When did Satan officially become "the god of this system of things?"

by truthseeker 13 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  truthseeker

  A question I have often asked is when, precisely, did Satan become the God of this system of things?

  The Old Testament does not mention Satan as world ruler. There are vague references in Daniel where demonic princes are in charge of various parts of the world, even wrestling with the angel Gabriel to prevent him from giving Daniel a message.

  I would have though that after the Flood of Noah's Day, it was time for a fresh start, but God allowed Satan to take up his former role.

  A number of scriptures in the New Testament suggest that Satan was already God of this world.

  John 12:31: "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out."

  This seems to imply that Satan's ouster as prince of this world was IMMINENT at the time it was written.

  John 14:30: "I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me."

  What does this mean, "the prince of this world is coming?"

  2 Corinthians 4: "the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through"
• 

  parakeet

  Here's the equation the WTS used to determine the answer to your question:

  607 B.C.E. + 1000 years for a day/1914 A.D. - "any day now"X cost of printing Sept. WT = Whenever the WTS says it is.
• 

  RubaDub

  I can't remember the year but I keenly remember it was on a Tuesday.

  Rub a Dub
• 

  Mastodon

  I don't know, but thank god he did. Otherwise all the music in the world would suck.
• 

  marcopolo

  I think that has been from when God has sent away Adamo and Eva from the terrestrial Paradise. was only Satan, then also other angels associated with him..

  Rom 8:19-22
• 

  Farkel

  parakeet,

  :Here's the equation the WTS used to determine the answer to your question:

  :607 B.C.E. + 1000 years for a day/1914 A.D. - "any day now"X cost of printing Sept. WT = Whenever the WTS says it is.

  When doing this calculation, be sure to use lunar months for each prophetic year to arrive at a year and month based upon solar months multiplied by the lowest factorial of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle when taking into consideration Fermat's Last Theorem with pi as a Biblical value of 3 based upon the 2300 evenings and mornings minus the "times time and half a time" using a year-for-a-day-for-a-year principle divided by 6.9 jubilees and rounded to the nearest cubit. Your answer will be in Pyramid inches which you can easily convert using Clayton Woodworth's Theocratic Calendar of 1938 but only if you don't use aluminum to cook with and don't taint the calculations with the filthy animal pus from your vaccinations while always keeping your eyes on the prize except the prize is only a booby prize because you weren't a believer in 1935 and are not anointed and part of the FDS which used to be God's spokesman but now the GB is God's spokesmen so you don't get to go to heaven and it is no longer in a single generation but a generation that could actually be many generations depending upon when the anointed recognized the sign of the last days before the great tribulation.

  This is all Bible-Based(tm) and comes from the Gary Busselman transliteration of the holy writ as he seen it.

  Farkel
• 

  Heaven

  LOL @ Farkel!
• 

  OUTLAW

  God was voted out by the WBT$.....God officially works for the WBT$ now..

  God was replaced by Satan as official "God" for planet earth..

  The WBT$ plan`s to have God and Satan fight it out in a no holds barred,cage match..

  It will be pay per view..Everyone knows the fight is fixed..The WBT$ will still be boss after it`s over..

  Jesus is still out of a job and works in a Sushi Restaurant........

  ............LOL!!...OUTLAW
• 

  Heaven

  LOL @ OUTLAW! What happened to the 2/3 majority rule?
• 

  Narkissos

  "The Bible" might say even less about "Satan" if we didn't take for granted that "he" is meant when "Satan" is not actually mentioned. Iow, if we didn't link all kinds of terms and texts (starting with the serpent of the Eden story) to the same "character".

  What does "the god of this age" (ho theos tou aiônou toutou) in 2 Corinthians 4,4, or "the ruler of this world" (ho arkhôn tou kosmou toutou) in John 12:31 etc., mean to the authors? Do they mean the same as "Satan" or "the devil" in the same works (let alone others)? Maybe, maybe not -- anyway each case must be discussed on its own merits.

  There is a possibility that the phrase in 2 Corinthians 4:4 doesn't refer to any distinct "character" at all and means "the god which is this age" (epexegetical genitive) -- personifying the aiôn itself as an anti-Christ -- cf. later in the Pauline trajectory Ephesians 2:2, where the aiôn of this kosmos parallels the arkhôn of the 'power of the air' and the pneuma, 'spirit' operating among the sons of disobedience). But even if it is distinct from the aiôn and refers to 'the god of this age,' who says it is to be equated with Satan? -- not Paul.

  In John the arkhôn is more clearly a "character," but the text doesn't explicitly equate it with Satan either.

  Imo we should be wary to assume that all kinds of "negative" references in the texts point to the same character in our mythological or imaginary framework. In later Gnostic systems or Marcionism (which draw a lot on John and Paul respectively), the aeon or archôn who is responsible for the the material world and/or the Jewish Torah is not necessarily identified to "Satan". "He" plays a different role and his "error" is not quite like the "fall" of "Satan" in orthodox theology.