Friday: Further Thought – The Problem of Evil
Daily Lesson for Friday 14th of February 2025
Read Ellen G. White, “Why Was Sin Permitted?” Pages 33–43, in Patriarchs and Prophets.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“Even when he was cast out of heaven, Infinite Wisdom did not destroy Satan. Since only the service of love can be acceptable to God, the allegiance of His creatures must rest upon a conviction of His justice and benevolence. The inhabitants of heaven and of the worlds, being unprepared to comprehend the nature or consequences of sin, could not then have seen the justice of God in the destruction of Satan. Had he been immediately blotted out of existence, some would have served God from fear rather than from love. The influence of the deceiver would not have been fully destroyed, nor would the spirit of rebellion have been utterly eradicated. For the good of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, he must more fully develop his principles, that his charges against the divine government might be seen in their true light by all created beings, and that the justice and mercy of God and the immutability of His law might be forever placed beyond all question.
“Satan’s rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages—a perpetual testimony to the nature of sin and its terrible results. The working out of Satan’s rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God’s government is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy beings, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin, and suffering its penalty.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, Pages 42, 43.
Discussion Questions
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This is a bit of a side-kick in this week’s study but I think it is important to understand the “free-choice” idea carefully. First, an illustration:
When I was a teenager in New Zealand the people population was about 2.5 million while the sheep population was about 60 million. Nowadays the people population has grown to about 5 million while the sheep population has shrunk to around 25 million. Needless to say, in New Zealand you are never far away from sheep and sheep farms. One consequence of this is that sheep dog trials are pretty popular, and they were even prime-time viewing on TV. For non-New Zealanders, a sheep dog trial is like watching paint dry. The aim is not to drive the sheep through the various sets at break-neck speed, so you do not see the dogs racing around yapping and snapping at the heels of the sheep. Rather, the trick is to convince the sheep that they are making their own free choice to go through the gate, or climb the ramp, or whatever. So, you see the quiet hand signals or soft whistles of the handlers and the slow creeping back and forth of the highly intelligent sheep dogs. And almost imperceptibly, a sheep makes a move towards the gate and the others follow suit by their choice to stick together.
The sheep may be convinced that they made their own free choice to go through the gate. They made their own decision not to step over the dog Those of us looking on know that the sheep have been carefully manipulated by a man and dog team into doing what they wanted them to do.
Free choice is a fundamental part of our explanation of evil, pain and suffering. Yet Evil in its own way is manipulating us into thinking we are exercising free will when in fact we are being craftily decived. Read the Genesis account of the Fall. It is classical sheep handling by a skilful operator.
Make no mistake: Satan knows us pretty well – He can make us believe we are exercising free choice while carefully manipulating us.