In Second Corinthians 4:4 the Biblical God, speaking through the pen of the Apostle Paul, calls Satan “THE GOD OF THIS WORLD who has blinded the minds of those who do not believe the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who is the image of God, so that Christ’s light (Gospel) can shine on them.” These are they who refuse to allow the “GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST” to illuminate the spiritual darkness in which Gospel (Law)-rejecters live. Because they declare their darkness to be God’s light, Jesus calls their false light “great darkness”–a spiritual death sentence which covers the world like a cloud which is kept in place by Biblical ignorance–a self-inflicted spiritual wound.

Satan presents his darkness (false Gospel–Gal. 1:1-9) as Christ’s light to those within professing Christendom whom he has kept in spiritual darkness about God’s “fine print” which must be believed and obeyed in order to make His “headlines” come to fruition. Jesus Himself speaks to the devil’s universally-embraced false light in Matthew 6:19-23 where He tells us that those who follow the god (ruler) of the political, economic, military, religious, societal, familial, etc. organizations and systems Biblically known as “the world,” are those who believe and obey THE GOD OF THAT WORLD. These are described Biblically as being “of the world” and whose thoughts are dominated by the things of the world and not the things of God. Paul speaks to this mind-set in Philippians 4:8 where he reminds the church to think on those things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report. The same admonition is needed today. We are not to think on the things of the world that have no value. Out of the approximately 16 waking hours of our day, how much of that time do we spend thinking about the things of the Lord? We are commanded to “redeem the time” for Him and His Word, His way, His will, His “walk.” Such a mind-set was exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth. This is the walk we must walk if we are to join Him in paradise (1 Jn. 2:6/ Rev. 3:21). This is the “walk” which results after His true saints have gone through the “strait (difficult) gate” and are walking along the “narrow (restricted) way” that leads to eternal life. This is the “walk” of the “few” who seek, find, enter and walk according to His light–Word/Gospel/Truth. All other salvation seekers (the “many”) simply find an open (come as you are) church door beyond which subscribers join up and walk its (stay as you are) path (Mat. 7:13,14). While “strait gate”–“narrow way” churches are almost impossible to find, “wide gate” and “broad way” churches are multitudenous world-wide.

In the beginning, man was introduced to the rest of God’s creation and was given control over the earth and everything on it, under it and above it (Gen. 1:28-31). His dominion included the “serpent” who would soon make his first appearance to Eve and, with just a few, have-it-your-way words, changed the course of history by becoming her and Adam’s god. Let us return to the time when man created the god of this world and crowned him (Satan) the lord of his life. We find this momentous, world-changing event taking place in the Garden of Eden as recorded in the third chapter of Genesis.

God did not send the former Lucifer (“sun of the morning”) back down to earth to be its god. The earth and everything associated with it, including the heaven directly above it, originally belonged to man (Adam) who had been given control over it. To maintain control Adam had only to obey the God Who created him. Lucifer (Satan, the devil–enemy) was on the earth and was under Adam’s control (dominion–Gen.1: 26). Read The Unknown Power of God’s Very Elect. Key word–Unknown. Being formerly God’s premier angel who had been given control over the earth, Satan was now above the beasts of the field but below the man God had created from the earth. ADAM HAD TOTAL DOMINION OVER THE SERPENT. The earth was under his control as long as he could hold it. At one time Lucifer (Satan) had dominion over the earth, but had lost everything when he and one-third of God’s angels tried to wrest control of the universe from Him. Now Adam had total control over the earth and the world that would develop upon it. The former “morning light”–now the king of darkness–wanted it back. And as the astute Bible student knows, he regained control of it by deceiving Adam into giving it to him, thereby making him (Satan) his (Adam’s) god.

