Who is the God of this world? Laborers' Podcast #godofthisworld #spiritualrealm

Welcome to the Laborers podcast. Tonight we're going to try to answer the question, who is the God of this world according to 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 4.

Stick with us. Welcome to the Laborers podcast which is a part of the Truth in Love Network. Join us as together we strive to grow up together in all things into Christ. Subscribe and follow the Truth in Love Network on Facebook, YouTube, Rumble, Spotify and iTunes.

Now let's join our Laborers for tonight's.

Broadcast. Welcome back. We're having to do our maneuvering here to get us back on Facebook. That's okay. We'll make those changes really quickly. I don't even see us on Facebook. I think you were disconnected.

You're gonna have to get reconnected, brother. How's everybody doing tonight? Good. Tyler with Brethren of the Word podcast. Pastor John at Vertical Life Church in Newton, North Carolina. Go check him out.

And our brothers and sisters at Vertical Life. Big John with Real Talk with Big John. Find him on Spotify. Providence Perspective with Jay Antello. You can find him on YouTube. Go check him out. We're so thankful to be here together with you tonight.

The comment line is open. Let us know that you're watching. Give us a critique, a question. We'll try to answer your questions. We'd love to pray for you as well. Who is the God of this world? One of the reasons why I wanted to do this podcast and all the podcasts that we do is because of reference.

There may be somebody in the future that comes and stumbles across this verse. Hopefully they stumble across the reading through Scripture if they're a Christian. And they see this and they say, who is he talking about?

Who is Paul talking about? And they Google it. They find us on YouTube and they hear this conversation. And we're able to help someone out a little bit answering this question. And give them an opportunity to be a Berean, hear what we have to say, and line it up with Scripture.

That's our goal. By the way, Jonathan, I miss your rocking chair. I know. Well, I'm meeting.

Upstairs tonight. So I really have something much more comfortable than a rocking chair. I've got a big old fluffy chair tonight. And we've got family coming in from out of town. And so the rocking chair is occupied at the moment.

So I don't need your rocking chair. I do miss the rocking chair, too. I'll have to bring it back.

Praise the Lord. Well, let's go around with the first question. Jay forbade us from answering any questions prior to the podcast, which was a good thing. Good.

Thing. So let's get... Tyler started asking questions. I'm like, Tyler, come on, man. We got to record this before we start answering these questions. So let's.

Start with you, Tyler. The first question that we want to ask, getting down to the meat of all this, according to 2 Corinthians 4, which I can read real quick, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

So according to 2 Corinthians 4, who do you think Paul is telling us the God of this world is? So my estimation from the text.

Is that we are referring to Satan, to the enemy. I think this is echoing what we see in John 12, when Jesus describes him as the prince of this world and does a similar treatment of Satan in a couple other spots towards the end of the book of John.

But ultimately I think we are seeing a tax giving attention to Satan.

At work in the world of the church. Pastor John, what about you? Yeah, I think.

From my best estimation I would agree with that as well. I'd also reference John 12, where verse 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now would the ruler of this world be cast out? And so Jesus is coming to cast out the ruler of this world.

The Bible tells us that one of the works of Christ is to crush the head of the serpent, where he comes to destroy the works of the devil. And so the God of this world, and in my Bible it's little g. I think that's an important distinctive, where it's little g God, not capital G God.

And I think we'll get into that later. So we have to be careful when we talk about authorities and those kind of things. But just who it's talking about, in my opinion, would also be the enemy, the old lion, the one who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.

What about you, Jay? Yeah, I would agree. I do believe it's Satan that we're talking here. But I would say one important key. I don't think that saying the God of this world is the best translation. I think a better translation would be the God of this age, because when we look at the Greek, it says, Deus tu, Ionos tu tu.

It's literally saying the God of this age. But I think there's some thought for thought translation happening there, rather than some word for word translation. And so that's why it's translated the way it is.

But we'll get into all that later. So yeah. That's probably where we get the word eon, isn't it? Correct. Ionos, eon, it's all connected. Yep.

All right, Big John. Yes, sir. I'm in agreement. I think one of the biggest things I always catch when I teach my kids, or anybody, is that first word. What's your first word in chapter four say? In chapter four, verse one, therefore.

