Satan, Creation, and the Problem of “Very Good’’

The tension is clear: Jesus describes the devil as “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), yet Genesis testifies:

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’’ (Genesis 1:31)

How can a being characterized as a murderer “from the beginning” fit coherently into a creation that God calls “very good”? The apparent contradiction presses us to examine what “from the beginning” refers to and when the devil, as devil, came into existence.

subsection*The Force of John 8:44

In John 8:44, Jesus says:

"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.’’

Jesus is describing the devil’s settled character: murderous and false. The phrase “from the beginning” might at first be taken as “from the beginning of creation.” If so, it would imply that when God first created the heavens and the earth, a murderer already existed. Combined with Genesis 1:31, this would mean a murderer was among the things God called “very good,” which strains both logic and the moral tenor of the passage.

subsection*What Does “From the Beginning’’ Mean?

The key is to clarify the referent of “the beginning.” Scripture uses that phrase in various ways depending on context. Here, the most consistent reading is that Jesus is speaking of the beginning of the devil’s existence as devil, not the beginning of the created order in Genesis 1:1.

Note that the term used in John 8:44 is “the devil” (Greek: diabolos), the accuser, slanderer. There was a time in the history of creation when no such diabolos existed. Whatever created being later became the devil did not initially exist as a murderer and father of lies.

Thus, “he was a murderer from the beginning” is best understood as “from the beginning of his career as the devil,” that is, from the inception of his rebellion and fall. From the moment he became what Scripture calls “the devil,” his character has been murderous and deceptive. There was, therefore, a prior phase of creation history where no such being existed in that role.

subsection*Genesis 1:31 and the Goodness of Creation

Genesis 1:31 asserts that at the close of the sixth day, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” If the devil, as devil, already existed at that moment, we are forced to say that a being who is by nature “a murderer from the beginning” is part of what God calls “very good.”

One might attempt to resolve this by saying that the being who became the devil (often associated with the figure Lucifer) was created good but later fell. On that view, at Genesis 1:31 he would still be unfallen, truly “very good.” However, another question arises: did God create him with an inbuilt inevitability toward becoming the devil?

subsection*Rejecting Deterministic Explanations

Many deterministic theologies effectively say that God ordained, in His eternal decree, that the one created as a glorious being would certainly become the devil, the father of lies and a murderer. Even if the fall is said to occur by that being’s own decision, in such systems it remains part of a preordained script.

If so, then calling the original creation “very good” becomes problematic. Hidden within that “very good” state would be a guaranteed, embedded catastrophe: the rise of a being whose essential future role is to murder and deceive. That strains the straightforward sense of the Genesis declaration.

A more coherent approach is to deny that God created Lucifer in order for him to become the devil. He was created genuinely good, with genuine creaturely freedom, and his later fall was neither compelled nor morally encoded into his nature by God. In that scenario, the verdict “very good” stands unqualified over the completed creation of Genesis 1.

However, even granting that, if the fall of this being occurred before Genesis 1:31, God’s “very good” pronouncement would still be puzzling. The simplest way to preserve both the goodness of creation and the reality of the devil’s murderous character is to place the devil’s fall after Genesis 1:31.

subsection*The Beginning of the Devil, Not of Creation

If we place the fall of the being who became the devil sometime after the six days of creation, then:

• At Genesis 1:31, no murderer, no diabolos, no father of lies yet exists in that role.
• Creation, including all angelic beings, can rightly be called “very good.”
• At some later point, this created being rebels and becomes “the devil.” From that beginning of his devilish existence, he is a murderer and liar.

Thus, “from the beginning” in John 8:44 is the beginning of the devil’s career as devil, not the absolute beginning of creation described in Genesis.

This also parallels other “beginnings” in Scripture. There was a time when there were no thorns; after the fall of man, thorns begin. One can speak of thorns troubling humanity “from the beginning” of their existence, without implying they were present in Genesis 1:31. Likewise, there was a time when there was no death in humanity; from the entrance of sin, death reigns. The phrase “from the beginning” is relative to the thing under discussion.

subsection*Implications for Views Like the Gap Theory

Some interpretive schemes, such as certain versions of the gap theory, place Satan’s fall and a catastrophic judgment between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. On that view, the earth is originally created good, then ruined by satanic rebellion, and then “re-created” in the six days.

The question raised here presses hard on such reconstructions. If the devil fell and became a murderer before the six days, in what sense can the culminating verdict of Genesis 1:31—“very good”—apply to “every thing that he had made”? Either the earlier fall and ruin are outside the scope of that verdict, or we must hold that a murderer and father of lies is included in what is “very good,” which is difficult to sustain.

The simpler route is to affirm that the devil, as devil, did not yet exist at Genesis 1:31. The fall of this being and the onset of his murderous activity come later, somewhere within the narrative of early human history (for example, in connection with the events surrounding the garden). That preserves the integrity of the Genesis declaration and aligns naturally with the idea that “from the beginning” in John 8:44 is the beginning of the devil’s own rebellion.

subsection*Conclusion of the Argument

Putting it together:

• Genesis 1:31 describes a completed six-day creation as “very good.”
• The devil as described in John 8:44 is a settled murderer and liar “from the beginning” of his devilish existence.
• To avoid calling a murderer “very good,” we must not place the devil’s fall before Genesis 1:31.
• Therefore, the most coherent reading is that the devil, as devil, did not yet exist at Genesis 1:31; his beginning as murderer and father of lies is later.

In that way, creation can genuinely be called “very good,” while still affirming the Lord’s testimony that from the beginning of his own rebellion, the devil has been a murderer and has not stood in the truth.