A Divided World
Is the world divided? Yes, in many different ways but the most basic division has been with us for all of history. It occurred as a consequence of the Fall when Adam and Eve decided to believe the Tempter and declared their independence from God. Immediately afterward, God, speaking to the Serpent, said:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen. 3:15)
God spoke here of the division of mankind into two seeds (or offspring). The Seed of the woman is Christ and all that are “in Christ,” all His elect, all true Christians. The Seed of the Serpent are all unbelievers, all they that desire to be their own gods and reject the lordship of Christ. This great division of mankind is the unavoidable consequence of Adam’s decision and God’s purpose to rescue man from his self-destructive choice.
God emphasizes the division by placing enmity between the two bodies. They are not to be friends but must always be in opposition to one another. Why? Why would a loving God make them enemies, forever in conflict with each other? He did so because good and evil are fundamentally opposed and can never be reconciled. He knew our propensity to seek peace through compromise; but any such attempt can only result in something imperfect, something sinful, something that always falls short of God’s standards. The struggle between good and evil must not end in compromise but must continue until one or the other is vanquished.
Christ
The Serpents head was bruised (or crushed) when Christ came. His death paid the sin-debt of all His elect and made possible their release from Satan’s grasp. It began the population of the Woman’s Seed and insured the eventual demise of the Serpent’s Seed. His head was crushed in principle at this point but is yet to be accomplished in fact. Christ has given this task to His Body, to all Christians:
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt. 28:18-20)
With these words, Jesus clearly states that Satan’s power is broken and He is now the rightful ruler of all the nations of world. He directs those that believe in Him, His Body, the Seed of the Woman, to teach His nations to obey Him. They are to do this, not by the use of physical force but through teaching. The tools they are to employ are God’s law and the Gospel. The nations are to be converted, as nations and as peoples. The laws of the nations are to come into conformity with God’s law and the hearts of the people are to turn to God. Jesus here spoke the doom of the Serpent and his Seed. In time, His commission will be fulfilled and the entire world population redeemed. The Serpent’s Seed will be no more, its entire population either having been converted or died off. The world, divided by Satan’s work at the Fall, is now united in principle and will, in time be fully restored in fact to God’s intended unity (Num. 14:21; Psa. 72: 8-11; Isa. 11:1-10; Eph. 1:19-22; Acts 2:29-30).
Today
Our problem today is that almost all Christians are not aware that this work is their responsibility. They have been taught in their churches that Jesus is not really Lord of all things but that there are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. The kingdom of God they say is limited to the church, Christian families, Christian schools and perhaps a few other Christian institutions. The world outside these rather limited boundaries is then the domain of unbelief. This is a direct negation of the Great Commission. It denies Christ’s claim to universal lordship and tells Christians that Satan is the rightful lord of most of the world. This misleads Christians into believing that working for the adoption of His law as the law of the land is not their responsibility and has brought the work to bring the cultures and laws of the nations into conformity with God’s law to a virtual halt.
Although much progress has been made in the past, the Western World, once the strong bastion of Christianity, is now regressing back toward the paganism from which it came. If this generation of Christians does not wake up to its responsibilities, in time another that truly obeys their Lord will arise; they will represent an insurmountable and irresistible force that will accomplish the task Christ set before us. The nations will be taught to observe His commandments and the Serpents head will have been crushed, in fact as well as in principle.
Because God’s Word says so, these things must come to pass but we see also that Christians are responsible to do their part. It won’t just happen on a fixed timetable regardless of what we do. Until we truly obey, and put our hands to the task, the work will continue to languish. It may seem to be an impossible task but with God, all things are not only possible but certain. It doesn’t matter if it seems that little is actually being accomplished; God will employ every good work to realize His final goal and we will have the satisfaction of knowing that we played a part in mending a divided world.