Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Rob the Llama Butcher got stumped by his eldest last night:

… the Llama-ette wanted to know more about him [Satan]. Where did he come from? Was he always bad? Oh, no, I said. While we call him Satan now, in the beginning his name was Lucifer and he was the greatest angel in Heaven. “So what happened?” she asked. Well, I said, he got too ambitious and thought he could run Heaven better than God, so he tried to take over and God threw him into hell in punishment. He tries now to get his revenge by inflicting as much wickedness on God’s world as he can.

Then the gel hit me with the theological stumper. “Well, if he wasn’t bad to begin with and everything else God made was good, where did Satan’s evil come from?”

Erm.....

I’ve never been satisfied with any answer I could come up with for this question, either. It’s one of those theological things that I have found difficult to explain. If you think you have a good answer for Robert, go forth and share your wisdom in his comments.