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The Great Controversy 1888
In his dealing with sin, God could employ only righteousness and
truth. Satan could use what God could not—flattery and deceit. He
had sought to falsify the word of God, and had misrepresented his plan
of government before the angels, claiming that God was not just in
laying laws and rules upon the inhabitants of Heaven; that in requiring
submission and obedience from his creatures, he was seeking merely
the exaltation of himself. Therefore it must be demonstrated before
the inhabitants of Heaven as well as of all the worlds, that God’s
government was just, his law perfect. Satan had made it appear that
he himself was seeking to promote the good of the universe. The true
character of the usurper, and his real object, must be understood by all.
He must have time to manifest himself by his wicked works.
The discord which his own course had caused in Heaven, Satan
charged upon the law and government of God. All evil he declared
to be the result of the divine administration. He claimed that it was
his own object to improve upon the statutes of Jehovah. Therefore
it was necessary that he should demonstrate the nature of his claims,
and show the working out of his proposed changes in the divine law.
His own work must condemn him. Satan had claimed from the first
that he was not in rebellion. The whole universe must see the deceiver
unmasked.
Even when it was decided that he could no longer remain in
Heaven, infinite wisdom did not destroy Satan. Since the service
of love can alone be acceptable to God, the allegiance of his creatures
must rest upon a conviction of his justice and benevolence. The inhab-
itants of Heaven and of other worlds, being unprepared to comprehend
the nature or consequences of sin, could not then have seen the justice
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and mercy of God in the destruction of Satan. Had he been immedi-
ately blotted from existence, they 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. Evil must be permitted to come to maturity. For the good
of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, Satan must more fully
develop his principles, that his charges against the divine government
might be seen in their true light by all created beings, that the justice
and mercy of God and the immutability of his law might forever be
placed beyond all question.