Mr. Mattison's Reply

2-1-8 Does Satan Do God's Will?

Thank you very much. After his presentation, Mr. Heaster handed me a list of questions which I hope to deal with as I follow a brief outline. I categorised these questions into three or four different subject headings. The first series of questions are as follows: Where does Satan get his power from? Does Satan do God's will or his own will? How can Satan have a positive spiritual effect upon someone?

Now the comments that Mr. Heaster has made about God's powerfulness, His supremacy, I think don't contradict at all what I was saying. I think I covered that pretty well in my presentation that God is ultimately in control of everything. Yes, in accordance with Isaiah 45, God is the source of good and also, ultimately of all trouble. However, it also true that this trouble is carried out through free-will agents who are not God Himself. This includes people, as I pointed out at the end of my presentation and this also includes the devil. Now does Satan do his own will, or God's will? The answer is both. Satan does his will. He pursues his own interests, but to his frustration, God ultimately uses him, and God manipulates his actions.

I believe that in the third question - how can Satan have a positive spiritual effect on someone, when after all his intent is to destroy us - I think we can illustrate this principle by talking about another verse I alluded to in my presentation found in Genesis 50 when Joseph said to his brothers, " You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good." Now what was the story behind that? The story was that his brothers who intended to harm him - they hated him and wanted him out of the way. What was the best way they could think of to get rid of him? They sold him into slavery. They had very evil intentions in mind; however, God was ultimately working in all of this to provide a future for the people of Israel, because the ultimate result of that was that Joseph eventually down in Egypt came to a very high political power and was able to provide for his people later on. So God intended that for good, although his brothers had intended it for evil. I would suggest to you that is precisely how this principle works between Satan and God. Satan intends to do evil but God is the one who is in control, much to his frustration.