Answer: Originally, there was no force of evil, because Jehovah God Almighty did not create anything evil. Evil was created only after a great angel rebelled against God.

Jehovah created countless number of angels, who are heavenly servants who do the will of God. One such angel was of great beauty and position. Because of his pride, he wanted to exalt himself even above his Creator, and wanted all to worship him—and still does. This rebellious angel became Satan, which means "adversary," and he is the devil we know today.

Soon, some other angels followed in Satan's footsteps. Satan uses his followers, who are now called demons, to do his will, just as good angels do the will of Jehovah. Their goal is to go against Jehovah in every way, through whatever means they can think of.

The devil's first rebellious act was cajoling the first two humans to disobey God, saying that if they broke God's only commandment to them, they would know right from wrong just like God. In other words, what he meant was, "You will no longer need God's guidance; instead, you will be able to be on your own." Yes, Satan challenged God's very right to be our Ruler, as if Jehovah were not good enough for the job and as if we would be better off without Him!

Later on, Satan, in front of other angels in heaven, indicated that the righteous man named Job would no longer be God-fearing if God took Job's good health away: "But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to thy face." (Job 2:5, American Standard Version) Did Job denounce God after Satan made him ill? Absolutely not. True worshippers of God will endure Satan's testing to the end, thus proving him wrong and giving glory to God.

Why has Jehovah allowed Satan and his demons to continue rebelling against Him and making people miserable?

Without providing the time required to answer Satan's challenges, humans will never obtain the truth—that Jehovah is the best King for us—on their own. If God had destroyed Satan on the spot and re-established His kingship over us, stubborn humans would always go on wondering whether they could indeed live successfully without God's guidance.

And if Jehovah destroyed Satan on the spot leaving the devil's challenge unanswered—we wouldn't know if people, like Job, would still remain faithful to God if they received no benefits from Him. We wouldn't know whether people loved God just because of His wonderful gifts, or because they truly love Him from the bottom of their hearts simply for who He is.

This is a reason why Jehovah permitted Satan to inflict Job with tragedies. While God does not need verification of Job's loyalty and faithfulness, angels needed to know, and we needed to know. When Job remained faithful after Satan wounded him, the answer became clear to all witnesses: faithful people will remain faithful under any circumstances.

Now, since Jehovah has allowed Satan to exercise his rule over the world and given us the freedom we wanted, it has become quite clear to us that Satan is a horrible liar and that we desperately need God to rescue us from the troubles we have brought upon our own heads.

Soon, Jehovah will destroy Satan, demons, and all their evil human followers and their works, on His appointed time, and will establish His loving kingship over us. Then and only then will the battle between good and evil end, and when good will triumphantly prevail over evil. Amen!

Question: Doesn't God know everything? Isn't He all-powerful? So even when He did not create evil, He could have squished it down in an eyeblink. He knew it was coming and exactly from whom and every detail. And He could have saved Jesus from suffering, why didn't He? Why didn't God prevent Satan from creating evil?

Answer: Jehovah God does know everything; He can see into the future, etc. So He could have easily seen what trouble Satan would cause everyone. So why didn't God prevent Satan? Well, before I answer this question, I want to stress this point:

Jehovah tells us what we need to know. The Bible is need-oriented, not desire-oriented. We don't need to know absolutely everything even though we want to know it all. The first sin committed by Adam and Eve was partially caused by our curious nature—they wanted to know things and be like God. But to know everything would make us God, therefore, we wouldn't be dependent upon Him. Jehovah wants to be our loving Parent to guide us with every step we take. To know every "why" would allow us to live independently from Him.

Okay, on to my answer to your question. I believe the reason why Jehovah didn't stop Satan is because the gift called the free will.

God gives every spirit being and human being free will. He allows everyone to exercise this free will. Likewise, He allows Satan to exercise this free will, but only under His permissive will. God permits people to exercise the free will only in limited power, under His watch. Otherwise, Satan could cause much more drastic troubles and problems. For example, Satan could harm Job only after God permitted him. Satan cannot do anything without God's permission.

While allowing Satan to exercise his free will, God also allows us to exercise our own free will. The problem is us: we have abused this free will gift; instead of using it for good, we've used it for bad. We are the ones who have chosen to live apart from God. We are the ones who brought trouble upon our heads. We have done many things that God forbade us to do. God doesn't like this one bit, but He is permitting it for the time being, because He gave us free will. He keeps His word. To take Satan's freedom away, and to take our freedom away, would really make His gift of free will meaningless, null and void.

Jehovah has a purpose and a reason behind everything He does. Even though we may not understand His ways, we can be assured that He does have the ultimate control over everything. God says that His thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways. Who can possibly understand Him fully? We can't even fully understand ourselves, let alone our very Life-Giver!

Why didn't Jehovah prevent Jesus from suffering? Well, in chapter 53 of Isaiah, it foretold that our Messiah would suffer, die, and be raised up. God, therefore, planned that Jesus would suffer. It is a part of His plans—we don't know why Jesus had to literally suffer—all we are told that he had to suffer in order to pay the penalty for our sins. Again, Jehovah's thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways. However, I know why Jesus had to die and shed blood to save us; read why Jesus had to die for us at: tinyurl.com/ylaafno

Someday, perhaps, Jehovah will share with us some things we've always been curious about. Right now, our responsibility is to live in accordance with the standards God has set for us. It's completely up to us whether we follow His commandments. He gave us free will; we have the options, we have the power to choose. We have the power to choose between good and bad, to choose God or Satan, but we have chosen bad and Satan. It's not necessary for us to know everything. All that we need to know, God has already told us. What He has been hoping is for us to wisely use our free will. When will we begin to do so?

About the Author:

Shirley Cheng (b. 1983), a blind and physically disabled award-winning author (with 21 book awards, including nine Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom Awards), motivational speaker, self-empowerment expert, poet, author of nine books (including "Do You Love Jehovah? God Almighty's Infinite Love & Wisdom to Propel You to Greatness"), contributor to nineteen, and a parental rights advocate, has had severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since infancy. Owing to years of hospitalization, she received no education until age eleven. Back then, she knew only her ABCs and very simple English; other than that, her book knowledge was non-existent. However, after only about 180 days of special education in elementary school, she mastered grade level in all areas and entered a regular sixth grade class in middle school. Unfortunately, Shirley lost her eyesight at the age of seventeen. After a successful eye surgery, she hopes to earn multiple science doctorates from Harvard University. Visit www.shirleycheng.com for more inspiration.

Do you have questions about the Bible? Something you don't understand? Do you need a bit of guidance in developing a relationship with Jehovah? Then Shirley would like to help you! Please contact her via her site at www.shirleycheng.com and she would be more than glad to do her best to answer your questions! Never hesitate to ask questions, for no question about the Bible is ever too small or stupid.

(Questions submitted by Bill Christy, who was born in Washington State and after Army in mid 1970's, moved to Florida, and has been there ever since. He is in his mid 50's, reformed (this is a daily thing) addict, born again Christian type, white male. Socially more liberal, fiscally more conservative. Hate the sin; love the sinner; that is a good working goal for each of us. Separated, 4 kids and 12 grandkids.)