The god of this age (1)

2Co 4 “³But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: ⁴In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

There is a God of eternity who is the everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. He created

the heavens and the earth and all their hosts. This inaccessible God took an affordable form, the Word form, in which He could create and enter into communion with His creation. It is in this affordable form that He visited Adam in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), He visited Abraham by the oaks of Mamre (Gen. 18, Jn 8:56) and many other saints of the Old Testament. Finally, to save all mankind, the Word that was God Himself was made flesh (Jn 1:1-14). I have by the grace of God received the gift of faith in His Son Jesus, the same faith of Abraham. Abraham, like his ancestor Adam, did not know that God in three but one Lord. In Abraham's seed , He continued to reveal Himself as the only Eternal, Lord or Jehovah, He even made it to be the fundamental provision of the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 6:4) , and in the flesh He repeated it at Jerusalem as the first and greatest commandment (Mark 12:29). According to the Holy Bible, the God of Eternity is one.

But we have read in the introduction passage a very curious statement: there is also a god of this age. Thus, there is a God who rules eternity, because He is the Eternal Father, He has no beginning or end, and there is also a god who rules this age (the time). Time is a parenthesis opened by God in eternity, and He shall close it again. Time has a beginning and an end. Before time, there was eternity and after time there will be eternity. The God of eternity was there before time and He will be there after time. The god of this age was created in time and will be judged and destroyed with time consumption. Another very important point in this passage is the relationship between the god of this world and his family: blinding his own.

Ep 2 “¹And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; ²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: ³Among whom also we all had our conversation … even as others.” The whole world is under the power of the evil one (1Jn 5:19), and it is him the prince of this world, as Lord has named him (Jn 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). If the prince of this world was also called the god of this age, it is because he not only runs the political, economic, cultural affairs of the world, but also and especially the religious sphere around the world to be worshiped as God. Sooth to say, he is not god in the true sense of the word because he is a creature, not a creator. But as worship directly involves a deity and the prince of this world is worshiped, those who worship him have made ​​him a god.

And according to this passage that we just read in Ephesians, we all walked into that course: we all served and paid tribute to this prince as we walked in rebellion against God, without even being aware. The whole world worships the god of this age with pride and joy, simply because they believe they are worshiping God. Crowds do everything in their power to protect the glory, praise and honor of the prince of this world, to the point of killing anyone who opposes him: Jn 16 “²They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” We read in Revelation 13 how all the inhabitants of the earth, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave (with the sole exception of those whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world) wonder after the beast, and how they worship the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worship the beast saying, Who is like the beast and who can fight against him? We can ask ourselves: are all the inhabitants of the earth really aware that they worship devil? Absolutely no!

In the same chapter we read that there is seductive effect. I want us to understand this by the grace of God that the principle for all inhabitants of the earth is to fight against the God of eternity and worship the devil: serving the God of eternity in this world is exception. We were all born in the position of rebellion against God, and that, while being faithful to our respective religions; they themselves are the ideal tool in the hands of the god of this age. And these religions assembled, controlled and handled by the prince of this world cuddled and deceived us all that our acts of worship were going straight to heaven to the God of eternity. It is only when He hit us with his light (like Paul on the road to Damascus), as He granted us His grace, that we realized that religious, yea we were, but to worship the god of this age.

It should be noted that this god, who is also the ruler of this world has shaped the world and created so complicated a system for the inhabitants of the earth to make a living that they have no time to devote to their preparation to meet their God (Amos 4:12). They can listen to the Word of Truth and rejoice, but cannot persevere to bear fruit for eternal life. This is what we read in the parable of the sower: Mt 13 “²²He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.” The world as it is shaped generally gives the impression that without recourse to injustice, intrigues and cynicism it is not possible to live. The inhabitants of the earth are taken as a trap or in a vicious circle: life is hard, let us fight without thinking of anything else to deal with the difficulties of life. And in fighting without God, they not only deprive themselves of His relief, but also everlasting rest that He guarantees to those that overcome the world.

Our God knows that where we are is where Satan dwells (Rev 2:13), and therefore He can in no case deprive us of His rescue. He reassures us that even our hairs are numbered: Lc 12 “⁷But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” If the God who loves us had believed in His foreknowledge that our short presence in the world run by our enemy was a risk for Him to get us lost, He had all the means to take us out of the world. But He says Himself: Jn 17 “¹⁵I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”  He is able to preserve us from evil so He does not need us out of the world. All He expects from us is that we listen to Him and walk in His ways. God's children whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb of God slain are not in the world to pledge allegiance to the god of this age but to shatter the Lamb’s victory on the world: Jn 16 “³³These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

An exhortation of great significance for the children of God passing through this world which is not their land: Rm 12 “¹I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Those that conform to the world, though giving much importance to the religious aspect of their lives, are worshipers of the god of this age.

So, whence is it that the god of this world never shows himself as such, but should always dress up as the everlasting God while being worshiped by all the inhabitants of the earth? A similar question is: why does the snake have scales instead of feathers? It is a matter of nature or substance. In the devil’s nature the truth is excluded, he is rather a liar and the father of lies and when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. So his nature is lying, deception, confusion. In his kingdom the rules of the game are malice, tricking, intrigues, scheming, fraud, etc., and he who has mastered the rules and knows how to skillfully apply them can do well in the world and thrive. In this realm truth is called falsehood and falsehood truth, justice called injustice and injustice justice, evil called good and good evil, and the wicked regarded as right. And we read earlier that he blinds all the subjects of his kingdom so that they do not see the Gospel shine glory. And his subjects are all the inhabitants of the earth, with exception mentioned above.

We read: Ep 6 “¹²For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Here the plural was used to designate the ministers of the prince of this world who is but one dragon, although having seven heads and ten horns. All those who do not have the revelation of the God of eternity are automatically his worshipers. Thus the peoples, nations, languages ​​and religions worship him though with different representations or different names, they are ready to stab one another, each thinking to be defending a different god, while the ones and the others are offering him a human sacrifice. Because he is a god who takes pleasure in killings, being himself inherently murderous.

The devil never appeared showing his true face and never will, because it would be to tell the truth and violate his principles and objectives as liar and deceiver. So how is he worshiped? Simply by disorientating the inhabitants of the earth from the true worship that the Father approves, namely in the Spirit and Truth. He does know that whoever worships the Father a little differently than in the Spirit and Truth perfectly worships the god of this age. He who worships a tree is out of the truth, and automatically worships Satan. He who worships a man, a woman, money, power, prestige, fame, or any other creature worships Satan. That is how the whole earth is being kneaded by the god of this world as they worship God out of His Word. Also upported by the testimony of history, I will demonstrate by the holy scriptures shortly, God willing, how the whole earth (with its religions, empires, kingdoms and republics) has been worshiping the god of this world from antiquity to the twenty- first century and until the judgment of the world.

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