There’s an interesting little discussion going on “over here”:http://www.temple-of-lore.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=133813#133813:
the thing i always wonder about is how much evil was there in Satan to begin with? i mean if God hadnt cast him out of heaven and ostracized him so much, would he really have been that evil?
[…]what makes God so right and Satan so wrong? isnt God being just as selfish as Satan by not allowing anyone to disagree with him? what makes God’s rule any less tyrannical than Saddam Hussein?
[…]so i ask you, why is god any more worthy than Satan to be the supreme being?
There’s a lot of tough questions in this discussion, many of which do not have comprehensive answers, many that require a certain degree of faith. Partial answers have been supplied, though, so let me see if I can bring some of them to light.
It’s interesting that people tend to view good and evil in terms of quantity – “Oh, that’s just a little bit bad” or “Oh, that was just a little white lie. It wasn’t as bad as if I had actually stolen anything” or “He’s not that bad of a man. He just got a little confused and depressed there for a while.” – when the Bible pretty clearly delineates good and evil in terms of a “binary system”:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=3&verse=9&end_verse=11&version=31&context=context. You are either 100% good, or you are 100% evil. There is no middle ground. So to question just how much evil there was in Satan to demand his eviction from Heaven is an incorrect starting point. The very fact that he went against God dictated that he forsake his righteousness and embrace his own will. In effect, his own selfishness is what turned him from an angel of light to an demon of evil. He gave up any hope of remaining in God’s fellowship for no chance of overthrowing God and usurping His throne.
Isaiah 14:12-15
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”15 But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit. “#”:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2014:12-15
I love this statement:
what makes God so right and Satan so wrong? isnt God being just as selfish as Satan by not allowing anyone to disagree with him? what makes God’s rule any less tyrannical than Saddam Hussein?
It’s a tough question to answer, and honestly, it’s one that I’ve asked a few times myself (which is probably why I like it). The answer, though, is found by readjusting one’s perspective. We ask the question from the perspective of the created, from the viewpoint of one is who used to having one’s own way about anything and everything. By adjusting one’s view to that of the creator, however, we can again ask that question. You may find that you understand a bit better. If you were the creator of something, then that thing you just created belongs to you. You, therefore, have the complete right to set all the rules, to determine how things work, and to set your own image and personality upon the creation. It is an extension of yourself, an expression of who you are. The creation, as the created, cannot tell the creator how things ought to be. It has no rights with the creator, except for those rights that the creator grants the created. ((And fortunately, God grants the created a generous portion of rights, particularly to those who have accepted His Son, by making them co-heirs with Him.))
There’s an additional part of this, however. God is, by His very definition, holiness. He is the epitome of all that is good and right. As such anything that is a violation of God’s being, of His nature, of the rules that He has established is wrong and is sinful. Is it selfish of God to expect His creation to live in such a way as to abide by those things that are good and beneficial for it? God has demonstrated time and again that He is good and that He does all things for the good of those created in His image. He is not a tyrant, since it is clear that He allows people to live as they see fit, choosing whether or not to actually follow Him (along with all the consequences that go with that decision).
So why is God any more worthy than Satan to be supreme being? Because God created everything (including Satan, originally as Lucifer), He is the very definition of holiness and righteousness, He loves us and has our greatest good in mind (unlike Satan, who only wishes to destroy all that God has made), and He gives us multiple chances to choose to follow Him and allows us entire lifetimes to do so. I don’t know what more we, as the created, can ask for. Can you?
