Tucker Carlson Says; “Satan Rules The World”

Tucker Carlson
Interview with Ambassador Mike Huckabee

This is my Father’s world:
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world,
The battle is not done:
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

Maltbie Davenport Babcock 

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard the Carlson quote from well meaning but errant Christians who cite it in order to suggest that the bad things that happen in this world can be explained by a saying, “Well, Satan is, after all, the God of this world.”

This is a serious misunderstanding of what is being said in Scripture. When John records Jesus saying,”the ruler of this world is coming,” we must take into account a few matters. First, John, throughout is book uses the word “world” in at least ten different ways. Indeed, the word “world” in John, at times, becomes a bit of a frequently used word with a technical meaning.

In 12:40 when Jesus says, “for the ruler of this world is coming,” he does not mean that the triune God is not sovereign over all matters and all men. If Jesus did mean that He would be in contradiction with Himself as He says elsewhere when speaking of the Elect;

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand”

John 10:28-29

Clearly, if God is “greater than all” that means that God is the ruler over Satan and being the ruler over Satan, God is the ruler over the ruler of this world.

How do we resolve then, this apparent contradiction in John’s Gospel where on one hand Jesus speaks of “the ruler of this world is coming,” and on the other hand Jesus stating that “My Father … is greater than all?”

The answer is not complex.  In John 14 where Jesus speaks of Satan as “the ruler of this world,” He is speaking of the world here, not in a physical sense as if Satan is in charge of planet earth. Instead, Jesus is speaking of Satan being the ruler of this fallen world system as it lies in Adam’s rebellion.

John uses the word “world”in the sense of “world system” other times in His Gospel;
 
John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 

John 16:11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

So, we have to make distinctions then between the John’s usage of the word “world” being use to communicate a contemporary world system in its moral, ethical, and cultural dynamics, which because it is fallen, hates Jesus Christ and His Kingdom and the usage of the word “world” to mean planet earth and everything that happens upon it.

This reminds us that in this world (planet earth) there exists two world systems or Kingdoms. There is the world system (Kingdom) wherein Satan remains the ruler in the sense that it lies under the evil one. Paul mentions this world when he writes the Colossians (1:13) and says, “You’ve been delivered from the dominion of Darkness,” but then adds the phrase that teaches us that there exists also another world system (Kingdom) on planet earth; “to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, whom He loves.”

So, Satan remains the “ruler of this world” but that does not mean that Satan has a domain that is outside of God’s sovereignty over Satan. Indeed, with the coming of Christ’s Kingdom we know that Satan’s world system is being increasingly driven back. Like a mustard seed the Kingdom that Jesus established is ever growing and with each expansion of growth this present evil age is being constricted. A day will one day come when the Kingdom of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

In order to reinforce God’s exhaustive sovereignty in John’s Gospel we remember Jesus’ words to Pilate;

“You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.”

Pilate had authority over Pilate the same way that Satan is the ruler of this world. In both cases the authority or rulership is derivative of God’s sovereignty. Yes, each had their authority or rulership but only as governed by the Sovereign God.

All this to say that Satan is not God over God in this world. Satan does not rule the world, though Satan does rule over those who are under His sway, but only so long as the sovereign God determines. Satan has had countless human minions that he once ruled under his world system, but God, who is great in mercy, plundered His elect from Satan’s rule and brought them into a different Kingdom, under a different ruler.

The passage in I Cor. 4 is much the same. Again, we have Satan, as the “god of this age.” But keep in mind that with the triumph of Christ the age to come (which is a different age than “this age”) has arrived and with that arrival of the age to come the strong man (Satan) has been bound (Luke 11:21) and Jesus who has bound the strong man is plundering his kingdom. There remain those (unbelievers) whom the god of this age (Satan) has blinded so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. However, the elect among these unbelievers will, in God’s time, come to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Satan does not have totalistic control. He is only a god (of this age) in a very limited sense. That limited sense is limited because the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth and of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.

Amen.