The sad fact remains that this is not God's world. God's Kingdom is still
not of this world, as Jesus Christ made clear in John 18:36. It is even
more tragic that another being is ruler of this world, right here and right
now—Satan the devil.
The apostle Paul described the spiritual blindness that envelops the world
and pointed out the source of that blindness. "But even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of
this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Corinthians 4:3,4).
Who is the god of this age? He is none other than
Satan, the great fallen superangel (Ezekiel 28:14-17). He is truly this
world's ruler. Jesus Christ recognized that, saying that in the judgment "the
ruler of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31).
Although we cannot see Satan, his influence on the world is pervasive.
Paul understood this, telling the members in Ephesus, "And you He [God]
made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:1,2).
