HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 9, 2025 – We live in a world of chaos and confusion not because God wants it that way but because sin makes it that way. Chaos and confusion are sin’s calling card: the more abundant the sin, the more widespread the chaos and confusion. For the time being, God has given Satan administrative authority over the sin realm, but not because Satan is chaotic and confused; far from it. He’s coldly methodical and precise, entirely lacking in emotional warmth, and a consummate liar. This makes him very good at his job, though his mandate comes with tight restrictions and clearly defined limits that are impossible for Satan to exceed.

When I say impossible, I mean impossible. Satan can only do what God permits him to do, and God will only permit him to do either what we’ve earned or what God stipulates as a test. Satan’s not off somewhere in an underground bunker, hidden from God and plotting his maker’s overthrow. No. Satan is a wide-open book to God and, again, can only do what God permits. He’s entirely under God’s thumb. And if those who serve Satan attempt to exceed the prescribed limits, their reward is excruciating and unending. And their attempt will fail.

Being in the world, we’re under the administrative authority of Satan, but our souls are safely tucked away in the Kingdom, where Satan has no authority and cannot enter. Still, our bodies are subject to whatever Satan-imposed rules and laws are permitted by God. We’re surrounded by Satan’s handiwork and that of his faithful servants: We eat, drink, and breathe desecrated creation. This would be intolerable to me if I weren’t certain of God’s love for me and didn’t fully trust his plan.

I can’t say that I hate being here, but I can say that I almost hate it. I don’t hate the entire world, just those things that are under Satan’s authority. What God has lovingly formed and given to his children to brighten their days and quicken their time here – those things I cannot hate. But what Satan does, I hate.

Chaos and confusion are spiritual pollution emitted by sin: the more widespread the sin, the greater the chaos and confusion. The world measures carbon emissions and other industrial pollutants, aiming to eliminate them, but maybe we should instead be measuring chaos and confusion levels, aiming to eliminate those and the sin that causes them. Purge the sin, and the sin-associated chaos and confusion disappear as well. Although spiritual pollution is far more toxic and long-lasting than any other type of pollution, Satan considers it a measure of his success. High sin pollution levels indicate a bumper crop of morally compromised souls that are ripe for even further compromising. It’s to those souls that Satan looks for followers.

He has two kinds of followers, Satan: Those who know they’re following him, and those who don’t. When I say they know they’re following him, I mean they’ve sworn an oath to that effect and signed a contract submitting to him, agreeing to his terms. You’d be surprised how many have done this, or perhaps you wouldn’t be surprised. If you’re not born-again and reading this, perhaps you’re one of those who formally signed on with Satan through one of his proxy organizations and became his follower. If so, you would certainly know how many of you there are, if only in general terms. You would know that there are far more of you than the non-oath-takers realize because you see signs of your brethren everywhere. This is, after all, Satan’s realm, so it only makes sense that his sworn followers would be so… ubiquitous. For me, a born-again believer, I find their ubiquity galling, but I take heart in knowing that their power and reach are strictly limited by God. So I look past all the destruction they’re permitted to do; I look past it to God and his creation, to the parts that they can’t touch. There are still some parts they can’t touch—not even with the full force of evil—and it’s those parts that comfort me.

Satan’s other followers are people who haven’t formally sworn an oath, but they still serve him (or better said, serve his purposes) by the choices they make and their hardheartedness towards God and his Messiah. These followers make up most of the world’s population and are easily deceived and manipulated. If you told them they follow Satan, they’d probably laugh at you, though some might secretly like the idea, having no deeper understanding of Satan than what they learned from his propaganda channels, such as Hollywood. Satan is his own biggest promoter, and his speciality is selling himself as the provider of your every desire. Who could resist such a sales pitch? Thank God we can, like Jesus did in the desert, but most people can’t resist, which explains why so many are witting or unwitting followers of Satan. Their unholy desires are their undoing.

I don’t hate Satan. It’s not in me to hate him. We need to respect God’s decision to use Satan to administer God’s tests and negative rewards. We don’t need to respect Satan, but we should respect that God placed him where he did and that he has a role to play in God’s plan, just like Judas Iscariot had a role to play, and played it, and Jesus still showed him love. I’m not saying to show Satan love (no sympathy for the devil here), but we show God love when we trust and respect his plan, even if we don’t fully understand it, and even if it means that someday, like Jesus, we have to give up our bodies to Satan, though never our souls.