Spiritual Warfare

"The primary manifestation of satanic influence and of the evil of This Age is religious; it is blindness with reference to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How often we fail to understand satanic devices! A man may be a cultured, ethical and even religious person and yet be in demonic darkness. Satan's basic desire is to keep men from Christ. His primary concern is not to corrupt morals nor to make atheists nor to produce enemies of religion. Indeed religion which rests upon the assumption of human adequacy and sufficiency is an enemy of the light. This is the character of the Age of this world: darkness."

- George Eldon Ladd

Ladd is right; "how often we fail to understand satanic devices."

I am a little bit disappointed by the way spiritual warfare has been emphasized on campus. I am not disappointed because i think the topic has been overemphasized, as if we need to balance out the spiritual side of things (demons, Holy Spirit, Satan, prayer, speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, etc) with the practical side of things (academics, thinking, career, family, etc). I am disappointed precisely because the work of the Holy Spirit has been belittled; his work has been - in my judgment (and in others') - somewhat restricted to the realm of paranormal activity.

I am aware that the work of Satan manifests itself in such activity, in the physically inexplainable, and that the Holy Spirit provides redemption through healing, exorcism, and other miraculous events. I am thankful for my brothers and sisters who labor in holy warfare against this manifestation of the work of Satan. But I am frustrated when terms like "the work of Satan" and "spiritual warfare" and "the Holy Spirit" are used in reference to paranormal activity alone.

Here is why.

1) The Father and the Son

God, the loving Father, is revealed in the Beloved Son. The eternal existence of Jesus Christ as the Beloved Son proves that God is who he is most essentially, namely, a loving Father. If Jesus Christ the Beloved Son at any point did not exist as a fundamental part of who God is, then God would cease to be a loving Father. Therefore, God the loving Father is revealed in his Son, the Beloved Son Jesus Christ.

"No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known" (John 1:18)

2) The Holy Spirit

Jesus says, "He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14).

The Spirit's sword is the Word, and Jesus is the Word (Ephesians 6:17). If one is hesitant to understand this sword to be Jesus, then simply understand that the Bible is the witness to Jesus (John 5:39), and this witness is the Spirit's sword. Either way, the sword of the Spirit is the proclamation of Jesus.

The work of the Spirit is witnessing and proclaiming Jesus, who reveals the heart of the loving Father. Whether the Church's work is fighting sex-trafficking, praying, preaching, exegesis, social justice, etc., the ultimate goal is the proclamation of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. And the revelation of the Beloved Son reveals the loving Father.

3) Satan and Demons

The work of Satan and his demons in false-prophecy, witchcraft, antichrists, sorcery, corrupt doctrine, insecurity, pornography, sex-trafficking, drug-abuse, or any of these things is ultimately the work to hide the truth of the heart of the Father, to hide the revelation of Jesus Christ the Son, and to extinguish the flame of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the Word of God the Father, and Satan's work is rooted in the sentence "did God really say?" Demonic oppression is simply an extension of that work; he is still trying to cause human beings to not believe the Word who is Jesus.

4) Sin

Therefore, sin is most fundamentally not believing the Word. Humanity has rejected the Word, the Beloved Son, and as a result blasphemed the character of God the Father.

In the Pentateuch God is revealed as the Father of humanity (Gen 5:1-3), and the disobedience of Israel is summed up in Moses statement to them in Deuteronomy 32:6

"Do you thus repay the LORD,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your Father, who created you,
who made you and established you?"

Malachi puts it the same:

"Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?" (Malachi 2:10)

No matter how sin has manifested itself in a person's life, the most fundamental problem is that this person does not truly believe that God is a Father who loves them. This is the truth revealed in Jesus Christ. And if any person fully believed this truth they would be free from sin, from Satan and demons.

5) Demonic oppression

Furthermore - as Ladd has explained - a man who is a good husband and a good father, who works hard, and who is absolutely convinced that he does not need the Truth of Jesus Christ, is in demonic darkness, and is as much in need of the freedom of the Holy Spirit as a "demon possessed" man.

It is easy to recognize demonic activity when a person is cursing the name of Jesus. But do we not symbolically curse the name of Jesus when we indulge in prideful thoughts throughout our day, as if these were a happy alternative to the joy of being assured of the love of the Father? I am arguing that this is demonic activity.

And so the work of the Holy Spirit which relates to every moment of every human being's life has been belittled because "demonic activity" and "spiritual warfare" have been emphasized as relating to paranormal activity alone.

I believe that Satan is happy when the Church focuses on his work as only relating to paranormal activity and physical, tangible manifestations of demons. He is happy because we neglect the fact that his work is permeating the lives of soccer moms, hipster baristas, rockstars, as well as witches. When a man is "possessed by a demon" it is obvious, and the Church will pray. But when a man thinks he does not need Jesus because he has a good job, it is a more subtle and dangerous work of Satan.

I am not concerned with balancing Spirit and Truth, that is, balancing crazy spirituality with solid doctrine. I am concerned to redefine the work of the Spirit as ultimately proclaiming Jesus, who reveals the heart of the Father. I want to be consumed with this Spirit. I long for his freedom, for his proclamation of the victory of Jesus over Satan and demons. I am quite convinced that the way "spiritual warfare" has been emphasized has missed this. I am not alone in this sentiment.

At the end of the day, I am just another voice at the table, and my opinion is my opinion. This post is an effort to do theology and think of truth in community. I am thankful that God's Spirit is indeed moving and shaping our community. The past school-year has made it obvious that he does indeed want us to have a more clear definition of "spiritual warfare".