If you want to understand the times we live in, you have to understand one verse, and it is a hard one. John does not soften it, and I will not either:
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1 John 5:19, KJV)
The whole world lies under the wicked one
The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one. That is not paranoia, child of God, that is diagnosis. Satan, who “deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), runs the same play he ran in Eden: question God’s Word, offer counterfeit freedom. He works through false religion, corrupt philosophy, and moral rebellion, and men fall for it because the trouble is inside us too: “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9); “there is none that understandeth” (Romans 3:11).
He blinds the mind and men love the dark
So he blinds: “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Notice, he will happily leave a man religious, spiritual, even busy, as long as the eyes stay shut to who Jesus really is. And men cooperate, “because they received not the love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10); “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). This deception is not only coming: it is here: “even now are there many antichrists” (1 John 2:18).
But there is one way out: the Spirit of truth
And here is the deliverance, the only one there is: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). The Spirit He sends is “the Spirit of truth” (John 16:13), and He leads you out of the lie. Satan is defeated, but he is still active, so “submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil” (James 4:7), stay in the Word, and stay on your knees. The world lies in the wicked one; you do not have to. Glory to God.
Related Teaching
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (KJV)
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