Introduction to SR4 - Satan's World System

Video

Summary

Part 4 of the Satanic Rebellion Series on Ichthys was one of the first studies on Ichthys that I read all the way through, and I found it fascinating due to how much of the world suddenly makes sense when examined from the proper spiritual point of view, tracing the true causes and effects of things. This study introduces the idea that the world we live in is all one big illusion put on by Satan, who manipulates everything from behind the scenes for his nefarious purposes. Learning to examine things in the world critically – critiquing the illusion – can help us Christians find freedom by dispelling the illusory shadows with the light of God’s spiritual truth.

Timestamps

00:0000:00 - Introduction
00:1000:10 - Outline
01:2401:24 - Why do this study in particular?
02:4502:45 - Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
05:0005:00 - Satan the puppet-master
09:5409:54 - The outline for SR4 on Ichthys
17:0417:04 - Steven’s high-level introduction
18:1318:13 - Recap

Content

(Derived from https://ichthys.com/SR4(SWS).htm)

Why do this study in particular?

As a child, you may have heard adults talking about “the way the world really works.” For us as Christians, we believe in a spiritual dimension hidden from our physical sight, but very real nonetheless. This, in fact, is the crucial driving force behind reality, even though it is veiled from our eyes at present.

At least for me as a teenager, Christianity was kept in its nice God-shaped box. There was the world in all its complexity, and then there was church and God stuff. Maybe somewhere deep down I knew the two were fundamentally linked, but it was never something that captured my thoughts explicitly.

Then I read this study. This is one of the first things on Ichthys I read all the way through, and to borrow an idiom, it completely blew my mind. Ah, I said. So this is what is beyond the illusion.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

In his Allegory of the Cave (Republic 514a-520a), the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato speaks of an allegory for life: humans chained to face a wall where illusions of shadow play before their eyes. This is all they know, so they think it is how the world actually works.

Having never been exposed to true light, those in the cave think that the illusions of shadow are reality. In truth, these humans are enslaved, chained in a prison of their false perception. After being dragged into the light, it may take a while for these people’s eyes to adjust – they’ve been used to only seeing shadows, after all. Those in the cave will be resistant to the light, as it is bright and painful for their eyes adjusted to darkness. Moreover, things in the outside world don’t compute in terms of “cave logic” – in great irony, those chained in the cave may mock those in the light as fools.

This allegory is actually a great explanatory tool. For Plato, light served as a metaphor for philosophical truth. For us in our present study, light instead stands as a metaphor for spiritual truth. As we learn about how the world really works in this study, it will be possible to move further and further from the illusions of shadow (what Satan’s world system would have us think are the actual realities) and more towards the light of spiritual truth.

Satan the puppet-master

The illusions put before us are created with intent: to veil the truth from our eyes. We must learn to critique them and instead see things as they truly are, all so that we can achieve the freedom that the truth affords us (John 8:32).

We as Christians must deal with the harsh fact that this world system, this kosmos (Greek: κόσμος), is presently ruled over by Satan, with him pulling the strings.

Bearing this in mind is in fact crucial, as it ensures we never forget that we are strangers in a foreign land, soldiers of Jesus Christ in enemy territory.

The outline for SR4 on Ichthys

See the study directly.

Steven’s high-level introduction

Everything in this world – from art, culture, politics, the media, governments, corporations, false religions, and even some groups calling themselves Christian – are all part of Satan’s web of lies and deceit that he has set up to trap and distract us as Christians and lead us away from the truth.

If we study the tactics Satan uses in his pursuit of his objectives, we can come to see the world as it actually is, and step off the hamster wheel of illusion that keeps us away from freedom in the truth.

