Life & Wisdom Quote by Edwin Louis Cole

A clean, punchy line like this works because it frames reality as an authenticity war. Cole isn’t arguing theology in the abstract; he’s offering a diagnostic tool. If God “creates,” then creation becomes the gold standard: original, life-giving, coherent. If Satan “counterfeits,” then evil is rebranded as imitation - not a rival universe, but a parasite that depends on the real thing for its appeal. That’s rhetorically potent because it turns temptation into a category error. You don’t “choose” sin so much as you fall for a knockoff.

The subtext is pastoral and tactical. Counterfeits are designed to pass inspection; they look close enough to the real to exploit trust. That implies the danger isn’t mostly in obviously destructive behavior but in the near-miss: spirituality without surrender, love without sacrifice, freedom without responsibility, confidence without character. It’s a worldview that trains suspicion toward anything that offers the benefits of virtue without the cost.

Context matters: Cole wrote and preached in late-20th-century American evangelical and men’s ministry circles, where the project was often moral formation amid a culture perceived as increasingly permissive and media-saturated. “Counterfeiter” maps neatly onto consumer logic - brand, copy, fraud - making spiritual discernment feel like practical street smarts. It’s also a comforting move: if evil can’t create, then it can’t ultimately innovate its way to victory. It can only remix, distort, and sell the distortion as liberation.