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Jesus’ Temptation
The story of the temptation of Jesus is found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. Here Satan attempted to persuade Jesus to sin by offering him various temptations. One of Satan’s offers went as follows:
Satan’s claim, to be sure, is very disturbing when given a moment of thought. All the authority and power of all the kingdoms, of all the governments of the world belong to Satan. He gives this authority to whom he wishes. Those who hold political power, in some sense or another, receive it from Satan. But was Satan telling the truth? He must have been lying, right? Let's look at Jesus’ response.
Often throughout the Gospels Jesus was faced with liars and hypocrites. Direct, open, and honest, Jesus condemned these people and called them what they were, liars and hypocrites. Jesus does not, however, call Satan a liar. He does not dispute Satan’s claim. Instead, Jesus asserted that he will not worship Satan, even though Satan is offering Him the authority of all the world’s governments.
The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted just like all humans are tempted:
For Jesus to truly be tempted, Satan must have been telling the truth. No one can be tempted by a false promise, if it is known that the promise is false. If Satan did not truly control the governments of the world, Jesus would have known this, and would not have been tempted by the offer. Instead, Jesus knew Satan’s offer was legitimate, and was in fact tempted by it. Choosing to worship God and “serve him only,” Jesus rejected the offer.
Further Scriptural Evidence
A plethora of scriptural evidence exists to confirm the above conclusion that Satan is in control of human governments and all worldly authority. For starters:
According to John, the world is under the control of Satan, just as Satan himself claimed during Jesus’ temptation.
A constant theme throughout the New Testament is the warning against becoming too involved with Satan’s world. The earthly world is identified as Satan’s realm, while Christians are called to reject the world and follow God. The following are just a couple of such passages:
1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or anything in the world… For everything in the world… comes not from the Father but from the world…
Rather than following earthly authority, that authority which comes from Satan, Christians are called upon to follow God’s authority, and the authority of the teachings of God’s son, Jesus.
Ambassadors for Christ
In Matthew 20 (and in a similar passage from Luke 22) an argument broke out amongst the disciples, who were accompanying Jesus to Jerusalem, concerning who would hold positions of power in Jesus' kingdom. They misunderstood the nature of Jesus' kingdom, and Jesus corrected them, explaining the true nature of his kingdom:
It must be noted that Jesus made no distinction: all national rulers exercise authority over their people, an authority which followers of Jesus must reject. There are many reasons for this, but of particular concern for this article is the simple fact that governmental authority is derived from Satan. Followers of Jesus should not take part in human governments nor give them any support. Instead, all energies should be focused towards the promotion of the kingdom of God. This is where our true allegiance lies.
Philippians 3:20: Our citizenship is in heaven…
Hebrews 13:14: Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
The political language used here, to be sure, is no coincidence. Christians have no “city” here on earth, no earthly government to which we belong. Instead, our “citizenship is in heaven.” As citizens of heaven, while on earth, we serve as “Christ’s ambassadors.” An “ambassador” is defined as a representative from one government to another. The government the ambassador lives under is not his own and he does not take part in it; he represents his home government while living under the foreign government. Paul’s use of the term “ambassador” to describe the role of Christians was an excellent choice. We live under a foreign government - the human governments which are controlled by Satan. Just as earthly ambassadors do not take part in the governments they reside under, Christians should not take part in earthly governments. Instead, recognizing that our citizenship lies in heaven, we should serve as representatives to those around us; we should serve as ambassadors for Christ.
End-Time Prophesies: Jesus vs. Satan & Human Governments
The New Testament informs us that, as ambassadors here on earth, our adversaries are the human governments we live under:
Acts 4:26: The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord…
Furthermore, the end-time prophesies in both the Old and New Testaments show that in the final battle between God and Satan, Satan will use human governments to fight for him.
Revelation 16:14: They are spirits of demons… and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
Christ, of course, will ultimately gain victory over Satan, “the kings of the earth, and their armies.”
Psalms 110:5-6: The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
And once these Satan-controlled human governments have been defeated, they will be replaced by “the kingdom of our Lord.”
1 Corinthians 15:24: Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
Written by Matthew J. Truitt, Harmless As Doves Ministries
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