Is Satan Bound? Or is he Ruler of this World?

 

I came across the above short clip by the Ligonier Ministries put out a few days ago, in which the panelists Chris Larson, Derek Thomas, Robert Godfrey, Sinclair Ferguson, Stephen Nichols, Steven Lawson, and Burk Parsons are answering theological questions, put to them presumably by the audience. It is a short clip from a much longer video obviously. In this clip they are answering the question: “Is Satan bound? Or is he the ruler of this world?” To that then three of the panelists give the following answer:

THOMAS: Well, Satan has been bound in the sense that under the old covenant, the gospel was more or less confined to the Jews. There were occasional proselytes, but they were occasional, but in the ministry of Christ and the ministry of the seventy, when they come back from that mission of theirs, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” So, an aspect of Satan’s control over the world was affected by the ministry of Christ and by the death and resurrection of Christ and the day of Pentecost which suggests that now the gospel is to be preached in all the world, but he is still referred to as the “prince and power of the air.” He still has power, maybe not as much power as he did under the old covenant, but he still has power. He is still to be reckoned with: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.” I mean C.S. Lewis said somewhere, in his Screwtape Letters, possibly, that you can make too much of the devil, but you can also make too little of him. He hasn’t yet been cast into the bottomless pit that the book of Revelation speaks of in chapter 20. So, he is very much to be reckoned with even in the new covenant.

GODFREY: But I think we have to be ... I certainly agree, but we have to be very clear, Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords now, and I think Lewis is exactly right. We can’t make too much or too little. On the “too much” side, sometimes we talk about Satan almost as if he were a minor god. He is a finite creature, which I think means—now, I am only a church historian, a humble church historian—but I think that means he can’t be everywhere at once. He can’t be the Holy Spirit, and so he has all these minions who serve him. But we almost talk sometimes as if there is the Holy God and then there is the evil god, Satan. Satan is not God. He is a finite creature. He is limited by his finitude as well as by God’s sovereignty. And so, he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but he is chump change compared to the sovereign God. He has been defeated and he will be destroyed, and our calling is not to let him destroy us before he is destroyed.

FERGUSON: We all try and put things and answers to questions saying the same thing in different ways, and I think two things I have found helpful in this context are, one, what Bob has alluded to in Matthew 28:18 to 20. What Jesus is saying in Matthew 28:18 to 20 is that as the second man and the last Adam, He has won back the dominion on earth that Adam lost. Adam lost his dominion. He fell to the tempter. Christ has overcome the tempter so that He now says, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” Now, we instinctively think, “Well, He is the Son of God. All authority in heaven and earth is His.” But He is speaking in a particular context here of saying that now the dominion that Satan won in the Garden of Eden has been overthrown and that authority is now His. And the second thing is to pick up what Derek said and to remember, I think, the limiting context of the expression about the binding of Satan is as Derek said, so that he would no longer deceive the nations. So, it is not just a general statement, Satan is bound, but that Satan is bound in this particular respect, that until the resurrection of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, the coming of the last days, Satan was deceiving all of the nations, except the one nation that God was undeceiving in His mercy and that what is actually happening on the day of Pentecost in the crowd that gathers, that is analogous to the crowd that gathered in order to build the Tower of Babel and to pull God down, and God judged the nations, committed them to the deception of Satan, is that now from the day of Pentecost onwards, symbolized in the gatherings of the people and now experienced for two thousand years, is that the nations are being undeceived by the preaching of the gospel. I mean, that is just another way of saying, you know, we always need to look at the context in which phrases are used, so that we don’t just see a phrase and then make up ourselves what it means when the Scriptures are in very specific ways helping us to see these statements within a particular grid and context, so that when the Scriptures say that he is the god of this age, we realize that those who are not Christians are living in this age whereas we, the end of the ages has dawned on us and what the preaching of the gospel does is continues to invade this age to bring people into the new age and that this will continue until the Lord comes. And then comes the end, whatever your eschatology, then comes the end.

None of them, however, have been able to give the right answer to that question. The question consists of two parts. The first part of the question is: “Is Satan Bound?” The short answer to that question is, No, not yet. That won’t happen until the Millennium begins:

Revelation 20:

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

At the end of the Millennium he will be released for a short period of time, after which he will be bound permanently and forever. That is the correct answer to the first part of the question.

The second part of the question was: “Or is he the ruler of this world?” The answer to that question is that Satan is not, and never has been, and never will be the “ruler of this world”—only to the extent that mankind (or any portion of them) yield to his temptations, and allow him to rule over them. Satan is permitted to tempt mankind in this world, so that they can act as free agents, and decide for themselves if they want to follow Satan or follow God. That is the role that Satan plays in this brief period of mortal experience. They could not exercise that moral agency, that “choice,” if the temptations of the devil did not exist, to enable them to choose between the two options. But that does not make Satan the “ruler of this world”—only to the extent that people yield to his temptations, and allow him to “rule” over them.

And whenever that has happened (beyond certain limits), it has always led to the destruction of those people—sometimes dramatically, such as by the Flood in the days of Noah; or by fire and brimstone in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah—but more often less dramatically, such as by foreign invasions, or by natural disasters or plagues. And just because the gospel does not exist, or has not always existed in all nations of the world, it does not follow that they didn’t know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. All mankind have some knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong, by virtue of that Spirit that “lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9); hence they are left “without excuse” (Romans 1:20; see verses 18-24). The peoples of all nations and cultures know that stealing is wrong, lying is wrong, murder is wrong, adultery is wrong, etc.—and they generally have laws prohibiting those kinds of actions. They don’t have to be “Christians” to know those things. And on judgment day, they will be judged based on what they knew, and how they acted based on that knowledge: “They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29).

That is the correct biblical answer to that question. Satan is not, never has been, and never can be the “ruler of this world”—only to the extent that the inhabitants of the earth (collectively or individually) yield to his temptations, and allow him to rule over them. The only “power” that Satan has over the world is to deceive and tempt mankind to do evil—nothing more. For the rest of this post I will briefly comment on what some of the participants have said in response to that question.

Derek Thomas begins by quoting the words of Jesus in Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” But the conclusion he draws from it is not the correct one. That is a reference to the fall of Satan in heaven, when he rebelled against God, was defeated, cast down to the earth, to tempt mankind during this brief period of mortal experience:

Revelation 12:

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was cast out [of heaven], that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

• • •

12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Satan has power only to tempt mankind to do evil; but he never has (and never had or will have) any power to force his will in the world, or on anyone in particular—only to the extent that mankind are willing to yield to his temptations. The reason why Satan will be bound during the Millennium (for the most part) is because all of mankind will be living in righteousness, and Christ will personally be reigning on the earth, and no one will want to yield to his temptations. At around 2:27 minutes into the video Robert Godfrey Says the following:

“Sometimes we talk about Satan almost as if he were a minor god. He is a finite creature, … he can’t be the Holy Spirit, and so he has all these minions who serve him. But we almost talk sometimes as if there is the Holy God and then there is the evil god, Satan. Satan is not God. He is a finite creature. He is limited by his finitude.”

That is not entirely correct either. Satan is certainly not omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent etc. like God is; but still, he has great power (permitted him by God) to tempt mankind. Just as God has a divine Spirit by which he is able to extend his influence in world; Satan also has his evil spirit or influence, by means of which he is able to exert his unrighteous, tempting, deceiving power over the world, and on mankind in general:

Ephesians 2:

1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

2 Wherein 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:

Ephesians 6:

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For 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.

Revelation 12:

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

He couldn’t “deceive the whole world” if he didn’t have the spiritual powers to exert his influence over the “whole world”. He also has his own “angels” (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 12:9) assisting him in his work (as God has his angels); but that does not diminish from Satan’s own spiritual powers to exert his evil, tempting influence over the world. Satan had been an angel of light, and a very powerful and advanced individual, before he rebelled against God in the premortal state, and was cast down from the presence of God; and he still retains many of his advanced spiritual powers; and uses them to oppose God, and to tempt mankind—and God permits him to do it for the reasons explained above; so that mankind can have the freedom to choose for themselves which way they want to go, and whose side they want to be on. Then at 3:29 minutes Sinclair Ferguson makes a long series of comments which would be a bit too tedious to analyze in detail; so I will briefly mention some main points:

Firstly, when Jesus says in Matthew 28:18 that, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” it is not a reference to the “power” that Adam “lost” as a result of the Fall. Adam never had “all power in heaven and in earth”. That is the power of Christ’s divinity. Adam never had the power of divinity, and therefore never could have lost it. Secondly, the distinction that he tries to make between Satan’s “deceiving powers” before and after the coming of Christ, or that previously he had power to deceive the nations but not Israel; and afterwards he is bound somehow, and cannot deceive the nations as much, are pure hypothetical speculation. No such doctrines are taught or implied in scripture. Satan is not bound, and will not be until the beginning of the Millennium, as quoted above. Satan’s power and influence among men, however, is increased or diminished only to the extent that mankind are inclined to yield to his temptations, and reject the gospel message (or the light of Christ, that is given to all mankind—John 1:9), on the one hand; or to yield to the gospel message (or to the light of Christ), and reject his temptations and deceiving influence on the other. When mankind, collectively or individually, choose the way of righteousness, his power is diminished; when they choose the way of sin, transgression, and wickedness, his power is increased. And lastly, when scripture refers to Satan as the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), it doesn’t mean that Satan literally has divine power over this world. It simply means that he is the being that the majority of mankind (knowingly or unknowingly) have chosen to worship and follow instead of the true and living God.

