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It's an allegory for evil ruling this world. Evil rules this world because the hearts of men are corruptible. Men striving for godliness seek a pious life, which leads them in the opposite directions of those that seek power and rule over others. When "Satan took Christ to the highest mount and showed him all the kingdoms of the world", this is allegory that as long as God's people would submit to the worldly system of control over others, they could have their kingdoms right here, right now. But that's the allegory speaking.
The real message is that the kingdom of God has always been at hand. This was another reason Christ was crucified; he shook up the system of control too much. That's why the church was infiltrated as soon as it could be. There's no telling how much of these stories are allegory or perhaps even somewhat historical. The message in those stories, however, are crucial to understand.
Most folks have no idea what they are reading, and invent religions and denominations around their misconceptions. Good luck wrapping people's heads around the real messages in the scriptures because they were written for a specific audience for a specific purpose over 2000 years ago. That audience, for the most part, doesn't even know who they are, today, or what they are from their past.
The kingdom of God is, indeed, at hand. It's up to us to usher it to fruition. It will not happen by some magical descending from the clouds. It will happen with revelation in our own hearts, and overthrowing of the DS by the people.