Spiritial Warefare-GOD'S Way
Like prayer, spiritual warfare is
of great practical importance to Christian growth. It is critical
to accurately understand and apply what the Bible has to say
about overcoming temptation and withstanding the wiles of the
Devil. If the Evil One could convince a large enough percentage
of Christians to substitute a superstitious1 approach to doing
battle with him in place of the biblical model, he would largely
neutralize the witness of the church. This scenario may sound
preposterous, but there is good reason to believe it is well
underway.
There seems to be no end to the subjective,
sensational, and superstitious fare on spiritual warfare that
dominates the Christian book market. Pay a visit to your local
Christian bookstore. Chances are you will find 10 to 20 books
on spiritual warfare themes. Two radically different approaches
will be represented. The vast majority of the books will advocate
the relatively new deliverance model for spiritual warfare.
This model affirms the capacity of evil spirits to possess or
"demonize" Christians. It assumes the existence of, and need
to identify, spirits associated with various sins (e.g., the
"spirit of lust"), spirits attached to specific physical locations
(e.g., "territorial spirits") or objects, and spirits of various
sins passed down through human blood lines (i.e., "generational
spirits").
In any of these cases, it emphasizes
that God has given Christians authority to confront these demons
directly through rebuking them, verbally "binding" them,2 and
commanding them to leave whatever person or place one believes
they inhabit. The use of this authority is considered central
to both spiritual warfare and Christian sanctification or victory
over sin. This direct confrontation can take the form of "warfare
prayer" - in which one primarily addresses the Devil and his
legions, not God - as well as deliverance sessions (i.e., exorcisms)
performed on Christians, including sometimes oneself.
Unless your Christian bookstore is
under unusually discerning and conscientious ownership, you
will only find a few books at the most that will not teach these
concepts and practices but will rather advocate the historic
discipleship model for spiritual warfare and sanctification.
There probably will be only one book in the latter group that
will clearly dissociate itself from the former group and call
those recent innovations in spiritual warfare biblically false.
That book would be The Covering.
At CRI we are comforted by the realization
that there actually are many Christians who agree with us. In
terms of the publishing world, however, we often feel like voices
in the wilderness as we continually stand for the largely obscured
discipleship model for battling against sin and the Devil, described
in detail by Hanegraaff and Strobel in this issue. In the past
this magazine has responded to the deliverance teachings of
such authors as C. Fred Dickason, Mark Bubeck, Frank and Ida
Mae Hammond,3 Neil T. Anderson,4 and Bob Larson.5
These articles may be accessed at
our Web site (www.equip.org). Since the publication of these
articles, new authors have come to the forefront with best-selling
books that spread further into evangelicalism the errant spiritual
warfare ideas and approaches of the deliverance model. Some
of these authors, such as Stormie Omartian and Beth Moore, are
likable personalities with obviously sincere faith in, and love
for, Christ. It is especially hard for me to write critically
of Omartian, since she was one of my favorite lyricists in the
1970s when she contributed to her husband Michael's progressive
Christian rock albums.
Her series of books on the power of
prayer6 have dominated the Christian nonfiction bestseller's
lists in recent years, breaking records in the process, and
they show no signs of abating.7 Much of what Omartian has to
say about prayer and the Christian life is good, and there's
no disputing that her books have helped many people.
What's the problem, then? Despite
Omartian's good intentions, when she touches on spiritual warfare
issues, she repeats the errors she imbibed at her church of
23 years (until she moved to Tennessee), The Church on the Way
in Van Nuys, California (associated with the Foursquare Gospel
denomination).
The Church on the Way, whose pastor,
Jack Hayford (Omartian's "spiritual father"8), is highly respected
in the charismatic/Pentecostal
movement, is a dynamic and in many ways fruitful church.9 It
has, however, embraced, or at least failed to take a stand against,
many of the errors that have spread through much of the charismatic
movement. It recently has become a leading dispenser of the
deliverance model of spiritual warfare through its Cleansing
Stream Ministries (CSM).
The mission statement of CSM states
that it is "committed to partnering with pastors and churches
in teaching and training leaders and maturing believers in personal
cleansing, deliverance, and spiritual warfare so they can be
released to serve, minister, and disciple others in the Body
of Christ" (emphasis added).10 All of the distinctives of the
deliverance model mentioned above - along with the errors of
the word of faith movement concerning the creative power of
human speech - are taught by CSM in seminars and retreats to
local churches across North America and around the world. Like
CSM, Omartian affirms that Christians can be demonized and need
to seek deliverance from this affliction.11 She assumes the
existence of, and need to identify, spirits attached to physical
locations and objects, generational spirits, and specific demons
associated with, and assigned to, specific sins.12
She further teaches that God has given
Christians authority to directly address, rebuke, command, and
bind demons, and that using this authority is central both to
spiritual warfare and sanctification.13 Several of these points
can be demonstrated from just one quote, taken from Lord, I
Want to Be Whole:
The first step in renouncing sin
is to ask God exactly what you need to be delivered from.