Yeah, that's the most important word right there. Because you got to ask yourself what? My kids were here, they'd say, shut up, dad, but I'm gonna do it. What's it there for? Everything that you're pivoting off of this word right here.

And right before that, we see this here being transformed, right? So we can go in, we can read the whole thing if you want to, because I love it. But now the Lord is a spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.

We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord, and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. This is from the Lord, who is in the spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry, we have received mercy.

We do not give up. Instead, we have renounced shameful, secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God's message. But in God's sight, we commend ourselves to every person's conscience by an open display of the truth.

But if, in fact, our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Regarding them, the God of this age has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers. And I think immediately of this, how the enemy, the seed eater who took the gospel seed off the hard road, right?

And then what Brother John was saying, I got a couple notes here. He said John 12 and 31. I would also add 14 and 30, 16 and 11, and maybe even Ephesians 2 too. But I mean, so there's, I think there's enough, there's enough there in just a plain reading of the text where you wouldn't, you wouldn't draw from that, that that's anything other than the enemy, the deceiver.

I want to say, do you mind if I jump in? I wanted to make one distinction. I earlier said, I think a better translation would be the God of this age. I don't think Satan is the God of this world anymore.

And we can talk about what that means and what that entails a little bit later. But I just wanted to make that clear because if anybody didn't catch it, why I was making a distinction between world and age, that's where I stand.

So just wanted to mention that real quick.

So can you, can you further, further make that distinction?

Myself?

Yeah.

How much time do you have?

What I'm looking at here is what you, what you said earlier with this text is that the best translation is age, but you were also with an agreement that he was talking about Satan in this passage, right?

However, you, you just told us that Satan is not the God of this world anymore, anymore. Yeah. So he's the God of the age, but not of the world.

Right. He was, he was, he was God. He was the God of this world. In a sense, ultimately I would say the God of the world has always been God. Right. But I mean, we'll, we'll get into how we define God in the first place, but I'll say this.

Okay. So, well, let me think about this. Um, I know what I'm thinking, but I want to kind of explain myself.

Well, while you gather your thoughts, Jay, could I make one comment? One cross? Yeah, sure. I think what we're saying to in a distinctive, it depends on what you're referring as God. And that's why I said, this is a little G God versus a capital G God.

Right. And so there's never been a moment in all of creation that capital G God Yahweh was not absolutely sovereign King and ruler and owner of all things. That does not mean that capital G God did not give little G God some form of authority in the earth.

For example, the story of Job, where God says, if you consider my servant Job, and so then he, he gave Job the authority to do some extremely destructive things to Joe, but not take his life, you know, so killed his family, lost all of its land, lost all of his goods, lost his health, trucking with all kinds of things.

And how all that come about, we don't know other than, you know, it was by the hand of the enemy of, of Satan. Um, and then we also know like the root of sin in the world was modeled after this little G God, even a liar from the beginning, like he lied to Adam and Eve, surely you can eat this and you won't die.

And so therefore, as the seed of sin came into the world, it was by the hand of the temptation of the serpent, which we know is, is the devil. And so, so therefore the model of lying and sinning in the world actually originated with that.

So, so the little G God is when we're talking about that, in my opinion, would have to be the God of the fallen world, but he is not God or reigning over the redeemed of the world. And that's why we have the writing like in Colossians chapter one 13, it says he has delivered us from the domain of darkness.

So, so those that are delivered, we're delivered from the domain of darkness. We're no longer under the rule or, or, or any of that of darkness at all because we're light and light always dispels darkness.

So as Christ came and rules and reigns over the earth, it doesn't mean there's still not a domain of darkness in the earth. It's not completely expelled from the earth. So there are those that the gospel is still veiled to by the little G God of this world.

But now we have this ministry. And I think that's important there in Corinthians talking about this ministry of reconciliation that we have. And what is that ministry of reconciliation? You are the light of the world.

The city set on a hillside. First John says light always dispels darkness. So now it's no longer that we're under the domain of darkness, but now darkness is under our domain of the church, even under the authority of Christ.

And so, so, so there's still a little G God in the world that does have a domain, but he's no longer the ruler or the prince of the air or those kinds of things. So, so there's two, there's multiple distinctions there.

So I think that, I think we all would agree with that. There's never been a second moment in time that Satan has had sovereign authority over anything that belongs to God and God alone. But then there is the domain that God has given Satan authority in.

