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For His own glory.
Why did God create his own enemy [Satan] ?
God created all things good. Evil has arisen through the free will of the creature. God has foreordained it and overrules it for His own glorious purpose, but He did not create anything in a state of enmity to Himself.
Can we say that God didn't directly cause sin, however, it only came about because of His (God's) will?Evil has arisen through the free will of the creature
but it does seem that since everything that exists first exists in the mind of God that Satan could not have done otherwise.
Can we say that God didn't directly cause sin, however, it only came about because of His (God's) will?
The essence of free agency is the power to choose for oneself. Foreordination did not destroy that power of agency. God's foreordination determines the whole process -- "willing" and "working." Providentially, with respect to evil, it does nothing to intrinsically to determine the will.
I. God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass;[1] yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin,[2] nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.[3]
I wonder, is this behind the two different words used in the same chapter:Only in grace is the will actively determined, and this is to do good.
I wonder, is this behind the two different words used in the same chapter:
In other words, did the authors have in mind this important distinction that you make? God need not force a creature to continue to rebel and His predestinating in Scripture is in reference to those Whom He loved.