Question:

If God is so wonderful and knows everything, why did he create Satan ?  I am created to the image of God, so if i am gay, God is gay, if i am a psychopath, God is psychopath, if i am a rapist God is a rapist, if i am a murderer God is one, and remember, whatever i am that is how God created me. If this is not true, then God is not true.  Religion is only there to manipulate and control you.  Look at Islam and tell me i am wrong.  Look at christianity and tell me i am wrong, look at all the other so called religions and tell me i am wrong.

Answer:

To be completely honest, you seem a big angry and perhaps not even all that interested in an answer to your question.  Perhaps I am wrong.  I hope I am wrong.  I get the sense that you have had some bad experiences with religious people.  I am very sorry you have had these bad interactions.  I am not surprised that you have had bad experiences, but I am sad and I apologize.  In any case, your question deserves an answer, so here I go.

First of all, God created everything, and, if the Bible is true, all he created was good (Genesis 1:31).  I come from a biblical world view and you apparently do not, so you may not fully understand what I am about to say, so I will give what I believe to be a biblical answer to you and you can take it for what it is worth to you!

God created us and apparently angelic beings as well.  According to the Bible, he gave us choice.  That is what Genesis 3 is about. Adam and Eve, as prototype humans, were in the image of God, and part of that “image” involved being self-aware and having choice.  The biblical story is that Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God and brought evil into the world.  I believe that this applies to Satan as well.   I believe that the biblical evidence supports t conclusion that Satan was created “good” but that he, in his pride, rebelled against God, was cast out of his close relationship with God, and began to do evil things, becoming himself evil.  You are correct, biblically, that God created Satan, but not that God created evil or made Satan evil. God, in his love, gives those created in his image choice.  This is a loving God giving us his image but also giving us choice.

To say that we are created in God’s image is not to say that we are exactly the same as God.  Your point may seem logical, but it is absolutely not consistent with what the Bible says (for what it is worth to someone like yourself who may not take the Bible to be inspired by that God).  God does not have hands and feet and fingernails.  The fact that some are gay or straight tells us absolutely nothing about God. God does not even have gender.  He does not have X or Y chromosomes.   He does not eat food.  To be honest, your statement that if you are gay God is gay is really nonsense (hopefully I say this to you in humility).  To apply the biblical statement that we were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) to imply that God is exactly like us is not even rational.  Some of us are tall, others are short.  Some are straight.  Others are gay.  God cannot be both.  Sorry, but your statement does not make sense.  What makes more sense is to ask what the Bible actually says about God.  You may not accept that view of God, but if you are going to use the Bible to make statements (such as about our being in God’s image), then you should probably accept the biblical definition of that thing.  Just my advice

There may be some religious people who use their religion to control people.  That is true of some Muslims (but not all!), and, unfortunately, it is true of some Christain believers.  However, your statement that “Religion is only there to manipulate and control you.” is simply not true.   If there is any “truth” in the Bible it is that God gave us choice as to whether we would serve him or not.  Jesus is a good example of this.  He made God’s message clear and then let people make their decision.  Luke 14:25-33 is a good example of this.  Christianity is NOT about control.  It is about love and it is about faith.  I am SO sorry that your experience has caused you to think differently, but the religion in the Bible is not about this.  Would you do me a favor?  Would you read Matthew 24:37-38?   I believe this is a much more accurate view of the Christian religion than the one you have.

I have looked intently into Christianity, and I tell you that you are wrong.  Jesus is not about manipulation and control.  If you read the Gospel of John and, at the end of reading that short little book and can still tell me that Jesus was about manipulatio and control, then very well, but I do not agree with your statement.

In love and humility (I hope),

John Oakes