Thoughts.com Blogs - An Introduction To Satan's Web

God commands believers in Christ to: 1) "...be not conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:2), 2) "...walk not according to the course of this world" (Eph. 2:2), and, 3) "...love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15). Jesus also said that we must "...live...by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). That obviously means we are to live according to all aspects of the Bible. So, with a desire to obey those four commandments, I began to make a biblical study of just why they were necessary in the first place. I needed to better understand precisely what God meant by "the (this) world."

So, starting with the term "the world," I found it is used in both the Old and New Testaments. However, only in the New Testament (NT) does the term "world" translate as meaning "orderly arrangement." It is used over 200 times in the NT with the vast majority of those times meaning "orderly arrangement." Further, Jesus Christ used the term "world" 91 times with 77 of those times meaning "orderly arrangement." Thus, "the world" being seen as an "orderly arrangement" is a NT principle which God wants believers to be aware of, become familiar with,
and take seriously as a spiritual hazard.

I began to realize that such an "orderly arrangement" with which God warns us about becoming intimately involved is actually an organized system of operation which, in turn, has got to have a source of intelligence and design behind it. Any system of operation which can provide an alternative "course," or pattern, for living our lives--contrary to that laid out in Scripture--and to which we can "conform" our thoughts, views and actions, while drawing to itself our "love" to such an extent that God has to warn us not to, must have a fairly powerful "intelligent designer" behind it!

And, since it obviously wasn't God, it had to be Satan! In fact, he is called "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4). And Jesus called him "the prince of this world" on three occasions. (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Those four statements of Scripture infer a status of "ruler" and, thus, we can be sure that Satan, or the devil, is the "ruler" over his very own "world system."

Then it dawned on me that we generally speed right by the 200 NT verses which teach about God's condemnatory view of "the world system." We fail to spend any significant time to reflect upon or study the fact that God is warning and instructing us about what He sees as an important matter. And, based on God's necessity for having to issue those 4 commandments we noted in the beginning, it is apparent that we unwittingly let "the world" guide our lives and, thus,
adversely influence our walk with Him on a daily basis.

So, the focus of this blog will be to share the results of my biblical odyssey into Satan's web of entanglement. I hope to share new biblical info with you every week, or so. I hope you have found some value in this introduction and pray that you will take the journey into the workings of "the world system" with me. I have found that there is much to be found out about it in God's marvelous word! May God bless you!!

(And if you'd like to learn more about my background, feel free to go to my website at: www.caughtintheworldsweb.com )