Why Did Jesus Let Satan Rule the World? Here's What I Found After the Camera Stopped

Hey! So in my last video I reacted to Pastor Josh Howerton from the Live Free podcast, and I'll be honest: I got lost. One word stopped me cold. After I stopped recording, I couldn't let it go, so I started digging. Here's what I found.

The question

In Luke 4, Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness and claims the whole world belongs to him. And Jesus doesn't correct him.

Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please.”Luke 4:5–6 (NLT)

His answer, in 30 seconds

• God gave Adam and Eve authority over the earth (Genesis 1:28).
• When they sinned, they handed it over to the enemy. That's why Satan could say "they are mine," and Jesus didn't argue.
• In Israel, a close relative could buy back family land that was lost, like God told Jeremiah to do in Jeremiah 32. That person is called a kinsman redeemer.
• Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer. At the cross He paid the price with His own blood to buy back what we lost.

You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.Revelation 5:9 (NLT)

And after the resurrection, Jesus says: "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18, NLT). By the end of the video, I was with him on all of that.

The word that tripped me up

In the middle, Pastor Josh said Jesus is "the firstborn son of the family." I had to pause. Because I know Jesus was never created. He's God. He existed before anything else.

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 (NLT)

So when I heard "firstborn," my brain went straight to "created first." That's what threw me.

What I found

The Bible really does call Jesus "firstborn" (Colossians 1:15 in a lot of translations). But here's the cool part: look how the NLT translates that same verse.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.Colossians 1:15–16 (NLT)

"Firstborn" got translated as "supreme over all creation." And the very next line says God created everything through Him. So "firstborn" can't mean "the first thing God made." In the Bible it's about rank and inheritance: the heir, the one with the rights to the family name.

Here's the proof that sealed it for me. God says this about King David:

I will make him my firstborn son, the mightiest king on earth.Psalm 89:27 (NLT)

David was the youngest of Jesse's sons. Not born first. But God called him "firstborn" because of his position.

Why I'm sharing this

Words matter. How we talk about Jesus can clear things up for people or confuse them, and that goes for big pastors and regular guys with a camera like me. Paul told Timothy to be a worker "who correctly explains the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15, NLT).

And when something doesn't sit right, don't just react. Do what the Bereans did: they "searched the Scriptures day after day" to see if what they heard was true (Acts 17:11, NLT). That's not being a skeptic. That's being a disciple.