;the kingdom and the power and the glory” of God Himself!Love Is the Answer: John tells us that “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. Love was all aroundLucifer. But Lucifer turned away from that and finally saw God as a rival! His twisted mindpictured God as the enemy. This rebellious angel wondered: Why should God have all thepower and authority? Lucifer thought he could do just as good a job at running things.Now heaven was a place where jealousy and slander and malice had never existed. Angels hadnever heard a lie (which was invented by Lucifer, John 8:44) and couldn’t cope with falsehood. It neveroccurred to them to question God’s wisdom and love. And suddenly this brilliant Lucifer, this cherub sonear the throne of God, starts making remarks. He wonders why God has to have all the glory, whyevery created being has to obey Him. Maybe there’s an alternative, a better way to run the universe.Lucifer, who seemed so reasonable, so wise, questioned God’s authority and persuaded many otherangels to join his rebellion—enough to go to battle over who should run the universe. A great battleensued—a cosmic conflict. There was war in heaven, and Lucifer (now called Satan) was cast out ofheaven with all his followers. Why didn’t God just nip evil in the bud—destroy it before it had a chanceto spread and cause so much suffering? If God had executed Lucifer, just zapped him in an instant, all theother angels would reason: “Poor Lucifer! He tried to tell us God is a tyrant—and look what’s happenedto him! It seems Lucifer was right. It seems that his charges are true.” God chose a wiser course: He’dallow sin to exist for a period of time, and when it had been fully demonstrated that God’s way brings joyand Lucifer’s way brings death, then and only then would God destroy all evil.Love doesn’t force. Love lets people see for themselves, decide for ...
