I am the Lord, and there is none else; beside me there is no God: I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me: that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me: I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I am the Lord that doeth all these things. — Isaiah xlv. 5, 6. 7.
What are we to understand from this language? Is God the author of evil? Literal construction would make Him so, for if He "created" evil He must be the author of it. This is the construction placed upon this language by many people. Others maintain that, while He is not directly the author of it, He is cognizant of and permits it. Still others claim that Satan is the author of it; that to him is traceable all sin; that originally he was a pure, angelic being, but, becoming disobedient and defiant of God, he was driven out of heaven, and hurled to perdition. This is the Miltonian conception. In Paradise Lost we read:—
Him the Almighty Power
Hurl'd headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition; there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
