Battle Between Good and Evil II: Why Didn't God Stop or Prevent Satan from Creating Evil?

Question: Doesn't God know everything? Isn't He all-powerful? So even when He did not create evil, He could have squished it down in an eyeblink. He knew it was coming and exactly from whom and every detail. And He could have saved Jesus from suffering, why didn't He? Why didn't God prevent Satan from creating evil?

Answer: Jehovah God does know everything; He can see into the future, etc. So He could have easily seen what trouble Satan would cause everyone. So why didn't God prevent Satan? Well, before I answer this question, I want to stress this point:

Jehovah tells us what we need to know. The Bible is need-oriented, not desire-oriented. We don't need to know absolutely everything even though we want to know it all. The first sin committed by Adam and Eve was partially caused by our curious nature--they wanted to know things and be like God. But to know everything would make us God, therefore, we wouldn't be dependent upon Him. Jehovah wants to be our loving Parent to guide us with every step we take. To know every "why" would allow us to live independently from Him.

Okay, on to my answer to your question. I believe the reason why Jehovah didn't stop Satan is because the gift called the free will.

God gives every spirit being and human being free will. He allows everyone to exercise this free will. Likewise, He allows Satan to exercise this free will, but only under His permissive will. God permits people to exercise the free will only in limited power, under His watch. Otherwise, Satan could cause much more drastic troubles and problems. For example, Satan could harm Job only after God permitted him. Satan cannot do anything without God's permission.

While allowing Satan to exercise his free will, God also allows us to exercise our own free will. The problem is us: we have abused this free will gift; instead of using it for good, we've used it for bad. We are the ones who have chosen to live apart from God. We are the ones who brought trouble upon our heads. We have done many things that God forbade us to do. God doesn't like this one bit, but He is permitting it for the time being, because He gave us free will. He keeps His word. To take Satan's freedom away, and to take our freedom away, would really make His gift of free will meaningless, null and void.

Jehovah has a purpose and a reason behind everything He does. Even though we may not understand His ways, we can be assured that He does have the ultimate control over everything. God says that His thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways. Who can possibly understand Him fully? We can't even fully understand ourselves, let alone our very Life-Giver!

Why didn't Jehovah prevent Jesus from suffering? Well, in chapter 53 of Isaiah, it foretold that our Messiah would suffer, die, and be raised up. God, therefore, planned that Jesus would suffer. It is a part of His plans--we don't know why Jesus had to literally suffer--all we are told that he had to suffer in order to pay the penalty for our sins. Again, Jehovah's thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways. However, I know why Jesus had to die and shed blood to save us; read why Jesus had to die for us at: http://tinyurl.com/ylaafno

Someday, perhaps, Jehovah will share with us some things we've always been curious about. Right now, our responsibility is to live in accordance with the standards God has set for us. It's completely up to us whether we follow His commandments. He gave us free will; we have the options, we have the power to choose. We have the power to choose between good and bad, to choose God or Satan, but we have chosen bad and Satan. It's not necessary for us to know everything. All that we need to know, God has already told us. What He has been hoping is for us to wisely use our free will. When will we begin to do so?

(Question submitted by Bill Christy, who was born in Washington State and after Army in mid 1970's, moved to Florida, and has been there ever since. He is in his mid 50's, reformed (this is a daily thing) addict, born again Christian type, white male. Socially more liberal, fiscally more conservative. Hate the sin; love the sinner; that is a good working goal for each of us. Separated, 4 kids and 12 grandkids.)