The God Of This World
THE GOD OF THIS WORLD
Don’t let the title of the article fool you. The god of this world is not God the Father, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. Sorry, no points for any of those answers. It’s one of the many interesting names found in the Bible for the Devil himself. (2nd Corinthians 4:4) He’s also called the “prince of this world.” (John 12:31) It’s a sad truth that although the majority of people in this country believe that a god exists, the idea of there being a real “devil” is often scoffed at, even by professed Christians. This disbelief, as with all errors in spiritual matters, comes from people being ignorant of God’s word.
The devil, whose most common name is Satan, (meaning “adversary”), is a real person, like God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Note that the term “person”, does not always mean flesh and blood. There are different types of bodies in the heavens and on earth. (1st Corinthians 15:39,40) The devil is mentioned throughout the Bible in detail from the first book, Genesis, to the last, Revelation. There’s no doubt that God says he exists. He is the greatest enemy of God and all Christians. His goal for people is simple: Satan hates all of God’s creations, especially men and women. As a result he wants to lead as many people as possible from the Lord.
A study of his origin requires a trip through several Old Testament books. This would require too much space to go into here. Therefore, to summarize, the Bible says that originally he was created a good angel with a free will. For some reason, apparently pride, he decided to rebel against God. He led many other evil angels against God. He was defeated and cast out of heaven. However, he was not cast into hell. Many people incorrectly think the devil is safely locked up in hell right now, just waiting around for some of us to be sent to him. Satan and his angels, also called demons, have free access to the earth and its surrounding atmosphere. For this reason another one of his names is “the prince of the power of the air.” (Ephesians 2:2)
Satan is still allowed access to heaven to converse with God. (Job 1:6,7) He spends his time visiting God to accuse Christians of wrong doing. That’s why he’s also known as “the accuser of the brethren.” (Revelation 12:10) The good news for us is there are restrictions to his abilities. He is not all powerful. He can only do what God allows him to do. He can only be in one place at a given time. (Watch out for his demons however.) He can do nothing to change God’s future program as described in His Word, the Bible.
It’s crucial that all Christians are aware of how powerful Satan is. They need to understand his tactics are against both believers and non-believers. Remember that Satan’s desire is to prevent people from being saved. It is Satan that blinds people to the truth of the Gospel, encouraging them to reject it. (2nd Corinthians 4:3,4) Because non-believers don’t understand the Gospel, they can’t comprehend that many of their seemingly harmless actions are in fact doing Satan’s will by opposing God’s plan for them. Satan has millions of people in his “back pocket” and they haven’t a clue about it.
When Christians have to deal with being persecuted or ridiculed by a person or organization for what they believe, they’re really not struggling against human beings. The battle is against the powers of Satan whose spirit causes people to do his will. (Ephesians 2:2, 6:12) That’s why Christians aren’t to hate any person, only the wrong they do.
An awful and important truth provided by the Lord is there is nothing that a non-Christian can do to stop Satan from controlling his life. Except of course, becoming born again. Satan can toy with anyone who isn’t born again, at his will. (2nd Timothy 2:25,26) He has no control over Spirit-filled Christians lives. Satan can however, make circumstances difficult for believers by causing them problems. Even the apostles, with their tremendous faith, had their travels to spread the Gospel hindered by Satan. (1st Thessalonians 2:18)
Why are people misled by Satan and his followers? Why can’t they recognize him and the evil he represents? This has to do with the clever tactics he uses to trick both believers and nonbelievers. The real Satan isn’t a silly looking devil with a pitchfork and horns who scares people, as he is portrayed in the movies and on television. The Bible tells us that he was created God’s most beautiful angel. His greatest tactic, aside from getting people to deny his existence, is imitation. The people who do his will may appear good and kind, even religious. They are often intellectually appealing. God says the devil’s followers can appear as “angels of light” and “ministers of righteousness.” They can even pretend to be apostles of Christ, to deceive people. (2nd Corinthians 11:14,15)
It’s easy for Satan to fool those who don’t have the Spirit of Christ in them. He can mislead those who don’t know their Bible well. This last point is of importance because Satan knows how to quote scripture and misuse it. It’s easy to see how his earthly ministers can do the same. An amazing example of his deceitfulness is illustrated when he tried to tempt Jesus. Satan took Old Testament verses out of context and perverting their meaning. (Matthew 4:5,6) His power to tempt and deceive will continue to grow. It will peak in the last days before Christ returns to the Earth to set up His eternal kingdom.
Besides influencing people to do his will, Satan himself has enormous supernatural power. These powers are limited by God. He is even able to cause physical ailments in people. Here are three examples of handicaps he caused people during the days of Jesus on this planet. (Jesus cured all three)
He caused a man to be a mute. (Matthew 9:32,33 & Luke 11:14) He caused severe mental illness in a boy. (Matthew 17:14-18) He caused a woman to be badly crippled for 18 years. (Luke 13:16)
There are other demonstrations of his immense power in the New Testament. He brought Christ up to a high mountain and presented the Lord with a view of his kingdoms. (Matthew 4:8,9) Since, he is the god of this world these kingdoms were his to give. But, if Christ had accepted the world this way, we would have not have had His sacrifice for our sin. This was allowed by God, as are all of his activities, so Jesus could demonstrate His sinless perfection. And, by doing so He serves as an example for us.
Satan gave a man the power to perform small miracles through sorcery so the local people would think this man was a god. (Acts 8:9-11) He gave a young girl the ability to give accurate fortunes thereby making money for her masters. (Acts 16:16) (This clarifies the apparent power of some psychics and astrologers of today.) A couple of interesting verses show that Satan and his demons know the prophecies of the Bible well. They are aware of what God’s plan holds for them in the future.
Next month, in part 2 of this article, we will discuss what believers have been given by the God of the Universe, to combat the attacks we face from the god of this world.