Bible Synapse
Who rules the world and owns the earth: God or Satan?
Hard question · Who God is · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
A Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
The Lord most high is “a great King over all the earth”.
For the Lord most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar must learn “that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will”.
This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
The devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, claiming “that is delivered unto me”; Jesus refuses to worship him.
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
“The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
“The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.”
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.
The heavens are the Lord’s, “but the earth hath he given to the children of men”.
The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
The objection
The Psalms say that the earth is the Lord’s and that he is King over all the earth. Yet Jesus three times calls Satan “the prince of this world”, Paul calls him “the god of this world”, and the devil tells Jesus that the kingdoms of the world have been handed over to him. Psalm 115:16 adds a third owner: God has given the earth to mankind. So who rules the world?
The answer
The Bible speaks of rule in more than one sense. By right, and in the end, the world belongs to God, who made it and governs it: “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Daniel 4:17). When the New Testament calls Satan “the prince of this world” (Greek archōn, ‘ruler’) and “the god of this world”, it uses ‘world’ (kosmos) for mankind turned against God, and Paul’s phrase is literally ‘the god of this age’ (aiōn). Satan is its ruler because people follow him, as the Ephesians once walked “according to the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). He is its ‘god’ because he receives the loyalty owed to God, in the way Paul says of others, “whose God is their belly” (Philippians 3:19). His rule is permitted and temporary: it lasts only for ‘this age’.
The same passages show that Satan is no rival equal to God. Jesus mentions the prince of this world only to say that he will be “cast out” (John 12:31), that he “hath nothing in me” (14:30), and that he “is judged” (16:11). The devil’s claim that the kingdoms had been ‘delivered’ to him (Luke 4:6) came from one of whom Jesus said “there is no truth in him” (John 8:44), and Jesus did not accept it: he answered that God alone is to be worshipped. Ellicott calls the claim ‘a lying boast’, resting only on the evil that God allows for a time.
Psalm 115:16 speaks of a third kind of rule: stewardship. At creation God gave mankind charge of the earth (Genesis 1:28), as a king might give land to tenants. They hold it under him, and it does not stop being the Lord’s. So God owns and rules the world; people manage it under him; and Satan holds sway, for this age, over those who turn from God.
Other answers Christians give
Dominion lost at the fall
Many Christians add that Satan’s hold on the world came through mankind’s fall: Adam, given charge of the earth, listened to the tempter and so came under his power (compare John 8:34; Hebrews 2:14–15). On this view the devil’s words in Luke 4:6 held a half-truth, but even so his power was usurped and permitted, never granted as a right.
‘The God of this world’ as the true God
Some early church writers, arguing against teachers who believed in two gods, read 2 Corinthians 4:4 as ‘God has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world’, and Adam Clarke leaned to this view. Most commentators, including Calvin and Barnes, take the phrase to mean Satan, as the parallel titles in John and Ephesians suggest.
From the classic commentators
It asserts that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 24:1); and the claim of the Tempter was a lying boast, resting only on the permitted activity and temporary predominance of evil in the actual course of the world’s history.Charles John Ellicott (ed.), Commentary for English Readers, on Luke 4:6 (1878), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers: Luke 4, at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 4, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Luke 4, at Bible Hub
- Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: 2 Corinthians 4, at Bible Hub