Satan STILL Rules the Earth? If Jesus Rules... Why Is Satan Still In Charge?!

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Tucker Carlson had a fascinating discussion with Lee Strobel, but then they started talking about Satan. Watch this.

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So there's a couple references, at least a couple references, in the New Testament to Satan being the ruler of the earth?

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Yes. What does that mean? It means that in this realm, he in many ways has his way. Wait a second, that leads to another question.

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If Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, right, then why is Satan still having his way in this realm?

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Why does Paul call him the god of this world? Why does the Bible say he can prowl around freely devouring whoever he wants?

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That's a big question, ladies and gentlemen, and today we're going to answer it. Are you ready? Let's go.

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Welcome back to Wise Disciple. My name is Nate, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you are meant to be, which entails understanding the bigger picture when it comes to the supernatural realm.

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Make sure to like, sub, and share this one around if it blesses you, and I hope it does. All right, we heard it, but let's hear it one more time.

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So there's a couple references, at least a couple references, in the New Testament to Satan being the ruler of the earth.

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What does that mean? It means that in this realm he in many ways has his way.

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In other words, he has access to be able to influence people and point them away from the one true hope that there is, which is

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God. And so he prowls about, as the Bible says, as a lion hoping to tear people apart spiritually.

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This is a fascinating subject, and I think a lot of us don't have a clear vision of the supernatural realm.

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And we have a lot of weird ideas about Satan, you know? I just did a video recently on the origin of demons, and I started off by saying that a lot of us simply do not appreciate how supernatural the world really is.

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Now, I'm not a word -of -faith guy, okay? I'm not a Pentecostal by any stretch, so I don't see spirits and oppression around every corner.

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However, there are supernatural beings that are all around us at any given time, day or night.

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And many of us just do not appreciate what the Bible is telling us. And now,

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Lee Strobel is saying essentially the same thing, so I guess it's time to talk about it again. Here is the passage, by the way, that he just quoted from.

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It's 1 Peter 5. Be sober -minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

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But also notice this. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the whole world.

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What? So the devil gets to prowl around like a lion seeking to devour the whole world?

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Now, there's actually a question that arises if you ponder this for more than two seconds, right?

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And I think we're going to hit this in a moment. But yes, that's what the Bible is saying.

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Look at this, 2 Corinthians 4, 4. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

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That's not the Old Testament speaking, friends. This is the New Testament. Particularly after Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 28 that he has all authority on earth and in heaven.

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So wait a second. Jesus is the one who has authority? Well, then how can Paul say that Satan is the

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God of this world? How can Peter say that the devil can prowl around essentially wherever he wants?

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You know? What is going on here? I mean, if that's not true, then explain the

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First World War. Yeah. I mean, there's just no explanation, even now, over 100 years later, for why that war started.

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Oh, you know, Archduke Ferdinand got shot to death in Sarajevo. Really? Okay, that's not a real explanation, actually.

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Why did Christian Europe commit suicide? Yeah. And there are many other wars and many other tragedies in all of our lives, really.

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Like, that doesn't make any sense. That's clearly, you know, supernatural forces are acting on people.

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I agree. And so what I try to do is say, okay, what evidence is there that there's more than what we can see and touch?

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And because I'm fascinated by this. And the reason I say that, Tucker, is because if this is true, if demons do exist, we ought to be heads up about it.

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Because the two biggest mistakes we can make about the demonic realm, number one, is to deny that they exist.

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And number two, to see a demon behind every bush and think they're more powerful than they are. Amen. And they're both problems.

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But I think the biggest problem in our culture is to deny that there is a demonic realm, pretend like there isn't.

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Look, this is what I was talking about in the demons video. And I'm not going to rehash it here.

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I mean, you know, but suffice it to say, at the outset, I bemoaned the fact that a lot of us in the church walk around acting like the world is a lot more natural and a lot less super.

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But if we are committed to the worldview of the Bible, which, by the way, you don't have to agree with Michael Heiser, you know?

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It's okay. You don't have to agree with me either. Some of you communicated that in the comments, okay? Fair enough.

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But that doesn't mean that any of us are exempt from adopting the worldview of the Bible. The fact is, the whole world is haunted.

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And I'm taking my cue there from Paul Gould in his book, Cultural Apologetics, you know, which, by the way, is a really great book.

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But he says that in the book, the whole world is haunted with a supernatural realm. And we as Christians, we must account for that.

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Because if there is a supernatural realm, then there must be supernatural activity. Christians must take into consideration the fact that Satan exists.

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Demons exist. And apparently, they're still active in this world, you know?

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There has to be an explanation for, as I articulated it in the form of a question in the previous video, what was

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Jesus doing on earth for three years before he died on the cross and rose again? Right?

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There has to be an explanation for why he spent so much time exercising demons out of people.

