The Origin of Sin
What is the Origin of Sin?
Where did It Come from? Who’s Responsible?
What is the origin of sin? That’s a question people have pondered and struggled with for thousands of years. We see sin around us and in us; where does it come from? Surely we could find the answers in the Bible. Let’s look.
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isa 45:7)
There it is! God created evil. Now we know the origin of sin. But hold on a minute! Can that possibly be true? There are many verses that are obvious contradictions to this:
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)
Those are a few verses that indicate that darkness, evil, sin are contrary to God’s character of love – a character that does not change. So what is the origin of sin, if not God? We have to look back even before the account of sin in the Garden of Eden. After all, it would have been wrong for Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to do wrong. This passage suggests where sin (iniquity) was first found:
“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. (Eze 28:14-15)
Somehow the first sinful thought originated in the mind of Lucifer (later Satan). He was next to the throne of God as a covering cherub. It seems that he may have had the highest of positions among the angels and was inflicted with pride and then ambition as this passage indicates:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” (Isa 14:12-15)
So the question is: why didn’t God at the first origin of sin just nip the problem in the bud and get rid of Lucifer the moment He sinned? There seems to be a progression from lusting after something to a full-blown sinful act to death which is the inevitable result of sin.
“Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15)
God could have dealt with sin when it was just a thought. Wouldn’t that have saved a lot of suffering and misery! God could have dealt with sin quickly before it later spread to one third of the angels (Rev 12:4) and then to planet Earth. The verse above also suggests that sin brings forth death. Most logically, that would mean the death of the sinner and scripture does say that (“… the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” – Eze 18:4). However there are lots of live sinners so obviously death is not an immediate consequence of sin. This verse – since Adam and Eve did not die the day they sinned – suggests that the process and inevitable result had set in:
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:17)
There is also the thought in scripture that they would have died immediately had not God had a plan involving a substitute who would die in their place.
At this point, now that we understand the origin of sin, it would be helpful to look more closely at what sin is to help understand why it is such a big deal. We live now on planet Earth with so much sin around us that – well, we just manage to live with it and we hardly dare to think what it would be like to live on Earth without it.
In the next page we see what sin is and what God’s options were in dealing with it. He actually had a plan before the origin of sin.
November 30, 2011 @ 12:47 pm
Where did evil come from? Who created it? Why didn’t God start the race of man all over again after the fall?
(Gaborone, Botswana)
December 1, 2011 @ 12:47 pm
Evil originated in the mind of Lucifer:
“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” (Eze 28:13-15)
God did not create evil. However, He took a risk in created intelligent beings with the capacity to love or reject Him.
Go to the page http://www.jesus-resurrection.info/origin-of-sin.html for more information on the origin of evil. That page and the next one http://www.jesus-resurrection.info/what-is-sin.html talk about God’s options in dealing with sin and why He chose to allow it to “run its course” to the point, ultimately, of self-destruction.
You don’t shoot your children when they misbehave and just start over again. The emotional and mental pain we go through in dealing with our children is an illustration (perhaps intended as such) of what God goes through in dealing with His created beings.
February 8, 2013 @ 12:07 pm
Why Create Lucifer?
I’ve been pondering this question for quite awhile now:
God has foreknowledge. That said, why would God create Lucifer, knowing that he (Lucifer) would totally defy and reject Him, and become the instigator of such vast suffering and destruction?
Please note that I said “instigator”, not “perpetrator”. Man is the perpetrator.
I have my own thoughts about this question, but I’m hoping you have something to say that might offer me some guidance, or at least offer a challenge.
Thank you for your time, and God bless you.
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
February 8, 2013 @ 2:08 pm
Satan was created and given the role of covering cherub as we are told in Ezekiel:
“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.’ (Eze 28:14)
That meant that he had a position at the throne of God, in God’s very presence. Interesting that He “walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire” (verse 14) but that is another topic.
Of course, your question goes beyond that and it is a very good question. Yes, God has foreknowledge. This verse certainly is saying that:
“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isa 46:10)
His disciples said of Jesus that He knew all things:
“Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.” (John 16:30)
“He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” (John 21:17)
We know that was not quite true. Jesus, in His incarnation, revealed that He didn’t know all things:
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matt 24:36)
But what of the Father in heaven? Doesn’t He know, as you ask, everything? I have always liked to think of God in the most extreme way – the omnis. (omnipotent – all powerful; omnipresent – present everywhere; omniscient – all knowing). Like He knows where every atom He was created has been or will be at any point in eternity. He knows every thought that will ever be thought in the future by anyone etc.
