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Why did God create Satan?
Published: 26 September 2015 (GMT+10)
We’ve previously addressed many variations on the question, ‘why does a good God allow bad things?’ James C., from the U.S., asked for help answering another facet of the problem of evil—why God would make the devil.
Dear CMI, I was recently stumped when my son asked me why omniscient God would create Satan. Before that he asked me why God created men knowing all the troubles they would cause. That was easy to answer as I told him I would not trade my relationship I have with my son for anything even if I foreknew the troubles he would make. Then came his followup question. I couldn't use the same analogy and just told him it must have been God's big plan which we cannot fully understand until we get to Heaven. Obviously he wasn't satisfied and neither was I. Please help. :)
CMI’s Keaton Halley responds:
Hi James,
Thanks for your question.
The Bible doesn’t spell out all of God’s reasons for creating Satan, but it is important to remember that everything God created was initially “very good” (Gen. 1:31), and things only went wrong when the devil rebelled against his Creator (sometime shortly after the creation week, not before as many believe), and then human beings followed suit. This is important since God did not create anything that was morally evil, and so He is not morally blameworthy for the evil that exists. Satan has no one to blame but himself for the choices he’s made.
Still, God knew this would happen in advance, of course, so He must have had a good reason for allowing evil into His creation. In the end, it must be worth it in God’s eyes to create a world in which He knew the devil and others would rebel against Him. I believe God is ultimately accomplishing a greater good through all the evil that the devil brings about.
We see in Scripture that God often permits evil in order to bring about a greater blessing. Consider what Joseph said in Gen. 50:20 about how God accomplished a righteous end through the wicked actions of his brothers, or how God used Satan to test Job so that he and all those who read his story could gain wisdom and be blessed. God even turned the greatest evil into the greatest good, when Jesus was crucified (Acts 2:23; Rom. 5:18–19). So even though Satan schemed to put Jesus to death and thought he was achieving a victory, it was this very act that God foreordained to defeat Satan and bring about the glorious truth of the Gospel!
God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11) and does nothing unjust (Gen. 18:25), but, unlike us, God is sovereign and He knows all the good that will come out of permitting evil and suffering. God “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11), but that will is not arbitrary—it’s based in God’s essentially good nature (Luke 18:19). So we should see the existence of Satan as completely consistent with that.
I recommend you read the following for more insight into this question:
Why would a loving God allow death and suffering?
Hopefully, that’s a bit more satisfying to you and your son.
Reader’s comments
Jesus says satan was a murderer from the beginning which means he was created evil. Where and how do you get around this? Are you calling Jesus a lier?
Adam was meant to take the apple and fall with satans deception. Or are you saying God messed up and couldn't control the situation? What is this God you speak of that isn't master and controller over all? Is he not the alpha and omega? Can he not see everything that is going to happen? Isn't everything by his doing?
You said that "God created evil", and "all he created was good." It logically follows from this that you are calling evil good. If you want to deny the conclusion, then you have to revise one of the premises. I recommend revising the first.
See above where I already addressed the issue of Satan being a murderer from the beginning. Was Abel's blood shed before he was even born? That's a reductio ad absurdum of your hermeneutic.
I agree that God foreordained that evil would occur and that He is sovereign over all, but this is quite different from saying that He created evil.
God says all he created was good. That means everything he created he satisfied HIM not you, HIM. Which means evil was created by him for a good purpose until it has surved that purpose and is cast into the fire with death. That purpose is to chastise us and mold us toward the truth as his way. Learn through experience. Everything is his doing and under his control for good. Then we will have the experience of this life in the next where only good exsists.
The Angels can't experience this beauty as we can because we have been through suffering. Who understands and rejoices in food, a hungry person or someone who is never hungry?
I don't know why you keep claiming God has nothing to do with evil. This is from your own mind and not the bible. A child thinks the same when he gets punishment for his own good. Jesus stats satan was a murderer from the start.
God created evil so we could be perfected by it. And so it could also glorify good. Good can't exsist as you know it without evil. This is why we are to be higher than the Angels when we rise to heaven. They have not been through what God puts us through. They are servants. This link will give you a better understanding. [link deleted per feedback rules]
Satan was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44) just as Abel's blood was "shed from the foundation of the world" (Luke 11:50–51). This need not mean that Abel's blood was shed from the exact moment the world was founded, but very soon after.
Also, if good can't exist without evil, as you say, then evil is co-eternal with God. This is a serious error, reminiscent of eastern dualistic religions, not biblical Christianity.
Satan's ongoing role has been and still is 'sorting the wheat from the chaff' of us all. He uses guile and lies to tempt as many as possible to turn from their Creator God and instead follow him - ultimately to their unexpected and permanent destruction. God wants as many people as possible with Him, as part of His great family, in His New Kingdom on Earth - which will follow the old earth's 'passing away'. But His people must be proven righteous - otherwise no place will be found for them. God has incredible plans for all those found sufficiently worthy to be with Him. Man will not reach the stars from this earth - but he well may as one of the selected from the New Earth.
