Mainstream Christianity believes that God has given up His sovereignty by giving each one of His creatures a free-will. Now, God has to re-act and bow to man’s will. Is this true?
First, God created Lucifer to be a perfect angel and that failed. Somehow, this perfect angel turned himself into the adversary by creating evil and rebellion from within. How Satan did this when he is not the Creator, no one knows.
OR
God gave Lucifer, a name not ever mentioned in properly translated scripture, a free-will choice to serve Him or rebel. Again, nobody has an answer for how rebellion was even an option for Satan if God did not put it there.
Second, God created Adam and Eve to be perfect, but again, that failed.
Third, God had originally created many sons of elohim. However, they rebelled, left their habitation and mated with human woman that produced evil offspring, the nephilim.
Fourth, the nephilim were so evil and drove humanity to an evil so great that God wiped out His entire creation, save eight people in a worldwide flood.
Fifth, God gave a law to Moses for Israel to follow and yet, not one person could follow this law, save Christ.
How’s God doing so far?
Christians insist that this evil happened apart from God’s intention or that God gave His creatures free-will to make all of this happen. Yet, these same people claim that future events and promises will happen exactly as God plans them. How can this be if God’s track record shows the dysfunction of His creation either by God’s failure or the creature’s free-will? However, if the dysfunction of creation serves God’s purpose of completion, then the dysfunction is a means to an end and is planned by God.
Either way, the Christian argument falls flat on its face. Satan could not have created the rebellion and evil within himself because he is not the Creator. On the other hand, God could not have given Satan a free-will unless He provided an alternative choice of good, which is evil. Boom! There goes the view that God didn’t create evil.
You can’t have it both ways. You cannot say that God gave the mighty angel a free will without providing the evil and you also cannot say that the Adversary created the evil himself and then credit God with giving him a free-will. Makes no sense.
The truth, according to scripture, opposes the popular view of Christianity. God is the Creator of evil (Isaiah 45:7) and God created the adversary to be exactly what he is (Job 26:13). God is sovereign over all evil and over every enemy. The Almighty uses evil to bring creation to a greater glory that otherwise would have been possible without this experience.
So, the question I am answering in this article is this:
Will the devil also be redeemed along with all the fallen angels and demons?
Yes. Ephesians 6:12 states: 12 for it is not ours to wrestle with blood and flesh, but with the sovereignties, with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness, with the spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials.
This would include the Adversary, fallen angels, and demons considering they are the spiritual forces of WICKEDNESS among the celestials. Okay, so Colossians 1: 16 states: 16 for in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him, 17 and He is before all, and all has its cohesion in Him.
Notice the bold-type of these verses contain the exact same words describing the exact same beings. The wicked sovereignties, authorities, world-mights (thrones and lordships) are not excluded from the all created in Him. This is the exact same ALL that is reconciled to God through the blood of the cross (Colossians 1:20). Why would Paul take the time to describe all of creation, wicked included, as well as all visible and invisible? Then, not include them in the ALL that is reconciled?
Paul purposely defines all creation in verses 16 and 17 so that we will know the ALL that is included in verse 20. 20 and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.
This is why every celestial being will bow and confess Christ as Lord to the Glory of God, the Father. 10 that in the name of Jesus every knee should be bowing, celestial and terrestrial and subterranean, 11 and every tongue should be acclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God, the Father (Philippians 2: 10-11).
Also, these sovereignties, authorities, and powers are mentioned again in 1 Corinthians 15: 21-28 as being put under Christ’s feet. These are the same ‘All’ that are part of the All in all in verse 28. Notice that Paul says ‘all sovereignty, all authority, and power will be subject to Christ so that God will be All in this all. Do you think this doesn’t include Satan and his minions when these terms clearly describe them?
24 thereafter the consummation, whenever He may be giving up the kingdom to His God and Father, whenever He should be nullifying all sovereignty and all authority and power.
25 For He must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet.
26 The last enemy is being abolished: death.
27 For He subjects all under His feet. Now whenever He may be saying that all is subject, it is evident that it is outside of Him Who subjects all to Him.
28 Now, whenever all may be subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also shall be subjected to Him Who subjects all to Him, that God may be All in all.) - 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28
Follow the bold type in the above scriptures and you will see that the same all authority, all sovereignty, and all power that include wicked celestials are the same all that will be All in all.
In closing, it is important to remember that Satan, though evil beyond our imagination, can do nothing that God has not planned for him to do. Satan had to approach the throne of God and get permission to inflict evil upon Job. So, every time the objection arises that God would not be the ultimate author of such evil, I encourage my reader to look at the result.
-Joseph was sold into slavery by his brother and the result was salvation of all Israel (Genesis 50:20).
-Herod, Pilate, the Jews, and the gentiles murdered Jesus and the result was God’s greatest act of love in saving unworthy creatures (all humanity and all creation (Acts 4: 27-28).
-Sin entered the world and the result was the appearance of Christ.
-Death entered the world and the result was Christ abolishing death and giving all immortality.
-Satan exacts evil on the world and the result is God showing His multifarious love and wisdom to every one.
The greater the evil, the more power and love our Creator reveals to us in overcoming it. Satan and evil are a tool in God’s Hand to produce His desired outcome of a perfect universe in which He is All in all. Satan can do nothing but perform his duties to contribute to God’s end game. Yes, the Adversary will be judged and tormented for ages in the lake of fire, but as every enemy is abolished in the end…so is the evil that God put in Satan. The difference between Christian thought and truth is that Satan is not tormented or destroyed forever, but evil is abolished by making Satan a friend through the blood of Christ’s cross. Yes! The cross is that powerful and God IS that Sovereign!
Let’s allow the apostle Paul to speak through his experience of the splinter in the flesh.
As 2 Corinthians 12: 7-9 states, Paul’s splinter in the flesh was a MESSENGER of SATAN buffeting him. Paul asked the Lord three times to take away this Satanic influence. Yet, what was the response?
The Lord said, “Sufficient for you is My grace, for My power in infirmity is being perfected.”
So, let’s get to the point: Paul was given a messenger of Satan so that the Lord’s power would be perfected in his infirmity. This is the way God operates. Without Satan, the power of God would not be necessary. Without Satan, we would not see the extent of God’s power and love.
God is the author of both Satan and his evil.
God will accomplish all of His will and He will use Satan to get there. God’s will is to save all mankind (1 Timothy 4:10) and be All to every creature ever created (1 Corinthians 15:28). Satan can do NOT one thing to prevent this from happening in any ONE of God’s creatures. In fact, everything Satan does can only serve this very purpose.
Grace and peace.
Wow... that was a ride.... wisdom beyond all.... I really truly think that you yourself are still wrestling with this lol I know you just body slammed me lol
Scott, We Thank you for the clarity. M’s❤️