From these Scriptures it must be conceded that the offer, which Satan made to Christ, of the then inhabited earth, was very real.  The Scripture is as follows:  “And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, showed Him 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:  for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.  If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine” (Lu. 4:5-7).  It has sometimes been held that the claim of possession of the earth was a lie, this being asserted on the ground that Satan is exposed in Scripture as a liar.  Such a conclusion is impossible for at least two reasons.  It would have been no temptation had he not possessed the kingdoms he offered; and any such false claim would have been immediately branded as a lie by the Son of God.  He is still further revealed as the recognized head of this world system in two additional passages:  “Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world (Satanic system)” (I Jno. 4:4).  “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world (Satanic system) lieth in the wicked one” (I Jno. 5:19).

Returning to Isaiah 14:12-19, wherein Satan is described as “Lucifer, the son of the morning,” and where the prophet in vision sees the whole career of Satan in retrospect, it will be seen that Satan holds a mighty grip upon the world.  Here it is said of him that he was the one who “didst weaken the nations” and who “made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners.”  Every phrase in this remarkable passage is a revelation.  Undoubtedly there is reference here both to the fall of man and to the authority of Satan in the earth, as well as to his attitude of resistance toward salvation which is by the grace of God, since it is said of Satan that he “made the world as a wilderness; he opened not the house of his, prisoners.”

Second, the Satanic system, according to Scripture, is wholly evil.  This is a hard saying; and is usually denied by those who do not realize that all Scripture estimates are made from the standard of the holiness of God; and that the Satanic system, of itself and apart from the influence of God and His people, has never improved their own moral condition, but that they are individually under condemnation before God (Jno. 3:18); their borrowed interest in morality and charity being a poor commendation, in view of their fallen and Christ-rejecting attitude before God.  They are also incapable of comprehending the standards of God, whose thoughts and ways are above their thoughts and ways as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isa. 55:8,9).  The quality and incapacity of the fallen race is accurately described in Rom. 3:10-18; this description of them being as they appear before the holiness of God, stripped of