Isaiah (chapter 14), like Ezekiel, begins with what seems to be a mere man, a nation-ruler who is cut down and brought to his end, covered with maggots.

But the shift is sudden in verse 12. Suddenly the prophet is addressing one who has “fallen from heaven”, and named Lucifer! Lucifer, says Isaiah, wants to ascend into heaven, exalt his throne, and be at least equal to the Most High God.

He wants to do this by becoming the greatest on earth, but, as we see earlier in the chapter, he is brought to shame, and to the Pit.

Daniel’s “King of the north” behaves himself in the same way, letting us know the same thing has happened: Satan has come to yet another human, attempting to win the world to himself by force:

Daniel 11:36: Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, and speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper… until the wrath.”

Yes, he ends up in the same situation as all the rest. (v. 45) He shall come to his end, and no one will help him. Story goes that maggots were associated with his death, also.

It was this same Satan that entered Judas, and even spoke at least once through Peter, and who, according to Paul and John, will attempt at least one more power grab inside of a human body.

One day, the “man of sin” will exalt himself as Antiochus (in Daniel) and all the others, claim to be God, sit in God’s Temple, deceive the nations, demand their worship.

What began as one temptation to one woman in one garden 6,000 years ago will end with the rise, and the sudden fall, of Satan’s man of all men, the Anti-Christ, the “Beast” of Revelation, the “Little Horn” of Daniel, the “man of sin” from Paul. The disembodied spirit called Satan will then have his own end in the Lake of Fire.

And all you really wanted to know was, “Where did evil originate?” Now you know with whom it originated, and how that went for him, and all who follow him. Evil is a person, evil with a “d” attached.

Now the part of the question to which I have no clear answer:

Why? Why would God allow to be placed in His beautiful perfect Paradise, one so corrupt and evil as this fallen angel? Why not rather shield His creation from such a one? He certainly had the power to do so, did He not?

We can ask the ongoing question: Why does He still allow this one in our lives, day after day? We know that one day Satan will be removed. Men will not be tempted to do evil again.

The answers that come are weak ones. “He wanted to prove our love, and only testing can do that. He wanted a people that would choose Him and not the enemy. Thus He would know who loved Him and who did not.”

There seems to be some truth there, though it is colored with what I may now refer to as Arminian thought. The idea that man is the definer of the purposes of God, that man controls the future of the planet, does not strike me as being as truthful as I once thought.

Will we ever know His purposes, His ultimate ones? Why create a planet to begin with? Since man got here there has been nothing but trouble for Heaven. Yet He has overcome the trouble. He has manifested Love, pure love. He has saved many, many, many. Eternity will be brighter, and He will have the best of friends forever.