Luke 4:6, Who Has Dominion Over The Earth?

And the devil said unto [Jesus], 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.

//In this verse, Satan makes a bold claim: that he has dominion over all the nations, and has the power to grant that position to Jesus. However, Matthew claims just the opposite in his gospel:

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth –Matthew 28:18

So who is the big boss? Satan or Jesus?

It’s a trick question. The verse in Luke is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry; the verse in Matthew is at the very end, after Jesus has been resurrected. The Gospel message is that Jesus overcame the world; Jesus proved victorious over evil, and over Satan.

Therefore, what used to belong to Satan now belongs to Jesus.

2 Comments

  1. Excellent thoughts Lee, and I would concur that ultimately you are correct. I would however suggest that there are a couple of intermediary steps before we get to “ultimately.” Something I think anyone reading the news accounts coming out of Syria, or Egypt would agree with.

    By way of analogy, consider being pulled over by a rogue Highway patrolman, who threatens to strip search you and lock you up if you don’t pay a bribe. You may appeal to the Governor as the “real” authority, but you may very well suffer at the hands of the existential authority standing before you.

    The picture that I see portrayed in scripture seems to be that the deceiver, that serpent of old, is still actively deceiving the nations, and will do so until the 7th trumpet sounds, and the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His… whatever. 😉

    I wrote an essay that touches on this subject a while back. I will send you a copy of it.

    Thanks for a thought provoking post!

  2. Lee Harmon

    Chris, I would love to read your essay!!

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