Claim. Whether an individual, religion, or nation belongs to God’s side or Satan’s side is decided by alignment with the direction of God’s providence of restoration — not by common-sense ethics — and the modern criteria are the Abel-type-view test plus the Christianity-persecution test, by which the democratic world stands on God’s side and the communist world plus Christianity-persecuting nations stand on Satan’s.
Elaboration. Per Part 2 Ch 6 §4.2.2: alignment with providence is the only discriminating criterion. Even indirect alignment places one on God’s side; opposition places one on Satan’s. This is not always in agreement with common-sense conscience.
Old Testament examples: Moses killing the Egyptian taskmaster was good because in line with providence, even though apparently evil by common-sense morality. The Israelites’ invasion of Canaan might appear cruel, but the Israelites collectively belonged to God’s side and the Canaanites to Satan’s — even if “more goodhearted people” existed among the Canaanites individually.
Religious sphere: every religion has goodness as its goal, so every religion belongs to God’s side generally. But when a religion obstructs another religion closer to the center of providence, it moves to Satan’s side. Pre-Jesus Judaism stood on God’s side; persecuting-Jesus Judaism moved to Satan’s regardless of past faithfulness.
Modern criterion: systems espousing the Abel-type view of life belong to God’s side; Cain-type systems stand on Satan’s. The communist world — however ethical its materialism may appear — is judged satanic. The democratic world, granting religious freedom and rooted in the Abel-type view, is judged to be on God’s side.
Christianity-test: Christianity is the central religion with the mission to fulfill all religions’ goals. Any nation persecuting or obstructing Christianity stands on Satan’s side. In WWI the Allied Powers (UK, US, France, Russia) were Christian nations fighting to liberate Christians under Turkish persecution; Germany and Austria-Hungary supported Turkey, placing them with it on Satan’s side.
Significance. Supplies DP’s operational test for assigning nations and religions to God’s side or Satan’s side — a test that can override ordinary moral judgment. Load-bearing for the Cain-type/Abel-type binary running through Ch 5–Ch 6, and for DP’s commitment to Christianity-as-central-religion.
See also. dp-cain-type-democracy-from-french-revolution-vs-abel-type-democracy-from-anglo-american-christianity · dp-history-progresses-by-dividing-good-from-evil-toward-kingdom-of-heaven · dp-malachi-to-jesus-and-reformation-to-second-advent-parallel-as-400-year-preparation