by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
To Christians, Paul mentioned that “you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air<\/em> (Satan), the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:2). The world is on the course on which lust or selfish desires take them. That course is baited by Satan and guided along by Satan.<\/p>\n I remember being on that course, and know how my mind was godless, guided by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (I John 2:15-17). Doing the will of God and exalting God was the farthest thing from my heart. A public education system drenched in evolution and humanism is not going to help godly morals. The materials used come from “the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience<\/em>.” Those trained in anti-God and humanistic philosophy are not going to promote or embrace the truth of God. If you don’t get your morals from God, your morals can only come from one other source, “the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience<\/em>.”<\/p>\n We are watching our country move swiftly away from a motto of “one nation under God’ and “in God we trust” to a nation guided and controlled by people on course for destruction. Openly promoting the homosexual agenda and accepting the polygamy of Muslims, we see a move toward promoting pedophiles as people who are born with such an inclination. These are “sons of disobedience<\/em>” just following the “course of this world<\/em>” to its logical end. Satan does not provide a moral compass, and people without one make up the rules they want to follow. The Ephesian brethren had been on that same road before they were converted to the truth of the gospel.<\/p>\n The only hope for a world on course for destruction is to share the gospel so that eyes can be opened to the truth. The winners are partnered with God. The losers stay on the course of this world to self-destruction.<\/p>\n Are you united with God, or are you simply following along with a misguided world?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton To Christians, Paul mentioned that “you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). The world is on the course on which lust or selfish desires take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[609],"class_list":["post-95744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-worldliness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51277,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/worldliness\/","url_meta":{"origin":95744,"position":0},"title":"Worldliness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Ephesians 2:1-10 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From the beginning, Christians have struggled with living in a world of sin without being a part of that world. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Paul\u2019s struggle - Romans 7:14-25 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some would take Paul\u2019s words and say that as long as I intend to please God, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3687,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-rules-the-world-god-or-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":95744,"position":1},"title":"Who rules the world, God or Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was just reading from your web site.\u00a0 I do that from time to time.\u00a0 It's a great site.\u00a0 Thanks for doing it. Anyway, I was reading your sermon on Satan.\u00a0 You wrote: C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Meanwhile, Satan continues to rule this world 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All sinners are under his dominion -\u00a0Ephesians 2:1-2;\u00a0Colossians 1:13\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-all-temptations-come-from-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":95744,"position":2},"title":"Do all temptations come from Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Although I've read it several times before, I was discussing James 1:13-15 with my mother. In many of your explanations of this verse, you explain that Satan uses our own desires against us to break God's laws. I explained to my mother that our desires lead us into temptations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25411,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-was-satan-bound-before-jesus-came-to-this-world-or-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":95744,"position":3},"title":"When was Satan bound, before Jesus came to this world or later?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house\" (Mark 3:27). From this verse, we learn that Satan is currently bound by Christ and that his power is limited. My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93791,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/always-a-child-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":95744,"position":4},"title":"Always a Child of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton If it is true that \"once you are a child of God, you can never be lost or cease to be a child of God,\" then what happened to Adam and the rest of the sons of God? Adam is called the son of God (Luke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thoughts-on-sinful-nature\/","url_meta":{"origin":95744,"position":5},"title":"Thoughts on “Sinful Nature”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Unknown (Labeled \"Guest Editorial\") via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 2, June 30, 1990 Sinful natures exist. It would be foolish for any serious individual to deny it. How this comes about in a person's life and just who has a sinful nature are other matters. Please consider a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}