Satan was created good, Angels: Day 097

Last updated on: October 26, 2016 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

Satan was created good, Angels: Day 097 2016-10-23T12:28:06-05:00 Pete Socks

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If Satan was one of God’s creatures, then isn’t God to blame for evil? Against the heretic Marcion, who believed that the God of the Old Testament was evil, Tertullian argues that the devil’s sin is not God’s doing. Like us, Satan was created with free will, and—like us—he alone is to blame for his own sins.

Where did the devil’s malice, his lying and deceiving mankind and slandering God, come from?

Certainly not from God. He made the angel good, as he did all his good works. In fact, before he became the devil, he was known as the wisest of all cre- ation, and wisdom is not evil.

As a spirit, he was created with free will—for God certainly would not fail to give that kind of liberty to a being who was meant to be next to God himself.

When God condemned him, God bore witness that the devil had left behind the nature in which he was created, by lusting after the wickedness that had sprung up by itself in him. At the same time, by allowing him some room for his schemes, God acted in accordance with his own good purpose. In that way he made room for a conflict in which mankind might crush his enemy with that same free will that had fallen victim to the enemy (which proves, by the way, that the fault was his own, not God’s), and thus worthily gain back his salvation through victory. Likewise the devil’s punishment is more bitter, because he is conquered by the one he had formerly injured.

Thus God is shown to be even more good, because he waits for man to come back from his present life to a more glorious paradise, where he will have the right to take the fruit of the tree of life. –Tertullian, Against Marcion, 2.10

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Am I using my free will to fight with the holy angels against Satan? Or does the enemy sometimes enlist my will on his side?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, you have graciously brought me out of slavery into freedom. Send your angels to guide my will, so that I may not fall into Satan’s snares.

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