8. О диаволе и о демонах

We do not assert about the devil and the demons subordinate to him, according to the fables of Marcion, Cerdon and Manes, that they were not created. For if they are not created, then they are equal in honor with the God of all. If they are equally honest, then they are equally powerful. And if they are equally powerful, then how can we say that they are punished by the God of all? And would it be lawful for those who initially received such a nature to be punished? And that they will be punished, the Lord clearly said about this to those standing on their feet: “Depart from Me, the curse, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel” (Matthew 25:41). And the demons themselves clearly know this, which is why they cried out: “What do we have for You,... Son” of the Most High God? “Thou hast come... to torment us before the time” (Matthew 8:29); and again: “I conjure Thee..., do not torment me” (Mark 5:7). Therefore, we fully knew that the demons would suffer. Let us finally consider whether it is fair for those who have received such a nature from the Creator to be subjected to torment? Is it fair for the creator of evil to be called good? Is it fair to punish a nature that does not have the strength to do anything good, but is bound by the bonds of malice? On the contrary, we know that the God of all is just and that He is the source of truth. Therefore, it will not be unfair for Him to torment the demons and their leader. And we know that the good God is called by all right-thinking people the Creator of good things. Therefore, He did not create such a nature that is unable to do anything good, but involuntarily generates only evil from itself. If God did not create an evil nature, because, as good, He is the Creator of good things and will not punish unjustly, because the Lawgiver of righteousness is just, and He punishes the devil and those subordinate to him, then it follows that by will both the devil and his hordes are evil. Just as God created the good man good in the beginning, and by his own free will, some retained the nature they had adopted intact, while others deviated into the worse, corrupted the divine traits in themselves, and from God-like became bestial, so the devil and the horde of demons, having been created with other incorporeal ones, were not jealous of their devotion to the Lord God, but, allowing in themselves the passion of arrogance and arrogance, turned to the worst and fell from their original lot. And this thought is given to us by the divine Apostle, laying down the law regarding episcopal ordination not to ordain a newly baptized person, “lest the devil become proud and fall into judgment” (1 Tim. 3:6). For with these words he makes it clear that the devil was driven to his fall by his arrogance. And writing to the Ephesians, the Apostle expressed the idea that the devil, before he turned into something worse, was entrusted with control of the air. For he says: “according to the prince of the power of the air: the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Having fallen from the original rank, the devil has as his servants those who contradict God. And the Lord said in the Holy Gospel: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven” (Luke 10:18). And in another place he says: “he is a murderer from time immemorial and does not stand in the truth” (John 8:44); and this means that, having deviated from the truth, he chose the opposite of the truth. And the blessed prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel, make similar hints. For this is the meaning of the words: “I will set a throne above the stars,... I will be like the Most High” (Is. 14:13–14); “I will take the world like a nest, and I will take it like an abandoned egg” (Is. 10:14). And Ezekiel refers to the prince of Tyre as the apostate prince who acted through him; He says this: “You are the seal of likeness, full of wisdom, and the crown of kindness. You were in the sweetness of God’s paradise, you were adorned with every stone” (Ezek. 28:12-13). Then, having listed the types of stones, he added: “from the same day” you were created and you were anointed with the Cherubim by the indwelling God, “and you were placed in the mount of the saints of God, and you were among the stones of fire.” You walked “blameless in your days, from a wicked day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. Because of the multitude of your ways, you filled your treasures with iniquity, and you sinned, and you were wounded by the mountain of God: and the Cherubs overshadowed you from the midst of the fiery Kamyks. Thy heart was exalted in thy kindness, thy cunning was destroyed with thy kindness: for the multitude of thy sins I cast thee down to the earth, and gave thee before the kings as a reproof. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, and the purchase of your unrighteousness,” he has desecrated your sanctuary, “and I will bring fire out of your midst, so that this will destroy you” (Ezek. 28:14-18). This prophetic word shows us that the devil was good in the beginning, but arbitrarily allowed himself to incline towards the worse and through evil tricks increased his wickedness. The Prophet called evil plans “circulation” and “buying”. God convicted him, revealing his powerlessness, and commanded him to subdue those who had previously bowed to him, because this is the word of the Lord: “Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent and the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). But you can find a lot of other places from which it is not difficult to find out that the devil, being created good, arbitrarily deviated into wickedness. And the torment with which God threatens him sufficiently proves the spontaneous nature of his malice, because it is not characteristic of a truthful God to punish someone who has become evil out of necessity. You might be interested in: