A famous rapper has released “Satan shoes,” drawing global media attention for their shock value. The shoes—and their packaging—include Satanic symbolism, like a pentagram and the number 666, which is also the number of shoes on the market.
“This is a dangerous marketing endeavor,” Franklin Graham shared on Facebook Monday. “The morals in this country have fallen so fast, and many times the entertainment industry is leading the way.”
The shoes represent more than a rapper, a company or a record label. They point to a real being, Satan, also called the devil or Lucifer.
The Bible tells us about Satan. At the very beginning, he is identified as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, tempting Adam and Eve to do the one thing God commanded them not to do. The result brought sin, separation from God and death into the world.
Each time Satan is present in the Bible, so is wickedness, evil and deception.
It wasn’t always that way.
On the side of the Satan shoes is a Bible verse, Luke 10:18, “And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.’”
Satan used to be an angel, but rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven, along with other angels who followed him. Since then, Satan and his followers have been on a mission to destroy God’s greatest creation—humanity.
Jesus said Satan comes only to “steal, kill and destroy.” He’s even known as “the accuser.” There is nothing cool or laughable about Satan. The havoc he wreaks on the world is serious.
But no matter how much evil and chaos Satan causes, there’s no hope for him. As this spiritual war wages, we already know the outcome. The Bible says Satan is destined for hell, and he wants to draw people as far from God as possible so they can follow him there.
It’s not a place anyone would want to go.
Jesus called hell a place of “outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30). In one of His parables, Jesus told of a man who was in hell, begging for someone to come and “cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24).
Jesus, however, doesn’t want anyone to end up in hell. In fact, He made a way for us to spend eternity with Him in heaven—a place of beauty and perfection where there is no crying or death or pain.
But to be with Jesus, we must ask Him to forgive our sins and be part of our lives. Only He provides the bridge from us—imperfect sinners—to a holy God because only He paid the price for our sins when He died on a cross—then overcame death by rising again.
