A common – and un-Scriptural – misconception is that since God created the heavens and the earth, he “Has the Whole World In His Hands.”
What a great many fail to gain insight into is that there is a difference between earth and world. The earth belongs to the One who created it. Worlds that are placed upon the earth come from different sources.
For example, a world (on the earth) came and went. What world was that? The world of Noah’s Day. That wicked world was destroyed was it not? But what remains? The earth.
Learning Who Rules the Present World From Jesus’ Temptation
At his temptation in Matthew Chapter four, Satan had taken Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world. What did Satan offer Jesus?
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me. (Matthew 4:8)
Satan offered Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world. How can Satan offer these to Jesus if they were not his to offer? Jesus never at any time said that they were not Satan’s.
It is extremely important – and vital – that we understand this because it tells us exactly who owns and controls all of the nations of the world today.
Scripture Teaches That Satan is the God of This World
Consistent with what I stated above, the Scripture at 1 John 5:19 says of Satan’s influence and control over the entire world.
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
John 12:31 shows Satan to be the world’s ruler.
Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
In the future, Satan will mislead all of the earth. How can he do that? Because he owns and influences this entire world in which we live and everything – yes, that includes religion, even the one called Christianity – in the world. Revelation 12:9 says of Satan:
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Revelation 12:9 actually tells us when Satan is cast out of heaven. When, in the future Lord’s Day.
What the Apostle John saw and wrote down in what we know today has The Book of Revelation, were events that he saw occurring in The Lord’s Day.
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” (Revelation 1:9-10)
There many many more Scriptural evidences that support the thought that Satan is in control over this world. Though a temporary control.
Sobering it is to come to the knowledge that Satan has not been cast down to the earth yet. But he obviously has free roam between heaven and the earth. It was on the earth that Satan came down to tempt Jesus was it not?
Dear reader, look around you and beyond the periphery of a local religious organization or church. We live in a very violent and dangerous world. The real dichotomy is that we live in a world full of religion, yet a world that is dangerous. Such a world would not have originated from God, but from the one who is presently it’s ruler.
