20
From Eternity Past
the working out of his proposed changes in the divine law. His own
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work must condemn him. The whole universe must see the deceiver
unmasked.
Even when Satan was cast out of heaven, Infinite Wisdom did
not destroy him. The allegiance of His creatures must rest upon a
conviction of His justice and benevolence. The inhabitants of heaven
and of the world 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 and that the justice of God and the
immutability of His law might be forever placed beyond 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. Thus the history of this 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.
“His work is perfect; for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth,
and without iniquity, just and right is He.”
Deuteronomy 32:4
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