Do Men Have Extrinsic or Intrinsic Value?

 

Another interesting clip from William Lane Craig; here is the transcript:

“I think it is completely untenable to maintain that human beings are merely extrinsically valuable in the way that a hammer or a screwdriver is extrinsically valuable. It serves our ends. It is something to be used. If that is true of human beings, then human beings are there to be used by us for our own selfish purposes and that leads immediately to the Holocaust, to slavery, to human trafficking. And I think that that is just morally unconscionable. So the idea that human beings have merely extrinsic value would land us in moral nihilism in a world that is too horrible to be livable.”

The biblical answer to that question is neither! That is his philosophical explanation, which doesn’t help much. If man has any value at all (intrinsic or extrinsic), where did that “value” come from? What is the source and origin of that value? If man came about by evolution, then he is the by-product of a cosmic accident, and has no “value” at all. He came from nowhere, and will disappear again into nothing. According to the Bible, however, man has value because he has been created in the image of God. That is the source and origin of his “value”:

Genesis 9:

6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Acts 17:

28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

That is the correct biblical answer to that question. “Philosophy” doesn’t help!

The Lectures on Faith Update!

 

For the benefit of those who might be interested, I have just uploaded the latest revision of my special publication of the Lectures on Faith, which can be seen on the Amazon website here. One of the advantages of self-publishing a book by POD technology is that it makes possible the incremental editing and improvement of the text without having to publish a “new edition” every time you want to make a change. In this revision significant changes have been made in the introduction. In the rest of the text only minor punctuational refinements have been made. The changes made to the introduction can be seen on the Amazon website, linked to above, by clicking on the “Read sample” link on the site. A new paragraph has been added on page xiii, and some of the earlier paragraphs have been abridged so that the page numbers will remain unchanged.

I consider the Lectures on Faith to be true scripture, and given by revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is the greatest theological treatise that has ever been composed by anyone since Christianity came into existence. They originally formed part of the canonized scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, added by Joseph Smith himself. Their removal came about as a result of some unfortunate circumstances of the time, and a misunderstanding of some of the doctrines they contain. Needless to say, I consider my publication to be the best, and one that I would recommend to others. Hopefully they will be recanonized by the restored Church one of these days. The text of the new paragraph added to the introduction is as follows:

“The Lectures on Faith were originally referred to by Joseph Smith as ‘lectures on theology,’ and I still consider that to have been a more appropriate title. The Lectures were originally prepared by Joseph Smith as part of a course of instruction for the ‘school of elders,’ or ‘school of the prophets,’ which was essentially a ‘theological seminary’ similar to what existed in Protestant churches at the time; and the curriculum included courses that were typically taught in such a seminary. The most important subject taught in a theological seminary, however, is of course theology itself; and the Lectures on Faith were prepared by the Prophet Joseph Smith (by revelation) to fulfill that requirement. The theology of the restored gospel was not going to be identical to Protestant, Catholic, or other Christian theological traditions; it needed to be unique, and given by revelation; and the Lectures on Faith fulfilled that requirement. And it is by no means complete; there is lots more that can still be added to it by revelation from the Lord.”

_____________

P. S.

My other two publications have also now been updated with minor editorial changes (and one minor error correction, Disputed Topics …, page 19). All three revisions are identified with the flower icon (✿) appearing on the copyright page, to distinguish them from the earlier revisions. And by the way, I have just received some sample prints; and the print quality is superb, better than best quality traditional prints. Their technology has improved quite a lot since they first started, and I believe they now use very advanced inkjet technology to print the books, which produces very high quality prints.

God and His Relationship to Time

 

Another interesting video clip from William Lane Craig, in which he discusses God’s relationship to time (and as a side note, also the changing or unchanging nature of God). He is responding to a question put to him as follows. 

“Can you explain how there can be a cause without time? because you keep on saying that God exists outside of space and time, or perhaps existed before space and time.”

