Why was Sin Permitted?
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workings and imaginings of his mind; yet he did not dismiss them. He
did not see whither he was drifting. But such efforts as infinite love
and wisdom only could devise, were made to convince him of his error.
His disaffection was proved to be without cause, and he was made
to see what would be the result of persisting in revolt. Lucifer was
convinced that he was in the wrong. He saw that “the Lord is righteous
in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (
Psalm 145:17
); that the
divine statutes are just, and that he ought to acknowledge them as such
before all heaven. Had he done this, he might have saved himself and
many angels. He had not at that time fully cast off his allegiance to
God. Though he had left his position as covering cherub, yet if he had
been willing to return to God, acknowledging the Creator’s wisdom,
and satisfied to fill the place appointed him in God’s great plan, he
would have been reinstated in his office. The time had come for a
final decision; he must fully yield to the divine sovereignty or place
himself in open rebellion. He nearly reached the decision to return,
but pride forbade him. It was too great a sacrifice for one who had
been so highly honored to confess that he had been in error, that his
imaginings were false, and to yield to the authority which he had been
working to prove unjust.
A compassionate Creator, in yearning pity for Lucifer and his fol-
lowers, was seeking to draw them back from the abyss of ruin into
which they were about to plunge. But His mercy was misinterpreted.
Lucifer pointed to the long-suffering of God as an evidence of his
own superiority, an indication that the King of the universe would
yet accede to his terms. If the angels would stand firmly with him,
he declared, they could yet gain all that they desired. He persistently
[40]
defended his own course, and fully committed himself to the great
controversy against his Maker. Thus it was that Lucifer, “the light
bearer,” the sharer of God’s glory, the attendant of His throne, by trans-
gression became Satan, “the adversary” of God and holy beings and
the destroyer of those whom Heaven had committed to his guidance
and guardianship.
Rejecting with disdain the arguments and entreaties of the loyal
angels, he denounced them as deluded slaves. The preference shown
to Christ he declared an act of injustice both to himself and to all the
heavenly host, and announced that he would no longer submit to this
invasion of his rights and theirs. He would never again acknowledge