Was the devil really God’s idea?

How could the thought even be entertained that the devil was God’s idea? But Colossians 1:16 states that, “All things were created by him, everything in the heavenly realm and here on earth, both the things we can see and what we can’t see, like the thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.” 

But did God make the devil a good angel to begin with, who then became evil? Not according to Jesus who said “the devil,” John 8:44, “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.” The devil didn’t start life as a good angel, he started off as “a liar and the father of lies.” That’s “his native language,” Jesus said (same verse), meaning the devil’s always been this way. And the same thing is said in 1 John 3:8, that “the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” Not a good angel who then sinned. Sinning is what the devil has always done. 

And according to Genesis 3:1, he was created that way by God, as a “serpent who was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” And who, or what, was this “serpent” God made? Revelation 20:2 says it was “the devil and Satan.” From the very beginning, then, God made the devil to be the devil.

God made him an angel, yes, and a powerful angel too, able to make “war in heaven,” Revelation 12:7, where “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon and his angels were not strong enough (8), and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (9). They were also “the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world” too, the “spiritual forces of evil,” Ephesians 6:12, who at this very moment are “at work in those who are disobedient” (2:2), “blinding the minds of unbelievers,” 2 Corinthians 4:4. 

And all this was somehow God’s idea? That in among the millions of angels he created, a whole flock of them would be led by a devil with such murderous intent they’d try to kill off the other angels, kill off the humans God created, and manage to get Jesus killed too. Which begs the question: “Why did God create such evil?”….(next blog)