No one is
spared of evil in this world. We either reel under the effects of evil or hear
the impact of evil upon our relatives, friends and society at large. Some
question God’s goodness on account of evil and a few others dispute God’s
presence.
Evil is
real. Evil is not an illusion. Any sane human being would affirm this position.
Terrorism or human trafficking is an act of evil, and the pain felt by those
hurt by evil is indeed real.
If evil is
real, then it should have a source, and that source has to be real. (If Satan
is not real, then was Christ hallucinating while HE was tempted by Satan and
while HE drove away the demons?)
The Bible
terms Satan as the source of all evil (John 8: 44 etc.). Christians believe in
God as a maximally great being; HE is supreme over all that has been, is and
ever will be. If God is supreme, then HE should have created Satan. Isn’t it?
Before we
explore the Bible to learn about Satan, we should discard the following concepts:
1. That Satan
and his demonic entourage are merely a mythological conception drawn from the
culture of the day. This is German theologian Rudolf Bultmann’s program of
demythologization of Satan.
2. That Satan
and evil do not stem from a personal source but are woven in the fabric of our
social reality as a part of the very structure of reality. This is Christian
existentialist theologian Paul Tilich’s depersonalization of Satan.
3. That demons
are simply nothingness in their dynamic, not created by God but a threat to
God’s creation. This is reformed theologian Karl Barth’s conception. This
conception of evil denies the concreteness of evil, hence we disagree.
So to begin
with, we agree with the Bible that evil is real, Satan is real, and God is also
real. Did God then create Satan? The answer is an unequivocal yes.
But the
bigger question is, “Did God create Satan as a source of evil?” The answer to
this question is an unequivocal no, for God, as a good being, cannot be the creator
of evil.
This then is
Bible’s teaching about Satan:
Isaiah 14:
12-17 and Ezekiel 28: 12-19 are often termed as conjectures of the Satanic
fall. This may or may not be so, for these passages could refer to human kings
of Babylon and Tyre. Hence it would be profitable for us to explore the Bible
outside these references to learn more about Satan.
1. God
created everything, which includes angels and demons (Colossians 1: 15-16).
2.
Everything God created was originally good (Genesis 1: 31; 1 Timothy 4: 4)
3. Some angels
sinned and are doomed for eternal destruction (1 John 3: 8; 2 Peter 2: 4; Jude
6). If some angels sinned, then they were created merely with a potential to
sin i.e. they had the freewill to sin.
4. Satan is
an angel who is subordinate to God (Job 1: 6-7).
5. Satan is
a demon (Luke 10: 17-20) – casting out of demons implies the defeat of Satan.
6. Satan is
the prince of demons (Matthew 12: 22-32; Mark 3: 22-30; Luke 11: 14-23).
7. Those
who are demon possessed are under the influence of the devil (Acts 10: 38; cf.
Luke 13: 16).
8. Satan is
the evil one (Matthew 13: 19; 1 John 2: 13, 3: 12, 5: 18).
These
passages undoubtedly teach us that God created Satan and his demons originally
as good beings. But Satan and some of his fellow angels sinned against God and
are in the business of enabling mankind’s rebellion and disobedience against
God.
Significantly,
God did not create an evil Satan. God created a good angel, who used his
freewill to reject God and become evil.
If God had
not created angels, then Satan would not exist. So why did God create angels? The
Bible reveals the purpose behind God’s creation of angels. Angels were created
to…
1. …reveal
and communicate God’s message to humans (Acts 7: 53; Hebrews 2: 2).
2. …minister
to believers (Acts 5: 19; Hebrews 1: 14).
3. …execute
judgment on the enemies of God (2 Kings 19: 35).
4. …praise
and glorify God (Psalm 103: 20, 148: 2).
5. …be
involved in Christ’s second coming (Matthew 25: 31)
A variant of the bigger
question is, ‘why did God create Satan knowing that he will cause evil in this
world?’
First, did
God know that Satan would cause evil? Yes, God would have known all about
Satan. God is all-knowing (Job 37:16; Psalm 139:2–4, 147:5; Proverbs 5:21;
Isaiah 46:9-10; 1 John 3:19–20), so God would have definitely known that Satan
would cause evil and disaster in this world.
Second, could
not have God created a world without Satan? Wouldn’t a world without Satan and
evil be a better world than ours? In other words, is our world the best of all
possible worlds?
One of the
great thinkers of 17th and 18th century is Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz. He proposed that our world is the best of all possible worlds.
Leibniz's proposition was that since God knew all of the infinite possibilities,
this world should be the best of all possible worlds, for God has actualized
this world over the other possible worlds.
Christian
analytic philosopher, Alvin Plantinga differed from Leibniz by positing that
there cannot be a best world, for one more palm tree or one more morally
righteous person can make any world better. So Plantinga concluded that there
is no such thing as the best world. [Even if God does not create anything, HE
alone will exist as the greatest good (Summum bonum)]. Therefore, God is merely
obligated to create a good world and not a best world.
This world
is a good world, since God has offered freedom to his creation. God has offered
freedom to man to love HIM freely. The same freedom was offered to the angels
as well. Some angels a.k.a. Satan and his demonic entourage abused this freedom
and rebelled against God.
A world
without freedom is not a good world. Therefore, as C.S Lewis wrote in ‘Problem of Pain,’ God has created a
good world in such a way that the goodness of this world could be perverted
into evil upon mankind’s rebellion or when creation is distorted.
In other
words, free beings i.e. man could use their freedom to perform evil deeds by
rejecting God, which in effect would destroy the goodness of God’s creation. Similarly
man can tamper with nature to bring about evil e.g. destruction of coral reefs
would bring about hunger, poverty and political instability.
As long as
God offers freedom to his creation, the free moral agents (e.g. man) would
possess the ability to do good or evil. So the question is not about Satan’s
existence whereas the question should be about the presence of freedom.
A world
without freedom would be a world full of puppets or robots albeit in the form
of human beings, which in essence is not a good world at all.
Creating
human beings with freedom is wiser than creating humans in an antiseptic
environment from whom the logical possibility of desiring anything contrary to
God’s will is excluded.
Therefore,
a world without freewill and Satan would any day be a terrible world to live in
than a world with freewill and Satan.
Could God
have created a world with freewill and without Satan? A world with freewill
will entail evil and a world with evil will posit a source, namely Satan. Even
if angelic beings were not created, and as long as freewill exists, evil would
exist.
Evil would
exist because God in HIS nature is good. So anyone opposing or rejecting a good
God would do evil. So a world with freewill and without Satan would still
contain evil.
Satan and his cohorts are busy
causing evil in this world. Although we reel under the effects of evil both
directly and indirectly, God has offered us eternal life through the Lord Jesus
Christ and God has promised to care for and protect those who believe and seek HIM.
May we believe in Christ, gain life eternal, and protection against evil. Amen.