And I've often asked the question, why? And that's one of those things that it's, you know, we can have a tons of conversation about. But really the truth of the Bible is relatively silent on why, other than to demonstrate God's justice, you know, and the earth and those kind of things.

But, you know, but at the end of the day, there is, there is some domain of kingdom of light and kingdom of darkness. It's still very real. And there is still the work of the enemy to attempt to destroy the works of the cross.

But it's a futile effort. You know, it's, it's, I think you're right. I think where we.

Might have a point of contention, I'm not saying you, Jonathan, per se, I'm saying just all amongst us is how much authority does Satan really have at this point? So, you know, when, when we look at, right, exactly, that's where it gets interesting, right?

So when we look at, uh, uh, second Corinthians four, four, and I say, well, he's the God of this age. I believe that Paul was quite literally referring to the old covenant age. Why? Well, the temple, the Jewish temple, right?

Was still up and running. People were still, um, thinking, uh, that the temple was necessary for their remission of sins, right? They were, they were still deceived by the God of that present age, which Hebrews, uh, eight, 13, somewhere around there.

It tells us that was ready to pass away, right? This old covenant age was ready to pass away. Uh, not that it had already passed away, but that it was coming to a close at the time that the new Testament was being written and eventually did pass away with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed.

Now, Satan, like I said, at one point he indeed was in some sense, the ruler of the world, right? You guys referred to it, Jesus in John 12, you know, he feels his soul troubled. He tells us that, you know, this was now as he gets closer to his death, the time for him to be lifted up.

And in verse 31, I believe it's when he tells us that now will the ruler of this world be cast out. Notice he doesn't say when I return or when I come to rule for a thousand years, uh, will the ruler of this world be cast out?

No, he says now. So after Christ died and rose again, one of the last things that he told his disciples is all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28, 18, right? A lot of people know that one.

Uh, he doesn't say all authority has been given to me, but only in heaven, nor does he say all authority in heaven and over my church has been given to me. No, he says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

There's really one ruler of this world and his name is Jesus Christ. Okay. Now there is someone here that, you know, I think of like the Colombian gorillas, gorillas, I don't know how you guys call them, gorillas, um, hiding out in the woods, you know, pretending like they own the place.

Um, and sometimes they'll do horrible things, right? They'll come in and, and attack a town and kill people. And it's horrible, but they're, they're losing and they're, they're continuing to lose and they have no real control over the country of Columbia.

They're not the ruler, right? They're a pretender. It's the same thing with Satan. Is he a, is he prowling around like a roaring lion? Yeah, he is. But is he the ruler of this world? No, he's not. Jesus Christ is.

Well, if I could, if I could take us to Job one for just a moment, I knew he's doing it. I knew he was doing it. I got excited when Jonathan brought up Job, but I think that Job does a good job of illuminating some things about this distinction we're trying to establish that while we were talking about God, lowercase g, that there, there is a hierarchy here that God is, God is supreme and Satan is accountable to God.

And Job does a really interesting way of, of demonstrating this, um, through dialogue. And so in Job chapter one, um, verse six, so there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them.

That despite the fact that we're talking about him as the God of this world or the Prince of this world or the this and that, he is still obligated to go before God. Come on now brother. Verse seven. And the Lord says unto Satan, whence comest thou?

Where have you come from? Because we know that God is not bound to physical space. God is, as they say, he's everywhere, but Satan is not. And then Satan answers the Lord and said from going to and fro in the earth, from walking up and down in it, that we are basically told the Satan just moves from place to place.

Like he's bound, almost like he's bound to a body. That is not how God operates. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job? There are things he does not know. Hast thou considered my servant Job?

There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God in his shoe with evil. And at the end of the conversation, the Lord says unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power.

Because it wasn't eight seconds ago. And so while we flesh out what we mean by this phrase, the God of this age, there are still ontological differences between Yahweh and Satan, between the guy who was and is and is to come, and this being we call Satan, the ancient serpent that deceives the whole world, that there are massive differences.

It's not, we've got the little angel and the little devil on your shoulders, and they're all kind of equally matched. Come on now. There is a, there's a hierarchy here. While he's described as the prince of the age, it's not because you have this equally matched kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan.

I think that's important to nail down as we flesh this out before we get into.

