The Origin Story of All Evil:

The Great War and the Fall of Humanity

In order to explain the need for a Savior, we need to go back to the beginning. Bear with me as I do my best to summarize the key points of our fall from grace.

There was a great war in heaven, led by one of God’s highest-ranking angels named Lucifer—who is Satan. The rebellion began because Lucifer decided he would take God’s position (don’t we all know someone like that?). He wanted everything for himself: to take over and be worshipped. He believed he had a better way of doing things, I suppose. The Bible describes him as one of the most beautiful angels adorned with precious gems. This is the origin of evil – pride.  So sin now enters, what was once a perfect universe and world.  God cast him and all the angels who rebelled with him down—out of heaven. No contest.

The Bible recounts how God created everything right at the beginning in Genesis. His most prized creation was humanity. We were made perfect. We lived freely in the Garden of Eden with only one restriction: not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for if we did, we would die. Eve, the first woman, was tricked by a serpent in the garden—who was Satan. He still uses the same deception today: sowing doubt about what we already know by making us question if we know the truth. He usually sets us up for manipulation with partial truths.

We are often vulnerable to subtle deception or manipulation when we believe all people are inherently good. Eve didn’t consult God first to verify and set the record straight. For some reason, humans often do this—even in personal relationships. If we went to God first in all things, we’d save ourselves so much trouble. Unfortunately, we are often foolish by giving in to impatience.

So Eve decides to eat the fruit and gives it to Adam. Now the perfect humans, who only had one rule, disobey God and receive the knowledge of evil.  Eve was the one fooled by the snake.  I don’t think she intentionally meant to disobey. All of us are enticed and presented with something that provokes a desire—always subtle and small at the beginning, but ultimately leading us further and further down a path we never intended to take. This is why sometimes you can look at your life and wonder how you ended up somewhere unexpected.  Adam, the leader without any experience in adversity, passively allowed events to unfold to eat the fruit, instead of upholding God’s law.

If you aren’t Christian, evil, darkness, and sin are states of rebellion against God – who is always good. The product of sin and evil is always pain and suffering for yourself and others, whether immediate or delayed. Over time, sin hardens our hearts, especially victims of trauma or abuse, who may, tragically, become abusers themselves. There is a bitter root that takes hold and ultimately corrupts.