The god Of This World

II Cor. 4:4 "In 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."

If you study the life of Paul the Apostle, it won't take long before you come to know that he was a very Orthodox Jew; one who held himself to the highest standard of keeping the law. Little did he know, he was blind to the fact that he could not keep the law without fault, and that all of his efforts were not going to make him righteous in the sight of God.

The Law demands perfection, not just the highest effort! Do you see that? Fullfilling the Law is not graded on a curve! I remember growing up and being told that we are just to do the best we can and that will be good enough. God looks at your sincerity. He knows we are not perfect, and so He will judge the evil people like Hitler and send them to hell, but as long as you keep most of the 10 commandments the best that you can, you will get to go to heaven.

Many Evangelical Christians believe that you must accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior before you can go to heaven, and that God is hoping to get as many people saved as He can before He decides to end it all, and give up on the rest of creation. The thinking is that He is expecting the Church to spread the Gospel to the world, to give everyone a chance to hear, so they can make a decision to accept or reject Him, before He can be justified to send them to hell, for their rejection.

I know these things because I spent many years in the church system! Not unlike Paul, I was blinded to the truth of a religious system of works. Blinded to the truth of the Absolute, Unfathomable, Irrevocable, Unchangeable, Mercy, and Love of God for ALL of His Creation!!

As you read on in the book of Acts, you will see that Paul (who was called Saul at the time), with great zeal, was intent on stopping this new movement of believers in Jesus as the Messiah! He believed that he was doing a great service for God. On his way to Damascus, filled with purpose to kill more of these believers, Jesus appeared to him, and changed his heart so dramatically, that he became the greatest spokesman for the Gospel that ever lived!

I used to wonder how that was fair?? I thought that if God appeared to everyone the same as He did to Paul, then who would ever reject Him? Every incident in the Scripture where we read of even an angelic presence appearing before someone, we see them falling prostrate on the ground! I used to wonder how God could appear before some, and they would be saved, and not appear before most, and then send them all to hell for rejecting Him, ...who they do not know...and consider that fair? If He was so interested in everyone being saved, then why wouldn't He just appear to everyone the same and then see if any would reject Him?

Some would quote Jesus and say John 20:29 "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Okay, but what about those who have not seen and not believed? How is that fair to send them to hell? Some would say that satan battles God for their soul, and wins what might be considered the majority of creation!

Now, the explaination I have heard about the verse I quoted at the top, is that Satan is the god of this world, and that it is he who has blinded the hearts and minds of men so that they would not believe. But I have come to know that is NOT the truth.

For the purpose of this post, I will not discuss now what I believe about Satan, but I do not believe Satan is what is referred to as the god of this world. Simply put, I believe Adam is referred to as the god of this world!

Think about it. When God created Adam, He gave him dominion over all of creation! Dominion! Not meaning to dominate creation in a servile manner, but rather to look after and care for the needs of creation. God created man in His image and likeness... cut from the same substance as Himself... created to be a god (small "g") like Himself and given charge of creation to dress it and to keep it. That dominion was never taken away! Instead, the so called fall took place, and the bonds of relationship were broken, and man was then forced to till the ground by the sweat of his brow. There is so much here to comment on; so many spiritual truths; but let me say that man was not cursed, the ground was cursed, it was just that the man now had to work it with labor instead of  just keeping it.

For further proof, I will quote two other passages. The first from the Old Testament, and the second is confirmed by the words of Jesus who quoted the Old Testament verse.

Psalm 82:6 "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High."

John 10:34,35 "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;..."

This post would exceed its intent to qualify these verses as being in context, and proof of my point, I will let the reader prove or disprove for themselves. One only needs to seek the answer from God to see if these things be true.

Having said all of that, since Adam was given dominion, and then a "wall of separation" was put in-between God and man, so that man was not able to exercise that dominion in the way in which it was designed, then man ever since has been blinded by the fact that they think their own labor and works will get them back into fellowship with God! THAT is the religious nature!

Religion is the greatest sin of all! When Paul said that he was the chiefest of sinners! 1Tim. 1:15 "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."  Was he exaggerating? No, he was talking about his trying to justify himself to God blinded to the truth by having confidence in his flesh because of his religious works. That is what made him the chiefest of sinners. He recites those things in the following verses to make a point. Phil.3:4-7  "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ"

The god of this world, the Adamic man, the natural man, the vail of flesh; however you want to refer to it; this is what blinds the eyes of man so they cannot see the Truth. It is only when God sheds the light of revelation upon each individual will they ever be able to overcome that blindness and have their eyes open to see the Truth. No need to blame satan for unbelief! No need to suggest the devil made me do it! Now you know why there is unbelief.... it is because the Adamic man is The god Of This World.