Postmillennialism and all this. So I'd like to add to what you're saying, if I can. We'll see the same thing. We see this same thing when Jesus is ministering on this earth. If we'll turn to John chapter 18, you can go to 34.

We can read more of it if you're scared that I'll take it out of context, or we can start 34. It's fine. This is Jesus before Pilate. Well, look at 33. So Pilate went back up to headquarters and summoned Jesus, said to him, are you the king of the Jews?

And Jesus says, are you asking on your own, or do you have others ask about me? It's a mighty, to Pilate, that must seem like a mighty arrogant thing for somebody to ask, right? Whenever the ruler of this region, the boss, asks you a question, and you ask him a question like, is it you really want to know, or are you doing this for somebody?

And he says, I'm not a Jew, am I? As if Pilate's saying he don't have a dog in the hunt. And your own nation, the chief priest handed you over to me, what have you done? He says, what? My kingdom is not of this world.

And Jesus says, if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not have its origin here. He says, are you a king then, Pilate asks.

He said, you say that I'm a king? I was born for this. I came into this world for this to testify to truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to me, right? And an argument could be made that two kings are sitting there having a conversation, and one king owns the land of everything, including the land that that king is on.

But that king doesn't surrender to the authority of the one that's over him. Now, in most cases, this would result in one would have to kill the other, right, if we were looking at secular, regular human history.

But this is something that Jesus' kingdom is so superior to this. What I think Jesus is saying is like, look, little guy, this is so beyond you that I'm not even going to spend time talking about this.

And that's what the King of Glory is so beyond anything of this earth, because he made it. He's so much more valuable than it. Just like a builder of a house is more valuable than the house. And I think that it is possible to say that you have kings on this earth that aren't the king of the earth, right?

That's why it says he's the king of kings, lord of lords. There are others that claim the title, but their opinion of it is irrelevant. And I would say where that kind of weighs in and bridges between what Tyler was reading in the book of Job and the idea that the temple, being a place that people felt like they had to go to, I don't want to take what you're saying, Jay, and being out of context.

After the resurrection, the temple has no purpose in the Christian's life anymore. There's no holy of holies to visit or sacrifices to give. The sacrifice of sin has already been given once and for all.

So it would be irrelevant to go slaughter a horse or a donkey or whatever you want to kill, you know. I know they wouldn't have done that. It would have been cows and sheep. But the fault that somebody has that says, well, I need to go to the temple, has no more bearing on the situation than Judas or Pilate thinking that he's the governor of the king.

Because you can think something's important that isn't.

Important and doesn't really matter. Does that make sense? It does. It does. Can I make a quick rebuttal? Absolutely, go ahead. Okay, so what I believe and what I am saying when it comes to the destruction of the temple, you know, this could get real deep, but I'm not gonna get into all of the details.

What I'm gonna say about that is this. I do believe that God came in judgment that day over the people that.

Rejected his son. You're talking about 70 AD? That's correct. So that I don't want to make sure I'm.

Tracking with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I believe that was a judgment. And so in that moment, God said, I have finished this old way of doing things and you're gonna find out whether you like to accept it or not.

I'm gonna make a statement here so that you understand that that's not the way we do things anymore. And so you're right, right? Like you're correct in saying like it doesn't matter what people are doing or not, but just to kind of put a stamp on it, God was like, yeah, and because that's what you're doing, instead of submitting to the lordship of my son, here's a going-away present, so to speak.

Does that.

Make sense? Well, so it does. I understand what you're saying. Where I think perspective has really messed with us on this. So when God destroys the temple in 70 AD, that might be a judgment against Israel who has refused to worship Christ, right?

But it is really a blessing because now there's no temple to run to that you can somehow confuse yourself, right? This would be an area that I think qualifies to be one of those things that is both great and terrible, right?

Whenever it talks about the great and terrible day of the Lord, you know, for some it's terrible, for some it's great. That might not be the right way they're looking at it, but in this case, I can see where the church and those who are following Christ, when the temple's destroyed, I can imagine, especially to those that were born Jews that were converted, there's probably something about it like, oh man, I hate that.

You know, I can think back when I was a kid and my grandparents took me and my parents took me and so much of their life was built around it, but for their spiritual health, it's actually a good thing.

