Sunday News 7 September 2025

Ruling the world

In last week’s article I hypothesized that Job, by his diligent pursuit of righteous living before God, was a thorn in the side of Satan whose activities were constrained in some way because of Job’s example. My belief is that Job made a difference to the world of his day far beyond any practical influence he might have had.

All authority comes ultimately from God. Jesus acknowledged this when Pilate said to him, ‘knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?’ and Jesus replied:

‘Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above’. (John 19:11)

And while all mankind has a measure of authority as descended from Adam, to whom God said, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth’ (Genesis 1:28), yet more authority is given to the followers of Jesus Christ, the Saviour, Messiah, and Lord of all, who said to his disciples:

‘Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.’ (Luke 10:19)

And,

‘Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ (Matthew 8:18)

We should remember, also, the nature of the authority given to us, and its purpose and benefits as reflected in the following scripture:

‘And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish.’ (Luke 21:16-18)

So the authority given to us is of a spiritual nature, and is to serve the purposes of God. These include our eternal blessing, praise to the Lord! And many blessings already now besides.

But when Jesus says, ‘there shall not an hair of your head perish’, that does not preclude that we might even be put to death so far as our temporal life is concerned, or that we might suffer the other things described in the scripture above. And as the scripture also says, Jesus himself experienced those very things, and did not consider it any failure of the authority of God, nor of the blessing of the Father upon himself that that most terrible fate should fall to him (except for his last, forlorn cry upon the cross, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ – Mark 15:34). Indeed, Jesus ‘for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Hebrews 12:2)

So as I continue this exploration of the authority given by God to the Church, and its effects in the world, we should remember to view that authority and its purpose from a spiritual and eternal perspective. Nonetheless, what I have to say very much concerns the here and now.

The first and foremost exercise of the authority of God by the followers of Jesus Christ, who collectively form the Church, is what we ourselves say and do. For though I may say, ‘thou shalt not steal’, yet if I myself steal, what in truth do I authorize? I authorize theft. Because my actions are the definitive demonstration of my intent, more so than my words, notwithstanding words are also of great importance. This is reflected in the following statements of Jesus:

‘And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ (Luke 6:46)

‘Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.’ (Matthew 7:21)

‘But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, the first.

Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.’ (Matthew 21:28-32)

So we see that our position with regard to the word of God is established by our actions, not by our words only.

And so I understand that ‘whatsoever we bind on earth’ are those things we disallow and abstain from firstly in our own life, and ‘whatsoever we loose on earth’ are those things we do and promote. And those same things are either constrained or fostered among men more generally by spirits which apply their powers to those ends. That is my understanding of what it means for something to be ‘bound in heaven’. Because the Bible depicts a spiritual influence in what we say and do, for example in the following scripture.

‘And he sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.’ (Luke 9:52-56)

So we might say that James and John had a bad attitude – vengeful, ungracious and unforgiving. But Jesus identifies a spiritual element, that James and John were expressing and under the influence of a spirit – not, apparently, the Spirit of God in this instance.

‘And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.’ (Ephesians 2:1-3)

So again, the scripture from Ephesians does not excuse us from sinful conduct, as though it were not our own doing – but it also makes clear that if we do such things we are also under the power of a spirit which is not of God, and which is working to promote ungodliness. We have choice; but there are also powers at work to influence us, of which we may be largely unaware. (Certainly I would expect, unbelievers who do sinful things do not mostly imagine they are serving any spirit, rather just their own desires.)

So this is how it seems to me: things are ‘bound in heaven’ or ‘loosed in heaven’ according to what we ‘bind’ or ‘loose’ in our own lives, mainly by our own conduct. But all under the authority of God, and ultimately serving his purposes which cannot be thwarted.

That is not to say all things please God, though he makes all to serve him. And my own purpose in presenting these things to the reader is that we might, as Jude says, make a difference (Jude 1:22). Because in this world we can make a difference, and that is no small thing. It is everything we know directly, and everything we see in the lives of all around us. And ultimately it is only we, the followers of Jesus Christ, who can make a difference. Because it is we who have received the commission from our Lord is to do just that – to live in faithfulness and obedience to him as his disciples, and so to bind evil and wickedness, according to all authority which is given to Jesus, and to loose the love, truth, compassion and kindness of God upon our world, as we loose those things in our own lives by our own sacrifice, actions and behaviour.

‘And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.’ (Matthew 28:18-20)

That is our commission, and we alone have the authority to do it, as given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ who holds all authority. And we do it with every word and every act of our lives – not only by great works of charity, or evangelism, or other great projects. Not only by holding offices of supposed authority in the Church or in the world, and exercising the powers attributed to those offices. Rather, how can we teach others to observe what we have not learned to observe ourselves? It is by our lives that we teach, and by our lives that we exercise the authority of Jesus who only can change our world, and who is the source of all good change and every good difference that is made.

The spiritual climate – the liberty with which evil spirits prevail in the lives of men, or else by which men receive the work of the Holy Spirit to redeem and make good – arises from the Church, and the everyday lives of its members. Only because that authority is given us by God. And that is where, and that is how we exercise it.

I will now proceed to give an example of the extraordinary ways in which I believe the above principles are outworked. This example may be offensive to many, but it is not my purpose to offend. It is my purpose to grow our understanding of how our lives can and do change our world, and of the great influence we have as followers of Jesus Christ in ways of which we may be unaware.

Many years ago when I first began to consider the spiritual influence of the Church in the wider world, I formed the hypothesis that every evil of the world is found first in the Church. Because if the authority of Jesus Christ is given to the Church for the purposes of our commission – and Jesus said, all authority in heaven and earth is given to him – how does anything happen in our world without the Church’s authorization? Which as discussed, may mostly be granted without the Church’s understanding simply by way of our own example.