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For why he took his disciples to the gates of hell and said to them, We're taking the fight to hell, boys!

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And its gates will not prevail! Amen? Now, I've pointed this out in previous videos, but I find it to be no coincidence at all that alleged alien abduction cases ultimately lead to those victims embracing the occult in New Age spirituality.

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Why? Because these are not visitors from another galaxy, friends. What people are encountering are beings that have been here for a very long time.

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And what we want to do is to categorize these beings using newfangled science fiction concepts instead of what the

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Bible describes them as. Does that mean that, you know, every object in the sky is a demon?

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No! Actually, that's not my view at all. I'd say the vast majority of objects in the sky have a naturalistic explanation.

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But I'm not talking about glowing objects in the sky, friends. I'm talking about encounters with beings who try to tell us that they are the true creators of the world.

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That they want to give us some hidden knowledge so that we can become enlightened and somehow elevate all of humanity.

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That the one true God of the whole entire universe is not the one true

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God, right? But just another being like them. This is false revelation that leads to idolatry by other means.

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And that's the whole point. You and I are living in the midst of a war that has been going on for thousands of years.

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And the main weapon that is being waged or wielded in this war is deception.

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It's deception. None of this should surprise you. I feel like I'm not saying anything controversial here.

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The clues have been around us the whole entire time. If you have the eyes to see what the

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Bible has been saying. And the question is, I'm going to play the clip. But the question is, why would

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God allow such a thing? Why would he allow this to go on? Why would he let this continue?

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When Jesus gave the Great Commission and he said that all authority has been given to him, right? Matthew 28, now go make disciples, right?

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Why does Paul say that Satan is still the God of this world? Have you ever wondered that before?

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What are the hallmarks of it then? Well, I think some things you mentioned, we see manifestations of it in ways that defy natural explanations.

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And I think that's probably the best way of... Disorder, distraction, chaos, violence, hate, division.

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And you think if Satan were smart, which he is, would he go around the country and around the world trying to possess or bother average everyday people?

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Well, you know what? Much more efficient to go to Hollywood and to influence a bunch of people there who are very influential in, let's say, the entertainment industry.

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And let's say he encourages them to create films and television shows that are funny and that are creative and are fun.

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But there's an underlying message to them that there's a normalization of immoral activity that makes it normal.

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Because, you know, when we laugh, it opens us up to various possibilities. When we laugh, our defenses come down.

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So I'm thinking of a wonderful, funny TV show like Friends. Remember Friends, the TV show? It was on TV for years.

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Very popular show. The only American who never saw it, but yeah. But underlying that is a very ugly ethic that normalizes multiple partners and that sort of thing.

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The kind of thing that Satan would love to inculcate into American culture. And you know what?

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I think it's much more efficient for Satan to influence movie makers and TV makers in Hollywood to create products that feed us stuff that, without us even realizing it, open us up to the occult, open us up to immoral activity, normalize it.

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Is he onto something? Let me know what you think in the comments. Does he have his finger on the pulse of society right now?

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Well, if Monica can do that on Friends, I can certainly have sex on the first date with this guy.

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So the way I, as a non -theological, ignorant person, try and figure out whether something's good or bad, because it is an open question very often, is that good or bad?

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I'm not sure. Are the people doing it at peace, joyful, happy? Are they tormented?

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And I know a lot of people in Hollywood, a lot of people I like, actually, not too many happy people.

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So really tormented people, for real. String of wrecked relationships, kids who hate them, kids, drug problems.

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There's so much of that. Do you think that's a fair way to assess? I think because it is logical that if Satan were to try to influence a culture in a mass way, that that is a logical way that he would do it.

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And oh, guess what? By the way, look at all the dysfunction we see in that community. It does seem to match up.

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Wow. It's interesting, too. This is a rabbit trail.

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But Hollywood's dead. You know? They're writing news articles about this now.

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It's made headlines. Hollywood's gone. It's an empty shell of what it once was, and filming is way down in Southern California, and in those famous studios that are there.

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You know? On the up and up are places like where I live now in Nashville. You know?

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And other places, right? And now we're starting to see an uptick in Christian art and film and music, not just in pockets of society that are kind of fringe.

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I mean, but you have people like Forrest Frank, even Morgan Wallen, experiencing the favor of culture and utilizing that to talk about their

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Christian faith. Amen? I'm all for it. I'm here for every last second of it, right?

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But that's a rabbit trail. So let's just do this in the last few minutes. Let's answer the question that I just posed. Why would

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God allow Satan, specifically, to continue to prowl around and seek to devour others, right?

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Including the brothers and sisters, as Peter pointed out, all over the world. Why can't God just snap his fingers, make the devil and demons all go away like that?

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And the answer is because of you. I'm pausing for effect.

