This is partly taken and adapted from something I've written but never published (yet).
Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:19)
Because the kingship belongs to Yahweh, and he rules over the nations. (Psalm 22:28)
To understand scriptural teaching on government and its relationship to God's kingdom and his people, we have to lay the foundation of God's sovereignty. God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. The prefix omni- means "all", indicating "in all ways or places". These descriptions of God mean that He knows all things, is everywhere present (see Psalm 139:8-10), and is all-powerful.
God is the supreme ruler of the entire universe, and He has not just the power but the right to do whatever He wills. He may set things up and put them down, and He may kill and make alive, as He pleases. God has freedom of will and action in a way that is beyond our comprehension. He is limited by no one but Himself. And He is completely good and right in all of His ways. The only thing He cannot do is sin. He cannot be the author of evil. God allows sin to exist, without causing it or willing men to sin. Even then, He remains the sovereign governor of history. Not a single thing can happen that He does not permit.
This majestic God owns and rules over the entire earth - the wicked and the righteous alike. His throne has been established in heaven from the beginning of time. The fall of Satan, man's sin, the schemes of wicked rulers - none of that can change it.
So then, what does it mean when 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan "the god of this age" (aion in Greek, from which we get our English word "eon")? This age is often contrasted with the future age, after Christ's return. Satan has power in the world during this era; but his power has a time limit.
Jesus, in the gospel of John, calls Satan "the ruler of this world" three times (12:31, 14:30, and 16:11). Paul calls him "the ruler of the authority of the air" (Eph. 2:2). This refers to Satan's realm being in the space from the ground to the sky - basically, the same thing as the "firmament" in Genesis, or what might be called the "first heaven" - the second heaven being the heavenly bodies such as the planets and stars, and the third heaven being the home of God (2 Cor. 12:2). This is where Satan roams, looking for people to deceive.
Paul also instructs the Ephesians in chapter 6,
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, 12 because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
"World rulers" has the idea of cosmic rulers or powers. It does not refer to flesh-and-blood, human rulers (since Paul has just said our struggle is not against humans), but to evil forces that rule over this world, with an unseen cosmic element similar to the idea in Eph. 2:2.
So Satan has a kingdom, and power, and a realm that he rules over. He is not to be trifled with; he is a dangerous enemy, and he deceives the whole world (Rev. 12:9). 1 John 2:16 lists the hallmarks of his kingdom: "the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions."
When Satan was tempting Jesus, he took Him up to a high mountain and showed him in a moment all the kingdoms of the world, and said to him, "I will give you all this domain and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I can give it to whomever I want. So if you will worship before me, all this will be yours." (Luke 4:5-7)
So that settles the whole matter, right? All the kingdoms and governments of the world are under Satan's grasp, he controls them, and can do as he wants with them. All the power, authority, and actions they take are in Satan's kingdom and are therefore evil.
Not exactly. Let's stop and reconsider. Perhaps focusing too much on Satan's power and all that he can do leads to giving him too much credit - and ends up with a view of God and Satan that is too dualistic.
First, consider the account in Job where Satan discusses Job with God. We see the devil must ask permission for what he wants to do to Job. He does not simply have free reign; God remains in charge at all times, and He puts limits on what Satan can do.
Next, look again at the temptation of Jesus. Remember that Jesus called Satan a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). We should not trust what Satan has to say. But he is a crafty liar. He mixes in some element of truth with the lie, and often makes it a subtle distortion of the truth rather than an outright denial of it.
What would have happened if Jesus had given in to the devil's temptation? Christians have debated various questions about the temptations of Christ, such as, was it actually possible for Him to sin, since He was God? But regardless of the answer to those questions, the fact is, if Jesus had given in to temptation, He would have ceased being God (if that was possible). But Satan would still be in power over the world, because worshipping Satan would make him Satan's servant. He'd just have been another of Satan's flunkeys. But Jesus is stronger than the devil, and overcame him.
Satan said that his power over the world "has been handed over to me." (The Greek word is a form of the same word translated "betrayed" in Matthew 10:4, speak of Judas Iscariot). It was not his from the beginning, but it was somehow given to him, he claims. By whom?
