What the Scriptures Teach

Human philosophy and theology have not offered a better explanation of the origin of evil than that given in the Bible.  What the Scriptures say about Satan is fundamental to understanding the origin of evil and of human suffering, as well as why the worst imaginable violence gets worse each year.  

Some may ask: 'If God is the good and loving Creator, how could he create a wicked spirit creature like Satan?'  The Bible lays  down the principle that all of Jehovah God's works are perfect and that all of his intelligent creatures are endowed with free will.  (Deuteronomy  30:19; 32:4; Joshua 24:15; 1 Kings 18:21) The spirit person who became Satan must, therefore, have been created perfect and must have deviated  from the way of truth and righteousness by deliberate  choice.  (note: no must to it, he did deviate from the way of truth and righteousness by deliberate choice.) -John 8:44; James 1:14, 15. 

In many ways, Satan's rebellious course parallels that of "the king of Tyre," who was described  poetically as "perfect in beauty" and 'faultless in his ways from the day of his being created until unrighteousness was found in him.'  (Ezekiel 28:11-19)  Satan did not contest Jehovah's supremacy or his Creator ship.  How could  he, since he had been created by God?  Satan did, however,m challenge the way Jehovah was exercising his sovereignty.  In the garden of Eden, Satan insinuated that God was depriving the first human couple of something to which they had a right and upon which their well-being depended.  (Genesis 3:1-5) He succeeded in causing Adam and Even to rebel against Jehovah's righteous sovereignty, bringing sin and death upon them and their descendants.  (Genesis 3:6-19; Romans 5:12)  Thus the Bible shows that Satan is the root cause of human suffering.

Sometime before the Flood, other angels joined Satan in his rebellion.  They materialized in human bodies to satisfy their cravings for sexual pleasures with the daughters of men.  (Genesis 6:1-4) At the Flood, these renegade angels returned to the spirit  realm but not  to their "original position" with God in heaven.  (Jude^)  They were abased  to a condition of dense spiritual darkness.  (1 Peter 3:19, 20; 2 Peter 2:4) They became demons, no longer serving under Jehovah's sovereignty but living in subjection to Satan.  While apparently unable to materialize again, the demons can still exercise great power over the minds and lives of humans, and they are doubtless responsible for much of the violence we are witnessing today. -Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 8:27-33. 

Next time: The End of Satan's Rule Is Near

From the Watchtower magazine, 2002