So here’s the inconvenient truth about selling your soul to the devil: the TL;DR answer is you can’t.
Fear not. I’m going to provide context, background, and scripture, to support this claim.
The History
You can not sell, offer, or freely givaway what doesn’t belong to you. Even if we leave the Bible out the picture, one can simply view how a human enters this world and leaves upon death. We arrive empty handed and that’s exactly how we’re going to make our exit.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 states the following: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” KJV
There’s no shortage of online content of celebrities not just proclaiming, but embracing the selling of their souls to the devil.
Christians know that Lucifer is a deceiver and a manipulator, yet there are people who believe he is the unsung hero. Despite a misguided loyalty from the lost, the Devil has a perceived purchasing power but realistically possesses none. A game of spiritual retail is played akin to watching little children play store in their parent’s backyard selling and buying invisible items.
If you want a deep dive into the Devil’s authority here on earth, watch my analysis titled, “Is Lucifer Omnipotent, Omnipresence, and Omnipotent.”
Definition & Origin of Selling Your Soul
The concept of selling your soul, or, synonymously put, “making a deal with the devil,” biblically calls back to Satan unsuccessfully tempting the Lord Jesus with the world’s wealth in exchange for your worship and devotion.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Matthew 4:8-11 (KJV)
The Lord Jesus Christ had to use the Word to resist the tempter because the Lord Jesus in his fleshly state had to be over-powered.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Romans 7:21-23 (KJV)
God completely understands how humans wrestle against the flesh because in His unity through His Son, He was able to experience it firsthand, humbling Himself as the Almighty to take on corruptible human flesh.
In the scenario with Jesus Christ and the tempter, we see that it wasn’t a matter of soul forfeiture but more of a submission of wills and dominion authority. As I earnestly pray, you’ll learn throughout this article that the devil only tricks people into giving up what is already theirs to him.
Through this analysis, you begin to grasp the reality of Jesus Christ’s existence and the authority he has on earth today, which makes the death, burial, and resurrection gospel practical for you.
Pacts with the Devil, Selling Your Soul in Literature and Media
In the literary world, we can refer back to the 1588 play of Doctor Faustus who sells his soul to the devil for 24 years of an easy life.
Another classic about a pact with Satan is the 1937 novella The Devil and Daniel Webster. Jabez Stone, a poor farmer, sells his soul to the devil in exchange for prosperity and enlists the help of famous lawyer Daniel Webster to represent him in a trial against the devil.
However, what we see popularized through our entertainment media and culture is a promotion that one’s soul can be submitted to forces of darkness in exchange for the material glories of earth.
Majority of people today and within the past century have more than likely been exposed to the notion of selling your soul through entertainment.
In the Simpson’s Halloween episode, “Treehouse of Horror IV” (and you know how much we can trust the Simpsons), in exchange for baked delicacies, Homer signs his soul over to “the devil.” However, this becomes a bum deal when Marge later intervenes claiming that Homer pledged his soul to her on their wedding night which logically prevents Ned Flanders the devil from capitalizing on the deal.
Now, despite many of our suspicions about the Simpsons and their subtle predictions about already occurred and future world events, there is actually a nod to God in Marge’s claim, whether on purpose or indirectly, about who truly owns the soul. We will explore that later in the video.
This belief is also erroneously supported by scripture where it states the devil is the God of this world:
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (KJV)
This scripture has been popularly misinterpreted by believers and non-believers alike.
Believers are probably the most offensive as oftentimes you’ll hear, “Don’t bother doing anything in this world. Satan runs it.” speaking as if God is powerless.
If you watch my video or read my essay on Lucifer’s three O’s, I debunk whatever rule he has, period.
Everything belongs to the Lord: mind, body, and spirit.
Christians act as though Psalm 24 doesn’t exists:
1 [[A Psalm of David.]] The earth [is] the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
Psalms 24:1-3 (KJV)
That last verse in that Psalm, I believe is a taunt to Satan’s mission statement in Isaiah 14:12
“I will ascend into heaven, I will be like the most High!”
When you’re selling your soul, you’re only saying that you’re relinquishing your free will to the powers of darkness or you are saying, “I agree to allow the powers of darkness to usurp my authority.” Use me devil.
In examining Job, God did allow Satan to strip Job of his belongings. But what people don’t speak on is God waiting on us to see if on this day we will choose Him or death despite if calamity is happening in our lives.
Evil will always strive to run rampant, but those who seek the Lord to execute His will will stop it dead in its tracks.
Timothy Alberino, a researcher and Biblical scholar most known for helming Gen6 Productions with Stephen Quayle, appeared on a 2021 episode titled “Aliens and Angels” on the Blurry Creatures podcast.
His explanation is perfect and one of the only explanations I have ever heard accurately addressing the whole Satan is the god of this world.
Make no mistake about it. Neither the devil nor his angels or any other entity besides a hybrid, has ever occupied a human throne.
Well people say, ‘The devil’s the god of this world.”
