I'm not a christian, but I grew up in a Baptist household, so I have at least a passing understanding of the Bible. Lemme know if I got any wrong.
If I'm understanding the bible correctly;
God Created heaven and Earth, Including Mankind and Angels
God is all-knowing and all-powerful
Relevant to this discussion, God created Lucifer and all the angels who sided with him.
God made Man in His image, and ordered the angels to serve them.
Lucifer, prideful of his own beauty, and envious of God's (at least perceived) favoritism of Man, and of God's position, started a rebellion in heaven and was/will be cast down into the lake of fire(aka Hell).
lucifer later tempted/took the form of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.
my conclusion: God, with full knowledge of what lucifer would do/become created him and set him on the path that led to his downfall, and to the Sin of Mankind.
Or to put it more simply; God created Sin through his foreknowledge of what Lucifer would become.
I'm not trying to start a shitstorm here, but this is the logical conclusion that I find myself at.
Any Christian pedes wanna poke holes in this for me?
I'm a Calvinist, so I don't actually believe in the concept of free will.
Christ tells me: "You did not choose Me, but I chose you."
Salvation works like this:
From eternity, the Father chose certain people for salvation.
In the fullness of time, Christ came to Earth and died for them, His Bride, completely erasing all the sins. Yay.
At an appointed time in a chosen sinner's life, the Holy Spirit will spiritually regenerate the individual, and such will begin to understand spiritual truth. Before that, you're just a pagan bumping around in Satan's dark kingdom, like everyone else. Check out Romans Chapter 9.
I'm grateful God saved me from my stupid self.
The Bible says that God is absolutely sovereign in all things.
It also says that God made everything for His glory.
Scripture also says that God chose "the foolish things of this world in order to shame the wise." So I'm happy God chose me to be a "foolish thing."
Everyone should wish to be one of those "foolish things," also.