When Satan had rebelled against God, why didn’t God just destroy him? Why did God allow him to hang around and cause trouble? A friend asked me that question some months ago, and just recently e-mailed me the answer he had finally come to: It is because God is a God of Freedom
, to use his words. If God killed the rebels off immediately when they rebelled, then he is not really allowing freedom of action, only the illusion of it. Think about King Saul, for example. When he rebelled against God and God rejected him as king, God did not remove him immediately. He allowed events to take their course even though he had already selected the next king.
My friend may well be right, but he has surely put his finger on the answer to the question posed by this series of radio programs. The origins of evil in the world lie in the simple fact that God is a God of freedom. Men are free to do good or to do evil. God will hold them accountable for what they do, but he still leaves them free to do it. But there is a day of judgment when all this comes home to roost.
Meanwhile, we live in a world where evil exists. It exists in two forms, human and spiritual. We live right alongside human evil every day, in greater or lesser forms. The evil of the spirit world is here as well, although we are less aware of it for the most part. And there is an incredible amount of mythology about that spirit world, much of it false. The only reliable source of information about it is in the pages of the Bible. If we are going to find answers to our questions about the spirit world, the Bible is the place to turn.
