Why Was the Devil’s Existence Allowed?
Why was Satan allowed to keep on living? Why did not God, if he is so powerful, destroy him with the snap of his fingers? It would have certainly prevented all the evil, wars, deaths, pain, guilt and sufferings that have plagued our world!
Well, to respond to this important and legitimate question, please let me introduce you to the following qualities of our Creator. He is a loving God26 and love cannot exist in an atmosphere of fear and coercion. Love cannot be demanded. It takes risks of being rejected.
God desires from all His creatures a loving respect that springs from intelligent beings, based on the appreciation of His divine qualities: kindness and righteousness. He will not force our allegiance. He grants us freedom of will, that we may be in a loving relationship with Him. He cannot accept the adoration of robots. The Bible book of Deuteronomy challenges us so: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”27 Even Jesus, asked
his inner circle of friends, when a lot of his disciples left him and “they no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”28 They were not being forced to stay.
God wisely did not destroy Satan, back then. Angels would have been unable to see how Satan’s evil character would be revealed. In God’s kingdom, righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Unfailing love and truth are closely united.29 Another point to consider: the immediate destruction of Satan, would have planted doubts in the minds of angels which would have tormented them.
Christ came to this Earth, not only to save us from the consequences of sin which is eternal separation from the life-giver; but he also came to unmask Satan as he truly is, a liar and a murderer.
Jesus unmasking Satan said: “From the very beginning he [the Devil] was a murderer and has never been on the side of truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of all lies.”30 He was behind the murder of Abel, and behind Christ’s crucifixion. For the inhabitants of heaven, to see our benevolent and loving Savior, their own Commander-in-Chief, to be cruelly treated, was enough to remove any lingering doubt about the loving and righteous character of God.
Jesus, “having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a
selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.”31 Nevertheless, through death Christ destroyed “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14.”
Any possible sympathy for this rebellious angel, Satan, was vanquished by Christ’s death on the cross. No wonder that heavenly beings are moved to say: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”32
“For this reason, also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”33
