The other day, I got an email from my dad regarding something my 9-year-old brother said.

Devin: How would answer Britton’s question below?

“Dad, how come God just doesn’t kill the devil?”

And, I responded.

Dad,

Ready for this?

Here are three questions I would work through the socratic method:

Who made the devil?
What is this Creator’s ultimate goal?
How does the devil help him achieve that?

In answering Britton’s question, I would try to construct a framework that paints the devil not only as God’s enemy, for surely he is, but also as God’s tool so that he is not viewed as outside God’s control. It would be inconsistent to tell someone that God is working “all things” together for good if we then denied that God is not sovereign over evil as well as good.

So, the answer to the first question is: God made him. In Genesis, we are not told where the devil comes from, but Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18 speak of the devil’s fall, referring to heavenly events parallel to the rebellion of the kings’ situations they address in preceding verses. So, the devil was a good angel who sinned, wanting to attain God’s authority, and was then thrown out of heaven.

Now I want to establish who is in charge of all these goings on, and what does he want? To glorify himself and make his name great. God, with his infinite power, wisdom, and knowledge, knew the devil would rebel, and yet still allowed it to happen. To many, the existence of evil makes God seem less-than-perfectly good. However, “no purpose of [God's] can be thwarted” (Job 42:2), and so even the devil is somehow helping God fulfill his purposes in the world, similar to how Joseph’s brothers meant their actions for evil while God meant them for good (Gen 50:20).

Finally, we need to answer Britton’s question: How come? The essential answer: nobody would know how good God is unless there was badness to contrast. Would we know light without darkness? Would we comprehend heat without cold? In the same way, God has given the universe the script of a deep comedy: A beginning which is good, a fall which is bad, and a redemption which is even better than it was to begin with.

God doesn’t just kill the devil. No, God’s enemies get a far worse punishment than that. However, God is currently restraining his wrath so that sinners have a chance to repent and believe the gospel. One day, God will throw the devil and all of his children into a lake of fire so that only what is good remains (Rev 20:10,15). In eternity after the resurrection and the judgment, believers will enjoy the riches of God’s glory (Rom 9:23) while God’s enemies are tormented forever: the devil, his angels, and non-believers (see Is. 68:15-24).

Britton will probably run in one of two directions. He might go tell all of his friends about the devil, how bad it is, and how people are going there. So, it should be stressed that because of these realities, God has provided a way out. God does create a hell without an alternative. It’s not that “people” end up in torment, but that people who don’t love Jesus do. Also, he might ask why God’s so mean. After all, isn’t God loving? You could answer this in one of two ways: (1) God is love, and to love he must hate the enemies of what he loves, just as a man cannot be said to love his family if he does not give his effort to fighting off an intruder. The man must necessarily love his family by hating the intruder. This picks up on the themes of how God’s people are the poor or are those who help the poor while God’s enemies are those who grind the faces of the poor. (2) God is good, infinitely so. Therefore, one sin against this infinitely good God is infinitely bad, deserving an infinitely bad punishment. For an illustration, you could mention that if someone punched the school bully in the face, people would probably not be happy with him, but there would be some saying, “He deserved it.” However, if someone punched the sweet cheerful little girl who only helped and never hurt, lots of people would be angry. God, if we can try to imagine, is infinitely more pure and good than that little girl, and so the punch is infinitely more bad.

I don’t expect all of this to be covered in only one conversation with Britton. The best course of action would be to help him develop a habit of Bible reading on his own so that a Christian framework begins to develop in his own thinking. He’ll then come with more questions like this, but also will answer some of them on his own. Yet, you might run into this.

Devin

My parents thought that was pretty clever. They sent it to everyone they know who knows me. Oh boy…

This was an email correspondence. Let’s see how I do in in this situation: