucifer as saying: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation…. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). He is the father of narcissism.

By asking for God’s honor, Satan doesn’t comprehend who God is. “And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all” (Abraham 3:18-19).

He doesn’t realize the source of God’s power. “The devil rebelled against me saying, give me thine honor, which is my power” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:36). Heavenly Father’s absolute honor is His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence—his power. That is why He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, why He varies not, why He is unchangeable, why the Psalmist would say “He watching over Israel neither slumbers or sleeps (see Psalm 121:4).

By asking for God’s honor, Satan has missed the obvious fact that honor is not transferrable. No character trait, righteous or wicked, can be assigned, usurped, or moved to someone else. Every person carries full responsibility for what he/she does with the rights and responsibilities of agency. (Exceptions may be severe mental illness or low intelligence.)

Satan’s résumé includes:

He lies and deceives (Alma 12:4).
He blinds and takes men captive (Moses 4:4).
He has sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:8).
He can transform himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
He laid “a cunning plan, [to] destroy this work” (D&C 10:12).
He is “the father of contention” (3 Nephi 11:29).
He “thinketh to overpower your testimony” (D&C 10:33).

As Alma explained to Zeezrom: “And behold I say unto you all that this was a snare of the adversary, which he has laid to catch this people, that he might bring you into subjection unto him, that he might encircle you about with his chains, that he might chain you down to everlasting destruction, according to the power of his captivity” (Alma 12:6).

Satan’s destiny includes:

  • Satan, that old serpent, shall be bound at the beginning of the Millennium (see Revelation 12:9, Revelation 20:1–3).
  • When Satan is bound, Isaiah said he will be “brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” and people will be able to look into the pit. “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners” (Isaiah 14:13-19)?
  • After a thousand years at the end of the Millennium, he will be loosed and gather together his armies; even the hosts of hell, and shall come up to battle against Michael and his armies. (Michael, the seventh angel, even the archangel, shall gather together his armies, even the hosts of heaven.) And then cometh the battle of the great God; and the devil and his armies shall be cast away into their own place, that they shall not have power over the saints any more at all” (D&C 88:111-115, Revelation 20:1-3).

The demarcation of the two ways—dark and light, misery and happiness, captivity and freedom, evil [devil] and good [God] is clearly manifest in Satan’s and Heavenly Father’s opposite purposes:

  • Satan’s purpose: “To destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3).
    Flee him, or command him to depart like Moses did.
  • Heavenly Father’s purpose: “To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
    Choose Him. Serve Him.