Expert: Eleanor Edwards - 9/15/2008

Question
I'm really sorry, this question might come from the far left:

I don't really understand the concept of the devil. From what I understand, he was a high ranking angel, and he was cast out of Heaven by God for being evil. I think.
I have a few problems with this. If God is all powerful, why does He have a rival kingdom? If the devil can rival Him, doesn't that mean he is as powerful as the Lord? But God is the Almighty. I don't get it.
Secondly, if God made him, He must have been aware that he would be evil and come to tempt mankind and bring them away from God. Why would God allow that?
So, if He wasn't aware, well, that would again contradict God's all-knowingness.

Thanks so much for your time.

Answer
Hi Victoria,
Many thanks for your thought provoking questions. To be honest, much of the time I try to avoid answering the unanswerable questions like these but I'll give it a go!

The first truth you must hang on to is that God is all-knowing (the posh word for this is omniscient). If you're ever in any doubt as to how awesome God really is, have a look at the last few chapters of Job. Read the creation account. Look out your window at the colors in nature.

So believing that God is omniscient, why would He create an angel knowing full well that this angel would go on to challenge Him?

There are two reasons as far as I can see it. Which (if either!) is correct, I can't tell you. All I can do is tell you what I think.

Reason #1: God knew that the angel would challenge Him but He also knew that He had a back up plan to save the world and reunite it with Him. This 'back up plan' is Jesus.

Before we were ever created, God knew that one day I would tell lies, steal, be rude, manipulative, greedy ... I could go on but I don't want to reveal all my weak points when we've only just met ;) All this bad stuff is called 'sin' in the bible and we're told if we commit one sin, we're as guilty in God's eyes as if we'd committed them all. The point being then that without some help, we've got no chance of getting our lives back on track and serving God.

Jesus was/is the solution that God came up with. Jesus was sent to Earth in human form to be born and raised as a child and He went on to die on a cross (and most importantly, rise again) as payment for the sins we commit. If we believe in Jesus and accept this free gift from God, we will be saved, put back on track in our relationship with God.

So why would God create the angel knowing full well that sin would enter the world as a result? One explanation could be that in so doing, it allowed God to reveal His plan for salvation. It gives God all the glory for getting us fixed.

Reason #2: Free will.
Now until I thought this one through logically, I'd always assumed that angels didn't have free will. However, if angels don't have free will (or didn't have free will then) it would have been impossible for the angel to rebel and be thrown out.

So based on the assumption that angels and humans all have free will, reason #2 why God allowed this to go ahead is because He gave us free will. God doesn't want worship and praise from robots. I believe He enjoys the praise and worship from people who volunteer to do so.

But the danger in allowing free will is that people might take advantage of that free will and decide not to praise and worship God. This is what happened to the devil I think. He became proud and thought he was better than God. I don't know the specifics but he was thrown out of heaven along with his angel supporters.

But all the while God knew this would happen which is why all along He planned for our salvation through Jesus.

As for your questions about the devil as God's rival. I don't see the devil as God's rival on an equal footing. Yes, right now it might feel like the devil is very powerful but ultimately, Jesus has already won the war and did so on the day He defeated death and came back to life.

God is God. What the devil has is not a rival kingdom or even any hope of anything like as powerful as God's kingdom. I think the explanation above of why God would allow the devil to exist knowing what he would go on to do, is also suffice to explain why God allows the devil to have as much power as he has on earth right now.

However, remember this is only for a time. Ultimately, the devil is destined for an eternity in hell, lake of fire or eternal death. I'm not sure I understand the specifics but I know that it ain't pretty!

Having looked back and seen that this has become quite lengthy, I trust something of it will help you. What I try and do with things that confuse me is do what you did, seek help from someone but then if after having found out more I still can't reconcile it in my head, I just give it all back to God and His sovereign power.

I hold my hands up and say, "Do you know what God? I don't get this. It doesn't make sense. To me it doesn't seem logical. But I know that you can see everything, you know everything, your thoughts are more numerous than the grains of sand on the beach. Therefore, please help me to not worry about the things I don't understand. Please help me to trust you more. Thank you for loving me and looking after me."

Try and explain how God made a human person out of nothing more than a handful of dirt. Explain how God can hear, understand and respond to the billions of silent prayers that are offered to Him each second of each day. Tell me how two cells can possibly turn into a baby.

All of these things are too wonderful and too difficult for me to explain but it doesn't mean they can't be. This is where I'm at with the devil. I know he exists. I know he is sneaky and tries to cause all sorts of problems. Why God would allow him to come into being, that I can't understand. But God is God, He knows what He's doing and it is that in which I put my trust.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask again or drop me an e-mail. I've included my address below.
In His love and service,
Eleanor
eleanor@eleanoredwards.co.uk