The belief that Satan is the author of human sin, inspiring mankind's transgressions, has been asserted in various teachings. However, God's word challenges this notion by emphasizing individual accountability for sin. Ephesians 2:2 acknowledges a spirit influence at work in the world, described as the prince of the power of the air, yet it does not absolve mankind of responsibility. Humans possess a spirit of reason and free moral agency, enabling them to choose despite external influences. God declares in Romans 1 that mankind is without excuse, having evidence of His existence, and in ancient Israel, even without God's spirit, they were commanded to choose life over death. James 1 further clarifies that sin arises from personal desires, not from an external author. The human heart, not yet aligned with God's heart, is the source of sin when it succumbs to temptation. John 8:44 identifies certain Jews as spiritually aligned with the devil, reflecting his characteristics of murder and lies, yet Ezekiel 18:19-20 firmly states that each soul bears its own guilt. The son does not bear the father's guilt, nor vice versa; the wickedness of the wicked is upon himself. This principle applies even to spiritual lineage, indicating that personal choice, not inherited blame, determines accountability. In I John 3:8-9, sin as a way of life aligns a person with the devil, but this does not imply that he authors the sin. It reflects consistent wrong choices mirroring his nature. Genesis 3:17 attributes Adam's sin to heeding his wife's voice, not to an external authorship, and God rejects the blame-shifting of Adam and Eve. Romans 5:12 explicitly states that sin entered the world through one man, Adam, not through any other being, underscoring human responsibility. Leviticus 5:17 reinforces that ignorance or deception does not lessen guilt; a sin committed, regardless of influence, results in full accountability. There is no biblical concept of divided guilt or partial sin; each sin earns the death penalty for the sinner. Romans 7 reveals Paul's struggle with indwelling sin, with no attribution to an external cause, only a recognition of personal failing and reliance on Christ's deliverance. God's word consistently teaches that each man's sins are his own, and no other bears the blame for them. The danger lies not in being forced to sin, but in choosing to sin, incurring personal guilt that cannot be shifted elsewhere.

Each person is responsible for his own sin and death. Adam was the first to sin but did not make others sin by his action. All who followed emulated his conduct and therefore died. God judges each without partiality. The Gentiles who lacked the law as revealed at Mount Sinai still broke it because God placed enough knowledge of His law in them by nature. Adam bears greater responsibility than Eve because his sin was deliberate and presumptuous while hers resulted from deception. Both Adam and Christ began a new creation, yet the impact of what each did differs. Adam's sin affected all because all humanity was considered within him when he sinned. This does not remove personal responsibility. God did not create the sinful nature in humanity or set Adam and Eve up to sin. They chose to submit to Satan after he entered the picture. Human nature is a Satanic nature acquired through association with Satan, his demons, and an already infected world rather than through natural birth processes. Satan became the god of this world by infecting minds and hearts beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing through their progeny.

God did not create the evil heart or human nature in Adam and Eve. Adam was merely the first to sin, and his sin began this world's immoral creation. The prophet Ezekiel and the apostle Paul make it clear that everybody is personally responsible for his own sins, and therefore death, so blame cannot be shifted to either God or Adam. The Bible is very clear that there was no sin on earth among humanity until Satan showed up and began sin's way through Adam and Eve. God permitted Satan's temptation to occur because His purpose demands that each person voluntarily choose the way he will go with his life. The spirit God created and placed in Adam and Eve is described in Genesis 1:31 as very good, not deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Mankind became corrupted through that contact with Satan, and the continued contact with him when he became part of their environment, and all born from Adam and Eve also in turn submitted to Satan. Anybody who wants to understand or to attain to a good understanding of holiness must begin by coming to grips with the vast subject of sin. Sin is better understood as a vast contagious and forceful moral disease that affects the whole of the human race every rank, class, name, nation, and language through the impulses that it motivates. Sin is much more than what is seen on the outside. Jesus points to the heart as the disease's location within the person. This influential sinful nature is a product of the mind of Satan inculcated through contact with him, with his fellow demons, and the worldly systems he created. The converted Paul admits in Romans 7 to his carnality, and that sin still dwelt in him to such an extent it still empowered him and motivated him to act. Sin consists of thinking, saying, doing, or imagining anything that is not in conformity with the mind and will of God. It is the outward and inward departure of exact absolute mathematical agreement with God's revealed will and character. It is very clear from Scripture that there are sins of omission as well as commission. God must first act on behalf of a person because that person is so enthralled with Satan that he would otherwise never break through, and so He must give a new heart, a new way of thinking. The old heart, the deceitful heart, cannot be repaired. Ezekiel 18:30-31 must be joined to that because it is also part of this overall principle, and that is that a person must respond favorably to God's initial effort to change him. God gives the calling. God makes it possible for a person to respond. Paul says God grants repentance. Salvation is completely and totally in God's graceful effort on behalf of a person, but that person must respond. God leads to repentance, and then makes an offer of a covenant. Upon entering into that covenant a person is confronted then with a major biblical principle about what must be done with the rest of life following being given grace to have the bondage to Satan broken. God is saying that He has done everything to make the observance of His commands possible. He is saying that His laws are not impossibly idealistic. They are not impractical. They are not unachievable. He is saying that they are doable by ordinary people that He has empowered. It is He that makes the difference. He not only calls, He not only gives His Spirit and grants repentance, He empowers with the very ability that is needed to be able to keep His laws by giving understanding, the motivation to do it, and encouragement or whatever is needed, but always a person has to use faith. Our growth and being prepared for entering into and possessing the land hinges on choices. The residue of the Satan-damaged heart remains to exert its influence on one's life. That Satan-influenced heart will never be completely subdued, but it can be dominated by a person who is walking in the Spirit and using his life and time to be really close to God. There is no such thing as sinless perfection. God expects that sin will occur.