Does God Hate Satan?

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I’m sure we could all agree that God is love. I am also sure we could all agree that God hates sin and evil. The question is, does God hate Satan? Is there any way to really answer that question? For instance, what is God’s definition of ‘hate’, and does it differ with ours as humans.

So to answer that question really requires us to define certain terms:
  1. Hate (God’s definition vs. humans)
  2. Evil (God’s definition vs. humans)
  3. Sin (God’s definition vs. humans)
I could probably delve into all kinds of sub topics here, but I would rather just pose the question and observe the myriad possibilities of answers. Godbless and thank you in advance for your answers.
 
God loves everything he has created. Therefore he loves Satan. What he doesn’t love is what Satan has chosen to do.

Love the sinner but hate the sin…
 
Well put. The sad part is that Satan can not even repent and ask for forgiveness. As an angel, he and his minions made an everlasting decision to reject God. At least us on earth have a chance for forgiveness up until we die.
 
Well put. The sad part is that Satan can not even repent and ask for forgiveness. As an angel, he and his minions made an everlasting decision to reject God. At least us on earth have a chance for forgiveness up until we die.
Is this just an opinion (not that your opinion would be invalid), or do you have some Church documentation to support that statement? If you don’t that is okay. I didn’t ask what the Church teaches regarding this, I just threw the question out there.
 
Btw, I have not heard any replies as to a definition of ‘hate’ ‘sin’ and/or ‘evil’.
 
Is this just an opinion (not that your opinion would be invalid), or do you have some Church documentation to support that statement? If you don’t that is okay. I didn’t ask what the Church teaches regarding this, I just threw the question out there.
I will have to do some searching on this, but I did hear it as a teaching
 
Please explain why angels can’t repent. Thanks!
**Read 1 Cointhians 13. Paul tells ua that now, our knowledge is imperect, that we see as through a glass darkly. When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. That’s an adequate paraphrase of the relevant verses.

The angels beheld God in all of His Love and Power and Glory. To behold the face of God and reject Him seems an eternal choice. What more can they behold or experience of God than they already have that would change their minds and hearts? Nothing. They beheld the perfect that Paul tells us we have yet to behold. Then they rejected The Perfect. They rejected Love and Mercy. That’s why it is so important for us to practice love and mercy, to abandon the sin of Pride, lest we prove ourselves no better than satan and his minions.:highprayer::highprayer: :highprayer::highprayer::highprayer: :highprayer: :highprayer:**
 
**Read 1 Cointhians 13. Paul tells ua that now, our knowledge is imperect, that we see as through a glass darkly. When the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. That’s an adequate paraphrase of the relevant verses.

The angels beheld God in all of His Love and Power and Glory. To behold the face of God and reject Him seems an eternal choice. What more can they behold or experience of God than they already have that would change their minds and hearts? Nothing. They beheld the perfect that Paul tells us we have yet to behold. Then they rejected The Perfect. They rejected Love and Mercy. That’s why it is so important for us to practice love and mercy, to abandon the sin of Pride, lest we prove ourselves no better than satan and his minions.:highprayer::highprayer: :highprayer::highprayer::highprayer: :highprayer: :highprayer:**
That answer sounds very adequate, but again, based upon what seems to be an argument from logic, not necessarily from any official Catholic source. But again, I did not prompt the answer of this particular post, nor did I from the outset ask for any official Catholic teaching on the matter. However, since having posed the original question I can see where I probably should have specified that I was looking for an official Catholic position on the issue. Otherwise, anyone could say anything…just like Non-Catholic Christians have a tendency to do…making unfounded claims or private interpretations. I’m not saying anyone’s answers in here have strayed into those areas, or that ALL private interpretations are invalid, but the potential is there. That is why we are Catholic…we adhere to an interpretation that can be supported by the magisterium. The Church is our teacher, not the other way around. Again, not saying anyone has indicated otherwise. Also, I realize that many interpretations are acceptable where the Church is silent (as long as they are not contrary to Church teaching).

Having said all that, I don’t see anything that would indicate your answer is not in keeping with Church teaching. In fact, I would say it seems very much in keeping with Her teaching (then again, I’m ignorant in this area which is why I posed the question). I could answer it from a Scriptural perspective easily, but I guess what I was fishing for was an official Church teaching based upon Church fathers, CCC, Encyclicals, etc.

