Jesus also commands holy angels to cause death and destruction. He also commanded holy men to wage war and to execute capital punishment.

So could you answer the question, were the Israelites suppose to fight their way into Canaan? And give supporting evidence for your answer?

And HOW do holy angels cause death and destruction????

Jesus doesn't need Satan at all.

Death is the result of sin, but God did not want sin. Satan was made perfect and he sinned, against God's will.

This world is full of demons trying to destroy God's people. God uses judgment to clear the path. God makes war against the wicked for the sake of the righteously convicted. He loves His church more than anything else in His Universe and proved it by letting His Son die for us.

The protection of the righteous is why God has to destroy the wicked. He does not like the act, but it must be done to protect those He has the responsibility of protecting, those He sees as His children. He has promised to protect them and lead them to the promised land, so He sends nature or angels or warriors ahead of the people to protect them.

The main difference between those killing for God, as opposed to men killing for Satan, is that God wants to save everyone and anyone who repents can be saved; 5 righteous men could have saved the whole town of Sodom.

Conversely Satan wants to destroy EVERYONE, even those who he sets up as his henchmen. There is nothing good that comes from the destruction Satan wants. ALL good comes from the destruction God employs on the wicked.

I wonder what Johann thinks of this idea.

I don't think you understand the scope of God's sovereignty. He will fix sin forever, not just for earth.

You also seem to think that stuff happens without God's power. That's just not true. Without God's constant power, everything literally falls apart. Use your scientific knowledge.

So you do believe that God is responsible for all the evil. Interesting...

You think you understand the Great Controversy? Good for you! Below is excerpt quote from article I resent wrote.

Not only had man come under the power of the deceiver, but the earth itself, the dominion of man, was usurped by the enemy. Through the plan of salvation, through the sacrifice of Christ, not only man, but his dominion, was to be redeemed. Because of the merits of Christ, all that man lost through sin was to be restored. The time would come when there should be no more curse, but the throne of God should be in the earth renewed, and his servants should serve Him. The promise would be fulfilled, "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever."

Through the plan of salvation, a larger purpose is to be wrought out even than the salvation of man and the redemption of the earth. Through the revelation of the character of God in Christ, the beneficence of the divine government will be manifested before the universe, the charge of Satan against God refuted, the nature and result of sin made plain, and the perpetuity of the law fully demonstrated. Satan had declared that the law of God was faulty, and that the good of the universe demanded a change in its requirements. In attacking the law, he thought to overthrow the authority of its Author, and gain for himself the supreme allegiance. But through the plan of salvation, the precepts of the law were to be proved perfect and immutable, that at last one tide of glory and love might go up throughout the universe, ascribing glory and honour and praise to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.

Jesus commanded the Jews to wage war. The evidence is prolific.

Holy angels and evil angels exercise the "same destructive power".

Long answer - will you read it?

The Same Powers

Taken in isolation, this is a difficult statement. I do believe I have talked about this before.

A single angel destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians and filled the land with mourning. When David offended against God by numbering the people, one angel caused that terrible destruction by which his sin was punished. The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits. There are forces now ready, and only waiting the divine permission, to spread desolation everywhere. {GC 614.2}.

The portion of this statement causing the most difficulty is this, “The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised by evil angels when He permits.”

It is easy to see how this statement could leave you with the conviction that holy angels destroy exactly as do evil angels. It would appear that the only difference is that holy angels destroy by God’s command while the evil do it with His permission.

What happens is that almost everyone tends to read into this statement more than it actually says. Here is what the statement does not say: “The same destructive power exercised by holy angels when God commands, will be exercised in the same way by evil angels when He permits.”

These four words, “in the same way,” are not in the statement, neither are they inferred there. Yet, despite multiplied evidences to this effect, this is exactly what most people read into the reference. They make no distinction between the work of God and of Satan, and therefore, they make no distinction between the character of each. This is serious.

As we have examined this text in The Great Controversy, page 614, we have isolated the portion that causes confusion. However, if we were to back up even one sentence and obtain a wider context, we would find the introductory concept spelled out clearly:

As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. This in just one paragraph up! (see {GC 614.1})

By this and similar statements we find that destructive power is indeed unleashed by God’s command to holy angels. Angels are appointed as ministers to those who shall be heirs of salvation as we read in Hebrews 1:14. When they can no longer function in a given situation because there are no heirs of salvation found in sufficient number, angels must abandon their heaven appointed post of holding back the winds of strife and leave the forces of evil and natural chaos to bear sway, such as we find in the major catastrophes of the flood and the conflagration upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

The angels only release the destructive forces when God judges that any further remaining on station will impose their presence where it is not desired and make Him into something which He is not―a God of force. There are many inspired passages that teach this.

After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree (Revelation 7:1).

We are today under divine forbearance; but how long will the angels of God continue to hold the winds, that they shall not blow? {6T 426.2}

Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture. {Ed 179.6}

I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, “My blood, Father, My blood, My blood, My blood!” Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, “Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.” {EW 38.1}

I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go; but while their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels, and bid them hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads {EW 38.2}

Satan is the destroyer. God cannot bless those who refuse to be faithful stewards. All He can do is to permit Satan to accomplish his destroying work. We see calamities of every kind and in every degree coming upon the earth, and why? The Lord’s restraining power is not exercised. The world has disregarded the word of God. They live as though there were no God. Like the inhabitants of the Noachic world, they refuse to have any thought of God. Wickedness prevails to an alarming extent, and the earth is ripe for the harvest. {6T 388.3}

Every one of these and many other similar statements confirm that the angels’ role is to hold back those terrible powers that are only awaiting release to destroy the earth and the heavens. Angels are righteous. They have not instituted their ways in place of God’s. Accordingly, they do only what the Lord would have them do. As surely as the God of heaven never destroys by direct action, neither do the angels. Therefore, the way in which they exercise those powers is by the withdrawal of their restraint upon them. The released energies pass from an inactive state into one of intense activity and, consequently, of exercise.

This is the way in which the powers are brought into active exercise by holy angels when God commands, but it is not the way evil angels exercise them when God permits. Satan and his followers have studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature and the turbulent forces within human beings until they know just how to activate them into destructive intensities. Thus, while God’s angels are working to hold back these fearful elements, Satan and his company are working in the opposite direction. It is the evil powers that are standing by with bloodlust, “now ready, and only waiting the divine permission,” to exercise their destructive power everywhere. (See {GC 614})=

But whether they are released into active exercise by the holy angels or manipulated by evil angels, they are the same powers. This is the principal thought that the statement conveys when interpreted according to the principles of God’s government and character. It does not discuss the way in which those powers are exercised. When it is recognized that this is the subject matter of the statement, there will be no problem in understanding it.

Far from proving that good angels, at God’s command, sally forth and execute the unrighteous, this statement, by emphasizing that it is the same power in any case, verifies that they do not. If God undertook the work of executioner, He would not bother to use anything less than the greatest powers at His command. These certainly are not those in nature and in humanity. They are the almighty forces within Himself, forces so great that He merely has to speak and whole worlds appear and, in turn, disappear. Therefore, if God was the destroyer, it would not be the same powers as those used by the evil angels who have nothing of themselves but are dependent on what God has invested in them, in nature, and in human beings to do their work of destruction. God has almighty omnipotence and is not in any sense dependent on the relatively puny potentials He has given to this earth and its inhabitants. If these facts are kept in mind, then the statement presents no problem.

God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan's government. The Lord's principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God's government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power. {DA 759.1}