Why does God create and tolerate Satan?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

The question of why an all-good and omnipotent God would create and tolerate the existence of Satan is answered through the Coptic Orthodox understanding of free will, the goodness of the original creation, and the divine respect for the integrity of personhood.

1. The Goodness of Original Creation

It is a fundamental tenet of our faith that God did not create a "Satan" or an evil being. God, who is absolutely good, created all things good. Satan was originally created as a glorious archangel, often identified in tradition as "Lucifer" or a "Morning Star," possessing great wisdom and light. As St. John of Damascus notes, God is the creator of all natures, including the angelic hosts. Evil is not a "thing" or a "substance" created by God; rather, evil is the absence of good and the perversion of the will.

2. The Gift of Free Will

The Coptic Orthodox perspective emphasizes that God created rational beings—both angels and humans—in His own image, which includes the gift of free will. For love to be genuine, it must be freely chosen.

As highlighted in the writings of Archimandrite Sophrony, for the Creator to interfere or "switch off" a being when they incline toward evil would be "tantamount to depriving him of the possibility of self-determination, and would destroy him altogether." God respects the freedom He gave His creatures, even when they use that freedom to rebel against Him. Satan’s fall was not due to a flaw in his creation but was a result of his own pride and the misuse of his will to turn away from the source of life.

3. Why God Tolerates His Existence

The tolerance of Satan’s existence is not an indication of God's weakness or an endorsement of evil. Instead, it serves several purposes within the Divine Economy:

• Respect for Existence: God does not annihilate what He has brought into existence. Once a spirit is created for eternity, God does not revoke that gift of existence, even if the spirit chooses to dwell in darkness.
• The Refinement of the Saints: In His sovereignty, God permits the temptations of the devil to serve as a means of spiritual exercise (askesis) for the faithful. By resisting the "slanderer", the believer’s love for God is proven and strengthened.
• Demonstration of Divine Power: By permitting the "lawless one" to act within boundaries, God demonstrates that His grace is sufficient to overcome all the works of the enemy. The victory of Christ on the Cross proved that life triumphs over death and love triumphs over hatred.

4. Correcting False Theologies

It is important to distinguish our faith from "Western theology," which often portrays God as a fearsome judge who creates evil or uses the devil as an instrument of divine "wrath" in a legalistic sense. In the Coptic Orthodox view, God is "all-loving, all-kind, and absolutely good."

The devil is the slanderer who tries to convince humanity that God is the cause of suffering. In reality, God is the Physician who entered our suffering to heal us. While the "seeds of the serpent" remain at enmity with the "seeds of the woman," we know that the Antichrist and all wicked spirits have already been defeated by the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God created a holy angel who chose to become Satan. God tolerates him to preserve the sanctity of free will and to allow the faithful the opportunity to choose the Kingdom of Heaven over the darkness of the ego.