“Satan rules over hell and torments the wicked there.”
Scripture never describes Satan as ruling hell. It describes him as being cast into the lake of fire and tormented there himself, along with all who follow him. He is a prisoner in that place, not its warden.
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. — Revelation 20:10
Dante and Milton have shaped the popular imagination here far more than John did. The image of a horned figure presiding over an underworld kingdom is centuries of literature and painting layered over a text that says something quite different. Revelation records that the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. He is on the receiving end. Jesus called that place prepared for the devil and his angels, which is the language of a sentence being served, not a domain being governed. Scripture does grant Satan real present authority, calling him the prince of the power of the air and the god of this world, and that is precisely where the danger lies now. But his end is fixed, and it is not a coronation.
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