IS SATAN INVOLVED IN EVERY EVIL OCCURRENCE? By Richard K. Murray
Before we answer that question, lets make sure we know the one party who is NOT involved in ANY evil occurrence— EVER! That totally uninvolved party is …GOD! And by God, I mean God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Here is the Scriptural basis for God’s disconnection from ALL evil:
----God is light and in Him is no darkness. 1 John 1:5
----only good and perfect gifts come down from the “shadowless” Father of lights (Ja 1:16-20)
----if earthly evil fathers know good gifts, how much more so does our loving Abba (Lk 11:9-13)
----let no man say God tempts, tests, tries, proves, discipline or entices us with evil (James 1:13-17)
----Jesus has given us authority over ALL the power of the enemy SO THAT no evil can harm us (Luke 10:19)
----no evil befalls us for His angels shall keep us in all our ways (Ps 91:10-11)
----no deadly thing shall harm us (Mark 16:17-18)
----God’s armor quenches ALL the missiles of Satan (Ephesians 6:10-17)
----Jesus conquered and stripped ALL principalities and powers (Col. 2:15)
----behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)
----be of good cheer, Jesus has overcome ALL the things of the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life (Jn 16:33; 1 John 2:16).
----Jesus Christ is God’s total disallowance of evil.
BOTTOM LINE: GOD’S INVOLVEMENT WITH EVIL= ZERO, ZIP, NADA!
BUT, what about Satan? Is he HE involved only in some evil, most evil or is HE involved in ALL evil?
If we stick to the New Testament teachings, the answer would have to be YES. Satan is involved on SOME level in every evil act, every sin we commit, every external disaster, every debilitating disease we suffer, and every cruel circumstance we encounter.
Let’s look at some New Testament passages:
Satan is called the “RULER of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2.
Jesus thrice calls Satan “the RULER of this world.” Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.
“The WHOLE WORLD lies in the power of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19.
Paul calls Satan “the god of THIS world.” 2 Corinthians 4:4.
John says that “whosoever sins is OF, OF, OF, OF the devil.” 1 John 3:8.
Jesus said as we sin, we “commit the lusts OF our father the devil.” Jn 8:44.
Reading all these passage together, it is clear that Satan’s reach is PERVASIVE in this fallen earth realm. Does this mean Satan is omnipresent across the entire cosmos? No, of course not. But, it does mean he has planet earth well-canvassed. Also remember that he has an army of fallen angels at his disposal who were cast down to earth with him. Revelation 12:7-9.
Nor, does Satan’s pervasive influence here mean that Jesus hasn’t already totally defeated and defanged the devil and his evil empire per Colossians 2:15 and Ephesians 4:8-10. Satan’s kingdom runs today entirely on the fumes of the Church’s corporate neglect in endorsing and enforcing the victory of the cross.
As the book of Hebrews says, it is is ONLY our “neglect” (individual and/or corporate) which prevents us from experiencing the full benefits of our “so great a salvation” here on earth. Hebrews 2:3. Until the Church rises up and puts Satan under its foot here on earth as he’s ALREADY been put under Jesus’ foot in heaven, Satan’s kingdom of darkness will hover here as the default setting of this earthly realm.
The Book of Job confirms that Satan operates “to and fro upon the earth and up and down upon it.” Job 1:7. Further, Satan operates physical destructions in the earth by using three deadly weapons ---- MEN (1:13-15, 17), NATURE (1:16, 18-19), and SICKNESS (2:7).
Satan first inspired violent men, the Sabeans and Chaldeans, to murder Job’s servants and flocks by the sword. Satan then manipulated nature, “great wind” and “fire from heaven” (lightning), to kill Job’s children as well as the remaining servants and sheep. Satan then finally infected Job with “boils” from head to toe. The New Testament confirms that Satan is able as “the Prince of the power of the air” to influence nature to try to kill (Ephesians 2:2; Matthew 8:26).
So, is it really outlandish to see Satan as having his finger involved in SOME capacity in every evil act of nature or man? Jesus called Satan “the tempter” in Matthew 4:3,8-9, who offered ALL the fallen worldly kingdoms to Jesus in one moment of time in return for Jesus worshiping him. Satan was there when Adam first sinned. And he is with us still when we sin. John 8:44; 1 John 3:8.
Moreover, Satan is NOT just a fallen angel, but is a worldwide spirit which works in the sons of disobedience. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world , according to the prince of the power of the air , the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Ephesians 2:2. Jesus frequently healed the sick by casting out legions of “spirits of infirmity” and “unclean spirits.”
Paul also confirms that we need to don the full armor of God to stand against ALL of Satan’s wiles. Ephesians 6:10-17. Even James 1:13-17 says that "every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his OWN lust , and enticed [by another, who could only be Satan]. Then when lust hath conceived [with Satan] , it bringeth forth sin : and sin , when it is finished , bringeth forth death.”
It’s certain that the early Church fathers believed that Satan and the demonic were involved in every evil event, whether inside of man or outside of man. Consider these quotes:
Athenagoras (133-190 AD) summarized the early Church’s cosmology as follows: “The Maker and Framer of the world distributed and appointed….a multitude of angels and ministers…to occupy themselves about the elements, and the heavens, and the world, and the things in it, and the godly ordering of them all… Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice….so is it among the angels. Some, free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which He had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them." A PLEA FOR THE CHRISTIANS, 10.
Athenagorus further believed that Satan, as "the (spirit) prince of (earthly) matter exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God” (A Plea, 25). Thrice Jesus called Satan the archon (ruler or prince) of this material creation (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Paul likewise called Satan the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the archon (ruler or prince) of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). As theologian Greg Boyd has sagely noted, “Athenagorus concluded that everything in nature that obviously looks contrary to God’s character appears that way because it is contrary to God. It didn’t arise from the omni-benevolent hand of the Creator (as the atheists of his day and ours object) but was rather due to the activity of an evil ‘ruling prince’ and ‘the demons his followers’” (A Plea, 25).
Tertullian (160-225 AD) wrote that “[d]iseases and other grievous calamities” were demons on the attack, whose “great business is the ruin of mankind.” Whenever “poison in the breeze blights the apples and the grain while in the flower, or kills them in the bud, or destroys them when they have reached maturity…” the fingerprints of evil spirits becomes clear (Apology 22).
Origen (184-254 AD) wrote that that every fiber of nature was under the direct care of “invisible husbandmen and guardians” (Against Celsus, 8.31).
“Natural” evil came from certain spirits rebelling against their creator. Origen taught that the destructive horsemen of disaster, death, pestilence, war and famine were not "natural” in God’s creation, but were rather the result of fallen angels on the attack (Against Celsus, 8.31). These rebel forces were “the cause of plagues…barrenness…tempests… [and] similar calamities” (Against Celsus,1.31).
Gregory of Nysa (335-395 AD) states it more simply: “In this visible world…nothing can be achieved except through invisible forces” (Dialogues, IV.5).
SO, ARE YOU THE TRUE AUTHOR OF YOUR SIN?
Nope! You may be an avid reader of Satan’s “Book of Sin,” BUT you are NOT the original author. The Devil is the author, creator and perpetual facilitator of all your sin. Just as Jesus is “the author and finisher” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), Satan is the author and finisher of our sin. All we do is choose which spirtual book we will read and follow with our hearts— Satan’s book of temptation, sin and death VERSUS Jesus’ book of faith, grace and life.
“He that committeth sin is OF the devil” 1 John 3:8.
“Ye are OF your father the devil , and the lusts OF your father ye will do . He was a murderer from the beginning , and abode not in the truth , because there is no truth in him . When he speaketh a lie , he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar , and the father of it.” John 8:44.
Do you see? When we sin, we are “of” the Devil. It is HIS “lusts” we do, not OUR lusts but HIS. We certainly ratify that lust as our own, but we did NOT create it. Lucifer is the composer of sin, NOT us. We are complicit in the sin. We are certainly misled, lukewarm, neglectful, even rebellious. And for our complicity in it, we certainly need to repent. And Jesus’ blood totally covers our part in each and every sin-event written in Satan’s book.
But the sin itself is NOT our creation. It is Satan’s. Jesus, from the Cross, exhorted His Heavenly Father to forgive us, FOR we know NOT what we do. Luke 23:34. This is hardly the thing Jesus would say IF we knowingly and intentionally authored and created all the sin that men do. No, Jesus was revealing, in the Scriptures above, that we were the victims of sin, not the creators of it.
The idea to transgress in the Garden came from Satan in the form of the Serpent. It did not come from Adam or Eve. Adam and Eve were both neglectful, distracted, disobedient and horribly mislead. BUT they did not create the sin.
Like a cobra who first mesmerizes its careless victim, then injects poison through its deadly fangs into the victim; so too does Satan first mesmerize the neglectful with temptation, then afterward sinks his sinful fangs into the victim’s heart. Death soon results-- death to relationships, death to well-being, death to an undefiled conscience, death to joy, and death to dynamic intimacy with God.
Jesus routinely attributed sin and sickness to Satan rather than the individual. He rebuked Peter’s sin by telling Satan to get behind Him. Jesus knew Peter was “snake- bit” with Satanic influence, but that Peter was not it’s true author but Satan. Matthew 16:23.
In His wilderness temptations, Jesus attributed ALL of them to Satanic suggestion. Jesus also attributed the eighteen year affliction of a daughter of Abraham to Satan when He healed her on the Sabbath. Luke 13:16. Get the picture? Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil, and ALL the works of the Devil. And He did.
Jesus now waits for His bride, His body, and His church to rise up, endorse, enforce, and OPENLY manifest His victory upon the earth as its already been won in all the heavenly places. “Thou [the Father] hast put all things in subjection under His [Jesus’] feet . For in that He [the Father] put all in subjection under Him [Jesus] , He [the Father] left nothing that is not put under Him [Jesus]. But now we [believers] see not YET all things put under Him [Jesus]. But we [believers] see Jesus…” Hebrews 2:8.
Jesus now sits, waiting in “expectation” for US to VISIBLY put all sin, death, and evil underfoot. “But Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat DOWN on the right hand of God; From henceforth EXPECTING till HIS enemies be made HIS footstool.” Hebrews 10:12-13.
The Father first gave ALL authority to Jesus, “And hath put all things under his feet.” Jesus has now ascended to the right hand of the Father, but not before leaving ALL of His authority to “be the head over all things TO,TO,TO the CHURCH, Which is HIS body , the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22-23. Hallelujah!
Do you see? WE, WE, WE are the ones with the authority to wield Jesus’ power to defeat evil, and ALL of it. Jesus has already given us everything we need to trample Satan underfoot. We just need to wake up to it! This is our magnificent calling! Let’s embrace it!
But we gotta make a go of it… The spirit moves like the wind. 
It is the voice that calls…
For example Genesis 19:13 says this: “For we will destroy this place (Sodom and Gomorrah), because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord[Satan], and the Lord [Satan] has sent us to destroy it.” Again, Genesis 19:24 says “Then the Lord [Satan] rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord [Satan] out of heaven.” Now, a couple of questions come to mind. If God does not allow evil as the OP suggests, then why is He allowing a cosmic rebel to hijack the heavens and rain fire and brimstone down on people? Secondly, the article also mentions that Satan caused the flood in the story of Noah. Why is Satan offing all the evil people? Doesn’t he need armies to take over and rule the world? This makes no sense to me.