When exactly did the fall of Satan take place, and is that when evil entered existence?
A viewer asks when the fall of Satan took place and whether the fall of Satan is when evil first entered into existence.
Answer
There are various theories about when Satan fell, but my opinion is that he fell in the Garden of Eden; that is where it happened. Before then he had no plot worth carrying out. Many people say there was a rebellion before creation, but what would that gain Satan? To rebel against God then would only get you eternal punishment with nothing to show for it, and he is smart enough to know that. The Garden of Eden was worth the risk, because there he thought he had God trapped, with no way to save His creation without letting the devil take over. What he never counted on was that God would say: to preserve My honor and appease My wrath, one of the Trinity will become a man and suffer. That one act on the cross accomplishes everything at once: it preserves the honor of the Trinity, it eternally banishes the devil and his minions, and it gives Adam and Eve the chance to repent and try again. The devil never imagined God would humble Himself to become a man, because the devil is not humble; he only wants to rule. So the fall in the Garden was not merely about eating a piece of fruit. Adam and Eve were in effect telling God they wanted to be their own gods, so Adam would not till the field or name the animals and Eve would not be fruitful and multiply, because in their minds gods tell others to do those things. That is what the devil was really tempting her with, and that is why so much was at stake.