Hope that clarifies things…(-:
 
God hates anything or any creature that permanently rejects him including Satan, his demons, and the eternally damned. That’s why there is Hell. When we sin God is not going to say “Oh well, I love you anyway” and overlook your transgression. You have voluntarily rejected his love, so you are cast out of it. Yet, it does not follow that God wants to continue to hate you, nor that he wants to harm you, he wants you to come back to him while you still can in this life so that he can love you again. He incarnated himself and died on the cross to bring us back to his love. However, at the end, if you are not in God’s love, then you would be permanently cast out of him and therefore hated. Now, the definition of hate is merely the absence of love. One can legitimately hate someone so long as we do not wish harm to come to that person and remain open to the possibility of reconciliation with that person. Now, usually we see the word “hate” as evil, when it can actually be used for good such as when one wishes to punish an evil doer. We can perhaps replace it with the word “dislike,” which sounds less harsh. It is certainly possible to dislike a friend or relative that you love temporarily and then later like them again. There is a good and just type of hate and a bad type of hate. But, our modern English language has changed so that hate is usually understood as the bad kind. So, that’s why I would use the word dislike whenever I discuss the fact that my relationship with someone has turned sour. I do not wish them harm and do not wish to always dislike them. It’s just that the person has hurt me in some way and has not made amends. The word “evil” (or wrath) can also be good or bad. The good evil would be when one inflicts a legitimate punishment on someone for some wrong doing, the bad evil would be when one wishes to inflict harm on someone that is either a punishment inflicted disproportionate to the offence or when the person is innocent and does not merit such harm. Evil can be understood both as just harm and unjust harm. But, again, our modern English language only sees it as unjust harm. In the case of the double meanings of both words “evil” and “hate,” many people are so accustomed to the modern usages that they don’t see the other side of the coin and therefore often misinterpret Scripture.
 
Please explain why angels can’t repent. Thanks!
The spirit world is eternal, and therefore it follows that all decisions in the spirit world are also eternal. Because our immortal souls are connected to our material temporal bodies in the temporal material world, then any decision made during our time here is temporary and therefore changeable which permits repentance. But, at the end it is no longer temporal, but becomes eternal since no longer are we subject to the material temporal world. We enter into the eternal spiritual realm in which our decision prior to death is made final.
 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

*II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS

391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.” The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning”, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.” *

Emphasis added.

Pretty straightforward there. No repentance for the fallen angels.

On God loving Satan:

*301 With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:

For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.*

God loves all of his creation unconditionally. There is no “…unless you fall from grace and separate yourself from God through mortal sin. Then God will stop loving you.” anywhere in there. God loves Satan because, despite deep sin, Satan is still an angel. God loves Satan for what he IS. That does not and should not ever imply that God loves Satan for what he DOES.

Sin does not define what it means to be human any more than sin defines what it means to be an angel. All angels were good at first, just as Adam and Eve were good at first. God created everything good. It is the actions of the creation which determine how the creation will be judged.
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but God didn’t create Satan , so i don’t get it… ??
 
  1. Hate (God’s definition vs. humans)
  2. Evil (God’s definition vs. humans)
  3. Sin (God’s definition vs. humans)
I have always wondered as to how God could “hate” being LOVE himself and I never managed to figure it out. But after reading your question, I thought about it again and now I think I have an answer.

This is purely my personal opinion.
  1. I think God defines hate as the absence of love. When God hates somebody, he has nothing to do with him. He treats him as though he never knew him (Matthew 7:23). So when God withdraws himself (or his love) from someone, he is automatically hating that person (according to God’s definition of hate).
  2. Evil is the absence of good. Ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, we humans have known what is good and what is evil. It is written in our very consciences. I think the church calls that the “natural law”.
  3. “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23)
 
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

*II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS

391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”. The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”

392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This “fall” consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: “You will be like God.” The devil “has sinned from the beginning”; he is “a liar and the father of lies”.

393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgivable. “There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.”*

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning”, who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.

395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”

Emphasis added.

Pretty straightforward there. No repentance for the fallen angels.

On God loving Satan:

*301 With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:

For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.*

God loves all of his creation unconditionally. There is no “…unless you fall from grace and separate yourself from God through mortal sin. Then God will stop loving you.” anywhere in there. God loves Satan because, despite deep sin, Satan is still an angel. God loves Satan for what he IS. That does not and should not ever imply that God loves Satan for what he DOES.

Sin does not define what it means to be human any more than sin defines what it means to be an angel. All angels were good at first, just as Adam and Eve were good at first. God created everything good. It is the actions of the creation which determine how the creation will be judged.
Thank you for that very extensive and supported answer. Wonderful!
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but God didn’t create Satan , so i don’t get it… ??
Actually, God did create satan. Lucifer was the Angel of Light. Apart from the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, all other beings, matter, energy are created by God.
 
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