Ezekiel 28:18-19 gives us a prophecy of satan's defeat.
As to Satan's and Adam's will, one or two variables can entirely be chosen each to their ownself without ever compromising God's sovereignty, purpose, or plan. It does not make their choice any more or less their own simply because they lose. The "free will" is not a free will to become a god. It's a choice of obedience.
The created's choice has no judgement or bearing on God. God is not subject to his creation, at all, ever...aside from Christ willingly submitting himself to death on a cross (which was conquered).
I think we focus so much on the idea that God can judge us because we are fallen, when the reality is that even if Adam had never fallen, God being Creator had authority in the first place to do what he wants with us. Had Adam not disobeyed, God could still say "Hey, that's great, that's a wrap" and wiped the slate clean just as easily. The creation has no power, judgement, or bearing on the nature of God, in his Sovereignty or Holiness, as Creator.
The reality is that God doesn't have to give anyone a choice, an eternity, a creation, or anything else in the first place. God is love isn't dependent on our existence or sending Jesus. He is Love and God in the first place, independent of us.
And thus, it is God who declares our salvation by HIS mercy and grace. And it is God who declares the destruction of the wicked. Praise be to the King of Kings who can not be thwarted by the schemes of Satan or the variables of men.
The devil/Satan is certainly a finite, personal being. Who is it that accuses God's people (Rev. 12:10) or that dialogues with God regarding His servant Job (Job 1:6 ff.)? Satan doesn't have to be omnipresent because he is aligned with many other demons.
The term "Satan" in 1 Chron 21:1 does not refer to God. It refers to the devil, because God was using the devil for His purposes as He always does, and as my article explains.
Finally, who says only a few get to heaven? The Bible describes "a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages" (Rev. 7:9).
I encourage you to go back to Scripture and reexamine your views, because you are not correctly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).
Grace is favour to the undeserving. If man had never sinned, God's grace would never have been seen. Grace is given, not to good, willing people, but to rebellious, hateful people such as we all are by nature. In God's gracious favour, He gives His own nature to sinful men by new birth, draws them into His family, thus showing to all heaven and earth the riches of His glorious inheritance in His people, and the exceeding greatness of His power to completely redeem us forever.
Isa.45v7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa.54v16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
RE your reasoning in the above answer: "Should I do evil that good come of it?"
I get your point about God's agape love, which fits his triune other-serving nature, as opposed to Satan's self love, but later your comment assumes that God doesn't want believers to suffer. 1 Peter 5:10 makes it clear that suffering is part of God's plan for strengthening and completing us. Suffering drives us to trust in Christ alone, removing any sand between us and the rock we stand on. See Phil 3:10, James 5:10, 1 Pet 4:13 & 2 Cor 1:5-7.
But if your son uses this as an excuse to reject God, he should consider this article: Can we be good without God?
Lewis Sperry Chafer suggested in his SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY that evil may have always existed as an abstract principle, and God created Lucifer knowing that he would rebel and created humans knowing they would fall, so He could bring this abstract principle of evil into reality and deal with it once and for all with the Cross.
35 years after seminary I'm still thinking about that, but it's probably the best answer I've read so far.
God created Satan already seeing ahead to the ultimate consequence: Christ dying so that we could *choose* to be with Him forever, or otherwise choose ourselves as our own god just as Satan and his angels did. I think the key word here for me is choose (which is why I am emphasizing it). If there were no sin and no Tempter, we would therefore never have to choose God over ourselves; we would be almost like robots with no free will. God loves us so perfectly, that He wants us to be in relationship with Him based on our love and devotion and understanding of who He is.
Also, if there were no sin and no Tempter, we would never see how much God loves us, because the ultimate display of His love was His sacrifice. There is no other way to prove just how much love can go without the sacrifice that was shown to us.
In the end, you are right. Evil was meant for good. Satan doesn't win in the end and has never won anything. He is being used as a pawn for the glory of God. Hallelujah!
We are constrained in our thinking on the question at hand by common assumptions about God's foreknowledge; assumptions that are largely a result of the overlay of Greek philosophy unto scripture. As we all are quite aware in the Creation/Science debate, starting assumptions constrain possible conclusions
The underlying assumptions about God's absolute foreknowledge, force the conclusion that Satan really did not have any choice in the matter. God knew he would rebel, so no matter what, he was going to rebel. The underlying assumptions also force us into awkward answers to questions like the one at hand. The question is not whether God is responsible for the choice (predestination) or just knows it (foreknowledge), the problem is that if He "knows" my "free" choice before it is made, I am no longer free to make any other choice than what He "knows".
God truly knows everything THAT CAN BE KNOWN, but choices that are truly free cannot be known before they are made. Thus He does not know those kinds of choices before they are made. The assumptions in the answer logically eliminate free choice. The assumptions, when we remove the clean Tee shirt we put on them, ultimately lead to fatalism.
The good news is that true freedom of choice does not make God any less sovereign.
May God bless your vital ministry