Did God Create the Devil?

Here's a question for us!

Did God create the devil?

I mean, if God is good, and everything He does is good; and if God  created everything, did He create the devil? And how could that be good?

These are very good questions!! And I'm going to share some answers in this post. (The content comes from chapter 2 in my book, Spiritual Warfare for Your Family published by Baker Books and available anywhere books are sold.)

The answer to our question, "Did God create the devil?" is found in Isaiah 54:16, 

"It is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc." 

Yes, according to Scripture (which I, and most of my readers, choose to accept as authoritative truth in our lives), God created the devil.

But just because God created the devil doesn't mean that He created evil. Satan chose that for himself. The reason some people have an issue with God creating the devil is that they can't reconcile the creation of evil with the holiness of God. So hear this clearly...

God did not create evil.

God created heavenly beings to live in His presence and serve as His army. He generously gave them the same free will that He gave mankind. They choose to serve God gladly. At least 2/3rd of them do, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here's what I shared in chapter 2 of my book, "Consider my children. Did I create my daughters and my son? My husband and I conceived them. I carried them to full term and gave birth to each one. Without us, Mikel, Kaleigh and TJ wouldn't be here. We reared them. But are we responsible for the choices they are making now?"  

 The fact that God created the devil encourages me.

While spiritual warfare is the struggle between God and Satan, it isn't a desperate struggle between two equal but opposing forces. There's never a moment in time God is concerned that Satan might defeat Him, that he might get the upper hand, or that Satan might topple God from His throne.

God is the Creator of the Universe.

Satan is a created being.

God is head over all authority, power, dominion, and title that can be given (Ephesians 1:20-23). God rules over all of creation from the tiniest microbe to the most powerful spiritual forces. He is the microscopic God and the macrocosmic God.

Satan is the most powerful ruler of evil spiritual forces. Heas limited jurisdiction as he roams the earth. He is not equal to God in power, rule, or authority. Satan is subject to God, and his destiny has already been determined. (Read Revelation 19 and 20 to learn more about what happens to the devil in the end.) 

God created Lucifer (a heavenly name for Satan) as an archangel in heaven. He was equal in power and either equal to, or perhaps one step above the position of the other archangels who still lead the heavenly host. Lucifer exercised his own free will and chose to rebel against heaven's glory.

When he rebelled, a third of heaven's angels rebelled with him. Most likely these were the angels who served under Lucifer's God-given authority. Their loyalty to Lucifer was apparently greater than their loyalty to God. Today these former angels are demons. Like Satan, demons are spiritual beings with supernatural power equal to that of the angels.

Lucifer allowed pride to compel him to rise up against God. (See Isaiah 14:12-15). He was soundly defeated in that revolt, Revelation 12 speaks of the heavenly defeat of the "dragon" and his demons.

This uprising and subsequent defeat of Lucifer and a third of heaven's armies happened somewhere either before Genesis 1:1 or between Genesis 1:1 and 3:1, when Satan, in the form of the serpent, appeared on the earth to Eve and Adam.

Spiritual warfare became personal to us when Eve chose to listen to the serpent and she and Adam traded their lives of perfect communion with God, for lives of self-rule and slavery to sin. When Adam and Eve made this transaction from God-rule to self-rule, the spiritual order that God had ordained "in the beginning" was destroyed. In fact, Satan's first attack was on the family. Eve offered Adam the fruit, and Adam blamed Eve when God asked him to give an account of his sin. Trust and innocence were lost. They were replaced by fear, self-consciousness, blame and shame." 

How could the existence of evil (that the Devil creates) be good?

You might be wanting to say to me; "But still, if God created the devil--and knew he was going to be bad; couldn't God have simply not created him?" 

He could have. But then again we bump up against the good creation of the freedom God gives His created beings to choose for themselves Whom they will serve.

And although evil is bad; freedom is good.

God gave spiritual and human beings the freedom of choice because He is good.

And when there is freedom of choice, people and angels are going to make poor choices. And although the repercussions of those bad decisions are going to play out; as terrible as it is, the good response is NOT to take away freedom to choose.

Evil and wickedness is a result of us exercising our own free will to choose to rule ourselves rather than be ruled by God. 

Don't try to make sense of God with your limited, earth-centered mind.

Many people simply can't believe in God because of the evil in the world today. Their hiccup is that they've taken their understanding of the sovereign power of God and applied it to their own reasoning.

"If I were God, I would..."

"How can you trust a God who would..."

"I simply can't believe in a God who would..."

Most people don't understand this disconnect, but it happened in the Garden of Eden! When Satan questioned God's motives and convinced Eve, and then Eve convinced Adam, to live life on their own terms rather than God's.

All the suffering we experience in this world is a result of either our own--or others, decision to live life on our own terms in rebellion against the rule and reign of God.

It's ironic really, that people blame God for evil rather than take personal responsibility for the choices they make. (And, that is ironic that I said that right here because I wrote another book by that same title! Taking Responsibility for the Choices We Make is published by DaySpring and available where ever books are sold.)

In our distorted thinking we've misunderstood true freedom. Freedom is certainly the ability to choose for ourselves Whom we will serve; but real freedom is coming to a place in our lives where we genuinely understand how much God loves us and we humbly accept the love He offers. Then we determine to live in relationship with Him inside the parameters He creates for our lives.

God did create the devil.

God is still good.

And He answered the question of evil when He sent His own Son, Jesus--who lived a sinless life and then surrendered Himself to hell's fury and heaven's wrath when He died on the cross. 

God demonstrated His ultimate power over sin, death and the grave when Jesus resurrected from the dead to live forevermore. He's as alive and well in the world today as He has ever been. And many of us follow hard after Him because we've found true freedom in Christ.