Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub as the Broken Image of the Trinity: The Devil Admits to a Split Personality during Exorcism

Have you been listening to Fr. Chad Ripperger? He is the founder of the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother, called the Doloran Fathers, located primarily in the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado. 

More to the point, he's also a very experienced exorcist priest and frequent subject of interviews. Amazing interviews. 

Fr. Ripperger was recently interviewed by Chris Stefanick and described some of his experiences exorcising the devil, himself, as well as Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub. 

Fr. Ripperger shared a number of items that have been revealed to him through exorcisms. He also said there are a number of items that he has not yet received permission from his Archbishop to reveal publicly. It was all fascinating.

You need -- everybody needs -- to hear what he said. 

Read below for the highlights ...    

Heads up! Before reading about angels and demons, it's always good to ask for St. Michael the Archangel's protection. Let us pray, Oremus ...

So, if you want to know about angels and demons, what resources can you trust? 

There are some ancient Jewish texts that provide some background, but this is dangerous territory. What you study might study you back. 

For my safety and yours, I rely on exorcist priests and the saints for my information. There are some amazing exorcist priests you can listen to, including Fathers Chad Ripperger, Vincent Lampert, and Carlos Martins. Listening to them, plus a healthy diet of the Sacraments, should keep you safe in this subject. 

I have also authored a book on this subject, available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. The narrator for the audiobook is particularly good. His name is Alan Turton; he's a retired BBC announcer; and his voice is captivating.  

Fr. Chad Ripperger's Descriptions of the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub 

Fr. Ripperger has dealt with all of these guys: the devil, Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub. He describes how they all manifest in unique ways. 

How do Beelzebub and Lucifer manifest? Here is what Fr. Ripperger says:

The interesting thing, though, is that they manifest very differently ... When you get to Beelzebub he manifests in a very distinctive way in every case I've ever had him. Lucifer, on the other hand, will never manifest the same way in any case I've ever seen him, and I've seen him in about four or five cases. 

How does Satan, the Father of Lies, manifest? 

I've dealt with Satan he always manifests the same way ... there's kind of a severity and it's actually somewhat nondescript. He's the Father of Lies, so the way you primarily discern him is he just lies [about] everything. Even when it would go better for him, he's still gonna lie. He's that wed to lying.

There is something in the nature, or at least the personality, of Satan that cannot stop lying.

This is not foreign to human nature. As St. Paul says, "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15).

Of course, Satan does not hate lies. This brings up an important point ...

Can we really trust what Satan, the Father of Lies, says during an exorcism?

See below ...

Fr. Chad Ripperger's Full Interview with Chris Stefanik

This entire series of interviews is full of great insights. This is just Part 5! 

Can We Really Trust What Satan, the Father of Lies, says during an Exorcism?  

Important Note: Exorcist priests, like Fr. Ripperger, are not just being curious. In all these questions, Fr. Ripperger isn't just asking demons about the mysteries of the universe, treating them like oracles. That would be extremely dangerous and insanely stupid. There is always a point to these questions, to their interrogations. What is that point? To find the demons' weaknesses, to attack them, to dislodge them. It is extremely useful in an exorcism to know what a demon hates, what hurts and terrifies them. This will become the most powerful tool of the exorcist.  

This bit of background also answers the question: Can we trust what Satan says during an exorcism? Similarly, can we trust intel received in an interrogation?   

The information that the exorcists extract from demons is extracted. It's taken against the demons' wills. It is then used against them. 

This information is also often filtered through divine inspiration. It's often the Holy Spirit that leads the exorcists to this information. 

Because of this, it is trustworthy. But context is definitely important.  

Back to Fr. Ripperger's experiences ...

The Devil, Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub -- Are These All the Same Person?

The Gospels actually tell us that Beelzebub and Satan are the same person. Fr. Ripperger explains:

Beelzebub which is also another name for Satan. They're actually three ... We actually see that in scripture because they tell Christ, "we think you're casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub." Then [Jesus] just turns and says, "how can Satan cast out Satan?"

Fr. Ripperger goes on to say that it's not just Satan and Beelzebub. This one demon has even more names:

So [Jesus] is revealing to us that these are actually the same guy. The Fathers of Church all say they're the same guy. They also say that Lucifer is the same guy, so Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub -- all the same guy." 

