and the whole world (_Satanic system_) lieth in the wicked one" (I Jno.
5:19).

Returning to Isaiah 14:12-19, wherein Satan is described as "Lucifer,
the son of the morning," and where the prophet in vision sees the whole
career of Satan in retrospect, it will be seen that Satan holds a mighty
grip upon the world. Here it is said of him that he was the one who
"didst weaken the nations" and who "made the earth to tremble, that did
shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the
cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners." Every
phrase in this remarkable passage is a revelation. Undoubtedly there is
reference here both to the fall of man and to the authority of Satan in
the earth, as well as to his attitude of resistance toward salvation
which is by the grace of God, since it is said of Satan that he "made
the world as a wilderness; he opened not the house of his, prisoners."

Second, the Satanic system, according to Scripture, is wholly evil. This
is a hard saying; and is usually denied by those who do not realize that
all Scripture estimates are made from the standard of the holiness of
God; and that the Satanic system, of itself and apart from the influence
of God and His people, has never improved their own moral condition, but
that they are individually under condemnation before God (Jno. 3:18);
their borrowed interest in morality and charity being a poor
commendation, in view of their fallen and Christ-rejecting attitude
before God. They are also incapable of comprehending the standards of
God, whose thoughts and ways are above their thoughts and ways as the
heavens are higher than the earth (Isa. 55:8,9). The quality and
incapacity of the fallen race is accurately described in Rom. 3:10-18;
this description of them being as they appear before the holiness of
God, stripped of all externals: "As it is written, There is none