Introduction to SR4 - Satan's World System

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