Page 35 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

mind. Failure to accept or to understand the basic fact that all that is of the
world-system is exclusive of God is the explanation of the futility and confusion of
human philosophies.

The Apostle John further assures us that “the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” The world-system is here
contrasted with the performer of the will of God. The conformer to this world-system

is yet a transient, because the whole order of which he is a part will be done away,
even though he now finds himself in a great majority. The transformed man, renewed
in his mind by the Holy Spirit, doing the will of God in a hostile environment, belongs
to a system of things that will endure. He is running a little branch office of heaven,

pending the time when God‟s “will [shall] be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

In the light of the Scripture, then, it is hardly open to debate that this cosmos of
ours passed into the hands of Satan in the Garden of Eden, to have and to hold as his

legal property. Christ Himself three times referred to Satan as the “Prince of this
world.” In Luke 4:5-6 we read, “And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain,
showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil

said unto Him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them [the nations]: for
that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it.” The creature vaunts
himself in the presence of the Creator! Terrible braggadocio it was, but unfortunately
true.

“For that [the whole earth and the glory of its kingdoms] has been delivered unto
me!” Who delivered it all unto him? Why, the original king and queen whom God put
in charge, of course!

Does Christ deny his claim of ownership? He most certainly would have done so
if the claim had been false. The father of lies, like all clever liars, knows when to tell
the truth; and when he is in the presence of Him Who is the truth a lie would not serve.
No, Christ did not deny his claim, but in effect admitted it. What He did most

emphatically reject were his terms of redemption.

There is more in Satan‟s proposition than appears on the surface. To the first Adam

God delivered this cosmos to rule—no more. So when Adam gave his allegiance to
the dragon and accepted his constitution and his proposition, he and all that pertained
to him became servants to Satan. The Apostle Paul enunciated this principle in Rom.
6:16: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto

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