Good Morning! Ok, I"m going to take another stab at this one now that I"m rested up!
Free will is the question here, and alot of unbelievers have the same question. We were created in His image. The angels were also created with free will. Satan decided, with the use of his free will, that he wanted to be like God, that he deserved to also be worshiped. He was proud and He wanted the glory for himself, he was jealous, proud, haughty. He turned against God and set his sights on God's beloved mankind, to hurt God and to show God that "man will not love you, man will not obey you, man will not serve you if they are given a choice, and I (satan) can prove it!"
This raised a question, he posed a challenge to God, and remember that all of heaven was watching. God could have striked satan and his demons dead right there, but then the question (challenge) would never have been answered properly.
So God said to satan, to go ahead and test my faithful servant Job, but you cant' kill him. Satan did, he brought all kinds of terrible things on Job, but Job remained faithful and proved Satan to be a liar, proved that there are some people that will love God and serve Him no matter what. That they aren't in it for any other reason then to love what is good (GOD) and hate what is bad (satan). Job proved himself worthy of a place in God's Holy Kingdom. He proved that he loved God no matter what, he was faithful. How could he have proved himself, if there was no adversity to overcome? Job has earned his crown in heaven. He chose righteousness.
Every single one of us is being tested to see if we really love what is good, or if we want to eat at both tables. Adam and Eve wanted to eat at both tables, so they disobeyed God when Satan put up a temptation to them. Satan does this to us every single day.
God's creation was perfect as we were created in His image, with personalities, reasoning, thinking abilities, and our own minds. He did not make any mistakes when we were created. He created us, and it was good. It was satan that took that good creation, manipulated it and twisted it into something that he could use against us. And, he did. He took our free will, and turned it into a weapon that he uses to get control over us and manipulate us. How clever. It was not a mistake made by God, it was satan's goal to destroy as many of us as he possibly can, and he uses our free will to do it.
So I believe that the question is not, "Why did God create us with free will?" something you perceive to be a fault, but rather why did God allow satan to live after he turned against God? It's satan that causes all of the pain in the world, satan is responsible for all of it, not GOD. Satan was responsible for the original sin, and satan is responsible for the sin that continues to this very day.
So why did God let satan live only to wreak havoc on the world? Because of the challenge that satan posed to GOD when he turned against HIM in heaven, and that challenge was that no man will serve you if they are allowed to be tempted, and no man will serve you if their life is really hard. That's what satan said, and all of heaven was watching, wondering if it was true or not. God allowed this to happen to prove satan to be the lair because there are people that will serve HIM no matter what. Some won't, but some will, and those that do bring incredible honor, glory, and joy to God.
That was the beginning of the war for our souls. Jesus vs. Satan, both are trying to get our souls. One for good reasons, out of love for us and wanting us to share in His Holy Kingdom, and the other for evil purposes, to try and take away what belongs to God out of hate, jealousy and pride.
That's the time we are living in now, the war for our souls. God saw the struggles of His people, the jews, with their daily sacrifices, their high priests and temples, and all of that. He made it soooooo easy for us by coming here to die for our sins so that there was no need for sacrifices and all of that stuff anymore. You, can at anytime, go directly to Him in prayer and ask forgiveness. He couldn't have made it any easier then he did.
But, we are living in the war for our souls time period. Remember also, in heaven, there is no "time". Time is a physical thing, to the heavenly realm, your entire lifetime is like the blink of an eye. So this time period that God is allowing satan to test and challenge people is only but a day to Him, and it doesn't even register on the scale when you compare it to ETERNITY, and it won't even be remembered when you go to heaven.
The faithful ones, will answer the question, they will prove the challenge that satan made to GOD, and that yes, there is actually people that will serve GOD and love HIM no matter what. Those are the people that are worthy of living in HIS HOly Kingdom. Those are Jesus's friends, followers, and servants.
The souls that satan manages to win, will end up in satans kingdom because they choose to listen to him and his lies. Satan works in many ways with different people. He can read your mind, he knows you very well, and he knows what your weaknesses are. For some people, the "I don't believe in GOD" lie works perfectly. For others, it's the "I believe in GOD, but God is not a personal being, but just a big force that doesn't care what I believe"......that one works very well too. For others it's the "I believe in God, but He did it all wrong, and I could have done it better" lie.....that works too. Or the "it's not fair, I shouldn't have been created with free will cause I can't deal with it" lie, satan loves that one, he's laughing his head off.
For others it's power, money, vanity, pride, selfishness..........and many other things that satan uses because he knows that these things work.
But the good news is that God has set a short time frame for these things to take place. A blink of an eye when compared to forever. He has promised us that He will come back and deliver all that are worthy from His adversary the devil. Time is coming to a close now, He could come at any time. The only question is, which side of the fence will YOU be on when He arrives? That's the only thing that's going to matter to YOU when that day comes.