Video/audio transcript

00:00 - hey guys my name is Steven Tammen and
00:02 - today we are going to start a new video
00:04 - study
00:05 - of part four of the satanic rebellion
00:07 - series on ichthys
00:08 - titled satan’s world system so here are
00:11 - some of the points we’re going to go
00:12 - over today
00:13 - we’re going to start on why you might
00:15 - want to do this study in particular as
00:17 - opposed to some of the other ones that
00:18 - ichthys has
00:20 - so ichthyos for example has a complete
00:22 - systematic theology
00:24 - this series as we’re going to be doing a
00:26 - part of it which
00:28 - covers the satanic rebellion predating
00:30 - the
00:31 - history of mankind and then a series on
00:34 - eschatology titled the coming
00:35 - tribulation series
00:36 - so we’ll start out just by explaining
00:38 - why this study in particular
00:40 - and then after that we’ll go into
00:42 - plato’s allegory of the cave now this
00:44 - serves as
00:45 - a useful parallel to some of the topics
00:48 - that we’re going to be discussing in
00:49 - this study
00:50 - and i like to use this as a way of
00:52 - framing how spiritual reality interacts
00:55 - with
00:56 - the illusory world before us after this
00:58 - we’ll be talking about how satan is
01:00 - ultimately the puppet master
01:02 - pulling the strings behind this world
01:04 - and then we’ll go through the outline on
01:06 - ichthys having covered most of this
01:07 - background information
01:09 - now this week we won’t be spending too
01:11 - much time on the outline and we won’t go
01:12 - in much depth
01:13 - but in coming weeks we’ll be hitting
01:15 - sections of this at a much deeper level
01:17 - going through more point by point after
01:20 - all that i’ll just give
01:21 - a couple paragraphs of my introduction
01:23 - to this
01:24 - and why i think it’s important for us as
01:25 - christians so
01:27 - in answering this question of why this
01:29 - study in particular
01:30 - i’ve written several paragraphs here
01:32 - that i’m just going to read now
01:34 - as a child you may have heard adults
01:36 - talking about the way the world really
01:38 - works
01:38 - for us as christians we believe in a
01:40 - spiritual dimension hidden from our
01:41 - physical sight but very real nonetheless
01:44 - this in fact is the crucial driving
01:46 - force behind reality
01:47 - even though it is veiled from our eyes
01:49 - at present at least for me as a teenager
01:51 - christianity was kept in its nice
01:53 - god-shaped box
01:54 - there was the world in all its
01:55 - complexity and then there was church and
01:57 - god stuff
01:58 - maybe somewhere deep down i knew the two
02:00 - were fundamentally linked
02:01 - but it was never something that captured
02:03 - my thoughts explicitly
02:05 - then i read this study this is one of
02:07 - the first things on ichthus i read all
02:09 - the way through
02:09 - and to borrow an idiom it completely
02:11 - blew my mind
02:12 - ah i said to myself so this is what is
02:15 - beyond the illusion
02:17 - at a high level then this study helped
02:19 - me make heads and tails
02:20 - of what is actually important in life
02:22 - versus what
02:23 - people say is important in life or what
02:26 - the illusion that satan has set up for
02:28 - us says is important
02:29 - this can have a somewhat
02:30 - disproportionately large effect on our
02:32 - lives as christians
02:33 - because once we realize the driving
02:36 - spiritual realities
02:37 - behind the world around us it can become
02:39 - much easier for us
02:41 - to understand what our role in our walk
02:44 - as christians should be
02:45 - and how we should interact with the
02:46 - world after that now before we get too
02:49 - much farther in explaining this study
02:50 - itself
02:51 - i find it useful to introduce this type
02:54 - this
02:54 - concept here of plato’s allegory of the
02:57 - cave
02:58 - so in one of his works called the
03:00 - republic
03:01 - in sections 514-520 the ancient greek
03:04 - philosopher plato speaks of an allegory
03:06 - for life
03:07 - humans chain to face a wall where
03:09 - illusions of shadow play before their
03:11 - eyes
03:11 - this is all they know so they think this
03:13 - is how the world actually works
03:15 - having never been exposed to true light
03:17 - those in the cave think that the
03:18 - illusions of shadow are reality
03:20 - in truth those humans are enslaved
03:23 - chained in a prison of their false
03:24 - perception
03:25 - after being dragged into the light it
03:27 - may take a while for these people’s eyes
03:29 - to adjust
03:30 - they’ve been used to only seeing shadows
03:31 - after all those in the cave will be
03:33 - resisted to the light as it is bright
03:35 - and painful for their eyes adjusted to
03:37 - darkness
03:38 - moreover things in the outside world
03:40 - don’t compute in terms of cave logic
03:42 - so in great irony those chained in the
03:44 - cave may mock those in the light
03:46 - as fools this allegory is actually a
03:48 - great explanatory tool
03:49 - for plato light served as a metaphor for
03:52 - philosophical truth
03:53 - for us in our present study light
03:55 - instead stands as a metaphor for
03:56 - spiritual truth
03:58 - as we learn about how the world really
03:59 - works in this study it will be possible
04:01 - to move further and further from the
04:02 - illusions of shadow
04:04 - what satan’s world system would have us
04:05 - think are the actual realities
04:07 - and more towards the light of spiritual
04:08 - truth now the bible itself does use
04:12 - light and darkness as a contrast but
04:15 - what i like about the allegory of the
04:16 - cave is it introduces this idea of
04:18 - illusion
04:20 - and what i mean by that is that there
04:21 - are things in the world
04:23 - that seem to be real and present
04:24 - themselves as real
04:26 - however once you dig down deeper and you
04:28 - put on your spiritual glasses as it were
04:30 - you find out that these things are just
04:32 - pretending to be important
04:34 - and for us as christians this is very
04:36 - much the idea behind
04:38 - the fact that spiritual realities are
04:40 - veiled from our eyes so you may have
04:42 - heard the expression
04:43 - eyes of faith if we look with our eyes
04:46 - of faith
04:47 - if we put on our spiritual glasses like
04:50 - i said
04:51 - it will be possible to see the spiritual
04:53 - dimension to life
04:54 - that we as christians believe is
04:56 - actually the important dimension
04:58 - even though it is not physically before
05:00 - us in the presence
05:01 - now the one who is trying to convince us
05:04 - that
05:05 - things of this world are important uh
05:07 - sort of
05:08 - in lieu of our pursuit of spiritual
05:10 - matters
05:11 - is satan and if you’ve never had someone
05:14 - explain this
05:15 - oh i don’t know in so many words it can
05:17 - seem a little bit shocking
05:19 - that satan is actually the one in
05:21 - control of the world
05:22 - so someone might ask if god’s omnipotent
05:25 - and god could crush satan in an instant
05:27 - then why does god let satan control the
05:29 - world at present why is the devil
05:31 - and his minions the people in power how
05:34 - does that make sense
05:35 - and the final answer to this question is
05:38 - that god
05:38 - allows satan to be in present dominion
05:41 - over us
05:42 - in this world because he’s using satan
05:45 - and his minions to test us so
05:49 - satan can’t do anything that god does
05:51 - not allow him to do
05:52 - in the book of job there is mention of
05:55 - satan
05:56 - going before god in heaven to accuse job
05:59 - and
05:59 - as we’ll get to in the outline presently
06:02 - there’s
06:03 - what is called the heavenly truce so god
06:05 - allows satan
06:07 - to do his thing on earth and even
06:09 - assemble
06:10 - with the elect angels in heaven but this
06:12 - state of affairs is only temporary
06:14 - in the final reckoning of things satan
06:16 - will be completely and utterly defeated
06:18 - when jesus christ returns in glory and
06:21 - he will be thrown into the lake of fire
06:22 - forever
06:24 - and of course at that point we will live
06:26 - on
06:27 - a new perfect earth with god and there
06:29 - will be no more sin and no more
06:30 - suffering
06:31 - so i’m bringing all this up just to say
06:33 - that
06:34 - when we talk about how satan is in
06:37 - control of the world at present this is
06:38 - only going to be a temporary state of
06:40 - affairs
06:41 - nonetheless it is important for us to
06:43 - actually believe that this is the case
06:45 - and to not have any illusions or false
06:49 - views of
06:49 - how the world really works and who is
06:52 - pulling the strings in terms of
06:54 - oh i don’t know government and society
06:57 - and culture
06:58 - more generally so that we don’t try to
07:00 - make friends with the world
07:02 - and view these things as things that
07:05 - don’t affect us negatively spiritually
07:07 - or things that aren’t dangerous
07:09 - rather than as they really are so at a
07:12 - high level
07:13 - the things that satan puts before us in
07:15 - the world are
07:16 - illusions set up with intent so that is
07:19 - to say
07:19 - satan doesn’t just do things on a whim
07:22 - or with no purpose
07:23 - he acts with specific strategy and
07:26 - tactics
07:27 - and that’s something that the outline in
07:28 - the study will talk a little bit more
07:30 - about
07:30 - specifically to veil the truth from our
07:32 - eyes and by truth we’re talking about
07:34 - spiritual truth
07:35 - so the things the bible contains the
07:37 - spiritual realities
07:39 - that govern existence so to escape this
07:41 - we must learn how to critique the
07:43 - illusion around us
07:44 - so recognize it for what it is and see
07:46 - the holes in it
07:47 - and even learn how to look around it or
07:49 - through it and instead see things as
07:51 - they truly are
07:52 - so that we can achieve the freedom that
07:53 - the truth affords us so this verse in
07:56 - john
07:56 - talks about the relationship between
07:58 - truth and freedom
08:00 - this is actually a verse i like to use a
08:02 - lot because
08:03 - while we might not think of slavery
08:07 - or bondedness as often with respect to
08:10 - our minds
08:10 - i think that in a great sense
08:14 - being bound mentally is even
08:17 - more terrifying a concept than being
08:20 - bound physically
08:21 - and one of the great things that
08:23 - spiritual truth affords us
08:25 - is that no matter what our physical
08:26 - circumstances may be
08:28 - if we believe in eyes of faith we will
08:31 - be completely set free
08:33 - by that faith so we’ll be set free from
08:35 - sin and will also be set free from the
08:37 - lies of the world
08:38 - and that specifically is what we’re
08:39 - going to be talking about in this study
08:42 - how if we have faith and if we trust in
08:45 - what god has done for us
08:46 - then even despite satan’s best efforts
08:49 - and all his strategy and his tactics and
08:51 - the traps he set up before us if we
08:54 - believe we’ll be able to navigate this
08:56 - web of lies that he has
08:57 - because the truth will set us free now
09:00 - there’s this greek word here
09:02 - cosmos that kind of describes
09:05 - the world system that satan has so
09:08 - it’s not solely just the world as the
09:11 - physical entity but also all of the
09:13 - human institutions that are set up so
09:15 - societies and nations and governments
09:17 - and
09:18 - culture and all of these other things
09:20 - are all sort of set up