The serpent was obviously an impressive being in that Eve readily conversed with him in their common language. No beast of the field could speak with a human voice, nor could one reason as could Adam and Eve. The serpent, however could do both. He could also acknowledged that Eve’s God was in fact the Creator of everything. He did so, going so far as to quote Him: “Did God say that you could not eat of every tree of the garden?” The rest of the story is well-known. What is not so well-known is that God had not placed the serpent on earth to be the world’s god. Instead, he was meant to be just one of the created entities over which Adam had control. God intended for Adam and his descendants to rule the earth and the world system that would develop on it, including Satan and his fallen angels (devils/demons). Those in that system would worship and obey Him as their God and master. But such was not to be the case. Satan became the god of the world system Adam’s descendants created by following in his sinful footsteps. So vile and ungodly were they that every one of them except Noah and his family had to be put to death. Since that time God has used punishments other than universal death when man, either individually or nationally, has separated himself from His Maker by sinning (Isa. 59:2).

Noah, “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5), taught the people the ways of the Lord. But to no avail. Even one of his own sons sinned against him as recorded in Genesis 9:20-27. Today, the descendants of Adam and Eve carry on their rebellious legacy by serving the god their original parents created. What they do not know is that the god of this world has deceived them into believing that they are worshiping and serving the true God. The world’s religions serve him without realizing that they all bow to and obey the same Adam-created god–Satan.

Jesus spoke to this Truth when Peter, believing that he was speaking his own mind, corrected Him. Jesus, looking directly at Peter, said: “Get behind me, SATAN, for you are not interested in the things of God, You are interested only in the THINGS OF MAN.” Christianity is the only religion that awards its followers the power of self-governance, and self-determination. No other religion allows man such freedom. Satan has provided mankind a myriad of religions, each supposedly having its own god. In reality, mankind worships and serves only one deity, either the Creator God or the god of the world system. By keeping his people ignorant of God’s Word, the false god makes them serve and obey him while believing that that are serving and obeying the Creator God of Genesis 1-3. With the exception of a tiny remnant, Satan exerts total control over professing Christendom.

Ironically, Christianity is the only religion whose god has given her the power to change his commands into suggestions and options or, if His Words are too egregious to tolerate, to do away with them altogether. No other religion offers its constituents that power. Christianity’s god gives her the authority to reject the very name He gave her and to assume the name the people choose. The Biblical God calls His one and only church by one and only name: The Church of God.

But wait, it gets better. The Biblical God wrote His rules of engagement in stone and commanded that every word, jot and tittle remain unchanged and obeyed without fail. Not so with those who falsely call themselves by His name. Their god has empowered them to choose which of his suggestions and options to obey, if it is convenient. Christianity’s god has allowed her various mini-churches to borrow many of their beliefs and practices from Babylonian heathenism and to proclaim that they are “thus saith the Lord.” The home page of this website lists a few of those “truths” she swears were given to her by the Creator God. When their numerous “truths” are revealed to be Satanic lies, she choose to remain with their god. Truly, “Satan has deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9).

Christianity’s man-made god is whatever she wants him/her/it/them to be. As stated, so-called Christianity is the only religion that allows the religious tail to wag the religious dog. She is by far the most convenient of all of Satan’s religious organizations. He rules the world’s religious scene and has for almost 2000 years. Even atheists obey him, though unwittingly. They claim to have no god, all the while living according to his rules. Never underestimate his powers of religious persuasion.

Through the good times and the bad times, God has always had a remnant–a tiny group (10,000–Deut. 33:2) who, as Moses prophesied, would rise up and fight the good fight of faith in the face of overwhelming odds. God’s true saints, though outnumbered millions to one, will, like Gideon’s 300, prevail in their personal lives while surrounded by enemy forces. Prophetic writings alert His true saints to the fact that Christ’s return will take place in the near future. At that time He will call His Very Elect up to where He will be waiting in the clouds along with His mighty angels. From there He will descend with His tiny church to Jerusalem where He will establish the Kingdom of God on earth from which He and his chosen few will rule, first the earth for 1000 years, then the universe forever. For more on this subject read The Kingdom of God and God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe. Key words–Kingdom and Caretakers respectively. L.J.