“I do not buy that God creates evil and I have never been able to wrap my mind around Calvinistic predestination that makes us all puppets on a string who have no choice and that God made men for the express purpose of sending them to hell.”
God created the law of cause and effect that governs actions. Included in it is evil that carries in itself the seeds of its own destruction. That’s why Paul can say unreservedly “the wages of sin is death”.
"...evil that carries in itself the seeds of its own destruction." Amen!
Satan is a created being; created by God. If God wants evil to cease to exist, all He has to do is knock off Satan.
But He doesn't. Clearly Satan serves a purpose of God, just as everything in this world serves a purpose of God.
"With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his." -- Job 12:16