Satan is the god of this world. But that does not mean he is in any way equal to the one true God. And the world is a mixed bag. Because we are all fallen and sinful, our world is fallen and sinful, and Satan exploits that to the max. But still, the world is God’s world. He made it and pronounced it good. Although tarnished and stained now, it will one day be recreated for us to enjoy forever.

Christians do not believe in metaphysical dualism. That is, we do not believe there are two equal and two eternal spiritual forces in the universe. There is just one living God – end of story. Satan happens to be a created being. He is not omnipotent and so on.
And we believe that while God allows him to do some dirty deeds on planet earth, all this is limited. Just as Satan was allowed to torment Job only as much as God allowed or permitted (see Job 1:12 and 2:6 eg.), so too in other areas. God has Satan on a leash in other words. And that is good news indeed.
God is on the throne – not Satan. God is working out his purposes – not Satan. God is sovereign – not Satan. But yes, Satan and the demonic hordes can do great damage indeed, which is why we must always have on our spiritual armour (as in Ephesians 6:10-20, eg.), and why we must keep praying and engaging in spiritual warfare. Let me offer a quote from the commentary by George Guthrie on this:
In calling Satan a “god,” the apostle does not ascribe divine status to the evil one but rather speaks of the functional status given him and the subordination of the fallen world to him. The phrase is comparable to John’s “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Ever since the fall, this “god” has beclouded the Word of God (Gen. 3:1), blinding the minds (1 John 2:11) of those who do not believe. Thus peoples’ minds constitute one very significant battleground in the cosmic conflict between God’s gospel and the twisted machinations of the god of this world (2 Cor. 2:11; 3:14; 4:4; 10:5; 11:3).
And Judith Diehl stresses the limits of Satan’s ‘rule’:
The “god of this age” is a unique phrase, as it occurs only here in the NT. It refers to Satan and the dominion that he has over those who reject God and his agent, Jesus Christ (see 2:10–11). Here, Satan represents lawlessness, darkness, unbelief, moral depravity, and the worship of idols (see 6:16, especially apparent in polytheistic Corinth). Paul is fully aware of Satan as his personal adversary and Satan’s attempts to impede Paul’s mission and his unique calling to ministry. We can notice, too, that in Paul’s view, the power and influence of Satan are limited to “this age.”
See here for more on the reality of Satan.
And see here for more on the need for spiritual warfare and protection.
Consider also the matter of the world and our involvement in it. When we read about how Satan is the god of this world, we need to be clear on just what is being said. The Greek word for world – cosmos – is used in different ways in the New Testament. Often it can just mean the globe that we all happen to inhabit.
But at other times it refers to the current evil system that we must have nothing to do with. Thus, we all LIVE in this world, but believers are not to take part in the evil, worldly system that is all around us. That we can do both simultaneously is made clear by Paul when he said this in another context:
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10).
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The fact that we are able to express the faith that justifies is only a consequence of the fact that we have been regenerated from spiritual death. The ordo salutis needs to shape our theological understanding of salvation. The emphasis on creation-new creation also highlights the sovereignty of God in salvation. It anchors and grounds the doctrine of predestination in Ephesians.

One of the things I had not noticed before in Ephesians is the importance of the creation-new creation dynamic. It comes at significant points in the letter. 
1v4 – God’s election of his people before the creation of the world 
2v9 – salvation (=from spiritual death to resurrection life) is new creation in Christ Jesus 
2v15 – unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church is the creation of a new humanity in Christ 
3v9 – God’s eternal plan to unite Jesus and Gentiles in Christ was from eternity before he created all things 
4v24 – the Christian life is a process of putting on the new self re-created to be in the image of God in true righteousness and holiness 
5v30 – the pattern for submission between husbands and wives is rooted in the original good creation and reflects God’s eternal purpose that the church as wife of Christ will submit to her loving husband 
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One of the great strengths I’ve observed in many modern Reformed ministries, particularly in John Piper with his emphasis on joy and satisfaction in Christ and in R. C. Sproul’s with his exuberant teaching ministry, is what I like to call compassionate Calvinism. Many of my professors, pastor friends, and many of my living ministry heroes are joyful Calvinists, and their preaching, teaching, and writing reflect reverence, joy, and grace.

I’ll never forget attending the first Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference in 2006 in Louisville.
Thousands of voices joined together to sing old hymns with profound energy and zeal, only to sit at rapt attention for hours as well-known Reformed teachers expounded the Word of God. We attended pre-conference events, and in one of those, I learned what a blog was and pondered whether I should start one (I didn’t, but hundreds of others did).
Here’s what I remember most about those late April days sixteen years ago: It was a happy gathering. I was happy. My friends were happy. We were hearing the Word of God preached by our theological heroes and it was all deeply edifying, convicting, rejuvenating—I could add any positive “ing” adjective to the list.
I also remember reflecting backward a decade, in the mid-90s, to the time when I first embraced Reformed theology. There seemed to be so few of us who held to Reformed doctrine in the mid-90s, and we probably seemed idiosyncratic, maybe even weird to some of our fellow evangelicals.
But here sat thousands to hear hours and hours of preaching that flowed out of the doctrines of grace. God’s work in drawing hearts to these glorious doctrines amazed me. It felt like revival that only God could bring.
Young, Restless, Reformed: Its Rise and Fall
That happened during the early years of the burgeoning Reformed movement, what I like to call the age of the mega conference, the coming of age of what Carl Trueman calls “Big Eva”: T4G, Ligonier, the Shepherd’s Conference, Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, and seemingly dozens of smaller conferences.
Reformed parachurch ministries and publishers—some of which had been laboring faithfully since the 1990s and even prior to that, but in relative obscurity—gained prominence and dotted the landscape: Desiring God, Ligonier, 9Marks, the Council for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, The Gospel Coalition, Radical, Crossway, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, Banner of Truth, Sovereign Grace Ministries.
In the early 2000s, a team of Reformed scholars produced an excellent English translation of the Bible, the English Standard Version, which became the go-to version for many pastors in the Reformed village.
In 2009, TIME magazine cited “the New Calvinism” as among the top 10 thought movements influencing the United States, and indeed, to those of us in ministry at the time, that seemed demonstrably true. The internet enabled us to download a variety of popular Reformed teachers such as Piper, Sproul, MacArthur, Dever, Mahaney, Keller, Carson, the now infamous Driscoll, and many others. In a real sense, the worldwide web did for this new reformation what Gutenberg’s printing press did for the original.
In September of 2006, my longtime friend Collin Hansen wrote a memorable article that in 2008 became a noteworthy book (I’m still waiting for the movie!) giving the movement a nickname: Young, Restless, Reformed—or YRR. In Hansen’s parlance, my alma mater, Southern Seminary, was ground zero in educating the many young Baptists among us who were restless and Reformed.
The YRR world was a happy place then, but all these years later, that joyful place seems long ago and far away.
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