Why did God allow Lucifer to become Satan?

God is all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and, everywhere (omnipresent). Since that is true, God knew from before time that His most beautiful and powerful angel would fall into the sin of pride and become Satan. The Lord knew that Satan would successfully draw one third of the angels with him, to become demons, all fighting against God and mankind.

Here is a good answer, yet it is totally unsatisfying. The last paragraph ends with, “Ultimately, we cannot know for sure why God created Satan, knowing he would rebel.”

Why did God allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve?

The term for this is “Original Sin,” a reference to the sin nature that we have inherited from the fall when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3.

Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Psalm 51:5 – Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Here is a good answer, yet it is totally unsatisfying. It ends with a paragraph that begins, “Some things are hidden from us in Scripture and not for us to know ….”

Why does God allow pain and suffering?

Some say suffering draws us closer to to Himself. Others offer the view that when we are innocent of wrongdoing yet still have bad things happen to us, it displays our faith to others. Finally, still others believe that God allows pain and suffering so that Christians are drawn toward Heaven rather than a smooth life on earth. In the Bible He promises …

1 Peter 5:10 – And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Romans 8:18 – For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

James 1:2-4 – Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Here is a good answer, yet it is totally unsatisfying. The last paragraph begins with, “Could God prevent all suffering? Of course He could. But He assures us that, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Why does God oppose abortion if very few who are born will go to Heaven?

Scripture is clear that God sees every life as important and not in the control of mankind (Psalm 139:13-16). It is also evident that the gate to Heaven is narrow, and only few will find it as compared to the wide gate to Hell (Matthew 7:13-14).

If that is the case one could ask, why does God prohibit abortions if so many who are born will spend eternity in Hell? Of course, the deeper question is why God does not offer universal salvation for all His children in the first place?

2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Here are three answers, yet all are totally unsatisfying, in my view.

Since life is so precious to God, why did He command the Israelites to kill every man, woman, child, infant …?

1 Samuel 15:3 – Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

How does this action reconcile with the sixth commandment, “You shall not murder?”

Here is the best answer to the difference between God stating, do what I specifically command you to do, not what I broadly command you not to do. The last paragraph begins with, “In the end, God is sovereign over all of life, and He can take it whenever and however He sees fit.”

Conclusion

These are but five of many questions I have for God on the other side of the grave. And, I have every confidence He will have a good, loving, grace-filled answer to them all. The fact that I don’t have answers today does not impact my belief in a loving God, and the reason is that Salvation and Sanctification are not dependent solely on facts. For those willing to have an open mind, the facts associated with the impossible complexity of life, fulfilled prophesy, archeological evidence, protection of the Bible down through the ages, the overwhelming evidence of Jesus living, dying and being resurrected from the grave are but a few of the “facts” one can lean on.

However, our belief in who God is and our acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Savior is not based on our head knowledge or our ability to fully understand the mind of the Creator of the universe. Salvation is based on faith that comes from the heart ….

Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

2 Corinthians 5:7 – For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Salvation is based on the heart, not the head. It is a faith-based decision.