Who is in charge of rulers and governing authorities: God or Satan?

[tonychanyt]

Luke 4:

5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Did Jesus assert that Satan was in charge of all the kingdoms of the world?

No. Luke merely recorded Satan's claim, which Jesus neither confirmed nor denied. Satan was up to his old trick by twisting the truth just a little.

As for governments, Daniel 2:

21 He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them.

It is in the power of God to do these things.

Berean Study Bible Romans 13:

1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

Elsewhere, horizontally, Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judea, serving under Emperor Tiberius. Vertically, Jesus told Pilate that Pilate's authority was from God. John 19:

11 Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above.

Who is in charge of rulers and governing authorities: God or Satan?

Ultimately, everything is controlled by God. In the meantime, Satan is doing his bid to influence the world.

 

[timothyu]

God took the promised land and the chosen people for Himself for a reason. Long before man the war with rebellious elohim was in progress and continues to this day, they having control here pre and post Flood.

 

[timothyu]

Heisner on the other nations

 

[tonychanyt]

Heisner on the other nations

Thanks for the link. Can you quote some highlights from it that are relevant to this OP?

 

[timothyu]

"So God is still interested in reclaiming all nations for Himself"

 

[DennisF]

Luke 4:


Did Jesus assert that Satan was in charge of all the kingdoms of the world?

No. Luke merely recorded Satan's claim, which Jesus neither confirmed nor denied. Satan was up to his old trick by twisting the truth just a little.

As for governments, Daniel 2:


It is in the power of God to do these things.

Berean Study Bible Romans 13:


Elsewhere, horizontally, Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judea, serving under Emperor Tiberius. Vertically, Jesus told Pilate that Pilate's authority was from God. John 19:


Who is in charge of rulers and governing authorities: God or Satan?

Ultimately, everything is controlled by God. In the meantime, Satan is doing his best to influence the world.

With the same logic that denies Satan legitimate authority over the world can be argued that Jesus was not claiming Pilate's authority to be legitimate, but that God's higher authority allowed him to exercise what Roman authority Pilate had. Jesus acknowledged the human social structure but did not legitimize it. So your conclusion seems right to me.

Another angle on this is that in this (passing ) age - the age of Pisces - YHWH has allowed the Devil control of the human social structure, the historic outcome of which is a badly failed structure. This will be sufficient as evidence against him in the court of heaven to indict and convict him of mismanagement when he was given the opportunity to rule.

God operates by law and requires legally admissible evidence in making the case against Satan. This "present" age offers enough for a conviction. Both humans and God's ETs (angels, messengers) do not have standing in such a court and we are forbidden to bring charges against the Devil in any formal sense. In scripture, YHWH's angels also recognize that they do not have this authority and are afraid to accuse the Devil. Will Jesus himself argue the case against Satan in the heavenly court?

 

[DennisF]

"So God is still interested in reclaiming all nations for Himself"

I might add that one of Heiser's big interests was driven by Psalm 82, about the council of the gods. The biblical worldview does not deny the plurality of gods. It differs from paganism (the Babylonian mystery religion of Nimrod, with the Devil behind him) by denying their equality or superiority to Yahweh Elohim - the "Lord of gods" (my rendering). Heiser's PhD thesis at UWM was on this topic, as I recall.

Scripture gives us little insight into the doings of the gods, though if angels, cherubs, seraphs, et al were taken out of the Bible, it would be a different book. They appear, often humanoid, offering piecemeal hints about the higher realm of interstellar governance. Now that humanity is on the verge of becoming space-faring, it fits in with this being the "last days" of the previous chapter in human history, where the climax of the exopolitical battle finds us in the middle of it. (I suggested on a previous thread the possibility that this conflict is about us and what Satan versus God wanted in bioengineering homo sapiens sapiens after the Ice Age. I know there is much to unpack in that statement!)

UFOlogy arose as an area of inquiry post-WWII and Michael Salla, former George Washington U. (in DC) professor of political science, has made a career of exopolitics; see his site at Exopolitics Unsurprisingly, Heiser was also interested in UFO-UAP doings and wrote some fictional books about it. (Fiction is where you can say what you believe, or strongly surmise, is true without being held to account for it!)