If you're dealing with evil spirits, ask Him to show you which
ones. Say, "God, give me revelation. Show me if an evil spirit
is causing my fear." Then speak a Scripture from the Word
of God that backs up your authority to cast out this spirit.
Choose a Scripture that applies to your own life. For example,
say, "God has not given [me] a spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7). Then cast out
the spirit. Speak directly to the evil spirit with confidence
and boldness and the full knowledge that Jesus has given you
authority to do so in His name. Be specific. Say, "I address
you, spirit of fear. I will no longer entertain you. I renounce
you and remove your right to stay. I say you have no power
over me. I bind you in the name of Jesus Christ and in the
authority He has given me. I cast you out of my life and command
you to be gone."14
Much of the confusion that exists
over spiritual warfare arises from taking Bible passages that
have a limited application and treating them as if they have
no limits. The Bible does say that Christ has unlimited authority
over demons, and He gave His disciples the specific authority
to cast demons out of possessed individuals and to overcome
any other manifestations of the Evil One they might encounter
in the work of preaching the Gospel (Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:13-15;
Luke 10:17-20; cf. Acts 13:7b-12).
In that context, we do find believers
in the Gospels and the book of Acts directly addressing demons,
rebuking them (not Satan himself; cf. Jude 8-10), and casting
them out of people. Jesus never even hinted, however, that this
authority carried over into our personal battles with sin and
Satan.
Nowhere do we find the apostles or
disciples addressing invisible spirits (i.e., spirits that are
not inhabiting a human body). We are promised victory over the
Devil in James 4:7: if we resist him, he will flee from us;
but we are never told that we resist him by commanding him to
leave us alone. In the larger context of James 4, it is clear
that this resistance involves submitting to God, drawing near
to Him, becoming serious about repentance, and humbling ourselves
in the presence of the Lord (James 4:7-10).
The same applies to all other Bible
passages that speak of resisting Satan (e.g., Eph. 6:13-18;
1 Pet. 5:5-10). Spiritual warfare does not consist in addressing
the Devil but rather in addressing God in prayer; it is not
a matter of asserting one's own authority to use Christ's name
over the Devil but rather of standing firm and unmovable in
one's faith in, and obedience to, God. This sustained commitment
in the face of spiritual opposition - a moral exercise that
causes us to grow in the image of Christ - is what makes the
Devil go away. Satan will be "bound" and cast out of our presence
at the Second Coming (Rev. 20:1-3), but in the meantime he serves
a purpose in God's development of our character,15 and it is
only our steadfast resistance of evil that makes him flee -
not the mere utterance of words or the assertion of our authority
in Christ.
This more restricted view of the believer's
authority over demons does not mean that the believer is less
equipped to prevail against "the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12; NASB) than he or she would
be in the deliverance model. In this issue's discussion, as
in The Covering, Hank Hanegraaff takes the focus off of errant
views of spiritual warfare in order to provide a positive presentation
of what God has provided to ensure our spiritual victory: the
"armor of God" (Eph. 6:11-18), which Hanegraaff calls "the covering."
One part of this armor, Scripture, is correctly noted by Omartian
as playing a critical role in spiritual warfare; it is the "sword
of the Spirit," our one offensive weapon (Eph. 6:17), and Satan
must yield to its authority.
This happens naturally, however, as
we stand in faith upon the Word during times of temptation and
trial and use it properly when communicating with both the lost
and the saved. There is neither need nor biblical basis for
quoting Scripture to the Devil.16 When Omartian says we should
look for Scriptures that apply to our situation, she is right.
When she tells us to find Scriptures that will back up our authority,
she is wrong. It is the authority of God's Word and Christ on
which we stand. That is more than sufficient.