09:22 - stacked against us to try to distract us
09:24 - from the spiritual realities
09:26 - and all of these things are ultimately
09:28 - presided over by
09:29 - satan only at present like we mentioned
09:32 - so
09:32 - the main takeaway here is that we need
09:35 - to keep this in mind
09:36 - we need to keep in mind that the world
09:38 - is in fact enemy territory for us
09:41 - governed by our arch enemy who is
09:44 - seeking to distract us from the truth
09:46 - and if we can keep these things in mind
09:48 - that we are strangers in a foreign
09:50 - land and soldiers of jesus christ in
09:51 - enemy territory
09:53 - we will be much more effective in our
09:55 - pursuit of the truth
09:56 - okay now we are going to be going
09:58 - through the
09:59 - outline for sr4 on ichthus so this is a
10:03 - long study as you can see by the sidebar
10:05 - over here on the right
10:06 - which means it is going to take us quite
10:08 - some time to work through it
10:09 - nonetheless today we’re just going to go
10:11 - over the outline at a high level
10:13 - so this is part four of the satanic
10:16 - rebellion series on ichthus
10:18 - and in the three parts before it one of
10:20 - the things that is covered
10:21 - is satan’s rebellion and fall from grace
10:24 - so that is sort of
10:26 - a recap section but once we jump into
10:28 - this study the first
10:29 - the first big section is talking about
10:31 - how we’re strangers in the devil’s realm
10:33 - so we’re going to be sojourners in this
10:36 - world
10:37 - controlled by him so this is not our
10:39 - home
10:40 - this is not a place of comfort for us
10:42 - but a strange land
10:44 - that we’re led through we’re going to
10:45 - talk about the vanity of life
10:47 - you might compare the book of
10:48 - ecclesiastes here so the pointlessness
10:50 - and futility of chasing after things in
10:52 - this world
10:53 - we’re going to talk about the hostility
10:55 - of the world something that comes to
10:57 - mind is how jesus says that
10:59 - if the world hated and persecuted him it
11:00 - will do the same things to us
11:02 - then we’re going to talk about the
11:03 - concept of viewing life
11:05 - as a battlefield for us as christians so
11:09 - objectives and tactics and enemies who
11:11 - seek to
11:12 - harm or subvert our efforts in the truth
11:15 - and of course if we have a battlefield
11:17 - then we have an enemy that we’re
11:18 - fighting against
11:19 - so the second thing after this just
11:21 - briefly goes over satan’s position
11:23 - after the fall and then we pick up with
11:26 - satan’s order of battle so you might
11:27 - think of this
11:28 - as how satan raised his troops against
11:30 - us and against the truth in the world
11:33 - so as we sort of mentioned before right
11:35 - now god is letting satan do things
11:37 - but satan’s on a short leash he can’t do
11:40 - anything that god doesn’t let him do
11:42 - so in a manner of speaking satan and all
11:44 - his minions are being used as tools by
11:46 - god
11:47 - much in the same way as nations in
11:50 - antiquity were used to punish
11:51 - other nations so you might think of
11:54 - israel
11:55 - getting conquered by babylon or assyria
11:58 - for example
11:59 - after that the study talks about the
12:01 - kingdom of god versus the kingdom of
12:03 - satan and what their attributes are
12:05 - and then it also contrasts the
12:07 - organization of the holy angels with the
12:09 - organization of the fallen angels
12:11 - so satan and his angels sort of mimic
12:13 - the organization
12:15 - that the elect angels have but it’s sort
12:17 - of an imperfect mimicry
12:19 - after that we talk about how god is
12:20 - using evil spirits in the world for his
12:23 - purposes
12:24 - again this is the idea of god’s
12:25 - omniscience being able to use
12:28 - the actions of these of these creatures
12:31 - even despite what the creatures
12:33 - themselves would wish
12:34 - so satan is being used by god even
12:37 - though satan
12:38 - has plans and intents counter to what
12:41 - gods are god’s just smart enough and
12:43 - wise enough
12:44 - to use satan even though there’s nothing
12:46 - satan can do about it
12:48 - then we’re going to talk about angelic
12:49 - combat
12:51 - and this probably isn’t so much angels
12:53 - flying around with swords which is maybe
12:55 - what people think it is
12:56 - but more about how angels who are these
12:58 - spiritual forces
13:00 - uh help and hinder us as humans in the
13:02 - world i mean it’s probably not like i
13:04 - said in such a direct
13:06 - physical way as we think of combat but
13:09 - you might compare in scripture how there
13:11 - was a dispute over moses body
13:14 - that is the sort of things that angels
13:16 - contend with each other with
13:18 - and finally we’ll talk about unbelievers
13:19 - in satan’s order of battle
13:21 - so unbelievers may be unwittingly used
13:24 - by satan
13:25 - so they if you ask them they wouldn’t be
13:27 - yes i am a person in satan’s army
13:29 - even if that’s what they are in fact
13:32 - after this we’ll get into what we’ll
13:34 - call satan’s tactical doctrine
13:36 - so the the sort of studied
13:39 - systematic approach that satan takes to
13:41 - deceiving us as christians in this world
13:43 - um and so this section opens with three
13:46 - lies
13:47 - that are all common to accepting the
13:50 - world’s point of view
13:51 - so the first lie is i don’t need god
13:54 - so i’m captain of my own ship i’m
13:57 - capable of running my own life thank you
13:59 - very much
14:00 - and we don’t need god’s help
14:04 - that is a characteristic common to
14:07 - unbelief
14:08 - in people across history is thinking
14:10 - that
14:11 - that we are in control
14:14 - after that comes the lie that i am like
14:17 - god
14:17 - so perhaps like god in our capacity to
14:20 - choose or in our intellectual
14:21 - superiority to the animals people
14:23 - start getting a swelled head and think
14:25 - about how great we are as humans
14:27 - and then the third lie and again very
14:29 - similar to how a lot of unbelievers
14:31 - probably wouldn’t say
14:32 - oh yes i’m in satan’s army they probably
14:34 - wouldn’t say
14:35 - oh yes god needs me however how they
14:38 - live their life
14:39 - actually betrays a belief in this
14:41 - concept that people think
14:42 - somehow in their heads that god needs
14:46 - them
14:46 - that they’re an important part of this
14:48 - universe and that
14:50 - without them god’s plans couldn’t be
14:52 - accomplished and other such insane
14:54 - thoughts like this
14:55 - so these are the lies the progression of
14:58 - of slippage away from the truth
15:00 - in the hearts of man after that we
15:03 - talk briefly about how satan runs
15:06 - the world system this cosmos of ours so
15:10 - religion and the occult and by this we
15:12 - primarily mean false religion
15:14 - and how false religion turns people away
15:16 - from the truth of
15:18 - actual true spirituality for us as
15:20 - christians
15:21 - then politics and society these wider
15:24 - issues
15:24 - economics and technology and also
15:28 - amidst all of this just the wider human
15:31 - institutions
15:32 - that are set up that often lead away not
15:35 - towards the truth
15:36 - so you might think of organizations in
15:38 - society and culture more
15:40 - generally and finally in regards to
15:43 - how satan organizes systematically his
15:46 - his tactical doctrine
15:47 - we’ll talk about how our perspective is
15:50 - believers interfaces with all this
15:52 - and then the last section of the study
15:54 - and boy it will be quite some time
15:55 - before we get here
15:57 - we’ll be talking about satan’s tactical
15:58 - methodology so he has
16:00 - the organizational plan and then his
16:02 - methods for implementing it
16:04 - um this section will open by talking
16:05 - about names for the devil
16:07 - um you may have heard satan of course
16:09 - means adversary
16:10 - but he’s also called the devil the
16:12 - father of lies
16:14 - and other things you know along these
16:17 - lines and how we can
16:19 - learn from these names that the devil
16:20 - has we’ll talk about
16:22 - demonic influence so how demons interact
16:25 - with our free will and temptation
16:27 - we’ll talk about demonic attack so how
16:30 - demons
16:31 - can interfere negatively in the lives of
16:33 - believers although only
16:35 - up to the point that god allows them to
16:37 - we’ll talk about demonic possession
16:39 - now that’s not something that happens to
16:41 - believers but to unbelievers
16:43 - and then we’ll talk about accusation of
16:45 - believers by
16:46 - satan and his forces so i mentioned the
16:49 - example of job before
16:51 - that’s one example in scripture of this
16:54 - and then finally we’ll talk about
16:55 - resistance to all of this
16:56 - on our part so that’s a high level
16:59 - overview
17:00 - of the outline as we’ll go through it
17:01 - and as i mentioned it will take us quite
17:03 - some time
17:04 - because this study is quite lengthy okay
17:07 - so
17:07 - one question might be if this study’s so
17:09 - long and we have all of this depth
17:11 - then as we started out with what’s the
17:14 - point
17:15 - right so at the very beginning slide i
17:17 - mentioned that you know this study
17:19 - was very helpful for me in seeing
17:22 - through some of what the world presents
17:24 - itself as important
17:25 - towards the wider spiritual realities
17:27 - but now that we’ve gone through an
17:28 - outline i’ll be a little bit more
17:29 - specific
17:30 - so here’s what i say everything in this
17:33 - world from art culture politics the
17:35 - media governments corporations false
17:37 - religions
17:37 - and even some groups calling themselves
17:39 - christian are all part of satan’s web of
17:42 - lies and deceit that he has set up to
17:43 - trap and distract us as christians
17:45 - and lead us away from the truth if we
17:47 - study the tactics satan uses in his
17:49 - pursuit of his objectives
17:51 - we can come to see the world as it
17:52 - actually is and step off the hamster
17:54 - wheel of illusion that keeps us away
17:56 - from freedom and the truth
17:58 - so at a high level having gone through
17:59 - the introduction this
18:01 - is why i think this study is useful
18:04 - for us as christians what we get out of
18:06 - it is being able to recognize the lies
18:08 - and the illusion
18:09 - around us in the world and instead
18:12 - replace that with pursuing the truth in
18:14 - our hearts
18:15 - all right so this is what we went over
18:17 - today we started
18:19 - at a high level of why i thought this
18:21 - study is useful for us
18:23 - and then i introduced the parallel of
18:25 - plato’s allegory of the cave
18:27 - and how that can kind of be a useful uh
18:30 - useful
18:31 - thing for us to pull from when we
18:34 - discuss
18:34 - spiritual truth versus the illusions of
18:36 - the world then we talked about how satan
18:38 - is
18:39 - temporarily in control of this world but
18:41 - only insofar as god allows him
18:44 - for the purpose of testing us and
18:45 - refining our faith as christians that’s
18:47 - why we go through
18:48 - hard things and that’s why satan is
18:50 - allowed to have this control
18:51 - then we talked about the outline for sr4
18:54 - as
18:54 - on ichthus and sort of a sneak preview
18:57 - of what we’ll be doing in coming weeks
18:59 - and then finally i gave another
19:01 - introduction as to why we are doing this
19:04 - after we’ve had a little bit more
19:05 - information on it