He’s the god of the world in the sense of the whole world is under his influence. And when people think about the devil being the god of this world, people have to remember that those words written during the height of the roman empire.
The patron deity of Rome was Jupiter. The Ceasar’s of Rome were considered to be the subjects of Jupiter, even the offspring of Jupiter. And they [the Romans] sacrificed to Jupiter. And before them, the Greeks to Zeus.
This is an aspect of the dragon, Satan. So they were abnecating their authority to the dragon. And so the dragon and his angels wield proximal authority in the earth. They rule from behind the thrones of man.
There is no president or prime minister today who is not a human being. And these people are not just puppets of the devil. These people are subject to their own carnality and the devil takes advantage of our carnality because when we subject ourselves to carnal desires of the flesh, we are rejecting the Spirit of God, and we then become willing pawns of the devil’s game.
We’re easily manipulated because we have subjected ourselves to our own carnal desires. And that’s why the devil and his angels entice the world today with sin and to rebel against God because we become puddy in the devil’s hands. We are then easily manipulated becoming willing pawns, even perhaps unwitting willing pawns, in the devil’s game.
This is how authority works on the earth.
So the devil does not rule this earth. This earth was never given to Satan and this is important to understand for the conclusion of where all this is heading.
The devil does not govern the Earth, he is not the king of the Earth, or does not have dominion on the Earth.
We [humans] do.
And guess what? To some degree, he is subject to our dominion because we don’t give him authority if we don’t abnegate our authority to him. A righteous king that God raises up in Israel, who is like David, who is a man after his own heart, who governs according to the kingdom or heaven and gives no place to the devil, therefore has no authority in Israel or in the governance of David.
Until…that king or potentate is enticed to sin against God.
And to give into some kind of carnal vice, and it’s at that point that the devil begins to exert authority through his human proxies. This is how the authority of the dragon operates on Earth. We need to disabuse ourselves of the notion that Satan is the ruler of the Earth or the King of the Earth.
No he is not.
He is subject to our authority. And when I say our authority, I’m not just talking about the authority of Christians. I’m talking about the authority of mankind. The sons and daughters of Adam.
Despite fetal deletion arguments and the proclamation of my body, my choice, the flesh that we exist is not ours to own.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 it states the following:
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Majority of fetal extermination are elective because of humanities formication problems and sex being promoted as an empowerment tool.
It’s devilish to alter the names of behaviors to make them an acceptable societal norm.
Rather than prostitution, it’s now sex work. Change the vocabulary and you control the narrative.
This is to pacify and callous our own spiritual attitude towards sin so we are able to continue in the behavior longer deceived from the unseen consequences these actions have over time.
Paganism is no longer known as paganism, but pop culture. This clever disguise causes witchcraft and pagan beliefs to go unnoticed it because these things have been externalized and distilled through politics and entertainment.
Your Soul? Note for Sale
The Lord Jesus tells us in scripture “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 (KJV)
Matthew 10:28 lays out how God has clear authority and rights to the ownership of our spiritual fate.
Because of pop culture depictions of Lucifer being the ruler of hell and possessing a lair in the fiery depths, societal expectations are God and the devil are on equal footing.
If this analysis contained no other information to support this argument, this scripture alone defeats the belief of humans having the marketability to place their spirit on the black market.
But here’s truth of the matter: When you don’t confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, your soul is already sold to eternal iniquity.
King David in Psalms describes our spiritual condition since birth.
Psalms 51:5 (KJV) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Late Bible scholar and researcher Rob Skiba humorously described the salvation process akin to a “hotel reservation.”
Your name is in the system: all you need to do is check in by way of confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in your heart he was raised from the dead.
If you are one to reject the free gift of God which is eternal life in Jesus Christ, then by default your eternity has already been decided.
Again one would have to take scripture into account looking at how God views sin and the condition of a human today from the time of birth.
In the End Times, the Lord is ALWAYS making provisions for those who choose Him, only sparing those who having chosen to reject Him for a time until His mercy is fulfilled.
In Revelation 7:1-3 (KJV), we see the angels of the four corners whom are responsible for releasing the terrors onto the earth be instructed not to do so for the sake of the elect.
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
If you are a non-believer thinking that you are getting away with sin, think again. Do not take the Lord’s mercies for granted. There are people serious about the Lord’s business and He will never forsake the righteous nor have His seed begging for bread.
Us in our sinful condition cannot be around God. He is an all-consuming fire with our sins being as filthy rags unto Him.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. – 1 Corinthians 15:50
Rather than your literal spirit being given to the Devil, it is instead foreclosed on to the Lake of Fire which is meant for the Satan and the apostate angels.
You’re not in control enough to ever sell your soul. What you’re selling is your free will in exchange for earthly material — human dominion for forbidden knowledge and hedonistic pleasures.
I can only encourage you as the reader to fight the good fight daily. The sleazy salesman will always be there whispering, “My offer still stands,” but there’s only one honest businessman knocking at the door offering a gift that comes without a financial price and cannot decay like rust of moth.
It’s the only choice we all have.
