How much influence does he have?

[GUBU]

In such a clockwork world, god doing things for his glory could only have an audience of one.  I don't know what sense it makes to talk about peoples selfish actions if they themselves have predestined paths, or why it would be an issue for the cogs in the face of an all-controlling god in pursuit of it's own glory.

Perhaps those authors constructed a legend around the banality of evil - a persistent observation of the human condition.  That those most intent to harm are often fuckups, that good prevails not because of the actions of good men, but fortuitously, through the incompetence and compulsions of bad men.

For His glory, yes indeed, and why not?  "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." - Colossians 1:16-18

Conversely, GOD "has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant." - Psalm 35:27 and has toward those who come to Him - "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Until one's last breath, one doesn't truly know if perhaps one is the Lord's - like the thief on the cross beside the Lord JESUS, the CHRIST. 

+++

"Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” - Luke 23:39-44

Sadly for you, a book written by a committee of bronze age goat botherers doesn't amount to even the merest shred of evidence. The bible has gotten so much science, history and geography wrong that an honest person must admit that the chance that it contains any truth is infintessimally small.