Discussion - Level of depth; calling many deceived – too harsh?; why God allows Satan control

Video

Summary

Talking in-depth about Satan’s world system has enough practical benefit that it is worth spending time on as an area of study. Satan’s web of lies and deceit is far from unsuccessful in leading us humans away from the truth – quite to the contrary, the system is devastatingly effective at preying upon our fallen natures to turn us against the Lord. It may seem harsh to speak in terms of most humans being deceived, but the truth is the truth. God didn’t give Satan this control as some sort of gift, but Satan usurped it. God allows Satan this temporary control over the material world only because He uses the situation to test us and refine our faith; God’s plan is perfect and unswerving, and the situation in no way caught Him by surprise. God could crush Satan instantly with the smallest movement of His finger, so we have nothing to worry about – we have the Omnipotent Creator of the universe on our side. All we have to do is have faith.

Timestamps

00:0000:00 - Introduction
00:5400:54 - Is this much depth really necessary? (In talking about Satan’s web of lies and deceit in the world)
03:4003:40 - Are many Christians really so helpless? (In terms of being deceived by Satan’s lie)
10:2510:25 - Isn’t this too harsh? (Saying that many people really are deceived)
12:3812:38 - Why doesn’t God just defeat Satan already?
20:1020:10 - Did God give Satan control? Is that phrasing really appropriate?

Content

(Derived from https://ichthys.com/SR4(SWS).htm)

Is this much depth really necessary?

If we just say “Satan manipulates people and events in the world to lead us Christians away from the truth,” isn’t that alone sufficient? Why do we need to go through hundreds of pages of teaching talking about this stuff?

Well, a cardinal rule of any battle is knowing your enemy – not just a little bit, but everything about them. You may have also heard the Latin phrase scientia potentia est – “knowledge is power.”

Put simply, having a very in-depth understanding of how Satan controls and influences the world is the best way to inoculate ourselves against the illusion around us.

Are many Christians really so helpless?

Well, it does depend to some degree on how much knowledge you have coming into this study, but the answer is yes, generally.

How many Christians do you know who think that you can generally trust the media? The government? Messages from TV and other works of fiction? Do people really hold these things at arm’s length as if they were venomous snakes? Do they recognize that Satan is in complete control of all these things, manipulating them to his purposes?

Or how about this – do many Christians recognize that Satan empowers error within doctrine in the Church as well? Have you ever noticed how it is dangerous false teachings (like the prosperity gospel) that seem to take off in popularity? How the works of hardworking brothers and sisters in the church go unrecognized and largely forgotten (by the world, that is)?

In reality, many Christians are completely oblivious to the fact that this world is wholly in Satan’s clutches, and that it is set up as an illusion to deceive and distract us. This reason is why pursuing a study like SR4 is so valuable.

Isn’t this too harsh?

Someone might take issue with the wording here. We are talking in generalities, sure, but we’re still calling out lots and lots of people.

The thing is, we are these people too, at least from time to time. Do you wake up in the morning and remind yourself that this world is nothing but ashes and dust, and that it is the invisible that is eternal? (No? Me neither – most of the time).

Yet, even so – even though we are ourselves unworthy – we have to be harsh and say what needs to be said. Because Satan is all too happy too to use “niceness” as a club to beat down truth in this world.

Why doesn’t God just defeat Satan already?

God is omnipotent and outside spacetime. Satan, though far, far more powerful than us humans, is still only a finite creature. His fight against God is complete and utter madness, and God could completely obliterate him in an instant.

  • In fact, when Jesus returns in radiant glory, he will singlehandedly destroy all the armies of the antichrist. Their death warrant is signed. The end is coming for them.
  • In fact, when Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, Satan lost – totally and completely. As prophesied in Genesis 3:15, the head of the serpent was crushed by the seed of the woman.
  • In fact, no matter what Satan does to us – even up to the point of imprisonment, torture, and death – he can’t take away anything of any eternal import. God sees us. And eternity is all that matters.

It is important for us to actually believe these things, because these things are true. Even if Satan is given reign to manipulate the world’s strings today, tomorrow he will be cast into the lake of fire forever. In fact, things are only going to get worse during the tribulation that the book of Revelation describes. We better get used to the idea that this world is enemy territory, because someday in the future we are going to start getting put to death by it. Then the things that might seem hard to believe now will be clear as day. But for people who made friends with the world and all that is in it, it will be too late.

