It's amazing how many people would disagree with you, I don't.
The Serpent was created to do two things:
1. Give voice to the thinking of the flesh
2. Test the first pair
So how was God Holy & Righteous to judge and sentence the Serpent as asked by
@talons
Well, the Serpents fleshly mind was incapable of rising to faith, lacking the inherent ability to believe; therefore, its speech could only reflect earthly thoughts. Faith was beyond its reach. The light of God’s law could not penetrate it. Like all lower animals, it was a creature driven solely by sensation, able only to produce sounds formed from impressions received through its five senses. However, it surpassed other animals by being more observant and capable of reasoning.
The judgement pronounced upon it, motive was irrelevant!
What mattered was what the serpent had done,
not what it intended.
It was incapable of moral intent. Though it did not mean to deceive, it did deceive, and so it was called a deceiver. It did not intend to lie, yet it did lie, hence becoming a liar and the father of lies. It did not aim to cause the woman’s death, but it brought her under the sentence of death, therefore, it was a murderer. In this way, it became the spiritual ancestor of all intentional liars, deceivers, unbelievers, and killers of men, who are referred to as “the serpent’s seed.”
A word of caution: God judges the ungodly not because they know Him, but because they interfere with His plan and purpose with Creation. As the Creator and Sustainer of all life, He is fully justified in judging anyone who opposes His will.
Once these truths are grasped, the entire biblical narrative becomes clear, eliminating the need for a rebellious angel theory. What this does require, however, is a careful search of Scripture to understand those challenging passages, which are not about a rebel angel but convey a different message altogether.