Old Testament Reading: Genesis 1:26-31
New Testament Reading: Revelation 13:1-10
Spiritual Warfare
“The god of this world”
2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
Every believer becomes engaged in a cosmic spiritual war the very moment they are born again.
- This war can be described as a cosmic conflict between God and Satan, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of holiness and the kingdom of evil.
- This war began in the Garden of Eden when Satan rebelled against God and led Adam and Eve to do the same.
- This war will not end until Satan is cast into the bottomless pit of hell, where he and his fellow rebels will live forever.
As a consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin, God placed a curse on the whole earth.
- From that moment, every living thing began to die, and for the last 6,000 years, man has fought against that curse to forge a living for himself and his family.
- God placed that curse on the earth so we would not get so caught up in building our lives on the things of the earth that we would lose our hope and desire for heaven.
Every child is born with a sin nature and intrinsically attracted to sin.
- Once we are “born again,” we relate to God through our spirit, but we still relate to the world through our soul – our mind, our will, and our emotions, and we relate to others through our physical bodies – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
- Those areas serve as the battleground for our daily spiritual warfare with Satan, so they must be daily dedicated and devoted to the Lord.
Satan is the god of this world, and he has designed the systems of this world to achieve his agenda.
- We are witnessing the final phase of the battle of the ages between God and Satan.
- We are witnessing the last two events the Apostle Paul said would happen before the Antichrist is revealed and the wrath of God is poured out upon those who refused to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
- The Apostasy – the deliberate turning away from the truth of God’s Word and embracing Satan’s lies.
- The Rapture – the instant removal of those who received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord from Pentecost to the day Jesus calls us to “come forth!”
- Soon, the troubling events of this world will morph into the seven years of Tribulation and end with the return of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
When the Bible says Satan is the god of this world:
- That did not mean he has ultimate authority over all of the events of the world.
- In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and in earth has been given unto Me.”
- God the Father is still sovereign over all, in all, and through all, but as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin, God is allowing Satan to operate within the boundaries He has set for him.
- The writers did not use the Greek word for “universe” but the Greek word for “age.”
- Satan is the “god of this age” – he has the major influence on the values, standards, morals, beliefs, and ethics of the world, as well as the major operational systems of the world.
- Satan has the ability to affect, if not direct, the daily lives of the majority of people in the world today by blinding their minds to the true gospel.
Satan’s chief weapon today is “deception,” which is manifest in the affairs of the world as “dishonesty,” – saying something that is not true, or concealing something that is true.
- In the secular world, this includes all forms of media, including the news media and every institution of public education.
- Every moral value we once held dear is being perverted, altered, disallowed, or discarded.
- For centuries, sinister forces have been working behind the scenes to undermine the Judeo-Christian values upon which our nation’s way of life was built.
- Today, their destructive intent is obvious – they are determined to transform America into a Marxist-Socialist nation.
- In the spiritual world, this includes the false gospel being proclaimed by false teachers, pastors, and prophets.
- Jesus may have been a good man, but He was certainly not God.
- Confession and repentance are not required as evidence of one’s salvation – just decide to be a Jesus follower.
- Artificial intelligence is rewriting the Bible to agree with today’s moral values.
- Christianity is not the only pathway to heaven – all religions and all “gods” are equal.
Satan is setting the stage for the soon arrival and global acceptance of the Antichrist.
- In 2 Thessalonians 2:7, the Apostle Paul said, while we wait for the arrival of the “Man of lawlessness,”e., the Antichrist, the “mystery of lawlessness is already here,” i.e., the spirit of the Antichrist.
- In 1 John 4:3, the Apostle said, where there is opposition to the truth of God’s Word, that is where the spirit of the Antichrist is at work.
- Therefore, to be victorious over Satan’s deception, Christians must develop “the spirit of discernment” – the grace to distinguish between good and evil; the spiritual ability to recognize the moral implications of the information we receive and the situations we face.
The Bible is “multidimensional” in that both the letters and numbers used in the Bible have divine meanings in addition to their values.
- Number “one” = “Unity.” Number “two” = “Division.” Number “three” = “fullness or perfection.”
- Number “twelve” = “Governmental Rule and Authority”
- God established His rule and authority through the 12 tribes of Israel.
- Jesus established His Church on earth through the 12 Apostles.
