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What the Bible says about Satan Deceives Whole World
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Jeremiah 2:9-26

This passage is an intense survey of Judah's behavior in that period just before they went into captivity. In the next chapter God divorces Israel. This is like the final pleading or contention, the straw that broke the camel's back. The intensity of her drive to show disrespect for God is illustrated in the comparison of the dromedary and the wild ass in heat. Nobody can hold those female animals back when they are in heat! It is as if Israel was always in heat in order to commit adultery in departing from God.

We have to make the connection that we are called from a nation cut from the same cloth, and in us is the same potential for unbelieving stubbornness and fickleness, whose fruit is immature, irresponsible unfaithfulness to obligation. The wayward drive is actually in all of mankind, but Israel is more responsible than any other nation on earth because she has been given so much in the way of knowledge.

Satan has succeeded in deceiving the whole world. Among these deceptions is that modern Israel is Christian. But Israel has never been truly Christian. It presents a counterfeit to the world, and it has nonetheless spread its wine over the entire world, drugging it with its poor example, and inducing much to the world to follow.

This particular deception that Israel is Christian is dangerous to true church members since the vast majority of the people of God are in Israelitish nations, and it has the power to make us feel an affinity with Israel's brand of false Christianity. But that affinity might just lure us into producing the same tolerant, non-judgmental, politically correct, multi-cultural Laodiceanism commonly displayed in the Israelitish country. It hinders the separation from the world required of us by making us feel a lingering sense of oneness with Israel.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Where Is the Beast? (Part Seven)

2 Corinthians 4:4

God is sovereignly over both physical and metaphorical sight (understanding or comprehension). God states that He blinds, whether as a punishment for sin or simply because He deems it necessary in working out His purpose.

However, translators of II Corinthians 4:4 use a lowercase g in the phrase, “the god of this age,” to signify that Satan has blinded the world. If the translators are correct, it creates two significant scriptural anomalies:

1) Satan is nowhere else said to blind; blinding is squarely in God's domain.

2) Neither God nor His servants ever call Satan a god of something—at most, he is one of the “so-called gods” that “are not gods” (I Corinthians 8:5; Galatians 4:8).

Rather than blinding, Satan deceives, distorts, and twists the truth. At times, we may use the terms “blinding” and “deceiving” interchangeably, which can have similar effects on understanding. However, the critical distinction is that it comes down to intent. God is absolutely committed to truth—to what is real. Jesus declared Himself to be the Truth. God desires His children to understand and walk in truth. However, without the necessary spiritual faculties, a person can find truth overwhelming, even painful, just as a diseased eye may find bright light excruciating. God hides and reveals truth according to His will as He moves His creation toward everlasting light.

In type, we do the same thing with our children. We recognize that some knowledge would be harmful to them before they are mature, so we limit their exposure to some of the realities of life. We also determine what knowledge they are responsible for, according to their capability.

God does the same thing with His children. In their natural state, humans cannot deal with God's knowledge and understanding, so He opens their eyes according to what is appropriate. He also closes their eyes, either as a judgment (see Deuteronomy 28:28) or out of mercy. In the Parable of the Faithful Steward, the man who does not know the master's will is disciplined less because he is accountable for less (Luke 12:47-48).

Because God has hidden some truth for the time being, He has concluded humanity in unbelief so that He can have mercy on all (Romans 11:32, KJV). In this age, He is not working with all mankind the same way, so He closes the minds—blinds the spiritual eyes—of those He will work with in later ages. As Solomon teaches, part of His glory is to conceal matters (Proverbs 25:2).

Satan, though, is not committed to truth; he is instead the father of lies and liars (John 8:44). God has not granted him authority to open or close eyes, so instead, he plays fast and loose with the truth with ultimate skill. He is not devoted to God's reality but to his own agenda. He lies, exaggerates, acts, distracts, downplays, and employs any other subterfuge in his pursuit of superiority. He will use some truth, but he couches it in self-serving ways that do not reflect reality. Scripture never shows him opening eyes or taking away understanding God has given. However, he will twist and distort truth, encouraging human nature to deceive itself about the truth that is available.

Some truth is readily available to all. Mankind is without excuse when it comes to the truth of God's existence (see Romans 1:18-21). Satan has not closed men's eyes to this reality. Instead, Paul says, people have suppressed that truth, closing their own eyes, and Satan has aided them along the way.

Similarly, the serpent “helped” Eve reinterpret what God had said in a way that seemed to benefit her. In fact, the world's disintegration began with Eve seeking knowledge that was not appropriate for her yet: Adam's and Eve's eyes were opened through eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan neither opened nor closed their eyes, but he offered an alternative narrative that eased their rejection of what God had said.

Cultivating a love for truth thus becomes paramount, for that love stands as a hedge against falling away. When we value personal comfort or interpersonal harmony more than living by God's every word, we close our own eyes. When we so choose, we alter our beliefs and can no longer see what we saw before.

David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Two): The God of This Age

Hebrews 10:38

"Now the just shall live by faith" is both a statement of fact and a command. It is not easy, but at the very least, God has gifted each member of the Body. It requires of us a great deal of focused and disciplined living to live by faith. To do it well, we must fully accept God's sovereignty, not merely as a random fact, but as a reality working in our lives of faith.

Recall that many Israelites failed along the way to the Promised Land because their faith failed at some point during their pilgrimage. But their faith in whom and in what? Of course, it is faith in God, but unlike them, have we fully accepted what He is and what He does? Jesus commands in Luke 14:26 that we must place Him before all else in our lives. What are His qualities and attributes? What is our vision of God's place in our lives?

Besides God's warning about the world, we must often be reminded that the carnal mind is not subject to Him, as indeed it cannot be (Romans 8:7). A major reason the Israelites in the wilderness failed is that it never entered their minds at the beginning of their journey that it would be so difficult.

Our positions as called children of God place us in a position in which we must determine who is regulating affairs on this earth. To whom will we submit our lives, God or Satan? It is not as though there is a struggle between them. The "contest" has already been decided. God won. However, He permits Satan limited leeway to test and try us. Which of these two—between whom we must choose—is supreme? Which will we choose to be sovereign over our lives?

Revelation 12:9 states that Satan has deceived the entire world. He is an accuser and the author of confusion. If we take an overview of conditions on earth, we see turmoil everywhere, providing a clear picture that mankind as a whole has given itself over to Satan.

However, this is not so with us. By God's mercy, our minds have been opened for the very purpose of freely choosing God as our sovereign and submitting to Him. So then, how much do we truly know about His attributes, character, and judgments as shown in His Word?

For instance, are we aware of what it says in Deuteronomy 28:63?

And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

This is a side of God that is not often taught, yet it is part of the whole of what He is, and we must face it and choose. Judgments are often painful. God says in Deuteronomy 8:3 that He humbled the Israelites and caused them to hunger. Will He for His purposes bring similar judgments on us so that we must choose to accept His chastening and submit to Him as our sovereign?

Why might He rejoice in exercising His judgment against people? It is actually because of His merciful love. Peter reminds us, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9). Paul, in I Timothy 2:4, confirms this, saying God "desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." Thus, He can rejoice in punishment because He knows that the punishment will be the means of drawing men to the knowledge of the truth by which they can repent and be saved.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Accepting God's Sovereignty (Part One)

1 John 5:19

“The whole world,” according to Paul in Ephesians 2, is motivated by, driven by, captive of, that spirit being, the adversary who hates Jesus Christ with a passion that we cannot even begin to imagine. Because he hates Him and because we are part of His body, he hates us. But he tries to sell himself to us—himself and his way—as though it were really attractive, glamorous, beneficial, good, fulfilling, and rewarding.

In Genesis 3, from the very beginning, we find evidence of opposition to God. By following Satan's misdirection, Adam and Eve found themselves in opposition to God, and they attempted to hide from Him. However, a critical choice had been made. According to Romans 5, the same choice has been made by every one of us to join in opposition to God rather than submit to Him.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Christian and the World (Part Two)


 




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