Old Books: Satan is the Author of Sickness and Death

In 1837, Josiah Priest, wrote a book to explain some of the truths concerning the spirit realm and the spiritual warfare that confronts us today. In this book he spends much time attempting to vindicate God's character in relation to evil. One excellent example of his writing is how he confronts the idea that God authors sickness. Rather, he explains that sickness and death originates with Satan:

An Enquiry as to the Cause of Sickness, Diseases, and Death; is it of God or Satan? with other Curious Matters.

In this place, we think it not amiss to venture a few remarks on the real cause of the disease, sickness and death of the human race; a subject, perhaps, not so frequently a matter of reflection as are many others. We are apt to say, when any one is afflicted, diseased, distressed, tormented, or dead, that the Lord has done it, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Now, this is right to say and to believe, if we speak of it, and believe, respecting it, according to truth, and a right understanding of the subject. With this view, a right understanding of the matter, we ask the following questions:—Is there sin in existence?

It is answered yes. Was God the cause of it? It is answered no; for if he was, then sin is not sin, as God can do no sin, nor be its cause, direct nor indirect, immediate or remote. What then was the first cause of sin? It is answered, Satan or the devil was its cause, and originated the first sin .... and as established by the Scriptures, it is plain that the devil was the author of sin. If the devil then, is the originator of sin, then is not the devil the true cause of the diseases and death of the human race as it was that evil being who misled our first mother to sin, on which account death entered into the world and has passed upon all men, because that all have sinned in our first head, Adam and Eve.

But God is the author of life, and not of death, among intellectual beings, and everywhere as in our earth, so far as is consistent, counteracts death and diseases, and will finally so counteract, as to destroy both death and its cause, which is the devil, who has the power of death, so far as it relates to the bodies and the souls of the righteous after this life. But as Satan, who induced the sin of Eve and her husband, thereby obtained a right to kill the human race with temporal death, cannot now, consistent with the government of God be prevented; but will continue to exert this power and right till the age of the earth, or the probationary state of man shall be completed.

Priest, Josiah The Anti-universalist: Or History of the Fallen Angels of the Scriptures, Proofs of the being of Satan and Evil Spirits (Albany: J. Munsell, 1837), pp. 326, 327