Is the Devil the Cause of All Sin?

To go on: “This is a great spear with which the devil is pierced, he ‘who is the universal cause of sin,’ if he is to render an account of his works like a man, and ‘with his angels possess the eternal fires as their inheritance.’ No doubt this was what he was lacking: that, having brought mankind into torment, he should himself ‘possess the eternal fires’ he had been longing for all along.” [a]

You seem to me here to speak a little too harshly of the devil, and to bring false accusations against the accuser of all. You say “he is the universal cause of sin”; and while you make him the author of all crimes, you free men from blame and take away the freedom of the will. Our Lord says that “out of our heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immorality, thefts, false witness, slanders.” And of Judas we read in the Gospel, “After the morsel, Satan entered into him”; that is, because before the morsel he had sinned of his own will, and had not been brought to repentance either by humbling himself or by the Savior’s patience. So too the apostle says, “Such men I handed over to Satan, so that they might be taught not to blaspheme.” He handed over to Satan, as to a torturer, for their punishment, men who had learned to blaspheme by their own will before they were handed over to him. David also, in a few words, draws the distinction between faults that come from his own will and the incitements of vice, when he says, “Cleanse me from my secret faults, and keep your servant back from the sins of others.” We read also in Ecclesiastes, “If the spirit of a ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place.” From this we may clearly see that we commit sin if we give an opening to the power that rises up, and if we fail to hurl down headlong the enemy who is scaling our walls.

As for your threatening your brothers, that is, those who accuse you, with eternal fire in company with the devil, it seems to me that you do not so much drag your brothers down as raise the devil up, since by your account he is to be punished only with the same fires as Christian men. But you know well, I think, what eternal fires mean in Origen’s ideas: the sinners’ conscience, and the remorse that galls their hearts within. He thinks this is what is meant by the words of Isaiah, “Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched”; and by the words addressed to Babylon, “You have coals of fire; you will sit on them; these will be your help.” So too in the Psalm it is said to the penitent, “What will be given to you, or what more will be done for you, against the false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals.” According to him this means that the arrows of God’s commands, about which the prophet says in another place, “I lived in misery while a thorn pierces me,” should wound and pierce the crafty tongue and put an end to the sins in it. He also interprets the place where the Lord testifies, “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish that it may burn,” as meaning, “I wish that all may repent, and burn out their vices and their sins through the Holy Spirit; for I am he of whom it is written, ‘Our God is a consuming fire.’” So it is no great thing to say this of the devil, since it is prepared for men as well.

If you wished to avoid the suspicion of believing in the salvation of the devil, you should rather have said, “You have become destruction, and you will not exist forever”; and what the Lord says to Job about the devil: “See, his hope will fail him, and in the sight of all he will be cast down. I will not rouse him like one who is cruel, for who can stand against my face? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? For everything under heaven is mine. I will not spare him, nor his words, powerful and framed to turn away wrath.” So these statements may pass as the work of a simple man. Their drift is plain enough to those who understand these matters; but to the unlearned they may look innocent.