Why did God allow the devil to be created?

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My daughter who is 13 is full of tough questions. She wants to know why God created the angels, knowing that one of them would rebel and become Satan? Any good ideas on how to explain this?
 
theresa said:
My daughter who is 13 is full of tough questions. She wants to know why God created the angels, knowing that one of them would rebel and become Satan? Any good ideas on how to explain this?
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Should she never have been alowed to be born because Hitler was born?

Abuse of our free will allows us to sin, but is it not better that one man be born and know the love of God, despite any evil all other men might perpitrate, than no one have been created?

Chuck
 
I have discussed “free will” at length with my kids - it gets better as they get older and understand more. One of the other ideas I have used is that because God sees everything all at once - the entire sum of the universe laid out from the beginning to the end of time and becasue He has a plan for all of it we don’t know how He is using other’s choices in His grand plan. In other words, yes, God did know Satan would reject Him but maybe already knowing that, God used that rejection as an integral part of His grand plan.

P.S. - if you have not done so in a while, compliment her on asking tough questions. Tough answers make us all more holy.
 
We all sin so if Satan should not exist because he rejected God neither should we.
 
Yes, I have told her that she’s obviously thinking deep thoughts about God and His creation. And I’m very glad she asks, because I didn’t ask these questions when I was her age and was confused for a long, long time.
Thank you for your answers. Are there any books you’d recommend for teens on this subject?
 
Have you ever heard the expression “love is blind”? The Bible says God IS love, so how can love accuse His subjects of love of sin? “Satan” in Hebrew actually means “the accuser.” He accuses us of sin where God doesn’t want to. He was like the prosecuting attorney for Heaven, but when he saw God’s unwillingness to condemn His creation and instead always offfering a redemptive plan, Satan became known as “the enemy.” Ultimately, he still exists now because God is merciful and allows him to continue to live. He is only alive because of God’s love.
 
theresa said:
Yes, I have told her that she’s obviously thinking deep thoughts about God and His creation. And I’m very glad she asks, because I didn’t ask these questions when I was her age and was confused for a long, long time.
Thank you for your answers. Are there any books you’d recommend for teens on this subject?
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If she loves to ask questions, I personally recommend “Did Jesues Have A Last Name” and “Did Adam and Eve” have belly buttons by Matt Pinto and Jason Evert.
 
Don’t forget that the devil started out as an angel. His name was Lucifer, and he was the most intelligent (and beautiful) of all the angels. His name means ‘Light’.

When God made the promise of sending a Redeemer into the world, Lucifer said, ‘Non Serviam-I Will Not Serve!’ And he got a lot of other angels on his side before St. Michael (under the battle cry ‘Who Is Like Unto God?’) got the good angels on his side and threw Lucifer and his horde of bad angels out of heaven and into hell.

That’s the answer to your question…
 
barb_finnegan said:
Don’t forget that the devil started out as an angel. His name was Lucifer, and he was the most intelligent (and beautiful) of all the angels. His name means ‘Light’.

When God made the promise of sending a Redeemer into the world, Lucifer said, ‘Non Serviam-I Will Not Serve!’ And he got a lot of other angels on his side before St. Michael (under the battle cry ‘Who Is Like Unto God?’) got the good angels on his side and threw Lucifer and his horde of bad angels out of heaven and into hell.

That’s the answer to your question…
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Not to derail the thread, but where does this story come from?
 
theresa said:
My daughter who is 13 is full of tough questions. She wants to know why God created the angels, knowing that one of them would rebel and become Satan? Any good ideas on how to explain this?
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I don’t think that it was as much a rebellion against God as it was a refusal to worship God who had become man.

***For it was not to angels that he subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. Instead, someone has testified somewhere:

“What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels**;
you crowned him with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under his feet.”

In “subjecting” all things [to him], he left nothing not “subject to him.” Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,” but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death, he who “for a little while” was made “lower than the angels,” that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9)*

I think the angles refused to worship a God which had become something lower than themselves. The angels refused to worship God in the incarnation. They refused to worship God who was also a dirty, hungry, tired human being who had to go to the bathroom, who caught colds and had toothaches, and who was born in blood and amniotic fluid.
barb_finnegan said:
Don’t forget that the devil started out as an angel. His name was Lucifer, and he was the most intelligent (and beautiful) of all the angels. His name means ‘Light’.

When God made the promise of sending a Redeemer into the world, Lucifer said, ‘Non Serviam-I Will Not Serve!’ And he got a lot of other angels on his side before St. Michael (under the battle cry ‘Who Is Like Unto God?’) got the good angels on his side and threw Lucifer and his horde of bad angels out of heaven and into hell.

That’s the answer to your question…
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I think Barb is exactly right. Lucifer refused to serve. We are told that the fallen angels sin was pride, and I think this is consistent with an angel who refuses to worship a God who became “for a little while lower than the angels.”

-Tim-
 
theresa said:
My daughter who is 13 is full of tough questions. She wants to know why God created the angels, knowing that one of them would rebel and become Satan? Any good ideas on how to explain this?
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It’s a good question. My source might not be popular to fellow Catholics, but, for me, my favorite apologist is my dear C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity, more than any other book save the Holy Bible, has brought me closer to the Lord and changed ny life. Below, I am linking an online excerpt for you (audio for listening ease :)) wherein C.S. Lewis explains sin as an inversion of good by means of free will, not as a ‘thing’ in it’s own right, simply a perversion of good.

And, of course, that leads him to discuss the devil. (Well, a voice actor, but he sounds very British and channels Lewis very well!)

C.S. Lewis on the genesis of evil and the devil

I highly reccomend listening to whole series, time permitting. All the best!
 
smp501 said:
Not to derail the thread, but where does this story come from?
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You can read at least a part of it in the New Testament Book of Revelation.

I don’t have it ‘chapter and verse’, but it begins with: ‘Then war broke out in Heaven…’

It mentions St. Michael by name, fighting with his fellow angels against the devil and his cohorts, and their being cast down into Hell.
 
Thanks, everyone! I appreciate all of your help. It is difficult at times to know how to answer. sometimes I have to say “It is a mystery”.
 
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