- The physical body has 12 systems that control our health
The 12 systems that control the daily operation of the world include governmental, educational, financial, media/entertainment, legislative, political, religious, technological, military, commerce, healthcare, and communication.
- In Genesis 1:26-28, God gave Adam and Eve dominion over every living thing on the earth, including the operational systems.
- However, when Adam and Eve sinned, they became controlled by Satan, and through their disobedience, Satan gained a limited power over these operational systems.
- Galatians 1:4 – Paul described earth as “this present evil world.”
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 – Paul called Satan as “the god (ruler) of this world.”
- 1 John 5:19 – the apostle said, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness.”
- Ephesians 2:2 – the Apostle Paul wrote of the “evil course of this world.”
- Matthew 4:8-9 – Jesus acknowledge Satan as the god of this world.
- John 18:36 – Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
Over the centuries, Satan infiltrated those 12 systems with the various anti-God religions of humanism, deism, spiritism, and mysticism, and then he introduced the satanic philosophies of witchcraft, astrology, and other forms of the occult.
- Satan’s goal was to undermine the divine authorship and authority of the Bible as God’s Holy Word, denying any moral absolutes, which led mankind to even doubt the existence of a sovereign God.
- Since that Biblical standard was abolished, society has experienced a total breakdown of morality, beginning with the biblical definitions of a marriage and a family, the sanctity of human life, the purity and protection of the marriage relationship, and the right of parents to raise their children to honor God and to respect their authority.
- If this trend continues, parents will not be allowed to disagree with their children’s behavior or discipline them when they misbehave.
- Since there is no objective moral standard, no one will have the right to impose their concept of right and wrong on another person, which means pastors will no longer be able to preach the Word of God.
- What began hundreds of years ago as a stealth infiltration of Satan’s lies into the secular and religious education institutions is now openly manifested in our society- i.e., this is what it looks like with Satan as the god of this world.
However, Satan is not done yet!
- Satan’s goal is to convert his invisible, spiritual dominion into a visible, global political kingdom through which he will rule the whole world.
- To achieve that goal, he must persuade the current world leaders to move toward the unification of all mankind under a one-world government and condition the world to accept and submit to a new world order and a one-world leader – the Antichrist.
- From the Human Manifesto II – https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto2/
- “We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless or irrelevant to the survival of the human race. As nontheists, we begin with humans not God, and nature not deity.”
- “We can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. Humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”
- “We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history where the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate. Thus, we look to the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government.”
- “Commitment to all humankind is the highest commitment of which we are capable; it transcends the narrow allegiances of church, state, party, class, or race in moving toward a wider vision of human potentiality. Therefore, the goal for humankind is for each person to become an ideal citizen of a greater world community.”
As the world sits on the precipice of the time of tribulation, the cry of the globalists is “Unity!”
- The day after the rapture of the church, when hundreds of millions of people are missing, whoever the world leader might be at that time will be begging the people for Unity! Unity! Unity!
- Consider the complications that will arise with the disappearance of so many people – banks, grocery stores, utility companies, major industries, and major companies will close, along with every federal, state, and local government office, including all law enforcement.
- With the Restrainer removed, the culture will plunge into the darkness of evil, and the behavior of man will devolve into total depravity as unrestrained lawlessness will abound. Man’s desire for survival will take over, doing whatever has to be done to survive.
- However, clinics and hospitals will not be able to treat patients, and those organizations to help the needy will not be operational.
Thankfully, God will soon remove Satan from the earth.
- The Bible says when Jesus comes again, He will bind all evil spirits and usher in His millennial reign on the earth.
- This will be the kingdom of God, the very kingdom God wanted to establish with Adam and Eve before they sinned and fell short of God’s glory.
According to Revelation 20:1-10, when Jesus sets His feet on the Mount of Olives, Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years and then released to tempt those born during the millennium.
- Then, God will rain fire down from heaven to consume Satan and all who followed him from the day he rebelled against God, and God will confine them forever in the lake of fire and brimstone!
- Revelation 11:15 says: “The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Lo he comes in clouds descending, once for helpless sinner slain!
Thousand, thousand saints attending, swell the triumph of his train:
Every eye shall now behold him, robed in dreadful majesty.
Those who set at nought and sold Him, shall the true Messiah see.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, all the Angels cry amen!!!
