I listened to your audio study on Daniel 10-11 last night and came away with two questions for you:
1. Why was Isaiah killed?
2. As far as your discussion of and references to 1
John 5:19 (“the whole world is under the control of
the evil one”) and Matthew 4:8, where Jesus did not
dispute Satan’s claim to the kingdoms of the earth,
how do you square that with God’s sovereignty? Satan
had to ask God’s permission to afflict Job. Romans
8:28 says that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, and 1 Thes. 5:18 says that in all things, we are to give thanks.
According to tradition Isaiah was sawed in half by King Manasseh, one of Judah’s most wicked kings, probably for speaking against him.
In addition to John’s claim of 1 John 5:19, Jesus called Satan the Prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11) Paul called him the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4) and the Ruler of the Kingdom of the Air (Ephes. 2:2)
In Luke’s rendering of the Wilderness Temptation, Satan, speaking of the kingdoms of the world said, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.” (Luke 4:6) Had this not been true, the Lord’s logical response would have been to dispute Satan, but He didn’t.
The Church speaks of God’s sovereignty, but there are things that God can’t do. For example, He can’t break His word, He can’t break His Law, He can’t make us love Him, He can’t make us stop sinning, and He can’t prevent us from going to Hell if that’s what we’re determined to do.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, causing them to lose dominion over the Earth to Satan. Reversing those consequences cost God the life of His Son (Romans 8:19-21) and the Book of Revelation is partly about God’s move to repossess that which He has redeemed.