Video/audio transcript

0:00 - hey guys so today on friday we are
0:02 - picking up with the first
0:04 - questions and answers video relating to
0:06 - lesson one
0:07 - of what was posted on sr4 so
0:11 - this is the outline of the things that
0:14 - we did
0:14 - earlier in the week for that video that
0:17 - i uploaded
0:18 - and so the general format for this is
0:20 - that video
0:21 - which is pre-recorded by me will go up
0:23 - earlier in the week
0:24 - and if people have questions then they
0:27 - can post those in the google doc
0:29 - and if questions are there i can prepare
0:32 - things
0:33 - in advance and we’ll we’ll hit those
0:35 - questions but if people have questions
0:37 - as we come up here
0:38 - we will be pausing between each thing we
0:41 - talk about
0:41 - and so we can kind of steer the
0:43 - direction of the conversation that way
0:44 - as well
0:45 - now with this being said most of the
0:47 - time even if there’s no questions i come
0:49 - up with some so we’ll always have some
0:50 - things to talk about
0:52 - but that’s the general format for these
0:54 - questions and answers videos
0:57 - so the first thing that i thought we’d
0:59 - talk about today was
1:00 - this question here i may have danced
1:03 - around this a little bit
1:04 - in the actual lesson video but someone
1:07 - might ask the question
1:09 - is this much depth really necessary so
1:11 - if we were to just say
1:13 - satan manipulates people and events in
1:14 - the world to lead us christians away
1:16 - from the truth
1:17 - that really is basically the gist of
1:20 - what we talked about in the video
1:21 - earlier in the week and
1:23 - that is the main contention of the study
1:25 - that we’re going through but if we just
1:26 - say it in one sentence
1:28 - is that enough on its own why do we have
1:30 - to spend weeks and weeks
1:32 - because i’m sure that’s how long this
1:33 - will take and wade through hundreds of
1:35 - pages
1:36 - of teaching on all of this if we can
1:38 - just say it like that
1:40 - and so this second paragraph here is is
1:43 - this is really
1:43 - the reason right here um so i’m just
1:46 - going to read it
1:47 - a cardinal rule of any battle is knowing
1:49 - your enemy
1:50 - not just a little bit but everything
1:51 - about them you may have also heard the
1:53 - latin
1:54 - phrase schiente potentia este knowledge
1:57 - is power
1:58 - so if we don’t know about what satan is
2:02 - trying to do
2:03 - and the methodologies he employs the
2:05 - tactics
2:06 - and all of that we are going to be
2:08 - flying blind
2:10 - and going with that metaphor of life as
2:13 - a spiritual battlefield like we’ve spent
2:14 - so much time talking about
2:16 - in the study on peripherology that we’ve
2:19 - been doing for a long time now
2:20 - you do not want to be without
2:22 - information in a battle
2:24 - in military history actually uh people
2:27 - who study strategy and stuff will tell
2:28 - you that information on the battlefield
2:30 - is the most crucial thing
2:32 - so the element of surprise in warfare is
2:35 - absolutely huge
2:36 - and for us as christians we don’t want
2:39 - surprises in terms of what we thought
2:41 - was the case we what we thought was
2:43 - important
2:44 - to be revealed to be false on judgment
2:47 - day because we wasted all of our time
2:50 - on things that only happen to look
2:52 - important
2:53 - um so pulling all this together really
2:56 - the basic idea is that if we have an
2:58 - in-depth understanding of how satan
3:00 - actually does control and influence the
3:02 - world
3:02 - we are better able to inoculate
3:04 - ourselves against the illusion around us
3:06 - so you can kind of think of this as a
3:08 - vaccine against
3:10 - all of the lies and the deceit that
3:12 - satan peddles to try to turn us away
3:14 - from the truth
3:15 - so in medicine vaccines are you know
3:18 - a shot in the arm something that you
3:20 - take beforehand
3:21 - to prepare yourself against the disease
3:24 - that you know
3:25 - is out there around and so for us as
3:27 - christians
3:28 - if you compare the lies of satan and
3:30 - what he tries to feed us
3:32 - to a disease then if we stick ourselves
3:35 - in the arm beforehand
3:37 - we can come sort of forearmed and
3:39 - prepared to handle
3:41 - whatever satan may throw at us all right
3:44 - so another question
3:45 - that someone might ask is this one here
3:47 - so are many christians really as
3:49 - helpless as the people chained in place
3:51 - looking at shadows on the wall
3:53 - so that’s coming from plato’s allegory
3:54 - of the cave which we talked about
3:56 - as a helpful parallel for us navigating
3:59 - the web of lies that satan has before us
4:01 - in this world
4:02 - and so it’s not a very flattering
4:04 - comparison for us
4:06 - because these people as we sort of
4:08 - talked about
4:09 - have the tendency to scoff at the people
4:12 - who
4:12 - go out outside the cave into the light
4:15 - you know they think that
4:16 - those people are the ones with delusions
4:18 - um
4:19 - and so the question is if we really
4:21 - don’t want to be compared to those
4:22 - people
4:23 - well how much are we really like them
4:25 - are we really trapped
4:26 - in a cave are we really that caught up
4:29 - in the illusion that we don’t even
4:30 - recognize it
4:31 - and it certainly does depend uh to a
4:34 - degree on your spiritual growth
4:36 - and whether you’ve come across all of
4:37 - this stuff before and
4:39 - you know sort of your i guess your
4:41 - overall level of spiritual cynicism
4:43 - if that’s a thing as well uh but the
4:45 - answer is actually yes
4:47 - um and this is unfortunate for us i
4:50 - think particularly in our modern world
4:52 - where we have distractions all around us
4:54 - in terms of
4:55 - movies and books and fiction and all of
4:58 - these things that the internet lets us
4:59 - consume 24 7.
5:01 - i think a lot of people even though in
5:04 - their hearts they’re not
5:05 - setting out to turn themselves away from
5:07 - spiritual truth
5:09 - end up sort of adrift uh spending their
5:11 - time on other things
5:13 - and so the real problem is summarized by
5:15 - the second paragraph here is just that
5:17 - a lot of people don’t view things that
5:19 - they maybe ought to be a little bit
5:21 - skeptical of spiritually
5:23 - they don’t hold them at arm’s length um
5:26 - so
5:26 - if you don’t recognize that satan is in
5:29 - control of these things in the world
5:31 - so the government media messages from tv
5:34 - and works of fiction
5:36 - then you’re liable to consume them
5:40 - more than you might or trust them and
5:43 - get your ideas from them
5:44 - more than you would otherwise and even
5:47 - more than this and this is the thing
5:48 - that’s actually really scary
5:50 - is that sometimes satan saying
5:53 - most effective um weapons against us in
5:57 - the church
5:58 - aren’t necessarily things that we don’t
6:00 - look to for our spiritual nourishment
6:02 - but they’re false teachers within the
6:04 - church so
6:05 - people who we as christians look up to
6:08 - and respect
6:09 - well even if those people are well
6:11 - intentioned
6:12 - if satan empowers error as it were so he
6:17 - he sort of encourages false teaching to
6:19 - crop up in the church
6:21 - then these people even if they have good
6:23 - intentions can end up doing lots and
6:24 - lots of damage
6:26 - and not to get off on too much of a side
6:27 - tangent but this is one reason why we
6:29 - really really
6:30 - should be careful uh about who we
6:33 - respect as teachers
6:35 - um even because people generally want to
6:38 - give
6:38 - others the benefit of the doubt in terms
6:40 - of well maybe his doctrine isn’t
6:43 - full on but you know he’s a good guy
6:44 - he’s trying to do the right thing
6:46 - uh it’s not that we should necessarily
6:49 - you know
6:49 - drag down teachers and um what’s the
6:53 - right way to say this
6:54 - um i don’t know sort of victimize them
6:57 - you know like
6:58 - make them make them like uh
7:01 - gosh i’m not being very elegant here um
7:03 - i i guess just make an example of them
