It's devastatingly true that, despite our human condition of sin, so few humans have even heard of it; and, if they do, they're quick to dismiss it as "a religious crutch for the ignorant who lack the mental capacity to come to grips with the harsh reality of evolution."

However, the apostle Paul was clear in Romans 6 that every human on the planet is born a slave to sin, serving master satan, without God, without hope in this world. That is unless the Light of the World breaks in and sets the captive free!

So how does satan rule this world? Where did he get such authority? And what do we make of the fact that, rather than feeling enslaved or dominated by an evil master, so many feel right at home under his government, fat and happy, with a remote in each hand.

Answers to these and so many other questions are provided for us in this third of five Gospel Doctrines, as we look into many passages in God's Word, with special emphasis in Ephesians 2.1-3.

Today's passage:

2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. -Ephesians 2.1-3 (esv)