.Pressing.Heaven.

God loves Satan.

Let me start with a disclaimer: Satan has made himself an enemy of God. God does not condone the works of Satan; He hates the works of Satan. God is not “in cahoots” with Satan. 

Despite all these things, God loves Satan, even though he is against His Creator (which reminds me of many humans, quite frankly). God created Satan. He does not regret or dread His creations (which is largely the reason I believe it was not God who sent the Flood). God makes no mistakes.

I could be misquoting, but I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said something along the lines of that the reason God does not annihilate (cease his very existence) Satan shows that He loves him. God sees and loves the intrinsic value within Satan with which he was created. To say otherwise is to say God created something evil. But He didn’t. God is good all the time.

Evil, then, is a creation of the created. God is omnipresent, therefore evil cannot be the absence of good, although it could be the illusion of the absence of good.

Jesus said “Love your enemies” and “Bless those who hate and persecute you”. God is not a hypocrite. Logically, God must also love those who have made themselves His enemies and bless those who hate and persecute Him.

I’ll probably get a couple of “Oh, but God hates Satan! He will forever be condemned!“‘s. Check out some of what I posted about eternality. Essentially, eternal is defined as “without beginning and without end”, therefore Satan’s restorative punishment isn’t literally eternal, but rather “of the Eternal One”.

Despite popular belief, Satan actually has a destiny like all of us. Some have suggested, by verses in Isaiah, that he was the “worship leader” of Heaven. Whether that is right or not, Satan (originally Lucifer) was a very powerful and beautiful angel. Moreover, God does not create things in vain or without purpose. The early church actually believed; though hopefully, not dogmatically; that Satan would one day be restored to his created state as “worship leader of Heaven”. Here are a few quotes from early church writers:

Gregory of Nyssa said,

For it is evident that God will in truth be all in all when there shall be no evil in existence, when every created being is at harmony with itself and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; when every creature shall have been made one body.

and

Our Lord is the One who delivers man [all men], and who heals the inventor of evil himself.

Origen said,

For the destruction of the last enemy must be understood in this way, not that its substance which was made by God shall perish, but that the hostile purpose and will which proceeded, not from God but from itself, will come to an end. It will be destroyed, therefore, not in the sense of ceasing to exist, but of being no longer an enemy and no longer death. For to the Almighty nothing is impossible, nor is anything beyond the reach of cure by its maker.

Jerome said,

I know that most persons understand by the story of Nineveh and its king, the ultimate forgiveness of the devil and all rational creatures.

and Clement of Alexandria said,

He, indeed, saves all; but some He saves converting them by punishments; others, however, who follow voluntarily He saves with dignity of honour; so that ‘every knee should bow to Him, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and things under the earth’—that is, angels and men.

There are MANY, MANY more quotes like this from early church fathers, whose doctrines vastly differed from Churchianity today if it is not obvious enough from these quotes.

Colossians 1:19-20 says this:

Because, in Him, He was pleased to have all His fullness dwell and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace by the blood of the cross of Him, by Him—whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.

The Greek word, οὐρανός, for “heavens” can refer, especially in the plural form, more generally to the spiritual realm.

 The Greek words, ἀποκαταλλάξαι and εἰρηνοποιήσας, for “to reconcile” and “having made peace” respectively, are both aorists, which means they don’t simply proclaim a past, present of future event; they proclaim a reality that is simple and undivided. All of existence, regardless of belief or actions, has been reconciled to God. The victory has been won. It just seems as if many of us, including Satan, just don’t want to admit it—acting as if we still have a chance at earning our way to salvation or somehow become greater than God.

Two nights ago, I had a dream. It was a trial. Satan was accusing me. God was the Judge. I took hold of the law that says you allowed to confront your accuser. I walked up to Satan, looked him in the eyes, and embraced him in a loving hug. I began crying and asked him why he did all those things, but before he had a chance to respond I said, “I forgive you”. He hated it. He hated being forgiven at MY trial. OH, THE BOLDNESS OF INNOCENCE! Unashamedly, I walked out of the court with the approval of the Judge. No one stopped me; no one dared. Then, my good brother, Joel, shared this quote with me today:

“I destroy my enemies by making them my friends” - Abraham Lincoln

This rang with me. It resounded with the primary essence of my dream and what the early church fathers were portraying. Looking at the commonly misquoted Isaiah 55:6-9, I can also sees it’s truth resounded there as well:

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, for he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

This verse refers to the unrelenting goodness of God. If you don’t believe me, look at verse 1 (emphasis added): “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

This connects somewhat to my previous post and its addendum.

God is not out to condemn us all—not even one of us, including Satan! He’s inviting us to come to Him who is Life. No strings attached…no bribes…no threats or fear-mongering. Condemnation is by our own doing, not God’s.

We no longer have to hate Satan. In fact, we didn’t have to all along! There are SO many deliverance ministries that operate out of hate for the devil. I’m not discrediting their deliverances, or the fruit that has been born through them, but I think it is far more effective if we operate out of love and the proclamation of reality and freedom. Honestly, this is still something I’m learning about, and I will surely be able to expound in the future about this subtopic.

Hate evil; Satan himself, in his created nature, is not evil—just like us.

Grace and peace! :)