Back in May, we hosted a “Hot Topic” night at Faith Dyer on the topic of “What is Spiritual Warfare?” Due to a scheduling conflict with the speaker we had planned, I ended up being the speaker! This forced me to go back and examine Scriptural teachings about the topic. Some people have asked for a summary of what I shared that night, so I thought I would go ahead and post some of the key thoughts here on the blog.
I kicked off the night noting C. S. Lewis’ comment that “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” Some people find the devil behind every tree while others deny the reality of the devil and the forces of evil. Examination of Scripture hopefully helps us avoid both of these extremes, as we need to pay attention to the places in the Bible that talk about spiritual forces and war but, as always, not go beyond what they say. Much more could be said on this topic (especially regarding the origin and nature of Satan and demons and the topic of demon possession and exorcism – maybe future posts!), but my examination of Scripture led me to highlight these four principles that I believe these are helpful for us all in understanding it and in living into it.
- Spiritual warfare is part of the “normal” Christian life
While there is a sense in which people leading Christian ministries, regularly teaching God’s word, and seeking to introduce others to the faith might face special assault, spiritual warfare is not something that is reserved for “elite” Christians. In his book, What is Spiritual Warfare?, Stanley Gale notes how someone asks him if he is engaged in spiritual warfare and his answer is “Every day.” He further notes, “Spiritual warfare is constituent of life in a fallen world, ordinary to the Christian life.” Long ago, theologians differentiated between the church militant and the church triumphant, with the church militant being the church on earth that is in battle and the church triumphant being the church at rest in heaven now — if we are following Christ on earth, we will be in battle! Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:10-13 that we struggled not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of the world (spiritual forces) are not just for special Christians but for all the members of the Ephesian church — are at all in battle. 1 Peter 5:8 speaks of the devil roaming like a lion; this is a reality we all face.
We don’t have time or space her to dig into this fully, but the Bible as a whole assumes that there is a spiritual realm that interacts with our realm here on earth — we believe in a God who made all things visible and invisible. Read passages like 2 Kings 6:8-23, 1 Chronicles 21:1, Daniel 10, and Zechariah 3:1-5, as well as the stories of demons in the Gospels and the book of Acts for the existence and influence of these beings. Revelation speaks of these forces as well. Much remains mysterious about their origins, nature, and other details, but this much is not mysterious — they exist and seek to draw us away from God and his will for us.
Spiritual warfare is essentially the attempts by Satan and his forces to draw us away from God; in many ways, all of our life is lived in this state of war. Spiritual warfare is normal.
- A primary place of spiritual warfare is the lies of the devil that can draw us away from God
People sometimes wonder if they are being attacked when something is happening. Your child is sick on Sunday morning and you won’t be able to make it to church — is that a “spiritual attack” or is that just what happens in the world? I’m not sure if it is always possible or even necessary to determine if it is a “spiritual attack” from evil or not for a couple of different reasons.
First, theologians have talked about the idea that there is the flesh (our sinful nature), the world around us, and the evil one and his forces that all war against us seeking to follow God. Actually, all come from the evil one, as the devil has caused humans to fall into sin through the fall of Adam and Eve and now has created a world that opposes God’s forces, so you could say it all connects together. The lies are a bit blurry and we might not always know which is at work.
While being controlled, influenced, or possessed by a demon might be the most spectacular form of assault we see in the Bible, when we examine Scripture, we can see the devil and his forces doing lots of things: throwing Christians in prison (Revelation 2:10), hindering the preaching of the word (1 Thessalonians 2:18), tempting people to sin (1 Timothy 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:5), causing physical infirmity (Luke 13:16), inciting David to pridefully count his soldiers (1 Chronicles 21:1), and causing whatever it is that was Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). Of course, it is unclear if the forces of evil are the cause for every occurrence of these things. In addition, I am not sure if Satan is confined only to do the things that he has done in the past — Satan doesn’t play by rules of etiquette or fight fair; he is bound by God in what he can do and limited in that why but he will do whatever it is that he can do to lead us away from God’s way.
While Satan is likely to do whatever it is that will undermine God’s purposes, one of the common things that we see in Scripture is that he spreads lies, lies that are “plausible” and might sound like God’s word but actually distort it, causing us to turn from God rather than toward God. That is what God did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, twisting God’s word (see Genesis 3). It is what God did to the second Adam, Jesus Christ, in his temptations in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. We see this distortion of God’s word throughout Scriptures, and the Apostle Paul notes in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 that there are “false apostles,deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” The devil can spread lies in the church and through people who are ministers — we need to constantly be on the guard against lies! Therefore, Satan is called the father of lies (John 8:44) and the deceiver of the nations (Revelation 12:9). Spreading lies is much more subtle and likely more effective in our secularized culture that is skeptical of evil forces; I do not deny the reality of demon possession, but it seems like Satan does a pretty good job in America of getting people to turn away from God by spreading lies; people don’t need to be possessed if they are under his spell already and believe his lies!
Knowing that Satan’s primary strategy is spreading lies about God causes me to think less about the cause of the exact things happening in my life and more about how I am interpreting these things and what I believe to be true; the battlefield is in my mind! I am not sure what causes an illness, but I can either believe in this: that God is good and in control or that he is not a good guy or one that doesn’t care. We can be deceived to think that the “Devil made me do it” and we have no responsibility when we commit sin, or we can be deceived to think that we cannot be forgiven when we sin.
- The primary weapons are the Word and prayer, though there might be other weapons at other times
Since a primary place of spiritual attack are the lies of the evil on that get into our heads, turning to God in prayer and turning to his Word are the places to fight it. There may be times of demon possession that need exorcism, but the more common form of war in our culture are lies that get into our heads that need to be corrected. Turn to his Word and find truth to combat lies; draw near to God and the forces of evil will not be able to overcome you (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6-10). The writer Gregory Boyd talks about “living a revolting lifestyle,” referring to the idea that as you know and live out God’s truth, it will push away the evil one. Spiritual warfare is a normal occurrence, and our primary “weapons” are normal weapons.
- Spiritual “warfare” is actually uprisings or rallies rather than an all-out war
There might be a better word that “warfare,” as this seems to imply that we don’t know who is going to win. But Jesus has won. The battles of the evil one are uprisings but they will not win. We see the war and know that the forces of evil are out there, but we also know that in the cross, evil is defeated and that when Christ returns, all will be made right.
When we are discouraged or alarmed at the war we are in, we need to remember that we stand on the winning side. We need to read passages like 1 John 5:4-5 (For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?) and Colossians 2:15 (He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him). The devil might have some power now, but he is bound as Jesus has come and “bound” the strong man (Matthew 12:29). Our victory comes now through our own strength but through the work of Jesus, as we read in Revelation 12:11: And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
May we cling to His Word and truth while we live in a world at war!
Questions about Bible or theology, e-mail them to Pastor Brian at Theology@wearefaith.org. You can also subscribe to the blog and get its weekly updates by clicking here and filling out the info on the right side.
