English theologian Edwin Hatch queried: “How did a God who was almighty as well as beneficent come to create what is imperfect and evil?” (The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church, 1995, Peabody, Massachusetts, p. 194). While physicist Paul Davies asked why God, if He truly is all-powerful, does not simply intervene and stop all evil: “Is God free to prevent evil?…If he is omnipotent….Why then does He fail to do so” (God and The New Physics, 1983, p. 143).
In our supposedly enlightened society we’ve relegated Satan, the Devil, to the status of myth. Through the centuries, people’s belief in his existence has waxed and waned. Europeans devoutly believed in him in the Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, but in modern times the idea of a deceiving devil went out of style. On this subject, however, the only information that really matters is what the Bible provides, which tells us the devil exists as a powerful, evil being. But if Satan is responsible for evil, why doesn’t God stop him?
The Devil is a created angel who rebelled against God and became His—and mankind’s—adversary. (See Bible Insights Issue 136: The Origin Of Satan And His Demons for more information.) Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they immediately began to experience life on Satan’s level. Where God’s focus is love and peace, Satan’s is hate and violence. His primary purpose is to destroy humankind by enticing them to follow his way of destruction, abuse and murder. Through thousands of years of recorded history, Satan has influenced human beings to perpetrate the unimaginable against each other and, in wartime, against whole nations and peoples.
Jesus confirmed the Devil seduces people into committing atrocities, clearly identifying the source of the evil motivations of those who wanted to kill Him: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the Truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).
God’s gift to us “is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). This is why Jesus Christ came and died. But before we can inherit eternal life, we must resist and overcome the temptation to do evil with the help of God’s Holy Spirit: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12). (See the following article in this issue: Salvation Is Creation.)
God is all powerful. Yet He allows Satan to carry out his deceitful and destructive activities—within certain limits—for a purpose. God tests the character of every human being. Paul wrote, “We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4, NIV). God’s desire is for mankind to learn the only way of life that will work is the way of life He reveals in His Word, the Bible. He wants humanity to learn that “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23) and that Satan’s way leads to misery and suffering.
When Jesus Christ returns to earth, He will immediately expel Satan from his position of influence and deception, and restrain him (Revelation 20:1-3), preparing the way for the establishment of His Kingdom on earth.