John Piper says that it was God who gave the world to Satan. To a Calvinist like Piper, God exhaustively controls everything, even to the extent of predetermining all things that have ever happened. So God decided expressly to give the world to Satan.
I don't believe exhaustive determinism lines up with the character of God and his relationship with humans as outlined in Scripture, so I reject that option. Scripture nowhere says that God gave the devil authority over the world.
Another opinion is that humans gave the world to Satan, when our first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden. I believe this is basically accurate, but some caveats and clarifications should be made. This idea is sometimes expressed in a way that makes Satan's control a legal reality, as if there was some type of cosmic judicial mechanism that legitimately gave him control of the world. This might also be connected to the "ransom" theory of atonement, that humans had come under Satan's bondage and owed a debt to Satan, and Jesus paid the debt to Satan with his death. By some cosmic principle of the universe, Adam's sin gave Satan the mandate that God had given him, like legal slavery. So Satan must be paid a debt in order to free humans and the entire world from bondage.
But I believe that is incorrect. Scripture never speaks of us owing a debt to Satan. Instead, it pictures us owing a debt to God. Our sins are our debts. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ask God to forgive our debts (sins), as we also have forgiven our debtors. Mankind is in bondage to Satan because our sin nature has made us sinners who cannot please God (Rom. 8:8). We are victims in need of rescue, it's true; but even more fundamentally, we are sinners in need of forgiveness. When Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), God condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3), forgiving our debts by nailing them to the cross, which made us alive in Christ, who thus triumphed over the powers of evil (Col. 2:12-15). His resurrection completed his triumph over those powers - by raising Him from the dead, God justified Him and all those who are in Him. If He were not raised, Satan and death would not be defeated, and instead of being alive in Christ, we would still be dead in our sins (1 Cor. 15:15). Those who believe in Him are freed from the power of sin and death, therefore being freed from Satan's bondage. Christ's death is metaphorically called a ransom, because it was the price that had to be paid for our redemption; but the metaphor should not be taken hyper-literally in the sense that it was paid to someone who had kidnapped us. Satan was never paid anything. Christ's sacrifice restores us to a right relationship with God, not with the devil.
So I think Satan's power is
de facto (a description of fact or reality) because of humanity's continual actions (sinning), not
de jure (by law - it's not because of some law that transferred power to him). If that is the case, then Satan's control over the world is only so far as humans are sinful, and if humans could fulfill God's righteous law, Satan's dominion would be broken. Of course, they cannot, as the Law showed. We needed a Redeemer to fulfill God's Law perfectly.
In Gen. 1:28, God gave Adam the creation mandate:
And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven, and over every animal that moves upon the earth.”
God's intention was that mankind rule over the earth and subdue it, as God's regent. But man messed up. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan was able to take over. By giving in to his deception, all humanity came under Satan's dominion. Consequently, they have not been able to fulfill the creation mandate.
However, I see no evidence of a mechanism or a transaction that would therefore have given Satan legal or legitimate authority over the earth, including over earthly institutions and governments. I see much to the contrary.
Think about God's sovereignty again. God declared that He rules over the entire universe and over all of history. God owns it all and his throne is over everyone. His kingdom is over all earthly kingdoms, no matter the character of their rulers; it is God, not Satan, who sets them up, according to Daniel 4:17. Satan inspires evil people to try to take over the government and put their wicked schemes in place; God cannot do evil nor does He inspire evil rulers. But whether they are allowed to succeed in their evil schemes is ultimately up to God.
The idea that Satan has legitimate authority over the world, and that he can actually give it to anyone he wishes - as he told Jesus - is difficult to reconcile with all these passages about God's ownership and authority over the entire world. Every one of these passages was of course written after the Fall, and is describing God's authority over the world in the present age between the Fall and the final Restoration. Yes, the Psalms are in the Old Testament, and so is Daniel. But Satan in the New Testament does not have *more* power and authority in the world than he did before. On the contrary, Satan has been defeated and his judgment is sure. Satan has power, certainly, and he has control. And he has a certain authority
over those who have given him authority in their lives. But there is a difference between mere power and legitimate authority. The former is like a powerful warlord with a band of warriors who lay waste to a region, drive out the legitimate government, and steal from the inhabitants. The latter is the legitimate authority of the government of that country, which is restored when the government sends in its armies, drives out the warlord, and restores stability and the administration of law and justice.
