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If God knew that Satan would rebel, why did He create him? | GotQuestions.org
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--color-end: var(--bgcolor-content-end);" ><div class="content"> <div class="label gradient-to-tr" style="--color-start: #96445a; --color-end: #6f637e;">Question</div> <div class="sponsor-sidebar"><div class="desktop-show" align="center"><div class="adManager-placeholder"></div></div></div> <h1><span itemprop="name headline" property="og:title">If God knew that Satan would rebel, why did He create him?</span></h1> <div class="actions-wrap"><div class="actions"> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="INTL/if-God-knew.html" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'intl'});"><img src="img/translate-icon.svg" alt="translate"></a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://printer.gotquestions.net/GeneratePF?articleId=1415" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'print'});"><img src="img/print.svg" class="questionInteract" alt="if God knew Satan rebel"></a> <span class="audio-icon"><img src="img/volume.svg" alt="audio" class="questionInteract"><audio controls preload="none" style="width:300px;height:25px"><source src="audio/if-God-knew.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></audio></span> </div></div> <div itemprop="articleBody"> <div class="label gradient-to-tr" style="--color-start: #29a699; --color-end: #749c5a;">Answer</div><br><br> This is a two-part question. The first part is “Did God know Satan would rebel?” We know from Scripture that God is <a href="God-omniscient.html"><i>omniscient</i></a>, which literally means “all-knowing.” Job 37:16; Psalm 139:2–4, 147:5; Proverbs 5:21; Isaiah 46:9-10; and 1 John 3:19–20 leave no doubt that God’s knowledge is infinite and that He knows everything that has happened in the past, is happening now, and will happen in the future.<br><br> Looking at some of the superlatives in these verses—“perfect in knowledge”; “his understanding has no limit”; “he knows everything”—it is clear that God’s knowledge is not merely greater than our own, but it is infinitely greater. He knows all things in totality. If God’s knowledge is not perfect, then there is a deficiency in His nature. Any deficiency in God’s nature means He cannot be God, for God’s very essence requires the perfection of all His attributes. Therefore, the answer to the first question is “yes, God knew that Satan would rebel.”<br><br> Moving on to the second part of the question, “Why did God create Satan knowing ahead of time he was going to rebel?” This question is a little trickier because we are asking a “why” question to which the Bible does not usually provide comprehensive answers. Despite that, we should be able to come to a limited understanding. We have already seen that God is omniscient. So, if God knew that Satan would rebel and fall from heaven, yet He created him anyway, it must mean that the fall of Satan was part of God’s sovereign plan from the beginning. No other answer makes sense given what we’ve seen thus far.<br><br> First, we should understand that <i>knowing</i> Satan would rebel is not the same thing as <i>making</i> Satan rebel. The angel Lucifer had a free will and made his own choices. God did not create Lucifer as the devil; He created him good (Genesis 1:31). <br><br> In trying to understand why God created Satan, knowing he would rebel, we should also consider the following facts: <br><br> 1) Lucifer had a good and perfect purpose before his fall. Lucifer’s rebellion does not change God’s original intent from something good to something bad.<br><br> 2) God’s sovereignty extends to Satan, even in his fallen condition. God is able to use Satan’s evil actions to ultimately bring about God’s holy plan (see 1 Timothy 1:20 and 1 Corinthians 5:5). <br><br> 3) God’s plan of salvation was ordained from eternity past (Revelation 13:8); salvation requires something to be saved <i>from</i>, and so God allowed Satan’s rebellion and the spread of sin. <br><br> 4) The suffering that Satan brought into the world actually became the means by which Jesus, in His humanity, was made the complete and perfect Savior of mankind: “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered” (Hebrews 2:10).<br><br> 5) From the very beginning, God’s plan in Christ included the destruction of Satan’s work (see 1 John 3:8).<br><br> Ultimately, we cannot know for sure why God created Satan, knowing he would rebel. It’s tempting to assume that things would be “better” if Satan had never been created or to declare that God should have done differently. But such assumptions and declarations are unwise. In fact, to claim we know better than God how to run the universe is to fall into the devil’s own sin of promoting himself above the Most High (Isaiah 14:13–14).<br><br> </div> <section class="homepage-sponsor desktop-hide"> <div class="desktop-hide" align="center"><div class="adManager-placeholder-mobile"></div></div> </section> <div class="related resources"><h4>For Further Study</h4> <a target="_blank" rel="sponsored noopener" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'chrbook'});" href="https://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?event=AFF&p=1011693&item_no=411981">The Moody Handbook of Theology by Paul Enns</a><br><br> <a target="_blank" rel="sponsored noopener" onClick="gtag('event', 'click', {'event_category':'engagement', 'event_label':'logos'});" href="https://www.logos.com/?utm_campaign=logossubxlaunch-phase1&utm_source=gotquestions&utm_medium=advertising_display&utm_content=logossubxlaunch-phase1-gtlink">More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free!</a> </div> <div class="related topics"><h4>Related Articles</h4> <a href="if-God-knew-Adam-Eve-sin.html">If God knew that Adam and Eve would sin, why did He create them?</a><br><br> <a href="bad-things-good-people.html">Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?</a><br><br> <a href="Isaiah-45-7.html">Why does Isaiah 45:7 say that God created evil?</a><br><br> <a href="Euthyphro-Dilemma.html">What is Euthyphro’s Dilemma?</a><br><br> <a href="natural-disasters.html">Why does God allow natural disasters, i.e. earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis?</a> </div> <center><strong class="return">Return to:<br><br> <a class="button-link box-shadow" href="questions_God.html">Questions about God</a><br><br> If God knew that Satan would rebel, why did He create him?</strong></center> </div> </section> <section class="subscribe gradient-to-br" style="--color-start: #153c59; --color-end: #1b537c"> <div class="grid"> <div class="gradient-to-br box-shadow" style="--color-start: #2c6482; --color-end: #64547b"> <h5>Subscribe to the</h5> <h3>Question of the Week</h3> <p>Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox!</p> <iframe src="scommon/qotw.htm" title="question of the week" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe> </div></div> </section> </main> <footer-element></footer-element> <center> <div itemprop="dateModified" content="2022-01-04">This page last updated: January 4, 2022</div></center> <script src="scripts-2025.js"></script> <div style="display: none;" itemprop="publisher" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization"><meta itemprop="name" content="GotQuestions.org"><div itemprop="logo" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject"> <img src="https://www.gotquestions.org/img/GQlogo.png"><meta itemprop="url" content="https://www.gotquestions.org/img/GQlogo.png"><meta itemprop="width" content="400"><meta itemprop="height" content="79"> </div></div> </body> </html>