So the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub -- these are "all the same guy," according to Fr. Ripperger. 

The Mystery of the Devil's Various Names

But how can all these identities exist within the same person? And why? That's the mystery: 

I had known two things from my research and studies. One is that exorcists say [Satan, Beelzebub, and Lucifer] manifest differently, and so they actually thought they were different demons. But the Fathers of the Church are very clear, "oh, no, no, he's the same guy." So how does this work? 

With the help of the Holy Spirit, however, Fr. Ripperger was able to beat out of the devil an answer to this riddle.    

Here's his description of how this admission took place:

Basically, the way it came out ... At a certain point during the session, God commanded him to tell me something. And out of the blue, [Beelzebub] just looks at me, and he says I'm the inversion of the Holy Ghost. And then boom, he checks out, and I couldn't get him back to the surface. I'm like what does that even mean? 

The devil then agrees that Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Satan are all the same guy, just three expressions of the same person.

But Fr. Ripperger is still at a loss for what this means. That's to be expected, of course, when your information is being tainted by evil. Riddles lead to more riddles, mysteries to deeper mysteries ... like a J. J. Abrams movie. 

The Inversion of the Trinity? The Unholy Trinity?

But Our Lady helped Fr. Ripperger sort it all out:    

So I started asking Our Lady of Sorrows, "What am I seeing?" And then it just clicked. I think she gave me the grace. So in the next session, I refer to [Beelzebub] him as the Third Personality of Satan. All of a sudden, boom. He just stopped. He was stunned. It was kind of one of those Hollywood-couldn't-produce kind of expressions. Yeah, he was stunned. Fearful. Okay, now the gloves are coming off. You know, the whole bit. This changed the whole complexion of things. 

This led to the answer to all the riddles. The truth at the bottom of all the confusion of personalities: 

And I said, "Was the trifurcation of your personality the punishment for wanting to be God?" And he wouldn't answer ... later he said, "Yes, it was." ... Basically, God split [the devil's] personality as a punishment." 

Let's break this down ...

The devil originally presented his punishment, true to form, in the most absurdly arrogant of ways. Beelzebub described himself as the "inversion of the Holy Spirit." 

So the various personalities of the devil would have us believe that they are the dark version of the Holy Trinity, i.e. the unholy trinity. 

This is not so. Reality is infinitely more pitiful than this distortion. God broke the devil into three pieces. The devil is a trinity only in the most superficial understanding of the term.   

Ironic that the most iconic movie about split personalities, The Three Faces of Eve (1957) starring Joanne Woodward, would be named for an acquaintance of the devil ... but I digress 

The Three Personalities of the Devil: The Three Faces of Eve?

The remaining pieces of the puzzle then fell into place. Fr. Ripperger then asked, "Is Lucifer the second personality of Satan, the inversion of Christ, who is light from light, because Lucifer means 'light bearer.' He said 'Yes.'" 

And again. Fr. Ripperger asked if the First Personality of Satan is an inversion of God, the Father:

Satan is the inversion of the First Personality, because Satan is called 'the father of lies'? His inversion of father? 

Is this all a new discovery? Actually, no. 

Fr. Ripperger then explains that this knowledge is actually not new. "There [were] actually cases in the past. It was just not a piece of knowledge that was passed on. It's in the literature, but you'd have to dig for it."

So, let's recap and summarize ...

Summary: The Three Personalities of the Devil

As punishment, the Devil's personality was split into three:

• Satan, the Father of Lies, is the inversion of God the Father;
• Lucifer, the "light-bearer," is the inversion of God the Son, Who is the "Light of the World;" and
• Beelzebub, "lord of the flies," is the inversion of God the Holy Spirit, Who is often depicted as winged or a dove.  

I doubt that the king of chaos and disorder wants us to know how well God ordered these inversions, much less how small the devil became. This smallness is seen in the difference between Beelzebub's flies and the Holy Spirit dove.

Maybe it's best for us not to think about any of this. 

But I think the devil had sort of infected our language with confusion through the confusion of his various names and personalities. And now is a good moment in history to remove confusion from our nouns and pronouns.

Why did the Devil -- Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub -- Fall? 

Stay tuned ... 

I wrote an article on this that will post next week.

Also, you might be interested in learning that the serpent of Eden that tempted Adam and Eve was not actually a serpent:

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