It is true that man gave Satan his power and control; but that does not mean that Satan took over the God-given mandate to rule the earth. God has never recognized Satan's control over the earth as legitimate; the nations of the world still rightly belong under His authority. Satan is a usurper, a deceiver. He took his power by deception and set himself up as king - no one gave him a kingship by rights.
The rulers of this world are commanded to honor God (Psalm 2:12). But when they forsake God's ways and reject His authority, as they inevitably do because of their sin nature, they come under the sway of other spiritual authorities, who are more than happy to take over. So Satan deceives them and becomes their ruler, just as he does with every person in the world who does not serve God. This is how Satan has gained his power over the kingdoms of earth.
So what is the "kingdom" of Satan that Jesus referred to in Matt. 12:26? The word translated "kingdom" is
basileia in Greek. It doesn't necessarily mean the territory that a king rules over (though it can mean that). It refers more to the king's dominion and power that he exercises, and his right or authority to rule over his dominion. In Revelation 12, the dragon, that is, the devil, took a third of the stars of heaven (symbolizing the angelic host) and threw them to the earth; when Satan rebelled against God, he took many angels with him. Then we read of a war between the devil and his angels, vs. Michael and his angels. Remember that Paul wrote about the spiritual, cosmic rulers and powers of darkness in Ephesians. So from these passages we see that heavenly beings can be authorities and rulers and have angels under them. So therefore, Satan's kingdom is the spiritual realm and the spiritual forces (fallen angels) that he rules over, as well as humans who reject God and serve Satan. If Satan would cast out other demons in his kingdom, then his kingdom would be divided against itself. But that made no sense and it was clear that the Pharisees were grasping at straws to avoid acknowledging the power of Christ.
After the Flood, God made a covenant with Noah. He repeated His command to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. But He added a few things. For one thing, He approved the eating of meat, with the limitation that they were not to eat meat with the blood still in it. Having the blood in it is equated with life. Second, He established punishment, by the death penalty, for murder:
5 "And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. 6 Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind." (Gen 9:5-6)
But there are more and deeper principles at work here than merely the death penalty. Those deeper principles are the sanctity of human life, and the establishment of civil government. Of course, Genesis 1 had already related the creation of man in God's image, and Cain had suffered consequences for the murder of his brother Abel. But that was God dealing with an individual situation and giving the punishment Himself. Here He declares the principle: Because man is made in God's image, the shedding of human blood cannot be ignored. Life for life. We may discuss whether this means that the death penalty is mandated for today, or whether it should be used for all murders, but that would be missing the deeper point: Life is sacred and there are to be consequences meted out by human society for the shedding of innocent blood. This is not a declaration that God will judge, although that is certainly true. This is God's mandate for severe punishment to be meted out by humans on those who commit murder. In other words, this is God's establishment of the sword to keep order and administer justice in society.
And if the sword is established, then so too is human government, for the bearing of the sword. To be sure, it is but a seed of government - it is only one law. But there must be someone to adjudicate justice and administer the decreed punishment. And the authority to administer the death penalty for murder implies the authority to administer less severe punishment for lesser crimes. This is supported by what Paul says in Romans 13.
Government, Paul says, is established by God - an ordinance which is from God. If we do what is bad, government is God's servant to punish us, through its use of the sword. This suggests that "the sword" does not necessarily mean capital punishment, since the punishment may vary for various crimes.
Government is not the kingdom of God. It does not bring man salvation. God established it for the present era; it is provisional, an interim institution to keep order and promote good in society, while He works out his purposes in history. One of those purposes is God's reign through man as His mediator, so that man rules over the earth in perfect harmony with God as He intended. For that, we await the return of Christ.
Finally, I mention this last for a reason, as the least important point. Revelation 13 is a prophecy about a specific person, time, and place, similar to the prophecies in Daniel - in fact, the beast in the first part of Revelation 13 is the same as the little horn of Daniel 7 - and should not be taken as a description of government at every time and place - although as I've already said, they can and do fall under Satan's power. By contrast, Paul is making a general point about how Christians are to relate to government and what government's purpose and role is in the world.