7:05 - or you know sort of like french
7:06 - revolution style
7:07 - down with the leaders that sort of thing
7:09 - i’m not at all saying that um
7:11 - what i’m trying to say is that the
7:13 - excuse of well he’s just doing his best
7:15 - really shouldn’t cut it and the reason
7:17 - for that is because
7:18 - satan does use teachers in the church
7:21 - who
7:22 - are off on the wrong path you know
7:24 - they’re teaching something false
7:25 - those are in many respects satan’s most
7:27 - powerful weapons
7:29 - and we should understand and respect
7:32 - that
7:32 - um in our own application of who we
7:34 - follow and and sort of vote with our
7:36 - feet
7:37 - um and so i’m bringing all this up just
7:39 - because
7:40 - it isn’t too far out there to say that
7:43 - many times the most popular teachings
7:45 - and the ones that have
7:47 - the most adherence who strongly who
7:48 - strongly stick to them
7:50 - are false teachings as unfortunate it is
7:53 - to say so
7:54 - the one that i use as an example and
7:56 - this is a pretty good example in general
7:57 - is the prosperity gospel so the idea
7:59 - that
8:00 - that god wants us to be rich and blessed
8:02 - and oh if you give me money god will
8:04 - bless you
8:05 - that sort of thing which seems to many
8:07 - of us to be very obviously false right
8:09 - at the outset
8:09 - but it’s a pretty popular teaching
8:12 - nonetheless
8:13 - and that doesn’t just happen i mean this
8:16 - particular one is something that people
8:17 - want to believe
8:18 - but to use the the words that james does
8:21 - in
8:21 - in james chapter 3 it’s set on fire by
8:24 - hell
8:24 - right so that’s talking about the tongue
8:26 - but false teaching as well
8:28 - um these things don’t just come up in
8:30 - the church by happenstance
8:31 - um satan is architecting this system of
8:35 - of lies and false teaching
8:37 - you know he’s planting these things uh
8:39 - within the church
8:40 - to try to destroy it from within all
8:42 - right so i won’t spend too much more
8:44 - time there i mean i just think that’s a
8:45 - perhaps an area in which people don’t
8:47 - recognize the risk
8:49 - as much as we should and so the main
8:51 - takeaway from this
8:52 - slide is that in truth many people
8:55 - really are oblivious to the fact that
8:57 - this world is completely within satan’s
8:59 - control
9:00 - and that it is set up to deceive and
9:02 - distract us from the things that are
9:03 - actually important spiritually
9:05 - and so all of this together is why
9:07 - pursuing something like sr4 really is
9:09 - valuable for us
9:11 - because even if we might wish to say
9:14 - that the church in general is on the
9:16 - right track or doing good the truth is
9:18 - especially in our time and place a lot
9:20 - of people aren’t as aware
9:22 - as they should be as to the fact that we
9:25 - are called to be enemies to the world so
9:27 - friendship with god
9:28 - makes us enemies of the world all right
9:30 - so we just said
9:32 - that friendship with god makes us
9:34 - enemies of the world
9:35 - and this is a good passage here in john
9:37 - chapter 15 that talks about this so i’m
9:39 - just going to go ahead and read
9:40 - picking up at verse 18 of john chapter
9:43 - 15. if the world hates you keep in mind
9:45 - that it hated me first
9:47 - if you belong to the world it would love
9:48 - you as you as its own
9:50 - as it is you do not belong to the world
9:52 - but i have chosen you out of the world
9:54 - that is why the world hates you remember
9:56 - what i told you
9:57 - a servant is not greater than his master
9:59 - if they persecuted me they will
10:00 - persecute you also
10:02 - if they obeyed my teaching they will
10:03 - obey yours also they will treat you
10:05 - this way because of my name for they do
10:07 - not know who sent me
10:09 - so this passage here is just supporting
10:12 - what we were talking about in terms of
10:14 - we really do have to pick
10:15 - one so are we on god’s side
10:18 - or do we side with the world and if we
10:20 - side with the world
10:21 - even though it may not seem like it from
10:23 - the outset siding with the world means
10:25 - reciting with satan
10:26 - against god so it might seem like we’re
10:29 - being kind of harsh here
10:30 - uh you know we’re very much calling
10:32 - people out for not recognizing the
10:34 - dangers around us
10:36 - and so even though we are talking in
10:39 - generality so we’re saying you know many
10:41 - people
10:41 - not that person right over there um it
10:44 - does seem like maybe we’re coming off as
10:46 - overly harsh
10:47 - and something that should help temper
10:48 - this a little bit is to recognize that
10:51 - we
10:51 - are these people ourselves as well at
10:53 - least from time to time
10:55 - so as i phrased it here do you wake up
10:57 - in the morning and remind yourself that
10:58 - this world is nothing but ashes and dust
11:01 - and that it is the invisible that is
11:02 - eternal well no
11:04 - i don’t either at least not most of the
11:06 - time however
11:08 - even so even though we ourselves are
11:10 - unworthy we do
11:11 - have to be harsh and say what needs to
11:13 - be said because satan is all too happy
11:15 - to use
11:16 - niceness as a club to beat down the
11:18 - truth in this world
11:19 - and so what i mean by that is that some
11:22 - people might take
11:23 - issue with sort of calling things how
11:25 - they are and for
11:26 - saying you know what people need to be
11:28 - more red-hot for the truth
11:30 - people should stop getting so caught up
11:32 - in the lies of the world even if
11:34 - even if these things aren’t out and out
11:36 - terrible all on their own
11:38 - because anything that takes our time and
11:40 - focus off god
11:41 - ultimately is leading us away from god
11:45 - so this verse in first corinthians
11:46 - chapter 10
11:48 - talks on what we just said that even if
11:52 - it is not things that are obviously evil
11:54 - in front of us
11:55 - sometimes just spending time on things
11:57 - that things that aren’t
11:59 - so dedicated to spiritual growth may not
12:02 - be the best thing for us
12:03 - so this is first corinthians chapter 10
12:06 - verse 23
12:07 - i have the right to do anything you say
12:08 - but not everything is beneficial
12:10 - i have the right to do anything but not
12:12 - everything is constructed
12:13 - so just because something is an out and
12:15 - out sin doesn’t necessarily mean that
12:17 - there isn’t opportunity cost for us
12:19 - spiritually
12:20 - in doing it because as i tried to say
12:23 - before
12:23 - any time we aren’t focused on the truth
12:26 - learning believing applying it to our
12:28 - lives
12:28 - praying for the church doing ministry
12:30 - all of these things that are very
12:32 - constructive spiritually any time we
12:34 - spend that’s not that
12:36 - arguably is time that we’re not spending
12:38 - most effectively unto the kingdom of god
12:40 - all right so another question that i
12:42 - know we did hit
12:43 - somewhat in the lesson itself but i just
12:45 - wanted to come back up and perhaps talk
12:47 - about in a little more depth
12:49 - is why god doesn’t just defeat satan
12:51 - already
12:52 - right at this point in time you know why
12:53 - why does god keep letting this go on how
12:56 - it is in the world
12:57 - um so god is omnipotent
13:00 - outside of space-time satan on the other
13:02 - hand even though he’s
13:04 - way way more powerful than we are as
13:05 - humans so you know angels are in general
13:08 - but satan
13:09 - was himself the the the preeminent angel
13:11 - right the guardian of god’s holiness
13:14 - um so even he’s more powerful than
13:16 - garden variety angels as it were
13:18 - um but even so he’s only still a finite
13:21 - creature
13:21 - so contrast that we just said god’s
13:24 - outside of space time satan is a created
13:26 - being
13:27 - within the bounds of space-time so this
13:30 - makes his
13:30 - fight against god complete madness
13:33 - because god could completely obliterate
13:34 - him in an instant
13:35 - so satan doesn’t even stand a chance as
13:38 - what we’re saying here
