But the god of this age is also a mindset or a worldview. It includes the ideals, opinions, goals, and hopes of the majority of the people in any given culture or people group. It influences their philosophy of life, their religion, their education, the things they buy, and the places they go. If you were to sum it all up, the god of this age focuses mostly on the here and now, not eternity. The truth of God’s Word contradicts what they want to do, so they refuse to believe it.
It is through this world system that Satan blinds people. Think back to an Old Testament example of this – Pharaoh. His worldview, his system of belief, was centered around false gods. In Exodus 5:2 he said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
This is the view of humankind in our natural state; we do not know the Lord. We are sinners and without a godly influence, we will naturally follow the desires of the flesh. The entire world system caters to these desires. It tells us to pursue our wants and our cravings, but then it blinds us to the heartache and pain that results from such a lifestyle.
That was Pharaoh, and through the first five plagues, he hardened his heart against God and God’s messenger, Moses. But when you get to the sixth plague, the text says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. So, this blindness becomes self-perpetuating. It’s like God says, “you want to be blind? OK, I’ll help you be blind.” And God uses that blindness to display His power.
Now I want to make a couple of things perfectly clear. First, God is fully sovereign. Satan functions under the authority of God and Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth…” So, Satan can only do what God permits – think Job, for example. Second, God has revealed Himself to all people everywhere through His creation. They make the choice to not believe in Him and Paul says in another place they are without excuse.
But think about how different your life would be if you’d been raised in a nation or a family that embraced Buddhism or Hinduism, or Islam. All your childhood you were taught to worship and serve those gods. That belief in a false religious system makes you blind to the reality of the true God. Satan wants to preserve that blindness.
In light of this, I’ve often asked people to pray for our Bible teaching programs, especially as they go out over the airwaves and the internet in English and 22 other languages. I’ve asked people to pray that the Spirit of God would remove the blindness from the spiritual eyes of the listeners. I’ve asked them to pray that God would push back Satan and his forces of darkness that are blinding the minds of listeners so that when they hear the Gospel, they can exercise the will to believe.
We know that God isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, Second Peter 3:9. He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, First Timothy 2:4. So, to pray and ask God t...
