26:18 To open their eyes. These words of the Creator to Paul make it emphatic that the evolutionary pantheism of the Gentiles was not sufficient to bring them salvation. They were, in fact, under “the power of Satan,” who had led them into these false religions. The “god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” (II Corinthians 4:4), and Paul had been sent to “open their eyes” to the truth. They were in “darkness,” but Christ died to deliver them “from the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13) into “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” (II Corinthians 4:4).