So from time to time I would question how some particular issue could have its origin in the Church, at least so far as current events are concerned. (Evil itself may have an origin prior to creation, let alone prior to the Church, seeing the ‘serpent’ was found already in the garden of Eden; so this hypothesis regarding the Church relates to the state and happenings of our current world.) And generally I could see how bad things might be present somehow in the Church, whether or not I was in any position to confirm whether or not that was actually the case.

At that time the AIDS epidemic was in its earlier stages, and more prominent in the news than now, presumably because treatments were more limited in those days, and the epidemic was an emerging and largely uncontained threat. Some Christians readily associated the disease with practices of homosexuality and drug abuse, as a judgement of God upon those who do such things.

Jesus cautioned against trying to discern actual connections in practice between sin and judgement e.g. in John 9:1-7 & Luke 13:1-5. Nonetheless, in this instance I had a related enquiry regarding the role and influence of the Church, and my purpose was not to condemn.

Personally I do not think the Bible affirms homosexual acts or lifestyles or drug abuse (others disagree, at least with regard to the former) so I could not exclude an association of those things with a harmful consequence, which at some level would have to be by the permission if not the direct intention of God. A scripture which has been used to make the above association is as follows:

‘For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.’ (Romans 1:26-27)

If there is any doubt what the above scripture means in general terms, the New Living Translation renders it in contemporary language with plainly the same meaning. I also remember showing this passage to a colleague in one of my work places who told me there is nothing in the Bible which speaks against homosexuality (without, apparently, having read it himself) and he was shocked by the above passage in the form of the King James version, and seemed, while being himself an unbeliever, to have no difficulty understanding it.

This is not a condemnation of homosexuals or any of the current variants particularly, because it seems to me there is at least as much condemnation of heterosexual varieties of sexual sin in the Bible as of any other type, and in general the Biblical view is that all men are sinners, in which case homosexuals are no different. I expect that all adults have been guilty of sexual sin at some level, and are only innocent by the blood of Christ. Nonetheless, so far as I can see there is no affirmation in the Bible of homosexual sex specifically, and by the above passage and others, the Bible presents it as sin.

The relevance of all this to my theories about the Church does not relate to homosexuality or drug use particularly, which so far as I could see might or might not be part of the reason, in spiritual terms, for the epidemic. But it seemed at least possible there was a connection. And one might call me a pessimist, but I had no difficulty supposing that perhaps, if homosexuality is a sin, it might have begun in the Church. But my question was, what about the women and children who were contracting HIV by association with men who had the virus? For example, even a child might contract HIV in the womb?

Because it seemed to me those were certainly not good happenings in our world – that wives of men who had sex outside of marriage with other men, should themselves become victims of sexually transmitted disease because of that. Or that even a baby in the womb might become infected, having had obviously no part in any sin, if sin there was.

But if all present evil were to have its origin in the Church as I imagined – and God is not one to punish any for the sin of others, notwithstanding he may visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those that hate him (Exodus 20:5) – then how could the Church possibly be responsible in any way, through any of our conduct, for the infection and suffering of family members of HIV carriers? Even if there was a spiritual or moral element in susceptibility to the disease.

So I put this to God in prayer. How, I asked, could the Church have any part in causing such suffering to the wives and children of HIV carriers? Surely this was a purely biological process, a very sad and unfortunate one, in which the Church could not possibly have any role?

Within a day of asking God about this matter I heard separate statements in the media by two prominent Christian organizations to the effect that AIDS was unrelated to homosexual sex, and that supposing any such connection was merely religious bigotry and unhelpful to medical initiatives to counter the epidemic. One of those organizations was a prominent, Christian aid organization – perhaps the largest Christian aid and relief organization globally at that time, being not merely historically or nominally Christian, but with an open association with churches and the Bible. This was an organization which the contemporary, evangelical churches I attended would associate with; people from the organization would speak in Churches, not only from the perspective of charitable works but of Christian faith.

The second statement was from a representative of one of the largest Christian denominations, again one with an open affirmation of the Bible and many evangelically oriented local churches. Both these organizations, being representatives of the Church at large, publicly denied any connection of AIDS with homosexuality. Yet it was common knowledge at the time that such a connection did exist. No one understood why exactly, was my understanding at the time, and as said, some were quick to see a spiritual and/or moral relevance, while others would have said that was ridiculous and bigoted. (The above Church organizations were perhaps keen to avoid being branded in that way.) But the association with homosexual sex, whatever the reason for it, was widely understood to be a fact.

The conclusion of those matters is that I believe God showed me that the Church had authorized the spread of AIDS to women and children by denying its connection with homosexuality, which they clearly knew to exist.

Since then I have sought to find connections of many evils in the world with possible origins in the Church, and so far I have found no examples where it cannot be true that evil finds expression first in the Church, and from there finds expression in the world. Because we rule the world. What the Church says, goes; even more so, what the Church does.

And what wickedness the Church may do in secret or with regret, or cloaked in false pretences, the world, having no moral restraint in many matters, may often do to a great and tragic extent, being also driven unawares by spiritual forces acting on the Church’s unwitting authorization.

May we find grace from our Lord to understand the true extent of his power in us, that we may honour him only, giving no place to evil, and that we may fulfil the great commission to which we are called in his name.

Praise to our Lord who is over all, and shall reign for ever and ever in glory, truth, and righteousness, with all his saints, according to the astonishing calling given to us, and his greatest of all mercy.

Amen.