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It's because of you. And because of me. You know?

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Do you realize what happened right at the very beginning of the story of all of creation, right?

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So right in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning of the creation of mankind, you know?

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Look at this. Genesis 1, verse 26. Then God said, Think about that.

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Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

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Do you realize what we're reading when we read this account? God wanted to rule the world with his creation.

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With mankind. Not instead of them, or even in spite of them.

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With them. Because the dominion that mankind would have would be borrowed from the creator, essentially, right?

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It would be shared from the creator, this dominion. And so God would rule with the people that he has made.

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Think about that. And then what happens next? A spiritual rebellion. Genesis chapter 3, the serpent comes in, entices

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Adam and Eve, we know the story, right? To disobey God, to disobey his commands.

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They are expelled from the Garden of Eden from this dynamic of being with God and obeying

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God. Now it's gone. Once they've disobeyed God, what happens to that mandate in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26?

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You know what I mean? And then what happens after this, right? So to just span the scope of the narrative.

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Spiritual beings over time insert themselves as the rulers of this world.

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Now again, you don't have to agree with Heizer's take on this, you know? But it doesn't take away from the fact that the

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Bible describes the rulers of this world as spiritual and evil. Look at this.

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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, this is Ephesians 6. But against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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Paul says our struggle is not merely human, but with supernatural rulers who govern the world's systems.

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And how do they do that? Deception. This is a war where the primary weapon being wielded is deception.

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What does the Bible say that Jesus did when He died and He rose again? You know, I'm kind of hitting the high points here, right?

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Verse 14 of Colossians chapter 2. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.

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And then watch what happened. In other words,

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Jesus broke their cosmic authority and their stranglehold over the nations.

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These spiritual enemies. These beings. The control that they had over the peoples of this world.

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Why? So we, the church, could join the war. This is a war, ladies and gentlemen.

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And we have been called for a purpose. We need to join the fight. Remember, Jesus said, well, actually, look at this.

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Matthew chapter 16, verse 18. Hey! How come we don't talk about this more?

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Well, actually, we do. And this is what actually makes me upset. We got a lot of folks spending a lot of energy on what the rock actually is in the first part of this verse, and not enough people spending time on the fact that Jesus just said that the church is going to war with hell itself!

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Come on, somebody! Why doesn't God swoop in and take the devil out?

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Because He wants you to join the fight. He wants us all to join this war.

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To recognize what's really at stake. To stop playing games when we go to church on Sunday morning.

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To stop relying on charismatic people who give TED Talks, but to actually engage in the battle that is presently in front of us.

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We're in the midst of it. Whether you realize it or not, we're at war. And we need to join the fight against the devil and the supernatural forces of evil in the world.

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Why? Because if we do that, then our original mandate, going back to Genesis 1, will be fulfilled.

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God's coming back into the world, invading the world once again, to redeem it, to restore it back to the way it was in Eden.

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The original mandate was originally good. God was going to rule the world with us.

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And He wants you to join Him. To follow Him. To be with Him and to take the battle to hell.

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And what's the best way to do that? Right? How do we fight this war? Right here,

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Paul explains it. He gives a characterization to how this war is fought.

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Look at this. For though we walk in the flesh, this is 2 Corinthians 10, for though we walk in the flesh, we are now waging war according to the flesh.

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For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

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Here it is. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey

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Christ. How do we fight this battle? We tell the truth.

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And we share the gospel. If deception is the enemy's primary weapon, then the truth, which stands upon God's word, amen, that's our response.

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And as the gospel takes every thought captive to obey Christ, I mean, that's essentially what Paul is relaying there at the end of 5, verse 5, then guess what happens next?

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The whole world will be redeemed one soul at a time. The reason why the devil is still prowling like a lion is because God wants his people hunting him down.

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For some reason, in the Lord's infinite wisdom, he decided that he wants to win this war with us, not without us.

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All right. That's enough out of me. Now it's your turn. Why do you think God allows Satan to continue to prowl around, you know?

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Let me know in the comments below if you've given it any thought. Hey, if you made it this far, you gotta go check out the Patreon community.

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We're doing a bunch of very cool things, but I think the most important thing I'm doing there is studying the scripture with you all.

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And so I would encourage you to come check it out. It's patreon .com forward slash wise disciple. Hey, if you're interested in what

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I use to read the Bible here on YouTube, it's called Logos, you can click the link and avail yourself of the special discount for Wise Disciple followers there, or you can go check out

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Biblingo and study the original biblical languages. So this is why I've partnered with Logos and Biblingo.

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It's because I think these two tools are going to bless you as you continue to get into God's Word, and that is the ultimate goal, is to go so far and so deep in the scripture.

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Amen? Well, I've got more videos for you friends upcoming, but in the meantime,