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Patriarchs and Prophets
permitted him to demonstrate the nature of his claims, to 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 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
[43]
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.
He that ruleth in the heavens is the one who sees the end from
the beginning—the one before whom the mysteries of the past and
the future are alike outspread, and who, beyond the woe and darkness
and ruin that sin has wrought, beholds the accomplishment of His
own purposes of love and blessing. Though “clouds and darkness are
round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the foundation of
His throne.”
Psalm 97:2
, R.V. And this the inhabitants of the universe,
both loyal and disloyal, will one day understand. “His work is perfect: