Who is the god of this world? Ninety-nine per cent of the habitants of the world are worshippers of Mammon. What is Mammon? The word “Mammon” is an Aramaic word translated “riches”. In Matt. 6:24, Jesus says: “You can’t serve both God and Mammon”, or better, you can’t serve both God and riches. In Luke 16:9, we read: “I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon”. The Aramaic renders: “mamona iniquitatis”. Why did Jesus tell us to make friends by means of unrighteous riches? That is because whoever has made money by unjust means will only be able to be saved through doing a lot of charity; like Zaccheus, for example (Luke 19:1-10). The truth is that the pursuit of gold in this world is violent. Every tactic, subtleties, deceits, frauds, assaults, and treason is employed. That is a shame!
Humanists deify men. There are many peoples and races in this world. Each of them worships their god. For the majority of the Christians, based in three Bible verses, the god of this world is Satan:
1. Satan went to Jesus, showed him all the kingdoms of this world, and said to him: “The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The devil said to him, “I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want” (Luke 4:5-6).
2. “For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope” (Rom. 8:20).
3. “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).
These three texts are tied to 2 Cor. 4:4, which says, “In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them”. Now, the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44); and the Christian can overcome him: “Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The role of the Church is to crush the head of Satan (Rom. 16:20). On the other hand, Satan is not a god, for he is a fallen angel from the start (1 John 3:8; Luke 10:18).
The Holy Scriptures make mention of another god of this world, and he is the god who made this world; better still, who formed the world. Moses, who described creation in Genesis, declares: “Before the mountains were brought forth, before you had formed the earth and the world” (Ps. 90:2). And the very Jehovah calls himself god of this world by the mouth of David: “The earth is Jehovah’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). The Psalmist Asaph said, inspired by Jehovah: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it” (Ps. 50:12). Ethan declared: “The heavens are yours. The earth also is yours; the world and its fullness. You have founded them” (Ps. 89:11). Now the prophet Jeremiah is going to speak: “He has made the earth by his power, He has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens” (Jer. 10:12). “He has made the earth by his power, He has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens” (Jer. 51:15). What makes the one who reads the Bible confused is that Jesus said: “The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil” (John 7:7). The world made with the wisdom of Jehovah is evil. What wisdom is this? Is it devilish? Jehovah sets the world in the hearts of men. The text says: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end” (Eccl. 3:11). Jehovah sets the world in the hearts of men, and John, filled of the Holy Spirit, says the following words: “Don’t love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s” (1 John 2:15-16). Has Jehovah, with his wisdom, made the world with these three destructive evils, and set the world in the hearts of men? And did John declare that these things do not come from God? And because Jehovah sets the world in the hearts of men, they love the world and its vanities and lusts. James, then, a disciple of Jesus, says: “You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Does the one who loves the world because Jehovah set the world in their heart become an enemy of God the Father? It is complicated for those who worship Jehovah.
The wisdom of Jehovah said: “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old. When he established the clouds above, when the springs of the deep became strong, when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth; then I was the craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, always rejoicing before him, Rejoicing in his whole world. My delight was with the sons of men” (Prov. 8: 22,28-31). Does the wisdom of Jehovah rejoice in his whole world, delighting in the sons of men? And Paul says that this world is condemned with the sons of men (1 Cor. 11:32; 2 Pet. 3:7). And this evil world that Jesus has condemned is kept and established by Jehovah: “Jehovah reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Jehovah is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved” (Ps. 93:1). “Say among the nations, ‘Jehovah reigns.’ The world is also established. It can’t be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity” (Ps. 96:10).
Jehovah blesses the men of the world: “from men by your hand, Jehovah, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children” (Ps. 17:14). But Jesus said: “He said to them, ‘You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world’” (John 8:23). And Jesus said to his disciples: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).
In the Priestly Prayer Jesus said this: “I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world” (John 15:19).
The plan of Jehovah was to establish righteousness in the world through the law: “With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness” (Is. 26:9). The project of Jehovah failed, and he destroyed the kingdom of Israel, which was charged with this mission. Jehovah said: “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there’” (2 Kings 23:27). The law would never establish the righteousness of God the Father. Paul reveals us the reason: “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone” (Rom. 9:30-32). And the Great Apostle adds: “For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4).
By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira