We know that Satan was an angel created by God. Did God intend for Satan to be evil and to rebel against Him?

Question

Satan was an angel, part of a race of beings that God created long before humans were created. I believe that the Bible states that plainly.

But did God know that Satan would rebel? Did God create Satan to be evil? Did he intend for Satan to be evil?

God knows everything and is everywhere at all times, with all knowledge. So wouldn't he have known that Satan was to become evil?

The obvious argument would be that God created angels to have free will, which he also gave to humans. This explanation would allow for Satan choosing to become bad. But it still doesn't explain how evil is even a possible option for an angel in a universe where it never had existed before.

I guess what I am saying is that the existence of evil in a universe created by God makes little sense to me.

Can anyone help me here?

Answer 1

Satan was a created being, and YAHWEH is the POTTER. POTS DO NOT mold themselves. What do you think now?



To say he was not created for the purpose He was created for and manifests, is TO ATTACK THE SOVERIEGNTY OF YAHWEH.



YAHWEH did NOT lose control. Don't lose sight of Yahweh's soverignty in the framework of METAPHORES and PARABLES either.



BEWARE, THE ADVERSARY HAS CHILDREN!! ACTUAL OFFSPRING OF THE ADVERSARY!! Gen. 3:15 They live among us, do you know how to tell who they are? Do you believe YAHWEH allowed it to happen? If you believe in Yahweh's soveriegnty, the children of the devil serve a purpose in HIS master plan as well. HE NEVER tells you to try to convert them tot he faith. You better learn the difference. Yahshua said "THEY CANNOT HEAR HIS WORD". They CANNOT be converted and the world is FULL of them, as in the days of NOAH!



Yahweh sends a lot of people down the same road. THAT is why YAHWEH CREATED EVIL as well. Isa. 45:7

Answer 2

When God created Satan He knew that Satan would sin and rebel against Him. But He still chose to create him because he followed the principle of free will. If God did not create Satan, seeing that he would rebel against Him that God would violate the principle of free will. Creating only good angels, and omitting the bad ones still violates God's free will principle. Stating this, it does not mean God create evil; God created a perfect angel who chose to be evil. God discovered evil in Satan, not created it.



As to the argument about evil as a possible option when it never existed before .... It does not matter whether evil ever existed or not. The fact that evil never existed does not eliminate it as an option. The option was always there, it is just that no angel ever chose the option of evil. All angels chose the option of obeying God which is why perfection was preserved, but Satan was the first angel to go down the road of rebellion and thus evil entered the universe.

Answer 3

God gives all his intelligent creatures free will. (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20). It would be unfair for God to create Satan evil and then destroy him for it. The Bible says that everything God does is fair, just. (Deuteronomy 32:4)



God sees all things, but he can also chose not to see things if he so desires. Out of love and respect for his creation and for free will, he choses not to peer into the future to see whether or not we will turn away from him. Rather, if he sees someone turning down a bad path, he warns them and asks them to return to him (see Genesis 4:5-8 and 2 Kings 17:12, 13; also James 4:8).



The Bible shows that Satan was created a perfect, beautiful angel. (Ezekiel 28:11-15) However, Jesus said that Satan "did not stand fast in the truth" (John 8:44). Hence, Satan was once in the truth, but forsook it. Satan became evil on his own. He wanted the worship that God was receiving. Later, several other angels of God forsook the truth and sided with Satan. (Jude 6) Also, Satan was able to get Adam and Eve to forsake the truth.



The universal issue today is whether or not we remain steadfast in the truth and obey God's commandments. (see 3 John 3, 4; Psalm 86:11)



Evil, by the Bible's definition, is anything that does not meet God's moral expectations. Think of evil as a goal that is missed. Perfection would be hitting the goal. Satan purposefully missed the goal.

Answer 4

I wish I could but I don't know the answer that one. Hal Lindsey does a really good job of explaining why we are here.........that basically when satan fell and took a third of the angels and was condemened he cried "unfair" So God is allowing everyone to have that some choice basically.......anyway I don't know the answer. Some things we may never know til we get to heaven and I"m okay with that. I read the answer above me......possibly free will always gives the potential for evil. Maybe that is why God is worthy of our praise as he does not choose evil......THANK GOD!

Answer 5

Yo are right about free will......... Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both "to will and to do" of his good pleasure. But you are wrong to say that evil will exist for eternity. Evil will exist forever.........Forever during this earth age. But ages have an ending. And so does evil. There are 7 ages before eternity, the last being the the Great White throne Judgment. And then eternity will begin after this. G165 αἰών aiōn ahee-ohn' From the same as G104; (properly an age;) by extension perpetuity (also past); by implication the world; specifically (Jewish) (a Messianic period) (present or future): - (age,) course, eternal, (for) ever (-more), [n-]ever, (beginning of the, while the) world (began, without end). Compare G5550. There have been some added meanings to this dictionary by the heavy hand of revised editions to suit man and what he believes. Eternal can in no way be part of an age.

Answer 6

Wow. The answer here is huge. But without walking through the process.. the final response is useless.



God created angels to have free will as you stated. With that free will comes the understanding that wrong choices can and probably will be made. To shape context for the remaining reply: God knew wrong could be chosen...but He also knew He could fix it.



First, evil wasn't created. If you accept the postulate "God is good" then obedient creation, always choosing God, will always choose good.



The act of 'not choosing God' would then be what we understand to be 'choosing evil'.



In the garden of eden. Evil (from this point on meaning 'not choosing God ergo Good) had already entered eternity. Not as a created thing but the bi product of rebellion and disobedience.



Man (albeit Adam and Eve) didn't have knowledge of Evil or Good. They only knew God, chose God and hence did good.