But then there is that quite legitimate question: why would He create Lucifer?
Sometimes we have to, as the saying goes, “think outside the box.” Let’s go somewhere (humbly) with this question that perhaps we are hesitant to go and see where it leads. Let me make it very clear that the object of doing this is not to try to lessen our concept of God or His greatness. God is truly great, an awesome God but we want to understand Him correctly. Perhaps as we reason this out we will find that He is truly greater than we have imagined in yet other ways.
Here is a question: what does it mean to know all things? What is a thing? A thing is anything that exists or that has occurred. It can include words, ideas in our heads, our very thoughts. It turns out that thoughts are things in a sense that even modern neuroscience is starting to be able to “see.” Brain scans reveal that our thoughts actually leave a track of physical connections in our brain. So even our thoughts are things.
But here is the next question: is the thought that hasn’t been thought yet a thing? Does God know that? If the answer is yes we are left where we started but still with that question why create Lucifer? However, if the answer is no, then we need to deal with a few issues:
* How can one predict the future (as God clearly does) without knowing everyone’s future thoughts and decisions?
* What about God’s many very-detailed predictions?
* What effect does this have on our evaluation – “How Great Thou Art”?
* And what about Lucifer?
If you know all things (that are things, that have happened) and have an IQ in the zillions it is not hard to make some very-detailed predictions. Even we can reason from cause to effect sometimes quite accurately. Also, God, having the power He does in so many ways, can work to bring things to pass according to His plan.
Here is the really knew thought, the one that can really effect our evaluation of God. If God does not know the future in every detail, the outcome of every possible situation, then He wouldn’t have known for sure that the mission of His Son to planet earth to bring about the plan of salvation would be a success.
Jesus was tempted – the Bible is clear on that. Temptation is not temptation if there is no possibility of failure, of making the wrong choice. Had Jesus sinned (its hard to even imagine the implications) the plan to save mankind would have failed. Would Satan then have had permanent control of planet earth? Would Jesus have been raised from the tomb? Would the Godhead have broken up? It’s far beyond me to understand that.
But here is where God still looks good, perhaps even better. He loves the human race, you and I, fallen, wretched mortals, so much He was willing to take the risk of eternal loss; the risk that His only-begotten Son might have failed in His mission.
Young couples take a risk when they bring children into the world. They do it out of love, they hope for a good result but always there is the risk of some genetic disease, of some severe deformity, even of the child maturing and turning out really bad, even of turning against the parents.
Jesus Himself, the Son of God, Who, with His Father, created the vast universe, was willing to take the risk of being blotted out of existence in order to undertake the rescue mission. Now that is self-sacrificing love!
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
So why create Lucifer or anyone else for that matter? God is love, selfless, agape, always-put-others-first love. He created angels and other intelligent beings so that He could bless others. I have said a number of times to our little group that meets each week: “God’s ultimate goal is to make as many people as possible as happy as possible for as long as possible.”
We ask “why so much suffering in the world?” Not to diminish that but several billion people for just a few thousand years is a pretty small part of the big picture. Even science now is telling us that there are possibly a hundred billion galaxies with 100 – 200 billions stars in each with the possibility of a very, very great many inhabited planets. There could be billions of people on many of those planets living for eternity.
God did not want to create mere robots who could do nothing but love Him. He actually created us with the capacity to not love Him, to choose to go another way. Love is only love when there is another option. We were not designed to sin but we were designed with free wills which opens up the possibility of sin. Unfortunately, one being – and it seems perhaps the highest created being in the universe – choose that route.
See my page about Jesus character for thoughts on why sin has been allowed to continue – there is a logical reason. However, it will come to an end.
So that is how I understand the subject. Remember that, to a degree, I am speculating on the nature of the God of the universe. In reality, He is far beyond my comprehension. I would be interested to hear your thoughts or anyone else’s. A deep subject indeed.
February 28, 2013 @ 10:08 am
Why create Lucifer “with free will”?
Would it have been better if we lived forever in Eden running around “naked”?: I would consider, from my knowledge of other places in scripture, that this is a spiritual nakedness, because we certainly do not want Jesus to come and find us “naked” and the white garments are the righteous acts of the saints.
OK, back to naked in the garden with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were told not to eat from the tree of good and evil so why didn’t they eat from the tree of life – we know they were free to eat of any tree? And after they ate from the good and evil tree they were completely kept away from the tree of life or they would live forever.
