Question: When or how did the devil come into existence? Did he always exist as does God, or did God create him? Also, will you please explain Isaiah 45:5-7?
Answer: This question of the devil’s origin often comes up and seems to never be resolved conclusively in people’s minds. This is possibly due to the fact that there is no direct scripture stating when and how he came into existence; also the widespread teaching in Christendom today is that he was once a bright angel in heaven whose name was Lucifer and he became exalted and lifted up with pride and through jealousy and envy started a rebellion in heaven in which he was the loser and was cast out of heaven and came down to earth. All of this doctrine is based on a misunderstanding and wrong conception of certain scriptures. If the questioner in this case will purchase the booklet Was the Devil Ever in Heaven? from Faith Publishing House, P. O. Box 518, Guthrie, OK 73044, it gives a concise treatise on all those scriptures.
I, personally, cannot conceive of a holy God creating an unholy devil. That runs averse and contrary to the principles of truth set forth in the Holy Scriptures. Also, the idea of jealousy and pride ever getting into heaven and producing a rebellion and war up there is entirely foreign, to my thinking. If it were so, how could we have any assurance or find comfort in our hope in Christ of eternal peace, happiness, joy and security, which are the things that prove an anchor to our souls in our times of temptations, trials and sufferings in this world? If such a thing ever, at any time, got into heaven, could we have any definite assurance that it could not happen again?
As to the idea of God creating the devil, I will refer the reader to a few scriptures which in my mind present an impossibility of this ever having happened. Jesus said in His sermon on the mount, in Matthew 7:16-18, Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. In James 3:11-12 we read, Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Again we read in Job 14:4, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? no one. All the foregoing scriptures are saying the same thing; viz., that an infinitely holy God could not possibly have created an infinitely unholy devil, and all scriptures bearing on this subject confirm this. Again in Genesis 1:31 we read, And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good….
Could it be then that God created the devil a holy and righteous being and he fell from that into a degenerate, corrupt and vile being afterward? For the following reasons, I hardly think so. Jesus said to certain of the Jews of His day who were disputing with Him (John 8:44), Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. In I John 3:8 we read, He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning…. We see, then, that he was a murderer, a liar, and a sinner from the beginning. He started out that way and has never changed. In regard to the beginning we read in Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. That is as far back as we can go with any degree of certainty. Everything before that is purely speculation. I would advise you not to try to delve into that. Now if that is the devil s beginning or if he existed back before that point in time is really not important. This is the first time he appears on the scene of action. He used the serpent to seduce Eve and through her, subsequently, to seduce Adam, and from there started the corrupt stream of sin in all its categories; all the misery, ruined lives, all sickness, grief, sorrow and trouble that the world knows or ever has known. So he was an evil being, a murderer, liar and sinner, at the time of beginning that we know anything about.
Now in concluding this part of the discussion, I would admonish every reader that you not waste time trying to figure out where the devil came from nor how he got here, but rather recognize that he is here now in very real form and just settle it in your hearts to steadfastly resist him in the faith and give no place to the devil lest he gain some advantage of you and seduce you, too.
Now a few thoughts and scriptures on Isaiah 45:7, …I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” Evil has a meaning of moral evil (sin). But we could never think of a holy God ever producing or creating that. He gave His only Begotten Son, Jesus, to save us from that, so we could never rationally, reasonably think of Him creating that. But there is another meaning to evil such as famine, pestilence, war, and various kinds of calamities which God at various times has used to bring judgment upon people (even His own) because of their sins and injustices, etc., to punish them and bring them back in line with Him. In II Chronicles 20:9 Jehoshaphat prayed, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. In I Kings 8:33-34 Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple, When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. This is one of the things which Jehoshaphat prayed for and classified as evil. God decreed the overthrow of Nineveh for their wickedness and sent Jonah to pronounce judgment on them. He did not want to go on that mission so went the other way. After Jonah had spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish which God had prepared for that purpose, he decided to go, and he did go to Nineveh and began to announce in their streets the message, …Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. (Jonah 3:4.) The result was astounding! All the Ninevites, from the king on down, turned from their evil ways and repented and called mightily on God, and God saw and heard their repentance and turned from His purpose and spared them. Jonah 3:10 says, …And God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. The evil, in this case, was the destruction of the city of Nineveh by whatever means God chose.
Job referred to all his trouble and grief the loss of all his animals, children, and his physical affliction, etc. as evil. In Job 2:10 he said to his wife, …What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?…
There are numbers of other scriptures on this line, but I will go no further with it now. These are the kinds of evil God creates and uses for His purpose in chastising nations, cities, individuals, etc., for their sins, and to correct those wandering off-course from the straight and narrow way. But never moral evil. God forbid.
