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Seems like that’s a pretty loaded question, n’est ce pas? It calls to mind a number of things we learned about God and Satan. John 3:16-19 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” This passage talks about saving mankind from the evil that walks the earth in the form of Satan and Satan’s works among the people.
Satan rules the earth. We at least have an inking of that when Jesus in John 14:30 says to his disciples, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me...” Who is that ruler, if not Satan?
And we know that Satan is not as strong as God, and he’s not even as strong as the archangel Michael, for Revelation 12:7-9 tells that that Michael threw Satan out of Heaven and Satan landed on the earth. And Lord Jesus says in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
It would be nice if God destroyed Satan so Satan and evil would dissipate like a pandemic among herd immunity. And we know that God can change a person’s disposition so as to predispose them toward goodness instead of the evil they learned. Seems that if God could harden the heart of a Pharaoh so as to make a point to the Hebrews, He could incline a person’s heart toward goodness. Yet man continues to be prone to evil, and what of Satan?
In Job 1:6-8, Satan comes along with the sons of God. What does God do? Couldn’t God have destroyed him then and there? Instead, he strikes up a light conversation with Satan, as if they were old friends, asking him nonchalantly, “Have you considered my servant Job?” And then, unfortunately for Job, all hell breaks loose.
If God loves us, why has he let Satan go ‘to and thro’ among the world, along with his bag of sins to share with mankind? Why does God see the need to test us? When Adam and eve were first created, they didn’t know evil. And if they didn’t eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, their offspring and the generations thereafter would not have known evil either. There would be no sinners in the world, it seems.
I guess, because of the Book of Job, Satan could strike up a conversation with God at any time, and perhaps God would ask Satan something like, ‘Have you considered mankind, who is my servant, not knowing evil?’ And maybe Satan would respond, asking God what would happen if God put mankind through misery, something similar to what Job went through? But I guess at that point, given what we know about God loving us, He would not go through with something like that—although He did with Job. That leaves an open question as to what He would do.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in God with all our heart and to not rely on our own understanding. But the Bible also infers in Isaiah 1:18 that we can reason with Him, but to keep in mind that He holds the marbles.
And the Bible tells us that in the future, God will bring to Him all those whom He’s judged to be righteous, while having the rest perish. But again, if Satan and evil didn’t exist in the world, and if God loves us, why not get rid now of the things which inclines mankind to evil, so He could bring everyone with Him, as if Adam and Eve never ate the forbidden fruit?
Satan rules the earth. We at least have an inking of that when Jesus in John 14:30 says to his disciples, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me...” Who is that ruler, if not Satan?
And we know that Satan is not as strong as God, and he’s not even as strong as the archangel Michael, for Revelation 12:7-9 tells that that Michael threw Satan out of Heaven and Satan landed on the earth. And Lord Jesus says in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
It would be nice if God destroyed Satan so Satan and evil would dissipate like a pandemic among herd immunity. And we know that God can change a person’s disposition so as to predispose them toward goodness instead of the evil they learned. Seems that if God could harden the heart of a Pharaoh so as to make a point to the Hebrews, He could incline a person’s heart toward goodness. Yet man continues to be prone to evil, and what of Satan?
In Job 1:6-8, Satan comes along with the sons of God. What does God do? Couldn’t God have destroyed him then and there? Instead, he strikes up a light conversation with Satan, as if they were old friends, asking him nonchalantly, “Have you considered my servant Job?” And then, unfortunately for Job, all hell breaks loose.
If God loves us, why has he let Satan go ‘to and thro’ among the world, along with his bag of sins to share with mankind? Why does God see the need to test us? When Adam and eve were first created, they didn’t know evil. And if they didn’t eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, their offspring and the generations thereafter would not have known evil either. There would be no sinners in the world, it seems.
I guess, because of the Book of Job, Satan could strike up a conversation with God at any time, and perhaps God would ask Satan something like, ‘Have you considered mankind, who is my servant, not knowing evil?’ And maybe Satan would respond, asking God what would happen if God put mankind through misery, something similar to what Job went through? But I guess at that point, given what we know about God loving us, He would not go through with something like that—although He did with Job. That leaves an open question as to what He would do.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in God with all our heart and to not rely on our own understanding. But the Bible also infers in Isaiah 1:18 that we can reason with Him, but to keep in mind that He holds the marbles.
And the Bible tells us that in the future, God will bring to Him all those whom He’s judged to be righteous, while having the rest perish. But again, if Satan and evil didn’t exist in the world, and if God loves us, why not get rid now of the things which inclines mankind to evil, so He could bring everyone with Him, as if Adam and Eve never ate the forbidden fruit?