Just like when Babel was destroyed and all those had to disperse when they got with their like languages and went across the world, the Christian at this point really has nothing tying him to Jerusalem now, does he?

Correct. Well, go.

Ahead. I was just gonna say something like, think about this, you know, what did Jesus say about the temple to the Pharisees? What does he say? He says, destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days.

Yeah. Now,.

What was he actually talking about? His body. His body. Yeah. Who is the body of.

Christ? The church. Is our body a temple? Yes. Okay, so put it all together. What is.

The actual temple? Yeah, that's what I'm saying, that the temple at 70 AD that was destroyed was of no more consequence and valuable to the church than Pilate standing before the King of Kings trying to ask him something.

There's so much, there's a chasm of value between a busted up old building that people are gathering in where God's Spirit is vacant, right? Versus the bride of Christ walking around on the earth where God's Spirit is present.

So, that's not really all that concerned about the historical significance. I know there's a historical significance to 70 AD and to the temple being destroyed, but to the church, I've been asked piles of times that why is it that the most important thing in history wasn't documented in any of the epistles if they were written after 70 AD?

And I've got to say, it's the most sense that doesn't have anything to do with it with the church. I don't think they were written after 70 AD. I wouldn't think you would. Yeah, but it's.

Interesting you said something, because it's kind of what we're talking about, you know, like John 4, he says the hour is coming and has already come where no one will worship on this mountain or that mountain, right?

That's right. Because God's people, what are they going to do? They're going to be worshiping in spirit and in truth. That's right. Right? And so, I do believe that there's a historical significance tied to everything that Jesus said, to everything that the Apostles were saying.

Again, Hebrews 8 .13, this is passing away. This time, this old covenant practice is quickly passing away. You know, it's obsolete, and God is going to make sure that you know it's obsolete. Sure. How do we see that play out?

Well, he literally gets rid of the one place that Jews thought, okay, we.

Still have this. Well, there were synagogues that were continually being dismantled from the inside because Paul was busting up the whole game by preaching the gospel in it, right? So, there were places all over, there were places all over the known world at the time where Jews had a place to go and gather and worship that weren't Jerusalem, even though I know Jerusalem is, you know, the most important city for the Jewish religion.

But they had hotspots and synagogues ever since they left out of Babylonia. But Paul was busy busting those up with the gospel. I think an easy argument could be made that what was causing those things to pass away was the gospel growing on the earth more than it was about the coming of a building being torn down.

Well, it's.

Both. It's both. You're right. It is the gospel being preached and then making the old pass away, right? Like, you have this overlap between Christ's death and resurrection and ascension and the final complete destruction of that temple in Jerusalem.

You said, well, they still had these hotspots, you know, synagogues and things like that. Well, they still do have them. I mean, they're still all over the world now. Right, yeah, and they still do. But here's the question.

Are any Jews today sacrificing animals? No, not to my knowledge. I mean,.

If they are, they're not doing it in accordance with their own law. Correct. Right. So, I don't know. Let me call a timeout real quick on something, though,.

Just to help us. Because, like, we can run down the rabbit hole and then it leads us to the eschatology. My question to draw us back is, what did Paul believe about the God of this world? What did he write in other cross-references about Satan?

What did John believe about the works of Satan and the kingdom of Satan? Because everything we're talking about is outside of Scripture. We have cross-references, but we're talking historical context and what we believe happened in history.

I think it's really important for us to draw back just a little bit into, like, if we're going to read what the God of this world is, like, what did the apostles believe about the God of this world? What did the apostle believe about the kingdom of darkness versus the kingdom of light?

What did Paul believe about those that are ensnared by the God of this world? Or, as John says, some are children of light and some are children of the devil. So, I think that's important in that because I'm not disagreeing with what we're saying.

But, again, that's where we get into our interpretations. And so, I just want to draw us back a little bit, if that's okay, if that's fair.

Yeah, that's fair. Can we attach your question to question number three? Because I think it relates. I really do. But I also want to interject this as well. I think the back-and-forth that we're having between brothers and digging into it a little bit more from different perspectives, the reason why I think it's relevant and why maybe somebody who's listening shouldn't dismiss the arguments that this really has nothing to do with me, I think it's because the day and age that we live, it's not like it used to be free internet where you had one meal, you had the same food at the meal every Sunday.