Craig’s response to that begins as follows:

“Alright, this gets into profound issues in the philosophy of time. Prior to my work on God and abstract objects, I spent 11 years studying the subject of divine eternity and God’s relationship to time; 6 books flowed out of that study, and I would refer you to those works if you are interested in this question, particularly the book: “Time and Eternity,” which is published by Crossway; but let me give you my nutshell answer: My view is that God existing alone without the universe is timeless, but that with the creation of the universe he enters into time, and therefore is temporal from the moment of creation on. So I would agree with you that God’s causing the universe to exist is a temporal act, and that with the creation of the universe God becomes temporal. So my studied view is that God is timeless without the universe, without creation; but [is] in time since the moment of creation. It is a strange view … but I have yet to see any good objection to it. It seems to me to be quite coherent. God existing alone, changelessly is timeless; with the creation of the universe, the creation, the first moment of time, God’s act of creation is simultaneous with the creation’s coming into being. What else could it be? There couldn’t be a time gap. So his act of creating the world is simultaneous with the world’s coming into being; and so God enters into time at the moment of creation.”

I am pleased to provide him with the correct theological (not philosophical) information about that, based on modern LDS revelation and scripture, as well as the Bible. Firstly, according to LDS revelation God is indeed timeless, or exists outside of time—not only before creation, but also afterwards. He never becomes “temporal”:

Alma 40:

8 Now whether there is more than one time appointed for men to rise [from the dead] it mattereth not; for all do not die at once, and this mattereth not; all is as one day with God, and time only is measured unto men.

Secondly, the Bible informs us that during the Millennium time will be abolished, and all of mankind will exist outside of time:

Revelation 10:

6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

And modern LDS scripture also confirms this:

Doctrine and Covenants 84:

100 The Lord hath redeemed his people; And Satan is bound and time is no longer. The Lord hath gathered all things in one. The Lord hath brought down Zion from above. The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:

110 And so on, until the seventh angel shall sound his trump; and he shall stand forth upon the land and upon the sea, and swear in the name of him who sitteth upon the throne, that there shall be time no longer; and Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years.

This may sound counterintuitive at first, because the Millennium itself is a period of time—a thousand years. We may wonder, how can God do away with time in time? The answer is that during the Millennium mankind will live at a higher spiritual plane in which our current perception of time will no longer operate. That is the level at which God exists, and also we will be during the Millennium, and ultimately in a glorified state in heaven.

And lastly, modern LDS scripture informs that those who are exalted to the celestial kingdom of God after the resurrection, and are glorified and deified, acquire all the attributes of divinity, including infinitely, eternity, everlastingness, and timelessness; as well as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence etc. 

Doctrine and Covenants 132:

20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.

Doctrine and Covenants 93:

28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.

Which is also confirmed by the Bible. The Bible informs us that to be saved in the kingdom of God is to become like him:

1 John 3:

3 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

They cannot become like him without acquiring all of his divine attributes, as Peter also affirms:

2 Peter 1:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And also the following:

Romans 8:

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

2 Corinthians 3:

18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are [or will be] changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Romans 8:

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

John 17:

20 Neither pray I for these [the disciples] alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

If they are to be made “one” with the Father and the Son in the same way that the Father and the Son are one with each other, and even partake of the same identical glory that the Father and Son have, that means that they are going to acquire the same divine attributes. There can be no other explanation. He then concludes his remarks with the following comment:

“The question was if God is changeless without creation, how did he change to create time? Notice how I worded it; I was careful. Philosophers are careful about how they use words. I did not say that God was unchangeable; I said that he was changeless. I think that God is changeable; but without creation he is changeless. And then he creates the world, and I think God is now changing. He is changing in his knowledge constantly, as time goes on. He knows it is now 10 to 11:00 Pacific Standard Time; in another moment, he will know it is 9 to 11:00: then he will know it is 8 to 11:00; and so his knowledge is constantly turning over as new propositions become true, and true propositions become false. And I would say that God is really related to changing things, and so is changing in his relations with things. So I would say that while God is immutable in his nature, in his essential properties—his omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, eternity, and so forth; nevertheless God can change in these trivial, contingent ways; and that he begins to do so at the moment of creation.”

The correct biblical answer to that is that God is changeless, unchanging, and unchangeable. The fact that God is able to interact with man in his changing and changeable situation, does not make God himself changing or changeable. “Philosophy” can never lead to, or result in sound biblical theology. My advice to him is to ditch his philosophy altogether, and learn to extract his theology directly from the word of God—including modern LDS scripture.