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“Is This My Father’s World?”

God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). However Satan sets the course of it (for now and insofar as he is allowed by God, Eph 2:2).Satan has used his influence over centuries to build a global society to serve his ambitions (Is 14:12-14).

When Adam and Eve sinned, God put a curse on creation to make life difficult. This was not so much punishment as a protection. To understand this a little better, we need to consider the contrast between a life lived in dependence upon God versus a life lived in the pursuit of selfish interests.

God warned Adam that the day he disobeyed by eating from the tree, he would die (Gen 2:17). While the physical process of death did begin, what actually and immediately died was Adam’s spiritual connection with God. Adam was left to his own devices which can be observed in his fearful state (Gen 3:8).

God had provided a plan to redeem those lost in sin by faith in Jesus (Adam looking forward and trusting in the promise and us looking rearward trusting in the act). However, we are all born in this broken condition of a defective spiritual connection with God. The connection is reestablished when we are born again by faith (trust) in Jesus. However, we still carry the legacy of a powerful selfish nature with us. Even Christians who have been born again struggle with the this influence.

Without the constraint of difficulty in life, we quickly follow in the footsteps of depravity pioneered by emperors and kings throughout history. Industrialization and prosperity seem to bring widespread blessings of comfort and ease. However, it seems that these “riches” are deceitful because we are drawn to embrace what seems to provide comfort and ease when in reality we find opportunity for the worst aspects of our selfish nature to be expressed and work to corrupt our character. This can be seen in history as civilizations become prosperous then corrupt, and then implode. (Hard times make good men, Good men make good times, Good times make weak men, Weak men make hard times)

It is like there are two worlds. There is the physical or natural world God created and the social or artificial world Satan has constructed. Satan (called the god of this world 2 Cor 4:4) can provide (comforts, pleasures, and prosperity). There are those who seem to flourish in Satan’s world (John 8:44, John 15:19). Those who have God as their father, while tempted by the comforts Satan offers, see consumptive dissipation and selfish indulgence as ultimately destructive while those who follow the god of this world see discipline, austerity, and restraint as foolish. We have to make the choice in life as to which direction we follow (Matt. 7:13).

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. - Joshua 24:15

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