The Cross And The World System

By Festus Ndukwe

God has used various people at different times to make this book possible. Rev. Mike Oye deferred his trip and shut himself indoors, reading and making useful corrections. I was greatly humbled and unworthy of such honor. Gbile Akanni remains an inspiration. His brief counsels dropped here and there, any time we met, were very helpful. For my pa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Midas Touch GEMS
• Release date: Jun 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088178850

Book preview

WHAT IS THE WORLD?

The Scriptures give us an apt definition of ‘’the world’’.

In Love Not The World, Watchman Nee provides three main categories of the biblical use of ‘’the world’’:

(1) It is used in the sense of the ‘’material, the round world, this earth’’ (Acts 17:14).

(2) It is used for the ‘’ inhabitants of the world’’ (Jn. 3:16). ‘’We can relate it to the whole race of men alienated from God and thus hostile to the cause of Christ’’ (Jn. 14:17; 15:18). We can see this in the world’s reaction the moment we commit our lives to Jesus and determine to live only for Him.

(3) It is also used in the Scripture for "worldly affairs: the whole circle of worldly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, which though hollow and fleeting, stir our desire and seduce us from God, so that they are obstacles to the cause of Christ’’ (1 Jn. 2:15-17); ‘the things that are in the world or the world’s goods; (1 Cor. 7:31); the fashion of this world which includes all ‘attachments’ either attached to the eye or to the toe, and all the ‘body hugs’ and its lusts.

In addition to the above, it may also connote the wisdom and philosophy of this world (1 Cor. 2:12; 3:19; Col.2:8) implicit in the reasoning, ideas and the mind-set of the world which are often obstacles to faith in God and to the demonstration of His power in men’s lives. Because of the corroding influence of the philosophies, ideas and wisdom of the world, in capturing believers and throwing them into depression, God’s position against this is clear and also strong. Be careful no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition ... and not after Christ. For in Him the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily, and you have been filled by Him...

Against the position of natural sciences and human reasoning, God is sufficient to meet all our needs, whether it is emotional, physical or material, through faith in Christ. Natural science may judge the womb dead but God can re-create another womb because all fullness dwells in Him.

WHAT IS THE WORLD SYSTEM?

This is a ‘’harmonious order or arrangement" set up by Satan to rule and perpetuate his reign in the world. It is an organized set-up in which Satan’s purpose, which is controlled and supervised by his hosts, is carried out in unison in different parts of the world. This harmonious order is awesome. It is so marvelously organized that nothing can confuse it except the prayer of the saints. People learn sin with no one teaching them. The devil knows how to pass his influence around the world effortlessly.

There is an amazing way in which sinners reject the Gospel even without consulting one another. As it is hard to convert a sinner in the city, so it is hard to convert a sinner in an obscure village. All unbelievers, whether Eskimos or Europeans, have been remotely ordered by Satan to react the same way to the Gospel.

The system of hostility against believers is the same in every part of the world. No believer is immune to ridicule, mockery, and persecution from unbelievers. No country or community is safe for believers. The same Satan using his many human and spirit agents, operates in all states or countries and communities with the same intent. The form and manner of assault may differ, but the goal, which is to humiliate and edge out the believer, is the same.

The world’s hatred against believers is not hidden. The saints are never wanted in homes, offices, businesses and government circles. For standing against evil in the society, the saints are cast out as evil. The attitude of the world when they come into confrontation with the saints in  any of these places, has been, ‘’We don’t want their Christ to be our King; we don’t want His humility, patience, righteousness, holiness, and moral purity here; we want to be our own king, to do as we like, to cheat, lie, embezzle, defraud, womanize, to continue our sins and stick to our own religious beliefs, and deceive and oppress the poor masses; and if Christians do not want to compromise with us, they should leave us alone to live as we like or we use whatever means at our disposal, even slander, to frustrate them or if possible, destroy them, we just don’t want Jesus to be our King; any time they mention this Christ and His stand for justice and moral purity, it persecutes our consciences.’’

A Christian brother who served in an apex bank was posted to a new unit. He called the staff together and said, I have come! I don’t want to see charms lying around or romance in the office. He turned to the only lady in the unit and said, Before I came, you were like a tuber of yam and all goats were after you to eat you but I have come like a lion to protect you. The others stood up and upbraided him saying, ‘You have come here with your bad luck!’

People like this man who have allowed God mold them into a rod to beat the world into submission are few in the market place. God raise more of such men in our time!

When a Christian seeks to institute righteousness in a place, it is ‘bad luck’ but when the wicked seeks to institute evil it is ‘good luck.’ That is the world! That is the force the Christian is up against!

This world’s attitude to believers has run the same course in every part of the world. The order is well set up by Satan to hinder Christians from realizing God’s purpose for their lives.

We can also see this order even in worldly affairs. Have we ever sat down to reflect on the fact that not up to 2% of all governments in the world are headed by Christians? This is not strange. We should remember that in the temptation that Jesus went through in the wilderness, Satan took Him to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and offered to give them to Him if only He would fall down and worship him, (Mt.4:8).  There are cases where some Christians have been forced to bow to a shrine before they are given elective offices. It is so difficult that it will take a Christian to either become an unbeliever, compromise his faith or be divinely called and backed up by God before he can take up any sensitive position in government. The system has been organized in hell to edge out Christians from secular leadership.

The world may not mind employing Christians to keep their money, but to elect Christians to a position where they will not have liberty to steal, that they will not do. The world system is horrible; for Satan is not at all willing to relinquish his reign in the world. Our only consolation is that God is going to bring about a millennial reign when all human kingdoms will collapse and the reign entrenched by Satan will cease to be.

The prince of this world also has a firm grip on almost all social affairs in the world. It is unfortunate that we often do not take time to notice it. Take for example the Entertainment or TV industry. How many TV stations in Nigeria are controlled and monitored by Christians? Even when a Christian is the Managing Director of a station, he has little or no influence on the kind of programmes transmitted on the station. How come that the government at one time made laws that excluded religious bodies in the issuing of licenses for private television. It looks reasonable to say that this action was taken to avoid religious conflict, but it is a calculated attempt from hell to slow down the spread of the gospel.

The Prince of this world has firm control on the kinds of programmes that are being transmitted in our TV and Radio houses. Every day we are being assaulted with all manner of pornographic movies, wild music and all sorts of films on crime. This is done without considering the danger to our children.

One kind of music that young people including the adults have gone wild with today is ‘hip-hop’ music. It would have been expected that the world should keep to its boundaries and steer clear from the Church. It would not. How would Satan ‘evangelize’ Christians and bring them into his fold if it keeps to its boundaries? He would use every strategy to seduce believers and defile them. He would use the theatre, comedy shows and then music. The lyrics of the music are so energized with all kinds of obscenities that appeal to the flesh. Before they realize it believers are already dancing, shaking their heads and raising their hands to the sky in worship of Satan, the prince of the power of the air.

A young Christian girl had a dream where she saw herself at a cross road. The road on her left revealed where people were laboring very hard. It was unattractive and she did not want to go there. Vibrating on the road on her right was this hip-hop music and people were dancing and enjoying themselves. She said, ‘This is where I want to go.’ As she stepped on to that road she suddenly saw herself underground, face to face with Satan. She protested, ‘This is not where I want to be.’ The devil responded, ‘That music is our advertisement