Satan rules the world because he is stronger than anyone not now in Christ (PART 1)

by David Leach
(Temecula, Ca)

God tells us emphatically in the Bible He is not ruling the world but Satan, the Evil One, is:

1 Jo 5:19 ....The whole world is under the rule of the Evil One. TEV

Luke 4:5-6 Then the devil...showed Him (Jesus) all the kingdoms of the world, and ...said “...this (the world) has been delivered to me...” Jesus didn’t refute it:

Jo 14:30 (Jesus) ...The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

Rev 11:15 (it is not until the very end of this age that) ...The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord...(God gets them back from Satan) KJV

How did Satan get to be the ruler of the world? It was in the Garden of Eden when Adam rejected God’s words and acted on Satan’s words. By virtue of that sin Adam died to God spiritually, and put himself under the rule of Satan. And Satan’s sin nature, that is, the nature of disobedience to God, infected Adam’s human nature and has been passed down to every human being. Only Jesus can free us from sin and therefore Satan’s power:

Rom 5:12 ...Through one man (Adam) sin (disobedience to God) entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Rom 7:17-18 (So Paul says) it is...sin that dwells in me. For I know that...in my human
TEV nature nothing good dwells (only evil, the nature of Satan inherited from Adam)...

1 Jo 3:8 (To Christians) He who sins is of (belongs to) the devil for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the (sin) works (disobedience to God) of the devil.

Matt 1:21 ...You will call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins;

Only when we are saved from sin’s penalty and power are we free from Satan’s dominion.

Acts 26:18 (God’s mission for Paul and for us to the world) Open their eyes, in order to them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God...

What is the evidence that the whole world lies under the rule or influence of the Devil?

There’s only one Savior from the power of sin in our flesh and from belonging to the Devil:

Acts 4:10-12 ...The name of Jesus Christ ...Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (from sin, disobeying God, and from the god of sin, the Devil)

1 Tim 2:5-6 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all...(no one else qualified)

Christ is the only Deliverer from Satan’s rule, but most of the world do not yet know Him:

• Of the world’s 7 billion people only 2 billion one way or another say they’re Christian.
• The majority of the world belong to one of hundreds of false religions, none of which can save them from Satan’s power, because he is stronger than anyone. It’s he who inspired those religions to divert people away from their only savior, Christ.

Eccl 6:10 ...Man...he cannot contend with him (Satan) who is mightier than he.

• The rest of the world are atheists or agnostics, whose minds Satan has blinded:

2 Cor 4:4 KJV In whom the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of them which do not believe (atheists, agnostics, and religionists), lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

• Of the 2 billion identifying themselves as Christian, the vast majority are Christian in name only, meaning they have religious traditions that resemble Christianity and give lip service to the Bible but they have never been born again. Being still in darkness they cannot see the kingdom of God and they are not being changed into the likeness of Christ. This includes most of those in the main line denominations:

John 3:3 (Jesus) ...Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

1 Pe 1:23 Being born again...by the word of God...(that was believed in the heart) KJV

Rom 8:29 Whom He (God) foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

• Atheists, agnostics, followers of other religions, and Christians in name only evidence Satan’s nature either by advocating things contrary to the Bible, by evil in the name of religion, or by hostility toward Spirit filled Christians, the only threat to Satan’s rule.

Acts 19:15 The evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul (Spirit filled) I know; but who are you?" (So without Christ actively in them Satan trounced them).

1 Jo 5:18 We know that anyone born of God (and living in God) does not sin (disobey God)...Christ's divine presence within him preserves him against the evil, and the wicked one (Satan) does not lay hold, get a grip on him, or touch him. AMP

What is the evidence that most Christians, once born again, are still under Satan’s power

• Of those born again by believing the initial words of the gospel of God, the vast majority have not been willing to absolutely surrender their lives and will to God and consequently they do not have the Spirit of Christ to rule them. Therefore they don’t currently belong to Christ but remain as carnal Christians under the rule of Satan:

Acts 5:32 ...The Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who (want to) obey Him.

Rom 8:9 (To Christians)...If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Those who live in Christ, walking in God’s love, led by God’s own Spirit, are being changed into Christ’s nature and so increasingly exhibit Christ’s actual characteristics. But those Christians who are not now totally submitted to the rule of the Holy Spirit fall back under the influence of their human nature where sin, the nature of Satan, resides.