13:39 - and so i’ve made several points here
13:41 - that i think
13:42 - illustrate this well so i’m just going
13:44 - to go ahead and read them you know maybe
13:45 - i’ll pause in between
13:46 - but in fact when jesus returns in
13:49 - radiant glory he will
13:50 - single-handedly destroy all of the
13:52 - armies of the antichrist
13:54 - their death warrant is signed the end is
13:55 - coming for them so
13:57 - it’s just that even though god is not
14:00 - destroying
14:01 - all the forces of evil right now
14:03 - presently today
14:04 - in front of us that doesn’t mean that
14:06 - it’s not coming um this is in the book
14:08 - of revelation we’re talking about the
14:10 - battle of armageddon
14:11 - you know in perhaps pop culture
14:13 - armageddon has like two bad
14:16 - like two two armies clashing with each
14:17 - other the forces of good and the forces
14:19 - of evil
14:20 - in truth how this is gonna go down is
14:21 - that jesus is gonna come back and he’s
14:23 - single-handedly gonna obliterate all his
14:25 - enemies
14:25 - he doesn’t need our help because he’s
14:27 - god and that is how overpowered
14:30 - this this exchange is god
14:33 - it’s like a character in a video game
14:36 - who has all his skills maxed out and
14:37 - he’s facing like
14:38 - the newest person in the game that to an
14:41 - infinite degree more
14:42 - is how much more powerful god is than
14:44 - satan so
14:46 - in any instant god could do this and
14:48 - like i said
14:49 - this is already prophesied to happen
14:51 - jesus will come
14:52 - when he returns in glory and he will
14:54 - destroy all the armies of evil
14:56 - before him so the second point in fact
14:59 - when jesus paid for our sins on the
15:00 - cross
15:01 - satan lost totally and completely so as
15:04 - prophesied in genesis 3 15 the head of
15:07 - the serpent was crushed by the seat of
15:08 - the woman
15:09 - so this is after satan had tempted adam
15:12 - and eve to fall
15:14 - this is what god declares he said i will
15:15 - put enmity between you and the woman and
15:17 - between your seed and her seed
15:19 - he shall bruise you on the head and you
15:20 - shall bruise him on the heel
15:23 - so i’m taking some liberties here saying
15:24 - the head of the serpent being crushed
15:26 - um but the point is when someone gets
15:29 - bit on the heel
15:30 - it doesn’t end them when the serpent’s
15:32 - head gets crushed
15:33 - he’s completely defeated that’s what the
15:35 - cross was so
15:37 - jesus christ robbed death of its
15:40 - well he robbed death of its sting on the
15:42 - cross
15:43 - so death has no power over us anymore
15:45 - and in fact the cross
15:46 - reconciled us to god so humanity after
15:49 - the fall
15:50 - was positionally far away from god you
15:53 - know we had this
15:54 - this blood guilt upon us from our sin
15:56 - but god washed that all away with the
15:58 - blood of christ
15:59 - when he died for us on the cross so this
16:01 - is what we mean by
16:02 - satan’s already lost so you may have
16:05 - remembered
16:06 - i think it was a few weeks back on the
16:08 - shared group recording we have on
16:09 - saturdays audi and i were talking about
16:11 - this how
16:12 - positionally satan’s already lost it not
16:15 - only
16:15 - is his fight against god completely
16:17 - insane to begin with
16:18 - but he’s still fighting after he lost
16:22 - his entire army as it were after he was
16:24 - dealt a crushing defeat
16:26 - he’s still insane enough to think he can
16:27 - win right so
16:29 - not only can we put our trust in god as
16:32 - the undisputably more powerful person in
16:35 - this conflict but god has already won
16:37 - basically and in fact point number three
16:40 - no matter what satan does to us
16:41 - even up to the point of imprisonment
16:43 - torture and death he can’t take away
16:45 - anything of any eternal import
16:47 - god sees us and eternity is all that
16:49 - matters so what i mean by this
16:51 - is even if we do die you know people
16:54 - might get
16:55 - all up in arms about this even if we do
16:57 - die even if we face torture imprisonment
16:59 - and death
17:00 - it doesn’t really matter spiritually
17:02 - because we know that
17:03 - martyrs are given a cheerful reunion
17:06 - when we when we go to see god in heaven
17:08 - if we are martyred
17:09 - we’ll be held up and receive glory and
17:12 - honor for it
17:13 - it’s not something for us to necessarily
17:15 - be afraid of
17:16 - if we look with eyes of faith this runs
17:19 - very counter to the world of course who
17:20 - says that this life is all there is
17:22 - and so if you don’t go away don’t go
17:25 - away thinking that martyrdom’s a good
17:26 - thing because then it’s over
17:28 - well for us as christians we don’t
17:29 - believe that we believe that
17:31 - to live as christ and to die is gain to
17:33 - quote paul and so
17:35 - it’s actually not the end of the world
17:38 - if we die
17:39 - or if bad things happen to us because we
17:41 - know that if we hold the correct
17:43 - perspective
17:44 - it is the eternal things that are
17:45 - important not things in this life
17:47 - and so these are three points that are
17:49 - important for us to keep in mind
17:51 - and it’s important for us to actually
17:52 - believe these things because these
17:53 - things are true
17:54 - so let me repeat that again if we
17:56 - believe these things
17:57 - it’s important for us to hold them in
17:59 - our minds because they’re actually true
18:01 - spiritually um
18:02 - so it doesn’t mean we have to like them
18:04 - necessarily but
18:06 - these are the realities of how the
18:08 - spiritual world really works
18:10 - and so the correct perspective for us to
18:13 - keep in mind
18:14 - is that even if satan is given rain to
18:16 - manipulate the world strings today
18:18 - tomorrow will be cast into lake of fire
18:20 - forever so
18:21 - on the stage of eternity the span of
18:24 - human history is actually quite short
18:26 - you know satan is is only given time to
18:29 - do his thing for a very short period of
18:31 - time and after that
18:32 - he’ll be completely destroyed and we
18:35 - won’t
18:36 - have to worry about anything he could do
18:38 - to us ever again
18:39 - and in fact even on top of everything
18:41 - we’ve just talked about here
18:43 - things are only going to get worse
18:44 - during the tribulation
18:46 - and the tribulation is talked about in
18:48 - the book of revelation so
18:50 - we really better get used to the idea
18:51 - that this world is enemy territory for
18:53 - us
18:54 - because someday in the future this world
18:56 - is going to start putting us to death
18:57 - for our faith
18:58 - and so even if these things don’t seem
19:01 - so realistic now you know the
19:03 - the enmity between us and the world may
19:05 - not rear its head for us every day
19:07 - well we do need to get it through our
19:09 - heads this is actually the case
19:11 - because at some point in the future the
19:12 - world will turn on us and it will turn
19:14 - on us quickly
19:15 - we won’t have warning but perhaps even
19:17 - more frightening people who’ve made
19:18 - friends with the world
19:20 - will be too late for them the book of
19:21 - revelation talks about
19:23 - apostasy for a full third of the true
19:25 - church people
19:27 - who don’t catch the warning signs fast
19:29 - enough
19:30 - won’t recognize the spiritual things
19:32 - playing out before their eyes
19:33 - because they decided that making friends
19:36 - with the world was more important than
19:38 - holding on to their faith as christians
19:40 - and we might say oh well that won’t be
19:42 - me you know i have it all together
19:43 - spiritually
19:44 - well one of the reasons why the bible is
19:47 - so frequent in
19:48 - in telling us to to check ourselves and
19:51 - it warns us to be on guard
19:53 - is because none of us can none of us
19:56 - knows
19:57 - exactly where our hearts will lead us to
20:00 - and you know the bible is always talking
20:02 - about this principle of imminence too
20:04 - because positionally the end has been
20:05 - near for 2000 years now we
