Isaiah 45:7 reads, "I form the light, and I create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." And Isaiah 54:16," Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; I have created the waster to destroy." Satan is evil and God was the one who created him.
Lucifer makes his appearance in the fourteenth chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah, at the twelfth verse, and nowhere else: "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!" The first problem is that Lucifer is a Latin name. So how did it find its way into a Hebrew manuscript, written before there was a Roman language? To find the answer, I consulted a scholar at the library of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.I asked what Hebrew name was Satan given in this chapter of Isaiah?
The answer was a surprise. In the original Hebrew text, the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah is not about a fallen angel, but about a fallen Babylonian king, who during his lifetime had persecuted the children of Israel. It contains no mention of Satan, either by name or reference. The Hebrew scholar could only speculate that some early Christian scribes, writing in the Latin tongue used by the Church, had decided for themselves that they wanted the story to be about a fallen angel, a creature not even mentioned in the original Hebrew text, and to whom they gave the name "Lucifer."
I had been taught that Satan was a beautiful, holy angel which stood before God, and he was supposedly the most beautiful angel that ever was. I was taught that all went well in heaven until one day he began to believe that he was more beautiful and/or better that God. He became exalted! Then we are told that God went into battle with him and threw old Satan right out of heaven. By their teaching they seemed to imply that God was having problems ruling his kingdom because of pride and rebellion. I just can't believe that God has ever had a hard time ruling heaven. Isaiah 45:7 reads, "I form the light, and I create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." And Isaiah 54:16," Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; I have created the waster to destroy." Satan is evil and God was the one who created him.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."(Jer. 17:9) Mankind does not need help from any other source to be evil. Most people keep their evil actions well in check, but some thrive on evil. Such are the terrorists who can take thousands of innocent lives without remorse. These evil men were not forced by any supernatural power to do what they did. They did what they did because they wanted to do it. And they are god's children. They were born perfect and innocent, and became evil of their own free will. Evil is not a part of the original creation but a result of the abuse of the gift of free will. There are evil men in the world and there will always be evil men in the world. And they are used by God to serve his purpose.
