It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To
Satan secured the scepter of government in the earth from Adam by right of conquest. He has organized the present world system on his own cosmic principles: pride, ambition, selfishness, force, greed, and pleasure. The world system—scientific, cultured, and elegant—is dominated by satanic principles, and beneath its deceptive veneer is a seething cauldron of ambition and commercial rivalries. It is antagonistic toward God—whatever cloak civilization and man’s religiousness may cast over it. Satan and his elaborately organized hierarchy of evil are often the invisible agents and the real motivating power and intelligence behind the dictators, kings, presidents, and governors, who are the visible rulers. Armed force and periodic wars, with wholesale murder and violence, are its indispensable concomitants.
Satan is the prince of this world, the god of this world, and the prince of the power of the air. He holds sway over the fallen spirits, who concurred in his primal rebellion. These spirits made an irrevocable choice to follow Satan instead of remaining loyal to their Creator. They have become irretrievably confirmed in wickedness and irreparably abandoned to delusion. They are in full sympathy with their prince. They render him willing service in their varied ranks in his highly organized empire of evil. The princelings under him have their own specific responsibilities. Their initial decision has forever wedded them to his deceptive program and to his inevitable doom.
In no realm is their activity more significant than in the sphere of human government. Without divine revelation, we cannot see beyond flesh and blood to the world rulers of this present darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. But there are demons behind the idols of man. God is permitting Satan, under certain restrictions, to work out his unholy ambition in the folly of a creature opposing his Creator. The saved part of humanity, which has been delivered from the power of darkness, is not under satanic direction (unless it yields), but rather through the Spirit of God is the salt of the earth, hindering its untimely dissolution.
When Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them for a price, he said that this authority was given to him and that he gave it to whomever he chose. He said if you worship me, all shall be thine. The Lord did not deny that Satan was in charge of the world’s kingdoms. Man had yielded to the devil, and the world passed under his mastery. Yet the power he exercises in directing the governments of this world is by divine permission. The Devil’s activity is circumscribed within certain divinely set limits. The precise extent of these boundaries is not revealed. We do know that a demon was powerful enough to hinder Daniel’s prayer for three weeks. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Satan is not omnipotent, like Christ. Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Just as the Amorites were destroyed when their iniquity was full, so Satan’s world rule will be destroyed, at the zenith of its wickedness, at the second appearance of Christ. There will be no lasting peace until the Prince of Peace comes to destroy the Satanic system and cast its leader into the lake of fire. Until then, Satan’s world system presents a perpetual peril to the child of God. Nothing short of the whole armor of God will avail.
We children of God are disturbed by the anti-Christian, morally debauched culture we live in. Politics has no power to bring about the spiritual transformation our society needs. Looking to human means to reform society is futile. God never intended us to be at ease with our culture. Forcing people to adopt biblical standards of morality effects only superficial change. The real issue is sin. The need is for rebirth in Christ. When the people of the world face the judgment of God, their “traditional Christian values” won’t matter at all. Only whether they responded to Jesus with faith and obedience will matter. Pursuing outward change at the expense of inward transformation is nearsighted.
Our world has no solutions for its deepening fractures. God’s word alone holds the answers. Let us believers think, speak, and behave biblically, grounded in the truth. Let us be stable, confident, and joyful in the faith. Hearts can be turned toward God, but only through the power of God’s word, one person at a time. We have the only means to bring genuine, lasting change—the gospel of Christ. Our God is our God, and our president is our president. Know the difference.