What I see here is God’s mercy and wisdom. He did not want us to live forever in the state of knowing good and evil that we were in from eating that fruit. No, God knows that the end result will be better than if we never ate that fruit and we just stayed in the garden in our ignorant “naked” bliss. But because we ate the fruit, as God knew we would, the end result will be way better and everything will turn out just as God intended. He will tabernacle with us and we will see him face to face after the millennial reign of Christ.
I didn’t even talk about Satan because he is just a tool in God’s hand to achieve God’s intended outcome, as Paul says “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord”. And again “Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” Satan is doing exactly what God wants and is exactly what God wants him to be.
We must have faith that whatever happens to us – good, bad, boring, painful, in sickness or in health – God knows what he is doing and, although we have free will as does Satan, the end result will be better than we could ever dream of. As for Satan – just as Moses threw down his staff and it turned into a serpent and then it became a staff again – so God can easily, in the end, change Satan back into the cherub that covers once He is done with Satan being a snake. Or do you think God has created a rock so large He cannot pick it up?
Which leaves me with this thought: is the lake of fire like a refining fire removing the dross? Is the interpretation of “olam” as “forever and ever” not accurate?
February 28, 2013 @ 2:09 pm
Thank you Laurence for your comments. A few thoughts:
Adam and Eve were provided with coats of skins to cover their physical nakedness but, yes , there was definitely a spiritual nakedness as well. I can agree that the end result will be better because, as a result of Satan’s rebellion and the sacrifice of Christ, God’s love is shown to the greatest degree.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
As far as Satan doing God’s will, that is best understood in terms of God leaving or no longer protecting those who are not willing to be lead by Him. When God no longer protects, then Satan, the destroyer, does what he seems to be best at. This is best explained on this page.
He is not a tool of God although it may seem like it on first reading. As far as Satan’s final fate, scripture is very clear that he will ultimately be destroyed:
“Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.” (Eze 28:18-19)
May 13, 2013 @ 2:09 pm
Why Create Adam?
If God knew that Adam is going to sin, Why create him. God knew that Adam was going to sin. He created the pair to demonstrate to the universe the love of God. And God had to solve the sin problem and it was going to be done on earth and put a death blow to Satan and once again to make a clean universe, where his creatures will serve Him out of love not fear.Earth has become the theater of the universe where other created beings are watching how God is solving the sin problem here, and one day all will rejoice in seeing a clean universe.God is merciful and fair to everyone not willing that any should perish. Richard
September 15, 2017 @ 2:09 pm
God knows what could happen but doesn’t know what will happen until it does.
My thoughts on this are that God created Lucifer (and the rest of the angels) knowing that they could sin but not knowing whether they would. Obedience is a choice. The same principle was at work when He decided to create man. He knew that they could fall as a result of Satan’s temptation but didn’t know whether they would. And so to the incarnation of Christ – Father knew that His Son could remain sinless, but didn’t know whether He would….HE DID!! This leads me to the belief that Father God is constantly choosing to be Himself. He could choose not to be, but He likes being Himself so much, why would He want to choose otherwise!!
September 18, 2017 @ 2:09 pm
Thank you, Russell for your comment. You bring up the topic of God’s foreknowledge, His omniscience. The question has usually been framed as something like: “does God know everything or not; does He know everything that will ever happen in advance, in detail, including our thoughts?” Another question that perhaps should be raised is WHAT IS A THING? We don’t think of a thought as a thing because we can’t see it. Science, however, is getting better at detecting and measuring certain brain activities. Surely, God can do this as well. But can God know something before it exists, before it is “a thing”?
If we (and angels) were created truly independent, without God pre-determining our future (which I believe is true) then it seems possible that God would not know the future course and decisions man would make.
That brings up a couple of other questions. How could God then predict the future as He says, in scripture, that He can? (“Declaring the end from the beginning …” – Isaiah 46:10) Well, when you are the One who designed mankind in the first place and have an IQ that is immeasurable all possibilities are open and easily assessed. We can make certain predictions with accuracy based on the knowledge we have. With God knowing everything that presently exists, He can predict much more and much further into the future.
I certainly don’t have all the answers on the subject of God’s foreknowledge. However, the possibility that He does not know of, for instance, the thought I have not yet thought, while it may seem to lessen God, elevates God’s character in another way. If God did not know for sure that the mission of His Son to rescue planet Earth would be successful then He took a much greater risk in sending His Son and His love for us is shown to be that much greater.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son [not even knowing whether He would ever receive Him back again or not] that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)