Why Does God Allow Satan to Block the Gospel?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

God could destroy Satan at any moment. So, why has God allowed Satan to blind the minds of unbelievers from seeing the glory of Christ?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today we find our way back to a familiar theme on the podcast popular in emails that you send to us in a topic that's generated probably more questions to us than any other topic that I can think of.
0:17.6	Questions about Satan.
0:20.9	You have sent in over 3,000 emails now asking about him, is he real? How and why did he first
0:29.7	sin? Why is he not snuffed out, but instead allowed to roam around?
0:35.0	Questions about his chief strategies for killing our joy and making us want to give up on life.
0:40.0	And can a Christian get handed over to Satan? Can the devil devour us? And questions about
0:46.8	why Satan has so much authority in this world. Questions like these have been addressed in the past in several different episodes that I've attempted to draw together, draw them all together in one place so you can see the ground that we've covered.
1:00.0	I did that in the new APJ book on pages 331 to 353 is my digest there pages
1:07.6	331 to 353 and that leads to today a listener named Taylor writes in with a specific question for you.
1:15.0	Pastor John, he asks this, hello, Pastor John, thank you for your ministry.
1:18.0	My question is that I know that Satan and demons have tremendous physical power and influence over the world, the material world.
1:28.0	My question is about his power over the spiritual world.
1:32.0	Why did God give Satan such immense power to blind people to the
1:36.3	glory of Christ? As we read in 2nd Corinthians 4.4 and to snatch from hearts the very saving gospel so that people are left without any hope of salvation.
1:47.0	That's Luke 812.
1:49.0	Why was he given such immense spiritual power to abort the gospel in the lives of sinners.
1:57.0	When the Bible opens, Satan is already there as a reality. The Bible doesn't even pause for a moment to give an
2:07.1	account for why he's there. Later on there are hints that he's a fallen angel and that there was rebellion in heaven.
2:16.0	But that's not a full explanation for where he comes from because it's very difficult to explain why a personal rational being, an angel who is created
2:30.5	perfect would ever find motive to rebel in a perfect universe.
2:37.0	That's not easy to explain.
2:40.0	I don't think we have a sufficient explanation for that.
	...

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