We have the internet now, and you're getting different perspectives from every direction. And so, I think it's good to hear this conversation between brothers who hold the different perspectives that everybody's getting from all different sides.

So, I appreciate all of your kindness and all of your perspectives. And so, you guys are doing a great job, and I appreciate it. So, to attach what John was saying to question number three, because you guys have already answered question number two, basically.

Why do some people believe that Satan, this passage is referring to Satan? And if you guys can put yourself in the other shoes, if Paul is referring to Satan, why do some people believe it's Yahweh? I know Tyler, you said that you've not heard that there are groups that believe that.

I've heard that, and in full transparency, if somebody was to ask me, nail down your stance on this, I don't know that I would be able to at this moment. That's why I was looking forward to this conversation with you guys, to be learning from you and hear what you have to say.

Because when I look at this, and look in the rest of Scripture, I see that, okay, this blinding, this veiling from seeing the gospel, from the evidence of what we've seen other places in Scripture, it's not outside the wheelhouse of what God has done in other places where he's hardened Pharaoh's heart.

And then also, and I know it touches on the partial preterist perspective, but if it is true that Satan has been cast out, and he's been forbidden from deceiving the nations, then if that's true, then how does he have the authority now to veil someone, to blind them, if that authority and power has been taken from him?

So that's kind of where I say that, just to say, that's where I am, and where I'm struggling. So back to Jonathan, and Jonathan's question, and why do you guys think some people believe it might be Yahweh in this passage?

The only thing I.

Can think of is kind of like what you already said. Okay. That, you know, God has done these kinds of things in the past, right, where he hardens Pharaoh's heart, or, you know, he makes Nebuchadnezzar, you know, eat grass.

Although, of course, he used that as a positive, but I can't think of anything else beyond that. I'm.

Really not sure. So the only thing I could think of, and I'm not getting out of turn, am I? No. So Isaiah 6, what's he say? I can't quote the whole chapter, but whenever Isaiah says, you know, woe is me, I'm undone, I've got unclean lips, and I'll do it among a people of unclean lips, and fast forward, God says, who will go for us?

And he says, I'll go. Who will go? He said, here I am, send me. Here's verse 9. He said, go and say to the people, keep listening, don't understand, keep looking, don't perceive, dull the minds of these people, deafen their ears, and blind their eyes.

Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their hearts, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed. Then I said, until when, Lord? And he said, until the cities lie in ruins, without inhabitants, and houses are without people, and land is ruined and desolate.

And the Lord drives the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land. Though a tenth will remain in the land, it will be burned again, like the temeranth, anyway, or the oak, which leaves a stump and fell, and the holy seed is the stump.

I would have to say that there's only two portions in Scripture that make me think that someone will have a leg to stand on. It would be that one, but the thing against it is, we see Jesus come against that, or not really come against that, but more or less say that he's fulfilling that whenever he tells them that if they would believe, they would otherwise have repented.

He tells everybody not to tell anybody that he's the Christ unless they believe and would turn from their sin. And obviously this is pre-crucifixion, right? So this is a sovereign God saying, there's a way I want this to go, and the way I want this to go would be different if people are telling everybody that I'm the Christ.

So that would be the only two portions of Scripture where I see where God is asking for someone to be blinded from the truth, and in both cases it's for a temporary state. Every other time we see somebody who is blinding eyes or dimming people is when the deceiver is doing that.

When you're reading that passage, it reminds me of Jesus' conversation with the disciples concerning parables. That's right. He tells them they will have further judgment if they completely understood the truth and knowledge of what he was explaining or teaching in those parables.

So he spoke in parables, so they didn't have that full knowledge and therefore full accountability. Perhaps, maybe that's the case. Yeah. I'll throw in.

Something else too, just from a word study standpoint, that where it can be confusing is the word theos. If you do a Greek study, it's the same term used for God, capital G God, or theos, lower G gods, or divinities, or other things like that.

So Greek to Greek to Greek, as you go along, it can be confusing in that, and so that somebody could make that argument. Where I arrived in the word study of it though, and I think that's where the translation of most translations of using a lower G God in that is accurate, is because most of the time in the Greek when they're talking about the one true God, usually there is a, it's like a partisan article that's attached with theos, it's ectu theos, usually has an additional presupposition article that's attached to that Greek theos when it's talking about the one true God.