666

Excellent question.

The answer lies in the challenge that Satan made both in the Garden of Eden, and then later before God and all the assembled angels, as recorded in Genesis and Job respectively. (Genesis 3:1–6; Job chapters 1 and 2)

Basically, in Eden Satan challenged God’s right to rule, inferring that man would be better off without Him, (and by association, worshipping Satan and under his rulership).

Regarding Job, Satan implied that man would serve God only if he could get something out of it.

In both cases, the challenge was heard by all of God’s angelic creation.

Now, God could have immediately destroyed Satan and the rebels and started all over again. But would that answer the challenge?

Imagine a student who, before the rest of the class, challenges the teacher as to how best to solve a mathematical problem, alleging that the teacher doesn’t know what he’s talking about and, what’s more, that the rebellious student knows better. What would the teacher do? Does he throw the student out of the class? Wouldn’t that lead to the rest of the students wondering if the rebel was right?

No, the teacher invites the rebellious student to the front of the class and gives him the opportunity to show the class that, in fact, the teacher was and is right. The students are then convinced that the disruptive pupil was incorrect and the teacher is validated.

That’s, put simply, what God has done. He has given Satan and indeed man, every chance to show that they know better than God, and can rule earth and themselves better. The sorry state of mankind and the ruin he has wrought on the earth has proved that this is not so.

Make no mistake, while Satan currently rules this world (1 John 5:19), God will not tolerate this situation forever. He will soon remove Satan and his demons and their wicked influence from the world, and replace all of man’s ineffective and corrupt governments with one of his own. (Daniel 2:44; Matthew 6:9, 10) At that time, the evil brought upon the world by Satan will be undone, and God’s original and unchanging purpose fulfilled. (1 John 3:8; Revelation 21:4)