Do not be conformed to this world

 The second important prerequisite to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is, not to be conformed to this world which means not to live and do things similar or identical to how the world does things. Although, we have been duly instructed saying; “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

For rulers are not terrors to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same: For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.” Nevertheless, when it comes to doing anything which is contrary to the will of God we have to take a stand like Peter and the other apostles did when they said: "We ought to obey God rather than men” (Romans 13:1-5;Acts 5:29).

 The crux of the matter is, the whole world is under the sway of the devil, the system by which the world governs and operates is that of Satan. He is the god of this age who has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

One important thing that we should bear in mind is that, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Therefore, when God said; "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." This is irrevocable,

But unfortunately, Satan seized control of the world from Adam, when he deceived Eve, and she fell into transgression and supported by Adam. God again reinstated the ruler ship and dominion of the world to man through a dream by king Nebuchadnezzar and a vision by the prophet Daniel. With Nebuchadnezzar's dream he dreamt of an image whose head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay, which Daniel interpreted to represent four ruling kingdoms on earth, until the stone struck the image and became a great mountain, representing the kingdom of God and filled the whole earth.

Now in the case of Daniel´s vision, he saw four great beasts coming up from the sea, each different from the other: Those great beasts, which are four, he said, “are four kings which arise out of the earth”, and with regards to the fourth beast Daniel said, “The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces” (Daniel 7:23).

Now it is clearly stated that; “The dragon (Satan the devil) gave him (the fourth beast) his power, his throne, and great authority”. Now history shows that this fourth beast or kingdom is the Roman Empire because, the first ruling empire was the Chaldean or Babylonian Empire ruled by king Nebuchadnezzar, the second was the Persian Empire; the third was the Grecian empire and the fourth kingdom beginning from 2oo BC is the Roman Empire with its many rise and falls. 

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 To be continued

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph