When did murder begin?
Jesus said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44b).
“He was a murderer from the beginning.”
Was the devil created by God as a murderer?
God says in His word that the one who is now the devil was created as a cherub and was perfect in all his ways until iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:14,15).
“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
When was the beginning?
Jesus said that at the beginning God made them male and female (Matthew 19:4).
“And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,”
This means that the beginning was the creation of heaven and earth and all that is in it.
As Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” This is then referring to the entire week of creation and the day God rested. It is a summary statement at the beginning of the creation account.
In John 1:1 we read that the Word was in the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This “was” means prior existence to the beginning. In the same way Satan “was” a murderer from the beginning indicates him as being a murderer before the beginning, which is creation.
In what way did Satan murder?
First, he wanted to be greater than God. We read of this in Isaiah 14:12-15.
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!
For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Secondly, he got a third of God’s angels to follow him in revolt against God (Revelation 12:4a).
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth;
These angels died spiritually and will eventually be thrown into the Lake Of Fire.
Thirdly Satan got Adam and Eve to disobey God and thereby die.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17). And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4): And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (Genesis 3:6).
This one act of disobedience caused separation of Adam and Eve from God, which is to die spiritually. They were turned from immortal to mortal and their bodies began to die. Adam died 930 years later (Genesis 5:5). As a result we are all born into this world separated from God. We are then all sinners by this one act of disobedience and subject to death. Have you noticed? There are not too many people who do not die.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23).
Through the sinlessness, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, who is the Christ, God paid for the right to offer each human eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).
Each one of us can have eternal life by confessing to God of being a sinner (repentance) and inviting Jesus into ones heart. A sample payer is “Lord Jesus Christ forgive me of my sin and come into my heart.”
The craft of murder expands - to be continued
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