What can't be counterfeited

For every act of God, Satan seems to have a counterfeit. Call it the spiritual Newtonian third law of motion, if you like: "equal and opposite reaction." Did God give us marriage? Satan gave us trysts. For true humility, he manufactures self-deprecation. Is gift-giving a good thing? Satan has a version, too: "And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on earth" (Revelation 11:10).

The friendship between David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18) is one of God's most beautiful stories. Satan came up with a story equally sentimental-for his team: "And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day [that is, the day they murdered Jesus], for before this they had been at enmity with each other" (Luke 23:12).

Satan has a counterfeit Trinity, too. For God the Father he presents the Dragon; for the Son, the Beast from the sea-fatal wound and all-to whom "the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority" (Revelation 13:2). For the Holy Spirit, behold the Beast from the earth, who "exercises the authority of the first beast, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed" (13:12).

But its' always just a 666, never the perfect hand of sevens he is after. Like Pharaoh's magicians, who reached a point where they could no longer mimic Moses' miracles with the staff, Satan has been stumped and stymied by God's tour de force miracle:

Late in time behold him come,

Offspring of a virgin's womb,

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail th' Incarnate Deity.

Pleased as man with man to dwell,

Jesus our Emmanuel.

Self-sacrificing love is one thing Satan cannot counterfeit.