Question
Gramps,
I have been in deep thought over this. My conclusion is that, if Satan (or any of his children) had not rebelled we would still be Spirits in heaven. God needed one of his children to rebel in order to test his children. So God, when he created Satan, created him knowing what he would do. Likewise God, created Jesus knowing we would need a savior. God created Satan to rebel against him. Basically Satan and the spirits that followed him took one for all of us. What are your thoughts?
Josh
Answer
Josh,
I can understand why you are currently drawing this conclusion; however, let me ask you one question that will begin my thoughts. Is our Heavenly Father, who is perfect (no evil in him), able to create evil for the purpose of creating evil?
In our scriptures we are informed that “all” good things come from God. We understand from scripture that God is perfectly just. Would it be just to create an individual whose sole purpose was to “rebel” against him?
There is a difference between knowing what your creation will do, and to what purpose we are created for. God’s work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of his children. If God created Satan to rebel how would that satisfy Satan’s creation, for even God created Satan so that he could become more like Him.
I also understand the beginning premise, “If Satan (or any of his children) had not rebelled we would still be Spirits in heaven”; however, this is a theory or speculation on what we currently know and to what has currently been revealed. When we are able to fully see truth, all truth like God the Father and His son Jesus Christ, then I believe we will see things that will only cause us to exclaim, “How great is the goodness of our God.”
If our Savior was created with the the sole purpose of being our Savior, then what test did he really overcome? There is a difference between knowing what your creation will do, and to what purpose we are created for. We were all created for the same purpose, to become like our Father in heaven. Some of us had more of a proclivity toward certain aspects, thus the statement of Satan being the Father of lies, and a liar from the beginning. Our Savior was like unto God the Father from the beginning, and thus was chosen according to the foreknowledge of God to be our Savior.
As for me, I believe it would be unjust to have created a spiritual son solely to rebel. How would this be perfectly just? As I have pondered this my spirit keeps telling me there is much more to this plan than we realize, and if Satan was necessary for us to “rebel” who then caused Satan to rebel? Moral agency existed in our pre-mortal life, which is why Satan could have chosen to rebel. Satan rebelled, not because he was created or programmed this way. He rebelled because of his moral agency to go against the plan God created for us all, which is the same moral agency we exercised and which is why we kept our first estate.
In light of this, I do not believe Satan and his followers took one for us. This means they would need to receive some form of praise for their moral transgression against God the Father. There is no praise I would give the adversary.
Gramps
