Cheryl Schatz

Barry, you asked:

this has always bugged me…. How did sin come about in the deceiver ? Originally, it wasn’t there……as that’s not how God creates things. He creates things perfectly and w/o sin.

God has determined that angels and people have free will. He could have created robots who could not have been tested, but He chose to create with the full knowledge that people and angels could freely choose to turn against God. He has the right to determine that this is the right way to create those who will freely love Him.

You asked:

And since He knew it was going to happen, why not show Lucifer (perhaps in a vision) what terrible things would happen to creation, to Lucifer and to at least 1/3 of Lucifer’s brothers ?

God warned Israel what was going to happen to them if they chose to reject Him. Did it change them? A fully free-to-reject God creature will freely choose to reject God no matter what. Otherwise the creature is not truly free to refuse God.

You asked:

Seems like a big mess that might have been prevented. God would have many better ways of explaining and showing and convincing Lucifer and Adam and Eve than my feeble attempts, so I wonder why He didn’t ?

When I see God, I see Him through Jesus. Jesus is a full representation of who God is in character. Jesus is full of love and wisdom. His choice cannot be a second-best choice. We may not fully understand the wisdom of God here on this earth, but our love and trust for Jesus will cause us to rest in Him that He did the very best for the result He was looking for. Jesus received a bride from the Father and our eternal destiny in Jesus is a part of all the decisions that God made. The best for us and for Jesus could not have happened any other way. His wisdom that knows all the “what ifs” assures us this is true.

Thank you for your comments and your questions. I hope I have helped a little.