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2 Corinthians 4:4
A significant difficulty with interpreting II Corinthians 4:4 to be about Satan is that he is nowhere said to be the god of anything. Many proponents of his being “the god of this world” say that the world's people have him as their object of worship. It is a true statement, but the verse is not saying that. The word for “God,” theos, is used in a general sense in just a few places, such as Paul's description in Philippians 3:19 of people who set their minds on earthly things—he says their “god is their belly,” an abstract and rare usage of theos. But II Corinthians 4:4 is not abstract; it speaks of someone specific rather than a general concept. In addition, the verse refers to “this age” (emphasis ours throughout) rather than “this world.” The word here is aion, which refers to a span of time. A search about how the Bible's writers use aion clarifies who is God in—and thus of—every age. Hebrews 1:1-2 is a ready example: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds . . .. At the end of verse 2, “worlds” translates aion, which should be rendered as “ages.” God is sovereign over the ages because He created them through His Son. The Faith Chapter begins similarly: “By faith we understand that the worlds [aion] were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). The Word of God framed or prepared the ages. In other words, God is sovereign over the divine timeline; He has not given any part of it to the Adversary. This aspect of God's sovereignty is critical because of a widely held first-century idea called dualism. Part of dualism is the belief in an ongoing, cosmic struggle between light and darkness, good and evil. In popular application, dualism maintains that God and Satan hold parts of the creation in a rough balance, and they are battling for the souls of humanity. Notice, though, that this puts God and Satan on essentially equal levels, as though Satan is somehow a match for God. Paul skewers this idea in Ephesians 1:20-21: . . . which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. The apostle claims that Jesus Christ is “far above” everything “in this age” [aion]. He is above every principality and power, which includes all the angels, even the rebellious ones like Satan. He is not only preeminent in this age but also in the next. In other words, Christ is the God of this age, just as He is the God of the next age—only the Father is higher. Similarly, when writing to Timothy, Paul refers to God as “the King eternal” (I Timothy 1:17). This Greek phrase, tō basilei tōn aiōnōn, is literally “the King of the ages.” Are both Christ and Satan “God/god of this age”? Certainly not! Even though Jesus allows Satan to rule, He also limits him, and the Devil must seek permission to do things such as afflict Job and sift Peter. Jesus possesses “all authority,” in both heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18-20). Many may inadvertently worship Satan, and a few deliberately deify him, but he is not the deity of this or any age. Neither God nor His servants give him that honor or designation.
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Two): The God of This Age
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