The Ruler of this Domain
Reading Matthew 4 reminded me of a bizarre conversation with a Jehovah's Witness years ago, who used the devil's offer of all the kingdoms of the world to argue that Satan rules this domain. The devil wouldn't lie, right? I should have offered to sell him the Brooklyn Bridge.
I'm reading through Matthew and I just read chapter 4. I was reminded of the most bizarre conversation from many years ago; it was with a Jehovah's Witness. He read to me from his "bible" (I insisted on grabbing my own, because the JW's love to edit little things here and there). He read:
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"
(Matthew 4:8 - 10)
Actually, I think he stopped short of v10, but I included it for completeness. But what was this Jehovah's Witness' point in reading this passage? Well, to prove that the devil had complete control of the world, of course. I think he had prefaced this by asking me, "who is the ruler of this domain?" or something like that. And here, in this passage, we see the devil offering control of that domain to Jesus in exchange for his worship and clearly the devil wouldn't lie, right? I should have offered to sell him the Brooklyn Bridge.
