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Man’s Sin and the “Fullness of the Time”
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a mighty prince who would establish his kingdom in Israel and come
as a deliverer to the nations.
How Satan Almost Succeeded
“The fullness of the time” had come. Humanity, degraded
through ages of sin, called for the coming of the Redeemer. Sa-
tan had been working to make the gulf between earth and heaven
deep and impassable. He had made people bold in sin. He intended
to wear out the patience of God so that He would abandon the world
to Satan’s control.
Satan’s battle for supremacy seemed almost entirely successful.
It is true that in every generation, even among the heathen, there
were those through whom Christ was working to uplift the people
from sin. But these reformers were hated. Many suffered a violent
death. The dark shadow Satan cast over the world grew deeper and
deeper.
Satan’s great triumph was in perverting the faith of Israel. The
heathen had lost a knowledge of God and had become more and
more corrupt. And so had Israel. The principle that we can save
ourselves by our own works lay at the foundation of every heathen
religion. It had now become the principle of the Jewish religion.
The Jews robbed the world by a counterfeit of the gospel. They
had refused to surrender themselves to God for the salvation of the
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world, and they became agents of Satan for its destruction. The
people whom God had called to be the pillar and ground of the
truth were doing the work Satan wanted them to do, living in a way
that misrepresented God’s character and caused the world to look
on Him as a tyrant. Priests in the temple lost the meaning of the
service they performed. They were like actors in a play. Laws and
ceremonies that God Himself had established were made the means
of blinding the mind and hardening the heart. God could do no more
for humanity through these channels.
God Pities the Lost World
All the agencies for corrupting human hearts had been put in
operation. The Son of God looked on the world with compassion