THE CHURCH IN FLUX
Chapter 7
Who’s in Charge? (continued)
There is a curious, but nevertheless quite convincing passage in Matthew 4: 8 – 11 that shows conclusively that we, for now, live under the reign of Satan. Yes, that accounts for such things as our car culture, with a million deaths each year, and 20 million injured, yes that accounts for… the list is endless.
Here’s what the Bible tells us. I supply the comments.
Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their magnificence. Satan tells Jesus: “All this, all these kingdoms, all this splendor, I will give you if you bow down and worship me.”
Somehow Satan made to pass before the eyes of Jesus a gorgeous and impressive scene: not just the poor lands of Palestine, but the glorious highlights of Rome, the wonders of Greece, the treasures of Persia, the pyramids of Egypt, the Maya Empire in Mexico, the miracles of the Incas, the architectural treasures in China and Java, the Far East with its beautiful temples, St Peter’s dome yet to be built.
Then the Devil says: “All these things will I give to you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
The fact is that Satan’s claim is based upon certain unquestionable facts: the kingdoms of the entire world have become largely under Devilish control. They were then and are now submissive to his will, obedient to his laws, captive to his bidding.
Going back in history, we now know that the Inca and the Maya civilizations offered children to their gods. We know that the Roman crucified Christians and used them in the arenas as prey for the wild animals. We learned from the Bible that the Greeks scorned the approach of Paul and ridiculed his claim to resurrection. And today it is no different. Recent history points to a Stalin, a Hitler, the holocaust, the cruelties of the Khmer Rouge, each causing the death of millions. General Romeo Dallaire aptly called his book: Shake hands with the Devil, the failure of humanity in Rwanda.
Satan’s influence is not confined to wars: Global Warming is part of that too, so are the millions felled by cancer. Satan, as Jesus acknowledged – later calling him ‘the Prince of this world’ – has, at this point, the upper hand. The fact of his sway is indeed undisputed. He was in charge in Jesus’ world and he is today, exercising authority over all who are in darkness.
Frankly it pays to be in league with the devil. He constantly is posting a rich reward to those who serve him. If Judas desires 30 pieces of silver, the devil will find them for him, on certain conditions, of course. Wealth, fame, power, position, all are in the gift of the devil.
And so, in effect, Satan declared to Jesus that whether the people knew it or not, they were at the Devil’s bidding, that he, undisputedly, was the Prince of this world. Just imagine, he offered Jesus the whole of the kingdoms, the glory of them. Under one condition, if only Jesus would but render homage to him, then he would receive the entire world as his gift. Satan said that most others had already submitted to his direction to gain some imagined advantage, and now he boldly suggested to Jesus that he should do the same.
Believe it or not: the temptation meant more to Jesus than even Satan in the deepest reaches of his subtlety could possibly understand. It was impossible for Satan to fathom the current and future nature of Jesus’ terrible suffering. Christ, of course, knew that his father had assured him these kingdoms, but he also knew the coming of unutterable agony and immeasurable darkness: the cross and the grave, his descent into hell. The fierceness of Satan proposal lay in the suggestion that all the grandeur of these possessions might yet belong to Jesus without going through the pathway of shame and suffering and death.
Not that Jesus entertained or meditated for a single moment the possibility of yielding to the foe, but the Christ understood the very core of its meaning and grasped even as the Great Tempter could not, the infinite cost at which he was yet to possess the world.
Of course, Jesus answer was short and to the point: “Get lost.” It was a command.
And that’s exactly what Satan did, after hearing that there is only way to go: worship the Lord Creator and serve him.
To worship is always to serve. The enemy did not ask for service, only worship. Christ knew that worship and service go hand in hand. Had he worshiped Satan, he also would have been in his service, as the first Adam found when he was deceived.
Satan promised kingdoms. Kingdoms have a degree of glory and grandiosity. Obama has Airforce 1 and the White House and Camp Davis. But being a politician always means lying and deceit. Worldly affairs are always permeated with evil. We know that only too well.
What Christ promises is not kingdoms in the plural, but Kingdom in the singular. Says Revelation 11: “The kingdoms of the world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
Jesus chose to move toward the establishment of one Kingdom and one throne. The devil showed the Master the kingdoms, tribes, divisions, containing the elements of conflicts and break-ups. Jesus refused them. He did not desire the kingdoms. He had come for the Kingdom with a capital K. He refused the tarnished glory of a wrecked ideal and chose the radiant splendor of the kingdom to come, the New Creation, even though the pathway to the goal was the pathway of the cross.
That’s all part of God’s master-plan. The Kingdom concept dominates all the world’s happenings. While we worry about job security, about money and the day-to-day business to keep body and soul together, the invisible kingdom of God is coming into its own, at first slowly but surely, and now with increasing tempo. It will find its true formation in the end-times, which are fast approaching, when all separate threads of the world’s happenings will unite to culminate in the Closing act when the Lord will assemble these separate strands to compose his Kingdom to come.
That Kingdom has always been present in the background of events straight through all the brokenness and schisms of history. Soon, in these Last of Days, the Kingdom will be revealed for all to see as the dominating reality. In the End Times, now imminent, on the Day of all days, when Jesus Christ will be revealed as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, He will forever banish all powers that have had a destructive and negative impact on his creation. Paul speaks of that when he, in Ephesians 1:9-10 writes, “He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
The entire chain of human events, from its very beginning until now has only one purpose: the coming of the Kingdom. Our life’s goal is not that we personally may enjoy God forever and our soul be saved, but the real purpose of our existence lies only therein that we be part and parcel of the greater context of the Kingdom of God in which all things in heaven and on earth be under the aegis of Jesus, the Christ, who lives and reigns forever.
It is he who through his life and death has restored the Kingdom and has reunited all things under his rule, which is universal and cosmic.
We don’t hear too much in the church about the kingdom to come or of the New Creation, which Revelation describes as ‘the kingdom of the world’, meaning the entire cosmos.
I repeat: John 3:16 says: “God loved the cosmos so much that he gave his only Son to redeem it.” Redeem means ‘to buy back.’ Jesus bought back the entire cosmos, the land on which we live, the rivers and seas on which we sail, the air in which we fly, together with all that lives and moves and has its being. All the splendor of material things shall, under the perfect reign of Christ, be beautified and perfected. In the final victory, the whole creation, which to-day groans in agony under the rule of Satan – who is out to destroy God’s creation and we are often willing helpers there -will be redeemed, put aright, restored to its original beauty.
That’s what the Kingdom is all about. There’s where history is leading to. Jesus came to restore creation. As humans, we were created to help in that goal. God made us so that we might act in co-operation with Jesus for the fulfillment of God’s divine purposes.
As I have shown, at this time not God, but Satan is in charge of this world. This is the situation now more than ever, so evident in a world where troubles multiply and sin becomes more flagrant.
We know that Jesus is the ultimate owner. We know that he has redeemed the world, that is, has bought it back.
How should we view today’s situation? Compare it to a real estate transaction, where a property is bought by making an offer, and when all the conditions have been met, the deal is final with a possession date at a later time. That’s how I see the world at this point. Jesus, on Calvary, fulfilled all obligations, making the sale irrevocable. He bought it for us and paid for it, but we can not yet move in. That will come when Jesus returns. In the meantime Satan still occupies the house of creation and tries to afflict as much damage as possible, because he knows his time will soon be up soon.
How then shall we live in that interval? Peter gives the answer: “because the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the Day of God and speed its coming.” (2 Peter 3:12)
Why can we live holy and godly lives? More about that in the next chapter.