There are those who say, “God is the only Creator and thus He is the one who created sin.” This is blasphemy, for though God is the Creator He CANNOT SIN nor would He ever tempt someone to sin. We read in James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is temped, ‘I am tempted by God’; FOR GOD CANNOT BE TEMPTED BY EVIL, NOR DOES HE HIMSELF TEMPT ANYONE.” Because God is holy, He would never have “created sin.” Yet He did create beings with a free will with the “ability to sin,” but that does NOT make Him the Author of sin. God chose to make creatures (angels and humans) with the freedom of choice. He chose NOT to create beings and program them NOT to sin, for they would then be robotic.

Instead of asking the question, “Who created sin?”; perhaps we should ask, “How did sin begin?” or “Who was the first one to sin?” We learn in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through ONE MAN SIN ENTERED THE WORLD, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” We know this “one man” refers to the “first man Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45) who God created and placed in a paradise on earth called the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-15). After God created Adam, He wanted to test him to see if he would be obedient to his Creator who had given him a perfect environment to live in. He gave Adam one commandment to test him, which we see in Genesis 2:16, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” We know that “Adam failed the test” for the day came that “he did eat” of this forbidden fruit (see Genesis 3:6) and thus “sin entered the world, and death through sin.” Adam made a “fatal choice” and this choice affected all who were to be born, for we learn in Romans 7:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience MANY WERE MADE SINNERS.” Adam now had a SINFUL NATURE (see Romans 7:13-20) and this fallen, sinful nature passed on to all born into the human race (Psalm 51:5).

Have we answered your question? No, for we saw that Adam’s act of disobedience brought “sin into the WORLD”; that is, the earth where Adam lived. But there was another creature that God created who “sinned before Adam” and who “brought sin into the UNIVERSE.” I’m speaking of the angel named Lucifer, who was the greatest, the wisest, and the most beautiful angel that God had created (Ezekiel 28:12 & 15). We read of his sin in Isaiah 14:12-14, “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!….For you said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of the congregation….I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH.” Here we see Lucifer CHOOSING, WITH HIS OWN FREE WILL, to rebel against His Creator. He desired to “dethrone God” and “enthrone himself in God’s place!” Lucifer’s sin introduced sin into heavenly places where he, who was renamed the Devil and Satan after his fall (Revelation 20:2); lives right now above earth. He is called the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2 and the angels who followed him in his rebellion are living there too (Ephesians 6:10-12).

The Devil who brought sin into the universe was not content to cause other angels to sin; he also wanted to infect the whole human race on earth with sin, so he took the form of a serpent and tempted Adam’s wife to eat of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Please read Genesis 3:1-5 and you will see that the Devil told the woman that if she eats of the tree “you will BE LIKE God, knowing good and evil.” His desire was to “be LIKE THE Most High” and now he seeks to implant that same desire in mankind! Then we read those solemn words in verse 6, “So she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” She was DECEIVED by the Devil (2 Corinthians 11:3) yet Adam acted “willfully and in deliberate rebellion against God” (1 Timothy 2:13-14). The answer to our question then is “sin began with Lucifer in heaven and then it began with Adam on earth.”  (DO)  (707.3)