If God is an omniscient God, why did He create Satan knowing it would lead to the fall of mankind? This is a question I’ve been wrestling with a lot lately, and Google tells me I’m not alone. The Bible says there are some things we cannot understand, but this is not a good excuse for failing to examine the more challenging aspects of faith. After a little research, I have come up with a few possible solutions to this messy but very important question.
1. Free will cannot exist without evil.
We know that God is a big advocate of free will because He wants His followers to obey by choice, out of love. Free will cannot exist without two opposing choices, and this could be why God created Satan despite knowing that He would introduce evil to the world. To stop Satan’s rebellion would also deny the devil of his own free will.
2. All creations are originally good.
Genesis 1:31 says that God created all things to be very good. Satan, and later mankind, chose to live outside of His established law and are therefore responsible for the consequences. Essentially, God did not create Satan the destroyer. He created Lucifer the most angelic being in Heaven. The fault is in Satan, not God.
3. God knew Satan would be temporary.
Satan may wreak havoc upon Earth, but he has no place in Heaven according to Revelation 12:8. The Earth is designed as a temporary home, and Revelation 20:10 says that Satan will eventually be overthrown for good. God may have allowed Satan to rebel knowing that this temporary destruction could ultimately reveal his eternal glory.
4. God has the power to know all things, but chooses not to.
According to Job 28:24, God has the ability to see everything of the past, present and future. Jesus claims that he does not know the time of the second coming in Matthew 24, though he possesses the fullness of God. This could be part of Jesus’s human nature, or it could be an indication that God chooses to limit his foreknowledge.
5. Satan was crucial to a Heavenly dialogue.
When Satan took one-third of Heaven’s angels with his rebellion, he openly questioned God’s authority. God had already established His character as pure and holy, so to obliterate Satan would encourage other angels to praise Him out of fear and not love. It would also eliminate free will from the equation.
Again, these are just possible solutions. There is no way to say for certain which, if any, of these answers are true. Or maybe they’re all true! But that shouldn’t keep us from speculating or looking to the Bible in pursuit of answers. The possibilities are limitless, and I am hoping to hear a few more perspectives. That being said, why do you think God created Satan?