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We are now about three to three and a half years into the tribulation period. Up to this point the antichrist has brought peace to the Middle East and has put down several foes that would oppose his peace plan. Many have died to accomplish his goals, but considering the world turmoil, death and disasters, things seem to be getting better. The world is now looking to him to solve the hunger problem. After all, he is the head of a very prosperous league of nations, and for a short time, I believe that he will bring things under control. But it will only be for the purpose of meeting his ultimate goal of human deification.
Satan in his limited vision actually believes that he will one day compel all men to worship him and eventually succeed in overthrowing God. But little does Satan know, God is actually using him to perform His perfect will, and in His time, bring down His wrath upon those who would worship him. Satan is and always has been nothing more than a mere tool of God’s to work and mold man into being more like Christ and bring glory to Himself. I think Norman Grubb in his book Yes, I Am, describes this point best. He writes:
Satan himself was God’s created being, of the highest order. In his freedom he rebelled, and founded the kingdom of darkness of which he is god. But he is still forever God’s Satan, and God deliberately used Satan, for instance, to bring Job to the final end of himself (as he uses him in all our lives!). And that is one of the great recorded evidences in the Bible that God is manipulating Satan, not Satan God (Job 1:8 and 2:3). Stretch this out, and (without excusing Satan for his evil designs) we find in all human history we can boldly call Satan “God’s convenient agent.” We have already sought to make plain that if Satan had not first been free to take us the wrong way, we would never now be safely settled in the right way through Christ. Watch carefully, and see God continually using evil for good purposes: “meaning” the evil as the product of our freedom, but using it for His overcoming grace.