When Satan shows the Lord Jesus all the kingdoms of this world "in a moment in time," he is attempting to cast a "glamour" over him (Luke 4:5-6). In John 8:44, our Lord informs us that Satan is both a murderer and a liar, "for he is a liar and the father of lies."
Satan's claim contains at least two lies. Nobody gave him the authority and glory over the kingdoms of this world; he simply moved in when Adam and Eve were forced to leave. And he cannot do anything without God's authority.
One of Satan's greatest lies is that God should not have anything to do with civil government. The devil has cast a glamour over people to believe such nonsense based on a misunderstanding of Matthew 22:21. Jesus is not setting forth a doctrine to keep God out of civil government there; he is simply demolishing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Herodians with their trick question about paying taxes to Rome.
The Constitution of the United States does not contain the expression, "A wall of separation between church and state." Rather, it creates a wall between the Federal and state governments: "In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies."
That is in keeping with the Northwest Ordinance, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1787, the same year the Constitution was sent down for ratification by the states.
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After serving Grace Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bob was honorably retired on Sunday, September 27, 2015, and given the title "Pastor Emeritus." This was forty years to the day after he became their pastor.
He now works for the Presbytery of the Gulf South as...
