Is this true?

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If you find yourself dismissing parts of Scripture to protect a preferred belief or lifestyle, take that as a serious warning sign. You are allowing satan to deceive you.

Many Christians are in danger of being misled…

Not because God’s truth is unclear, but because it’s possible to resist it when it challenges our desires or requires us to change.

Scripture warns that when people prefer what’s false over what’s true, they can become increasingly vulnerable to deception. As 2 Corinthians 4:4 explains, “the god of this age” works to blind minds to keep people from seeing the light of the gospel.

That’s why the Bible also cautions us to take truth seriously and respond to it with humility and obedience. When a person repeatedly rejects what God has made plain, God may allow them to experience the consequences of that refusal.


LOOKING CLOSER AT 2 CORINTHIANS 4:4

Paul explains the (Satanic) source of the hard-hearted, veiled state of those who have rejected his apostolic message. The full expression the god of this age (ho theos tou aiōnos toutou) occurs nowhere else in the NT; hence, there has been some debate whether the articular noun ho theos refers to God (as usual in Paul) or to Satan (unattested in Paul). 

  • It seems to have gone unnoticed that Daniel 5:4 LXX decries those who have praised idols made with their own hands rather than “the God of the age/world [ton theon tou aionos] who has power over their [life-] spirit.” 
  • Similarly, Tobit 14:6 (in Codex Sinaiticus) expects that “all the nations in the whole world” will one day praise “the God of the age/world [ton theon tou aionos].” 

Hence, our passage apparently refers to God himself as the one who has blinded the minds of unbelievers, an idea supported by other Pauline passages (cf. 2 Cor. 3:14; Rom. 11:8). 

Such a notion, however, is as repugnant to the modern mind as the Markan explanation of Jesus’ use of parables (Mark 4:12, citing Isa. 6:9–10). 

Therefore, commentators usually prefer to interpret the expression as a reference to Satan, even though such a designation seems to have no parallels. In Paul’s writings, “this age” refers to the present evil age that is perishing (cf. Gal. 1:4; 1 Cor. 2:6, 8; 3:18; Rom. 12:2), as opposed to the age to come that brings resurrection of the dead and consummation of the new creation (cf. Eph. 1:21; 2:7; Rom. 8:18–25; 1 Cor. 15:20–28). 

The present evil age is governed by “the rulers of this age” (1 Cor. 2:6, 8) and “the prince of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Hence, the ruler of this age (apparently Satan) could also be called “the god of this age.” 

In that case, it is Satan who causes people to harden their hearts to the truth. We may compare the many statements about Belial (cf. 2 Cor. 6:15) in Second Temple literature, according to which Belial is the ruler of this world and of this age (Mart. Isa. 2:4; 4:2–6; T. Reu. 4:11; 1 QS 1.23–24; 2.19) and the one who leads people’s hearts astray (Jub. 1:20; T. Reu. 4:7; Sib. Or. 3:63–74; CD 4.12–19). 

It is not easy to choose between these options, and each has its own plausibility. We may give a slight preference to interpreting the expression as referring to God, who frequently hardens people’s hearts against him (e.g., Exod. 4:21; 7:3, 13; 9:12, 35; 14:4, 8; Deut. 2:30; Isa. 63:17).

The unbelievers whose minds are blinded include all those who reject the Pauline gospel, especially the opponents of the apostle in Corinth (cf. 6:14, 15), who are really servants of Satan (cf. 11:12–15). 

Such people cannot see the light of the gospel. According to Acts 13:47, Paul understood his commission in terms of Isaiah 49:6: “I have made you a light for the nations, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” In our passage, the content of the light of the gospel is further described as the glory of Christ. 

When Paul met the resurrected Christ on the way to Damascus, God revealed his Son to Paul (Gal. 1:16). At that time, Paul saw Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1), and this made Paul an eyewitness apostle (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1–11). In the previous context of our passage, much has been said about “glory” as the representation of God’s presence. 

Thus, Moses’ face so shone with the glory of God that the Israelites could not gaze at it (2 Cor. 3:7). The glory of Christ is likewise a manifestation of God’s presence, for the text goes on to describe Christ as the image of God. Paul has already referred to the Lord’s “likeness” in 3:18, presumably alluding to the anthropomorphic appearance of God in Ezekiel’s throne-chariot vision (Ezek. 1:26–27). If God and Christ sit side by side in the divine throne-chariot, that would explain why Christ is viewed here as the glorious manifestation of the image of God that one sees in a merkabah vision.


LXX Septuagint

Mart. Isa. Martyrdom of Isaiah

T. Reu. Testament of Reuben

Jub. Jubilees

T. Reu. Testament of Reuben

Sib. Or. Sibylline Oracles

CD Damascus Document

Scott, J. M. (2011). 2 Corinthians (pp. 85–86). Baker Books.

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