1-8 The Devil and Evil

One important question that people often ask themselves is: If God is so good as many claim, where does all the evil in the world come from? Grossly simplified we will try to summarise our answer in the following way. The Bible claims that all evil originates from the Devil. He was originally one of Gods most prominent Angels. But he became proud of his power and beauty and rebelled against God by:

wanting to make himself god. He did this by, amongst other things, asserting a completely new lifestyle. He began to be concerned primarily with himself rather than with the good of others and by questioning the character of God, among other things by claiming that God was unreliable, a betrayer.

When the Devil in this way, through selfishness, broke with God he became evil, just as a green leaf withers when it is separated from the tree.

Now the Devil attempts, with the craftiness of a Serpent, to trick us humans into joining the rebellion against God. So far he has been so successful, that the Serpent has become a boastful Dragon. Towards us Christians he appears as a roaring Lion, since we have sided with God in the fight against him. It is also the Devil who, through his evil spirits, inspires us to think evil thoughts and to do downright evil things to one another. The devil is probably most dangerous when he appears disguised as an Angel of Light. In this guise he can sometimes even trick Christians into following his advice rather than that of God.

As long as we do not accept the biblical explanation as to the origins of evil and start to act according to the advice offered, evil will remain a mystery, and we will remain helpless victims trapped behind yet another wall.