Did God know that Satan would disobey him when he created him?

This question has challenged many people for centuries. Scholars refer to the philosophical debate as issue over the foreknowledge of God.

The Bible makes two things very clear.
1. God knows the end from the beginning. He is all-knowing. You can see a great example of God knowing things before they happen in the prophecies of Daniel. Check out Daniel 2:28 "but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come."

2. God has created human beings and apparently all created beings with the freedom to choose as we studied in Pastor Nelson's topic tonight. (see Genesis 3 again)

From this point, the Bible doesn't seem to tell us how to put these two facts together in our minds. However the two work together God does know the future but allows us the freedom to choose which path we will take. The same was true of Satan, or Lucifer, when God created him.

You can think of it this way. God knows all the possible choices that Satan could have made. He has the capacity to take all that in. But with all that knowledge, He left the option open to Satan as to which path he would take.

How do we know that there was an actual war in heaven, and that it wasn't just a story or parable to illustrate a spiritual lesson?

Whether the war was verbal or physical, we can't know. But there was definitely some type of war caused by Lucifer's rebellion (Rev. 12:7-9, Isa. 14:12-14). Evil could not be allowed to remain in heaven and therefore Lucifer was cast out along with his followers and he became known as Satan or the devil.
Whenever there is a change of character in the Bible, there is a change of name to reflect that change of character. Usually it denoted a change for the better. Think of Abram becoming Abraham, Jacob becoming Israel, and so on.
As mentioned by the speaker on Saturday night, when we look at Ez. 28:11-17, we know that the king of Tyre is not any human being living at that time because it declares, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;" and no person lived that long. Therefore, in comparing scripture with scripture, we see that it had to be Lucifer and the Bible shows that he became enamoured of himself and decided to usurp God's throne.
To believe that the Bible doesn't really mean what it says would be to put a lie to the following verse: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2Tim. 3:16)
I used to wonder why each subject was not completely covered altogether in one part of scripture, rather than scattered throughout the Bible, so that one must search out, comparing scripture with scripture, keeping verses in context. Then I realized that throughout the centuries, if what the Bible said on a certain subject was not pleasing to someone, they probably would have burned that portion and we would no longer have the whole Bible. How wonderful it is that God has preserved His word throughout the history of civilization.

Why was the devil thrown from heaven down to the earth but not somewhere else?

The Bible does not have information on why the devil was thrown to the earth. It is possible that the devil could have gone elsewhere to tempt other beings. I am sure it was Satan's evil intention to subvert the God's perfect creation at Eden to get even with God. It is not hard to comprehend why anyone's enemy wants to strike at his or her loved ones.

Could you please explain what who "the woman and her seed" are in Gen 3:15?

"Between your seed and her seed." Reference is made to the agelong struggle between Satan's "seed" or followers (John 8:44; Acts 13:10; 1John 3:10) and the woman's seed. The Lord Jesus Christ is styled by His pre-eminence "the seed" (Galations.3:16, 19), it was He who came to destroy the works of the devil (Hebrews 2:14, 1John 3:8)! May you, my friend, choose to taste and see if He is good (Psalms 34:8), if He really is love (1John 4:16) and if you can trust Him to be your God!

Are we an experiment?

I don't believe God "experiments" because, knowing the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), there are no unknown outcomes.

If we assume that God made the serpent and also the tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, then we must ask why they were created.

The serpent itself wasn't intrinsically evil (of itself, the serpent couldn't talk) and was just another part of God's creation. It was satan's use of the serpent as a "front man" for his deception that made it evil.

Why was the tree there? If we weren't meant to eat from the tree, thereby becoming, like God, aware of good & evil, who/what was?

I don't believe that the tree itself had any intrinsic power to impart any knowledge of good or evil. It was the choice to disobey God that imparted the knowledge of what evil was (themselves--as a result of their choice) and what good was (God--evil always fears that which is good).

Also, why the serpent? If Adam & Eve were being tested, this surely points, almost by definition, to some form of experiment.

I don't believe that Adam and Eve were being tested. They were merely being given the opportunity to make the choice of whether to trust God or not. The war in heaven made this choice a necessity in order to answer the accusations of satan.

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