After everyone understands the deadly nature of sin and the destructive nature of Satan’s philosophy, God can destroy Satan and sin. He will also have to destroy those who stubbornly resist His grace and cling to Satan’s alternative. (More about this in guides 22 and 23.)

God is just as anxious to resolve the problem of sin and suffering as we are to have Him do so. But He is waiting until He can do it on a permanent basis, and until He can both preserve our free will and prevent evil from ever appearing again.

How certain can we be that God will destroy sin forever?

“The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up [margin]. . . . But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”
—2 Peter 3:10, 13.

When God does finally say of sin, “It is done!” (Revelation 16:17), sin will be truly finished for all time. It will never again infect the universe. Sin’s tragic results will stand out so clearly that disobedience to God will seem repugnant for all eternity.

What makes possible the final destruction of the devil and sin?

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Christ] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
—Hebrews 2:14, 15.