The falling out of former angel Lucifer, was caused by God. How’s that for omnipotence? If god isn’t omnipotent, can he be God? Was this a mistake? Did he create Satan to be the root cause of all “evil”? If god created Lucifer how is it that one can claim God is kind?
I gave to birth to you, you gave birth to me, oh, but where does the power lay?
…In God.
fine, i give up
joe, have you heard of free will?
have you heard of God?
Lucifer is as much a phony representation of evil as is the Biblical mythical representation of God.
Where does one learn about god if not some kind of scripture or biblical text?
I think the “devil” problem can be solved if we assume this following realities.
A powerful, all-knowing and benevolent God exists
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Angels have free will
Angels are not grounded on one perspective, they are pure spirits therefore they can understand things in a better fashion compared to men (pure intuition)
Since Angels know the consequences of an action in its totality we can conclude that they only need to use their free will once.
Assuming that God became man.
And assuming that angels are sentient enough to consider themselves more superior than men.
Then we can conclude that angels are revolted by the idea that a God can be human.
We can also say that angels see it as an insult.
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Now with these assumptions and as Christian theology can understand, Lucifer the brightest among the angels, is disgusted that God would die for beings like us. This pride of his corrupted him.
By the way, evil is not something per se. I think Augustine offered a good explation for it.
If I have a falling out with an omnipotent being I sure do hope it gives me a place to rule like god did Lucifer. Reward your enemy, now that is one cool boss. 
Haha, that sounds soooo Mafia Kris. 
Well, think about it. Do you give someone their own kingdom if they try to dethrone you or do you kill them? It depends. Now the devil proved that he had stones and some smarts. Someone needed to be in charge of hell so a truce was given. God got all the righteous folks and Lucifer gets all the ummmm, not so righteous folks, I would say fun but, some folks might not agree Lucifer was one smart angel. My guess is he planned it. Can’t have heaven, so go for hell.
That would work in Neil Gaiman’s universe, had you read Murder Mystery in his Smoke and Mirrors… nice tackling of this issue.
But on a serious note, remember Kris the devil is working in an infinite plane, so he can build his “kingdom” in any point in that infinite reality. But well Christianity tells the final “battle”.
Demonology and angeleaogy is another set of theological principles and disciplines, and Christianity teaches it as an actuality but I assume you don’t assume my assumptions Kriswest. Haha.
Yea, the final battle I know about it, see now that has always sounded Mafia
Or two old men playing chess in a park. Winner gets the laxative.
We humans picked the words angel and demon, you gotta have symbols. Angels and demons are the back defensive line on the board, humans are the pawns.
Seems to me god wants the battle or Lucifer would have been killed. If there is a god and lucifer that is.
What do you do for an eternity? You play a game with another eternal soul. You build up sides and your pieces and then you play. Gads! people are so wierd. What a bed time story eh? Now darling you are nothing but a pawn are you white or black? I am white so you should be too. The human mind is never truly boring.
Whether there be a God or not.
Whether there be a final battle for our souls or not.
Whether the human mind is capable of thinking a god or not.
I am certain and can die without any regret.
That you are not boring Kriswest. Haha.
Now let us stop turning this thread into a Mundane type shall we? Haha.
You too are not boring, sooo, True let us not do that and just stick to the religious need for a final conflict or why conflicts are needed within religion. I have yet to hear of any gods that do not have a nemisis or a problem. So why does an omnipotent being involve itself in conflict? Or why does man create such stories of this, if there are no gods that is.
Hmmmm… okay I think the god concept is always depended on our culture and our set of experience. I mean some cultures understand Jesus as a caucasian because of the culture that involves it and also Buddha as a fat smiling guy in some cultures.
So that is how I see religion, an interpretation of a reality in terms of symbols and mythologies. BUT mythos does not mean the absense of an actual reality, as we have mythologies of horse drawn balls of fire to explain the sun, I think our understanding of a father figure deity is something to interpret a infinite sentient being outside our measurements.
Now the problem of evil, of a omnipotent and omniscient deity and the manifestation of evil in the character of the devil (though I must say the devil is not the source) is indeed problematic in dualism but then again this is not how Christianity sees it.
Thank you for your response. I went in this direction as well initially “Angels have free will” but then realized that there is some kind of judgment when one dies, in which God allows those special boring people into heaven and if even luckier they further become angels. Either way you have it God allowed for this to happen. If an angel had free will he can still act against god as god’s angel which would be contradictory to what angels “are” An “evil” angel is one who cannot be a true “angel” in the “eyes” of god. So when did this transition of Angel to evil angel occur? God, knowing all must have seen this coming from billions of years away, and yet he allowed for it under the notion of his own creation of “free will”? God grants free will but cannot break his own rule even when it comes to a possible place where the damned go? God clearly created Lucifer whether or not directly, he still contributed to the creation of evil if he indeed is god. If god is not benevolent, all powerful, or all knowing, he really isn’t worth the lifelong praise and adulation now is he? I agree and thought of the same scenario that Kriswest came up with, a kingdom given to Lucifer sounds like a reward more than punishment. Very benevolent indeed!
Satan, as well as the other angels who rebelled against God, did so out of his own free will. It would be acceptable to say that God permitted the angels to make a choice, although it would be incorrect to say that God desired them to rebel against Him because He orders all things to Himself as their final end. “God hath wrought all things for himself” (Proverbs 16:4). “Sin is a departure from the order which is to God as the end” so God cannot be the cause of sin (Summa theologiae, I-II, q. 79, a. 1). On the other hand, acts of sin, in so far as they have being are good, and so are caused by God (Cf. Ibid, a. 2). Sin is said to not come from God because it is a defect in being and action, whereas God has no defect, and so is not its cause. The cause is in the defect of the agent, namely free will.
Is Satan the root cause of all evil? No, he is not. Evil is a lack of being and because Satan exists, there is some goodness to him. Complete evil denotes a complete lack of being, which would result in a non-existent entity.
God is kind as He wills good (i.e. loves) to all existing things. Furthermore, He is both just (rewarding those who have done good and punishing those who have done evil) and merciful (i.e. He sent His Son to make reparation for our sins against Him, a debt which we could never repay, and has offered to us that which will satisfy all of our desires: eternal beatitude).
Angels are incorporeal creatures who are servents and messangers of God. We do not become angels when we go to Heaven as they are different creatures from us (we are corporeal and they are not). Satan’s rebellion against God happened shortly after his creation, but not in the first instant.
God is the cause of the corruption which occurs in some things and He is also the cause of the evil of penalty (given to man) but He is not the cause of the faults of men (see above).
In regard to God knowing everything that would happen from the beginning and continuing with His plan, well, that’s how things are. Christians believe that God has a plan that will eventually conclude with His righteous creatures reigning with Him in Heaven, and with the wicked creatures being eternally tormented in Hell. It is a matter of both justice and mercy that some go to Heaven while others go to Hell. There is a reason for why things happen that we do not and cannot completely understand right now. Even considering all of the evil that happens, it is possible for God to bring some good out of those events.
It would seem that God should be worshipped simply for the fact that He created us and provided us with intelligence. Justice involves giving to someone what is due to them, and through worship we give God our thanks and praise for all that He has given to us. We owe Him at least that much.
I really need to read the whole corpus of Aquinas’ literature one of these days. Haha.
But Southpawlink answered the questions you raised.