God warned them about eating from the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil". God wanted to save His creation for bearing the burden of needing to choose between good and evil. He desired them to only know and only choose Him. However, He also desired willing relationship and not robotic response.



So, He allowed choice. NOT blind choice, they were informed. They knew the consequence and chose to 'know' the difference between good and evil.



To recap. God didn't create Evil. He allowed the choice to follow or reject Him. Rejecting Him equates to 'not choosing good' aptly title Evil.



Not the explaination of the cosmos or anything but I hope this helps your journey.



Good Luck



P.S. There are many belief systems that teach Evil IS a created thing in and of itself. I believe this to be contrary to Biblical truth. again... just my take.

Answer 7

Hy guys first ov all i wanna make u clear that Satan was not an angel .he was just a leader of angels.he belongs to a family ov "Jinnah".he was very pious at that time.and Allah had given him a top position in His angels. and the wrong deed done by him was due to his own will.Allah and His angels didn't force him to do so.in short Satan was not an angel so he refused to obey Allah but no angel has a power to rebel against Allah Almighty.Only humans and jinn have the right to choose between right and wrong.

Answer 8

It's an interesting question, and one I can't answer completely. See if you connect with any of this.



First, we tend to see good and evil as a dichotomy, and I suspect there's another way to look at it. Take some of the so-called seven deadly sins as examples.



Lust. Well, gee, there's certainly no harm in wanting to have consensual sex with your spouse, so sexual desire isn't the problem here.



Gluttony. No harm eating when you're hungry.



Sloth. Everyone's gotta rest sometime.



So, really, it seems like evil is a corruption of something good, rather than its complete opposite--something that ceases to be good when taken to an extreme. Which means that with good in the universe, evil was always a possibility.



Maybe Satan's problem was pride. It's good to be confident. It's good to recognize your own value. But he took it to the extreme. And yes, God knew he would do it, but that doesn't mean he created him to do it.



Lately, I've been thinking that God wants his entire creation restored. Taken to its logical conclusion...what if God wants to bring Satan back into the fold, like a prodigal son?

Answer 9

God create Satan to be his Minister of Music and Worship.



God knew in advance what would happen, but God did not specifically create evil, although some mis-quote the Bible every day making that claim.



Satan was given, like you and I were, free will.



God knew some would use it for good and some would use it for their own selfish pleasure.



Pastor Art

Answer 10

Its another conundrum in that big pool of questions about god. Being an agnostic I may not enter fully into the belief about him and his stories but it doesnt mean I dont mediate on them occasionly and wonder if it is true.

If god is all seeing and all powerful, One would of thought that he would of know that satan would turn evil and become bad, Or maybe he trusted judgement they would all serve him but they didnt.. Or maybe Satan doesnt really exist and is just a creation onto the faith in order to make heaven even more 'appealing' even a base for comparison.

Answer 11

In Hebrew scripture, Satan is not a name but a title. It means prosecutor. Satan is not supposed to be the big evil, he works for God. It wasn't until after the exile and the introduction of the Hebrews to Zoroastrianism that he became the big evil.

Answer 12

I don't understand it any better than you. I'd guess that's just the nature of free will. God created humans knowing that many would turn away from Him. Still, He wanted someone to love, I guess. So He created all He did. Sorry I'm not much help.

Answer 13

You are right in saying that angels were created free to worship or not to worship just as we were.



Regarding Lucifer who became Satan the adversary of God, read Isaiah 14:12-19 and Ezekiel 28:1-19 for many insights as to how he fell.

Answer 14

God can have no part of evil, God is Holy and Perfect, so I can't see this starting out this way, Satan went against God.

Answer 15

Without evil one can not know good. So if God wanted man to recognize good wouldn't it make sense to allow evil? Short of saying that this is all nonsense and the good and evil of man is man's doing then having a higher power of good must be balanced by a higher power of evil. Without this concept there would be no such thing as religion. Deciding which path you take is the challenge.

Answer 16

I think what's been in the bible from early on it choice. Satan had a choice. God knows all but (this is my personal belief) he won't control what are decisions are. He'll just be there for us regardless. 'sides without evil how would we know good? I just gave you what I think but maybe you should go to a priest or pastor?

Answer 17

“Evil” is just the absence of God. Kind of like how darkness is the absence of light. God did not create evil, because evil is just the result of Lucifer distancing himself from God through his pride (the first sin).

Answer 18

OK, have you read "Memnoch the Devil" by Anne Rice? When I read that book, I swear it was like she was pulling my thoughts out of my head in regard to my beliefs about angels and satan.



I don't think that Satan is evil, but that he was given dominion over Hell as punishment for questioning God. He was created by God as part of the race of angels, as you said, and fell from Grace when he decided that he knew better than God. He is known as The Accuser of God. He questioned everything God did. He became somewhat pompous about it, but I do think that Satan serves a greater purpose than being a scapegoat for bad things happening in the world. I think the purpose of Satan is to actually bring souls closer to God through trial and error, and making mistakes and yes, learning to make good choices rather than bad ones.



You also pegged it with Free Will. God gave us all minds of our own to question and learn and come to our own conclusions. Despite the fact of Him knowing the result of everything, we STILL have the freedom of choice to do the right thing. Satan included.

Answer 19

He is not very omnicognizant if he did not know what was going to happen before he created Lucifer.





But hey, The Lord moves in mysterious ways, now sit down and don't ask awkward questions or you will go to hell.

Answer 20

"We"? Not all religions agree that satan was an angel.

Answer 21

Just another bit of irrationality creeps into the theist concept.

Answer 22

This article may interest you...



http://www.spirithome.com/angels.html

Answer 23

Cookie monster is obese :(