20:07 - we live in the last days as it were and
20:10 - none of us knows the time
20:11 - either all right so we had a good
20:13 - question from someone listening in this
20:15 - week
20:16 - talking about this idea of phrasing of
20:18 - how when we say that
20:20 - you know satan is in present control of
20:22 - this world it is kind of important for
20:24 - us to not just say oh well god gave it
20:26 - to him
20:27 - like god gifted satan control of this
20:29 - world as if this were
20:30 - the state of affairs that oh i don’t
20:32 - know what’s the right way to phrase this
20:34 - that that god like is the agent in this
20:36 - um so god
20:37 - lets it happen but that’s very different
20:39 - than god being the one
20:41 - who’s driving satan to do this right as
20:43 - if god’s pulling him along
20:44 - and satan has no choice in this matter
20:46 - so properly
20:48 - speaking satan usurped the throne that
20:50 - he’s sitting on of the world it’s not
20:52 - his it doesn’t belong to him
20:53 - he’s a tyrant sitting in that seat and
20:56 - that’s why he will be overthrown
20:57 - eventually
20:58 - because he’s not the rightful ruler of
21:00 - this world
21:01 - in fact in the millennium jesus christ
21:04 - will come to rule the world in person
21:06 - in the new jerusalem not in the new
21:08 - jerusalem in jerusalem new jerusalem is
21:10 - what happens after
21:11 - the heavens and the earth will be made
21:13 - but jesus will come
21:14 - bodily to rule the world and jesus
21:16 - christ
21:17 - the son of man the true morning star is
21:20 - the one who the throne of the world
21:22 - belongs to not satan
21:24 - but one thing i wanted to establish up
21:27 - front is that the bible itself does call
21:29 - satan the ruler of this world so this is
21:30 - picking up in ephesians chapter two
21:32 - verse two so it talks about
21:35 - the ruler of the kingdom of the air
21:38 - right so that’s this world it presents
21:40 - right the spirit who is now at work and
21:41 - those who are disobedient
21:44 - so satan really is called the ruler of
21:47 - the kingdom of the air right so this
21:48 - doesn’t mean
21:49 - this doesn’t mean that satan what’s the
21:52 - right way to put this
21:53 - this doesn’t mean that satan is the true
21:55 - spiritual ruler of this world
21:57 - but he is the one who is in control of
21:59 - the physical world
22:00 - presently so i just wanted to pull this
22:02 - verse up to show that we’re not just
22:04 - calling satan ruler of this world
22:05 - willy-nilly
22:06 - as if as if oh i don’t know we’re
22:08 - filling in blanks that the bible doesn’t
22:10 - actually talk about this is what the
22:12 - bible itself says in ephesians chapter
22:13 - 2.
22:14 - so i mentioned positionally how jesus
22:16 - christ is the rightful ruler of this
22:18 - world
22:19 - but it is important to talk about
22:21 - satan’s dominion over the physical world
22:23 - also in terms of man and man’s initial
22:26 - place in the world
22:27 - so i’m picking up in chapter in genesis
22:29 - chapter 1 here verse 26
22:31 - so i’m going to go ahead and read this
22:33 - verse 26 then god said let us make
22:35 - mankind in our image
22:36 - in our likeness so that they may rule
22:38 - over the fish in the sea and the birds
22:40 - in the sky over the livestock and all
22:42 - the wild animals
22:43 - and over all the creatures that move
22:45 - along the ground so god created mankind
22:47 - in his own image
22:48 - in the image of god he created them male
22:50 - and female he created them
22:52 - god blessed them and said to them be
22:54 - fruitful and increase in number
22:56 - fill the earth and subdue it rule over
22:58 - the fish in the sea
22:59 - and the birds in the sky and over every
23:00 - living creature that moves on the ground
23:02 - so this rule over bit is what i was
23:05 - going to have us
23:06 - examine here so man initially was
23:09 - written
23:10 - or not written was created as
23:13 - the creature having dominion over others
23:15 - in the world and so in genesis chapter 2
23:17 - god brings animals to adam and then
23:21 - adam gets to name animals and the names
23:24 - of adam picks stick
23:25 - right so this was man’s initial place in
23:27 - the world and in the garden of eden
23:29 - before there was conflict and sin
23:31 - you know man enjoyed his days sort of
23:33 - being
23:34 - the de facto ruler of this existence but
23:37 - then the fall happened in genesis
23:39 - chapter 3
23:40 - so satan is now somewhat in the place of
23:43 - where man was and of course positionally
23:45 - in an eternal sense we also mention how
23:48 - the person who’s thrown satan really
23:49 - stole was jesus christ
23:51 - and you know jesus christ will come to
23:53 - reclaim it but
23:54 - you know satan is an angel and the other
23:57 - angels along with him
23:58 - don’t have the same physicality that we
24:00 - do as human beings
24:02 - and so in some sense our place in the
24:04 - world as well was usurped by satan you
24:06 - know he destabilized the relationship
24:08 - between man and god
24:10 - and then men then we as man
24:13 - or not we collectively but adam and eve
24:15 - were kicked out of the garden of eden
24:17 - um and this was because of satan’s
24:19 - trickery and deceit
24:20 - so our place our rightful place in the
24:22 - universe which will be restored
24:24 - when god comes back in victory was also
24:27 - taken by satan
24:28 - so to address this question that we’re
24:30 - talking about of did god give satan
24:32 - control
24:33 - is that phrasing appropriate that
24:34 - phrasing really isn’t um and
24:37 - if we were to say things like that it’s
24:39 - just important for us to clarify that
24:41 - god let this happen that’s again
24:43 - different from god
24:44 - making it happen because satan is the
24:46 - one who’s usurping this authority
24:49 - the one who’s taking what is not
24:50 - rightfully his
24:52 - and as we did touch on in the study the
24:54 - reason why god has let this happen is
24:56 - because god’s using satan for his own
24:58 - purposes
24:59 - in fact as in the cross god is letting
25:02 - satan
25:02 - make a fool of himself so to speak just
25:05 - to prove
25:06 - to all people human and and angel kind
25:09 - alike
25:09 - that god is perfectly just and righteous
25:12 - and also perfect in his mercy
25:14 - in that he can save sinful mankind even
25:17 - despite
25:18 - satan’s best efforts to throw a wrench
25:19 - in god’s plan for doing so
25:21 - so satan is completely powerless to stop
25:24 - this
25:24 - but satan nonetheless is the one who’s
25:27 - making all of these decisions in
25:28 - opposition to god
25:29 - god’s not compelling him to do it but
25:31 - god is letting it happen
25:33 - for the purpose of testing our hearts in
25:35 - this world
25:36 - so you may have heard the phrase used of
25:39 - us as christians that life is all about
25:40 - choice
25:41 - it’s all about whether we apply our free
25:44 - will
25:44 - to follow the things that god would have
25:46 - for us or
25:48 - apply our free will to other things you
25:49 - know the things of the world which are
25:51 - all ultimately controlled by satan
25:53 - and that ultimately is why god allows
25:56 - satan
25:56 - to be here in a position of power in
25:58 - this present creation
26:00 - is to test us so we have the ability as
26:03 - humans to choose between good and evil
26:06 - and ultimately that’s why we’re here we
26:09 - have the ability god’s in fact done
26:11 - everything already for us
26:12 - by giving us a chance to be redeemed to
26:16 - accept the sacrifice that jesus made for
26:17 - us on the cross
26:18 - and all we have to do is not say no but
26:21 - this world is set up
26:22 - to force us into that choice that in
26:25 - large part is why god
26:26 - let satan do the things that he does now
26:29 - not because god couldn’t stop him
26:31 - not because god won’t stop him
26:32 - eventually but because
26:35 - in the time we call now the present god
26:38 - is setting things up
26:39 - to give us a choice to follow him or to
26:41 - follow satan who’s the present ruler of
26:43 - this world