Where did sin come from?

Did God create it?

Is sin co-eternal with God—where both good and evil have struggled together forever?

Many religions believed that. But the Bible tells a different story.

According to the Bible, God made everything good. Even Satan. His original name was Lucifer. He was a guardian angel. And for a time, he was blameless. But then something happened.

“You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you” (Ezekiel 28:15).

There you have it—the beginning of sin. It began with Satan. Everything was good until Lucifer suddenly chose to sin. What did he choose to do? What was his sin? Isaiah 14:13-14 fills out this picture. There you can read about the infamous five “I will”s of Satan:

“But you said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

‘I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

‘And I will sit on the mount of assembly

‘In the recesses of the north.

‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

‘I will make myself like the Most High.”

The origin of sin is this: it began with Lucifer. It began with his free will. It began when he freely willed to rebel against God. As Donald Barnhouse explained:

“iniquity came by what we might term spontaneous generation in the heart of this being in whom such magnificence of power and beauty had been combined and to whom such authority and privilege had been given. Here is the beginning of sin. Iniquity was found in the heart of Lucifer. So far as we know, here is the only verse in the Bible which states clearly the exact origin of sin” (Donald Grey Barnhouse, The Invisible War, p. 30).