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Origin of Evil
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to himself. He also gradually led the angels over whom he ruled to
do him service, instead of devoting all their powers to the service
of their Creator. This course perverted his own imagination, and
perverted those who yielded implicitly to his authority.
The heavenly councils admonished Lucifer to change his course.
The Son of God warned and entreated him not to venture thus to
dishonor his Maker, and bring ruin upon himself. But instead of
yielding, Satan represented to those who loved him, that he had
been wrongly judged, that his dignity was not respected, and that
his liberty was to be abridged.
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That Christ should regard him as needing to be corrected, and
should presume to take the position of a superior, aroused in him a
spirit of resistance, and he charged the Son of God with a design to
humble him before the angels. By misrepresentation of the words
of Christ, by prevarication and direct falsehood, Satan secured the
sympathy of the angels under his control, and they united with him
in revolt against Heaven’s authority.
To the last, he refused to acknowledge his own course to be
deserving of censure. When the consequence of his disaffection
became apparent, and it was decreed that with all his sympathizers he
must be forever banished from the abode of bliss, the arch-deceiver
threw the blame wholly upon Christ. With one accord, Satan and
his hosts declared that had they not been reproved, the rebellion
would never have occurred, thus making Christ responsible for their
course. Thus stubborn and defiant in their disloyalty, seeking vainly
to overthrow the government of God, yet blasphemously claiming
to be themselves the innocent victims of oppressive power, the arch-
rebel and all his sympathizers were at last banished from Heaven.
The rebellion in Heaven was prompted by the same spirit which
inspires rebellion on earth. Satan has continued with men the same
policy which he pursued with the angels. His spirit now reigns in the
children of disobedience. There is a constant hatred of reproof, and
a disposition to rebel against it. When God sends to wrong-doers a
message of warning or correction, Satan leads them to justify them-
selves, and to seek the sympathy of others. Instead of changing their
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wrong course, they manifest great indignation against the reprover,
as if he were the sole cause of difficulty. From the days of righteous