Why God allowed some angels to become evil

[kevinfraser]

My teenage son, (pray for him and all teenagers pls he’s going through “that phase”) asked a really good question yesterday:

If God has perfect foreknowledge and He created Angels to do His Will, then Why did He allow some of them to choose Evil and become Devils?

Or, Why did God create angels who He knew would become evil?

To amplify that, I think he’s struggling with the “If evil is Bad and God controls everything and loves perfectly, why does He allow any choosing of evil?”

Especially Sacred Scripture, CCC, Early Fathers would be appreciated.

I know there are some REALLY smart people in here, and I look forward to your posts.

I’ll keep you posted of my son’s reaction!

 

[space_ghost]

kevinfraser:

My teenage son, (pray for him and all teenagers pls he’s going through “that phase”) asked a really good question yesterday:

If God has perfect foreknowledge and He created Angels to do His Will, then Why did He allow some of them to choose Evil and become Devils?

Or, Why did God create angels who He knew would become evil?

I know there are some REALLY smart people in here, and I look forward to your posts.

I’ll keep you posted of my son’s reaction!

I assume God allowed angels to BE… and i am sure their obedience was a freewill choice… free will is a biggie with God and his church…

 

[dhgray]

Because our God is a Loving God and he gave angels FREE WILL just like humans.

kevinfraser:

My teenage son, (pray for him and all teenagers pls he’s going through “that phase”) asked a really good question yesterday:

If God has perfect foreknowledge and He created Angels to do His Will, then Why did He allow some of them to choose Evil and become Devils?

Or, Why did God create angels who He knew would become evil?

I know there are some REALLY smart people in here, and I look forward to your posts.

I’ll keep you posted of my son’s reaction!

 

[Rae]

Well, I’m not one of the smartest, but I’ll make an attempt.

If I’m not off-base, I believe that angels are creations that were
given a one-time choice. Just as God gives us all free will to choose Him or not to, so, therefore, they had to choose between Satan (Lucifer, the greatest angel) and God Himself. Lucifer was the chief fallen angel, because of Christ’s saying, “I saw Satan like lightning falling from Heaven”. (Luke 18) You’d think a choice like that would go in God’s favor, however, some of them obviously made the wrong one.

Although God has perfect foreknowledge, the battle of good and evil will co-exist until the end of time and the final battle. He is not the creator of evil. And just as he doesn’t stop all evil and bad things from happening in the world (even to good people), He is not responsible for them. I heard it explained that Satan is not the opposite of God. Evil is not the opposite of good. That would mean that they were equals, and they are not. Evil is opposed to good and to perfection. It is not a pure negation of being, but a negation of good. Evil is founded on the good.

God obviously wants us to choose to love Him. To choose to follow Him.
I just hope that we all make the right choices and end up with Him for all eternity, along with all of His Saints and heavenly angels!

 

[Fidelis]

Here’s your Catechism reference/ You’ll need to look it up in the Catechism itself to get the references from the footnotes:

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.”

 

[Scholastic]

I’ll give you St. Thomas Aquinas’ solution.
God created the world to manifest his goodness. Vatican I made this a dogma. God’s goodness is one, but since creatures are imperfect they cannot manifest God’s goodness in just one way. Therefore, God manifests his goodness in many ways through his creatures. Some of God’s perfections is the fact that He is both infinitely just, and infinitely merciful. God manifests his mercy to creatures by bringing some to heaven with the gratuitous help of his grace. God manifests his justice by allowing some not to attain the beatific vision. God’s allowance of angels going to hell is necessary if God wants to manifest his virtue of infinite justice(which he does).
To see what St. Thomas himself says see his Summa Theologica, First Part q. 23 a.5, response to 3rd objection.

 

[RobedWithLight]

Angels, like humans were created endowed with intellect and free will, which means they can choose either to love Him or reject Him. All the rebellious angels knew perfectly what they were rejecting, and their wills were fixed against Him forever. In them burns an everlasting hatred for God and all His creation. Yet the very act of giving these angels free will, despite knowing that they **can ** still choose evil, is still a manifestation of His infinite love. He wants us to love Him, but He does not want to force us to do so. Yet He makes it clear that if we choose not to, then the consequences(i.e. separation from Him) are ours to bear. Isn’t Hell simply the everlasting separation of the soul from God?

Gerry

 

[Steven_Merten]

Love is greater than hatred, death and damnation. The only way we can love is to have the option not to love. The way that we love God is through free willed obedience to the Will of God. In other words freedom from the control of God’s Will, or free will, allows us (and the Angels) to produce the fruit of the Kingdom which is love for God through obedience to God.

1 JOHN 5:3

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.JOHN 14:15

(Jesus is speaking.)

"If you love me, you will obey what I command."

Physical time is the measurement of change between mass, energy and empty space. God created all these things. God is Spiritual and exists outside of physical creation and the end of time. Therefore God sees the whole of physical time like looking at a picture on a wall.

Though your free from the will of God choices will be judged by Jesus at the end of ‘time’, God is omnipresent to the whole of your physical life.

Please visit www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com for related scripture.

Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten

 

[JimG]

For the same reason that God allows human beings to commit evil. He gave them free will. He created free beings, not robots.

JimG

 

[francisca]

JimG:

For the same reason that God allows human beings to commit evil. He gave them free will. He created free beings, not robots.

JimG

Yes, he does creates us with free will so that we can love. Love always comes from free will, doesn’t it ? Or can I force someone to love me? So God want us to love Him…