Today the kingdom of Satan consists of three categories of beings: one category comprises the rebellious, fallen angels in the air as the messengers of Satan; another category comprises the demons in the water; and still another category comprises the fallen human beings on earth. The fallen angels include “the authority of the air” mentioned in Ephesians 2:2 and “the rulers,” “the authorities,” “the world-rulers of this darkness,” and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies” mentioned in 6:12. The rulers and authorities of the air are the messengers under Satan. Originally, in the preadamic universe, God entrusted the angels with the ruling authority (cf. Heb. 2:5; Rev. 4:4, 10). When Satan rebelled against God, some of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion (12:4, 9) and became the fallen angels, the unclean spirits. The demons are some of the living creatures who lived on the earth in the preadamic age and were judged by God when they joined Satan’s rebellion (Job 9:4-7); thus, they lost their bodies and became the disembodied spirits, who are restricted to the waters (Gen. 1:2; cf. Rev. 20:13) and need human bodies as a means to carry out their activities on the earth. Therefore, sometimes they intentionally cling to the human body. Since these unclean spirits, the demons, are related to Satan, they were all judged and dealt with by God through the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus (John 3:14; Heb. 2:14b).
On the cross the Lord also judged the world and cast out Satan, the ruler of the world (John 12:31). The Greek word for world is kosmos, denoting “an order,” “a set form,” “an orderly arrangement,” hence, an ordered system set up by Satan, the adversary of God. All the things on the earth, especially those related to mankind, such as religion, culture, education, industry, and commerce, and all the things in the air have been systematized by Satan into his kingdom of darkness to form an anti-God world system on the earth. This whole satanic system lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19).
Besides kosmos, the Bible uses another Greek word, aion, with reference to the world. Aion means an “age,” “era,” and it denotes the modern appearance or the fashion of the world. Every age has its modern appearance, its fashion, its customs (cf. Eph. 2:2); it is the actual world encountered by people and it includes “the things in the world” (1 John 2:15). This shows us the difference between kosmos, the world, and aion, an age. Kosmos refers to the entire world, whereas aion refers to an age as a part of the world. The entire world from the past to the future is a kosmos, a whole entity, composed of many ages, each of which is an aion. Hence, world is a general term, whereas age is a specific term.
The world involves all persons, things, and matters as well as all the ages. Every age has its fashion. For example, the time prior to the Ching Dynasty was an age, and the people at that time had their fashion. Then, after the Republic was established, that was the age of the Republic, and the people at that time had their fashion. But today, to us, those things have become ancient, antique, and are no longer fashionable. I still remember forty-four years ago while I was preaching the gospel in Chefoo, a very modern lady attended the meetings. She grew up in my hometown but was educated in Shanghai. When she came to listen to the gospel, she had her hair up in four layers. When she walked in, I felt uncomfortable looking at her. After a few times when she came again, one layer of her hair was gone; then soon afterwards, another layer was gone; eventually, all the layers were completely torn down. I felt very happy because it proved the effectiveness of the gospel.
The world involves a great number of items, including all the ages. The ages have all been systematized by Satan to usurp and frustrate man from fulfilling the purpose of God and distract man from the enjoyment of God. When Satan, the ruler of this world, was cast out through the crucifixion of the Lord in His flesh, the evil system, the kingdom of darkness, was also judged. Hence, the death of Christ also dealt with the world.
Genesis 6:3 says, “And Jehovah said, My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he indeed is flesh.” Man’s body was transmuted into flesh because the element of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the element of Satan, was added into it (3:7). In the Bible the flesh includes man’s corrupted body (Rom. 6:6; 7:24), the entire fallen man (3:20; Gal. 2:16), and even the good aspects of man (Phil. 3:3-6). Everything, whether good or bad, is of the flesh as long as it is of ourselves. In Romans 8:8, concerning the flesh Paul made this conclusion: “And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” The greatest reason that God abhors the flesh so much is that Satan dwells in the flesh. The flesh is the headquarters of God’s enemy, the largest base of the operation of God’s enemy. We may say that all the works that Satan carries out in man are based on man’s flesh. Therefore, God hates the flesh just as much as He hates Satan; God wants to destroy the flesh just as much as He wants to destroy Satan. Through His becoming a man in the flesh (John 1:14) and dying in the form of the fallen man and in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), Christ dealt with the fallen flesh.
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