Examining Three Questions about the Devil

There’s something fascinating about the villains.  People want to know what makes them tick.  So today I wanted to look at three common questions about the Adversary and give my theories.

Question 1: Why Did the Devil Fall?

I think the answer has to do with two opposing understandings of what it means to be free.

The Train:

One concept, the Christian concept, can be illustrated with this analogy:  When is a train most free?  When it is on the tracks.  With its wheels on the rails, the train is free to live out its nature and travel great distances.  In like fashion, freedom is your ability to act in accordance with your God-given nature.

Now, our nature is wounded by the Fall of Adam and Eve.  So you need to imagine what our nature would be like if it was pristine.  That’s the standard.  When we conform ourselves to our original nature we become fully ourselves and truly free.

This concept of freedom is inherently outward-looking.  It leads a person seeks a truth which is ultimately found in God.


I Did It My Way:

The other view of freedom sees it as the ability to act as a sovereign entity.  It causes a person to look at the imprint of God's design and say:

"Why place those chains on myself?   What right does anyone – even God - have to tell me how to act?  Why can’t I decide for myself what is good for me?!"

With this understanding, your "true self" is whoever you decide.  You reject God as the standard and replace Him with your own will.  In that sense, you exalt yourself as God’s equal.  This is why the serpent said the following to Adam and Eve:

"Surely you will not die!  No, God knows that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil."  - Genesis 3:4-5

So why did the Devil fall?  Because he concluded that asserting himself as a free creature demanded the rejection of God.


Question 2: Why the Animus for Humans?

Alright, so the devil wants independence from God.  What does that have to do with us?  Why not just leave us alone?

On a certain level, we shouldn’t look too hard for a rational motive in the Devil.  By rejecting God, Satan rejected any need to behave in a rational manner.

Still... we can look at a few answers.

Just for the Hell of it:

One possibility is the Devil hates God and therefore hates God’s creatures.  Particularly those puny, squishy creatures which bear God’s image and likeness.  Namely... us.


But is there anything more than that?  Well....maybe.  I think there are two things which drive the devil crazy. 

A Challenge to Divine Goodness:

First is the claim that God is all-good. 

The devil’s original motivation was the rejection of God as the standard of wisdom and goodness.  So… imagine the Devil saying the following to God:

“If you are so good, why do you let me carry on the way I do?  I drag your creatures into Hell.  If you are so good, why don’t you stop me?”

Or perhaps it’s something different.  Maybe its something more of a hostage-taking situation...

“Better yet, if you would just admit that I was right… if you would acknowledge me as your equal, I’ll stop.  I’ll let you have all of humanity, if only you’d make this one humble admission I’ll leave them alone.  But no… you’re too proud to do it."

Perhaps we can see something of that motivation in the third temptation he gave to Jesus:

"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.'” - Matthew 4: 8-9

Either way, part of what motivates the devil my be an attempt to disprove divine goodness by his own destructive behavior.

An Angelic Suicide Attempt:

The second thing which constantly annoys the devil is his own dependence on God. 

There is a principle called “divine conservation”.  It means God – who is the essence of existence itself – constantly sustains everything else in existence.

That means Satan is likewise dependent upon God for his existence at every moment.  It is the only way He cannot get away from God. 

So he says:

"I want to be a truly sovereign being, but I CAN'T because I need you to sustain me in existence!  If I can't realize my goal, then I want to die!  I'll destroy your creatures until you finally end my absurd existence and annihilate me!"

In other words, Satan seeks out the destruction of mankind to tempt God into killing him.


Question 3: Should we Pray for the Devil?

The last question we’ll look at is whether we should be praying for the Devil. 

Consider how in Matthew 5:44, Jesus says:

“Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.”  

And in 1Peter 5:8, Peter identifies the devil as your enemy:

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

Many people put these two facts together and wonder if we are supposed to pray for Satan and his demons.

The answer is no.

First, consider the context of Jesus’ statement in Matthew 5.  He is speaking to an audience of Galilean Jews in the year 30AD.  The “enemies” which Jesus's audience would have envisioned were human enemies – most notably the occupying Romans.  In praying for these enemies, one hopes they would repent and come to God.

However, it has been divinely revealed that Satan and his demons cannot, and will not ever repent.  In Revelation 19:20 we see Satan continues to oppose God until the end of the world.  He is ultimately consigned to hell.

His fate is not the result of a lack in God’s mercy.  Rather, theological reflection reveals how angelic decision-making differs from ours.  We process bits of information at a time and come to decisions which we might reverse after we learn more.

The angels, on the other hand, were shown the whole picture at the moment of their creation and were offered a single choice.  The devil chose to assert his freedom by permanently separating himself from God and His grace.  Thus, the Catechism states:

“It is the irrevocable character of their choice that makes the angels' sin unforgivable” -CCC 393  

So praying for the devil is a bit like praying for John Wilkes Booth not to shoot Abe Lincoln.  It might we well-intentioned, but we already know how the tragic story ends.