Why Didn't GOD Destroy the Devil?
The devil will be destroyed one day; of this we are assured. One of the great purposes of Jesus was “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14.
John visualized the dramatic scenes which will finally and forever bring down the curtain on the activities of Satan and his hosts. “Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them,” he says.(Revelation 20:7-9)
The big question:
But why wait until some future date to terminate his nefarious activities? Why, in fact, should God have waited at all, when Lucifer made it clear that he would never repent? Surely God knew the suffering that would result from sin. If He is opposed to suffering, why did He not strike down the devil and his rebels at the very beginning?
The answer:
Whereas God knew well enough where sin would lead, no one else did. They had therefore to have some demonstration. So the devil was permitted to live. The unfortunate victim of his activity is our planet, and for the duration of its history he has been given the chance to prove whether his way of rebellion is to be preferred to God’s way of loyal obedience to the moral law.
The answer is obvious. Satan’s way leads to pain, and grief, and death. The unfallen beings of the universe can thereby see that for happiness, health, and life, God’s way is the only answer. Had Satan and his host been destroyed at once, the unfallen beings would have developed a fear of God. Doubts as to His justice would have arisen. They would forever have wondered whether Satan was right after all. Loyalty to God would thereafter have sprung from fear rather than love. So God let Satan live. And the colossal sufferings on earth, the strife, the sorrow, the friction, and confusion, and the periodic bloodbaths, all tell in trumpet tones that “tribulation and anguish” will be “upon every soul of man that does evil.” But “Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” Romans 2:9; (see also Jeremiah 17:7.)
“0 taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in Him.” Psalm 34:8.
John visualized the dramatic scenes which will finally and forever bring down the curtain on the activities of Satan and his hosts. “Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them,” he says.(Revelation 20:7-9)
The big question:
But why wait until some future date to terminate his nefarious activities? Why, in fact, should God have waited at all, when Lucifer made it clear that he would never repent? Surely God knew the suffering that would result from sin. If He is opposed to suffering, why did He not strike down the devil and his rebels at the very beginning?
The answer:
Whereas God knew well enough where sin would lead, no one else did. They had therefore to have some demonstration. So the devil was permitted to live. The unfortunate victim of his activity is our planet, and for the duration of its history he has been given the chance to prove whether his way of rebellion is to be preferred to God’s way of loyal obedience to the moral law.
The answer is obvious. Satan’s way leads to pain, and grief, and death. The unfallen beings of the universe can thereby see that for happiness, health, and life, God’s way is the only answer. Had Satan and his host been destroyed at once, the unfallen beings would have developed a fear of God. Doubts as to His justice would have arisen. They would forever have wondered whether Satan was right after all. Loyalty to God would thereafter have sprung from fear rather than love. So God let Satan live. And the colossal sufferings on earth, the strife, the sorrow, the friction, and confusion, and the periodic bloodbaths, all tell in trumpet tones that “tribulation and anguish” will be “upon every soul of man that does evil.” But “Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” Romans 2:9; (see also Jeremiah 17:7.)
“0 taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in Him.” Psalm 34:8.
posted by Michael A. Redwine at Thursday, June 16, 2005
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