Elliot Miller
NOTES 1. By superstitious
I mean belief in powers and principles that are more akin to
magic than to anything that can be substantiated from Scripture
or science. 2. This practice is based on a misunderstanding
of Matt. 18:18, which is actually talking about dealing with
sinning Christians (see vv. 15-17; cf. John 20:21-23), not dealing
with demons. 3. For a general treatment of Christian deliverance
teachings up to 1993, see Brent Grimsley and Elliot Miller,
"Can a Christian Be 'Demonized'?" vol. 16, no. 3. 4. For an
in-depth analysis of the teachings of Anderson on spiritual
warfare and sanctification, see the four part "The Bondage Maker"
series by Elliot Miller and Bob and Gretchen Passantino that
appeared in vol. 21. 5. See Steven Parks, "The Devil Is in the
Details: An Examination of the Teachings of Bob Larson," vol.
24, no. 2. 6. See The Power of a Praying Parent (1995), The
Power of a Praying Wife (1997), The Power of a Praying Husband
(2001), The Power of a Praying Woman (2002), and The Power of
a Praying Nation (2002), all published by Harvest House (Eugene,
OR). See also Lord, I Want to Be Whole: The Power of Prayer
and Scripture in Emotional Healing (2000) and Praying God's
Will for Your Life (2002), both published by Thomas Nelson (Nashville).
7. See "Prayer Power: Omartian's Popular Series Breaks Best-Seller
Records," Book and Bible News and Reviews, CBA (Christian Booksellers
Association) Web site (http://www.cbaonline.org/), http://204.71.129.243/MarketPlace/_sep02bnr.jsp.
8. Parent, Acknowledgments, v. 9. At least that was the case
when I visited it a few times in the 1970s. 10. http://www.cleansingstream.org/intro_to_CSM.html.
11. See Lord, I Want to Be Whole, 77-78, 83ff. Like many deliverance
teachers, Omartian makes distinctions that are supposed to reassure
Christians about the limits of the Devil's power over them but
that, in fact, make little or no difference. She makes a distinction
between a demon indwelling a believer's spirit - which she says
can't happen - and a demon attaching itself to a believer's
life - which she says does happen frequently and is the reason
why believers need deliverance. She also qualifies that Christians
cannot be possessed, but only oppressed. On the one hand she
maintains, "Jesus is in you. Evil spirits are not in you." (Ibid,
79.) On the other hand, she affirms, "Deliverance, then, is
evicting the Devil and refusing to be crippled by him" (ibid.,
78; emphasis added), and she instructs believers to "cast out
the spirit" and "remove [its] right to stay." (Ibid., 86.) Omartian
is using biblical terminology when she speaks of casting out
or evicting a demon, but she fails to realize that this necessarily
implies something much worse than attachment to one's life.
Whenever the Bible speaks of deliverance, it is always referring
to evicting a demon from a person's body, which the demon had
made its home, and from which the demon was able to exert complete
control of, and inflict extreme affliction on, the wretched,
lost victim. There is, furthermore, no biblical ministry of
deliverance to believers. Christians who are overcome by temptation
are consistently instructed to put "to death the deeds of the
body" (Rom. 8:13; NASB); they are never told to cast out the
demons of various sins. Omartian teaches that demons can control
believers against their will, and this is the biblical doctrine
of demon possession by another name.
For a fuller development
of these points, see Elliot Miller, "The Bondage Maker: Examining
the Message and Method of Neil T. Anderson (Part Two: Spiritual
Warfare and the 'Truth Encounter')," Christian Research Journal
21, 2 (1998): 10-21. 1. 12. See Lord, I Want to Be Whole, 81-82,
85-86; Parent, 94-95, 133-34, 174, 176. 2. 13. See Lord, I Want
to Be Whole, 86. Cf. Husband, 24-25. 3. 14. Lord, I Want to
Be Whole, 85-86. 4. 15. See, e.g., 2 Cor. 12:7-9. Paul did not
rebuke Satan for giving him this "thorn in the flesh" or command
him to take it away, but he rather besought the Lord to remove
it from him, and graciously accepted the Lord's answer that
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness" (v. 9, NIV). Paul was able to appreciate that this
satanic affliction served a divine purpose in keeping him humble,
despite the great revelations he had received (v. 7). 5. 16.
The one biblical instance in which the Devil was addressed directly,
and Scripture was spoken to him, was when Jesus was tempted
in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). It should first be noted that
no one is disputing that Jesus has the authority to address
and rebuke the Devil (see, e.g., Jude 8-10). Jesus is God and
Lord of all creation, including Satan, and so it does not necessarily
follow that what was proper for Him is also proper for us, John
14:12 notwithstanding. The very point under dispute is whether
all of Jesus' authority transfers over to us or only that specified
in Scripture, and so it would beg the question to use this verse
as a proof text without establishing the practice of addressing
and rebuking the Devil elsewhere in Scripture. It is clear enough,
furthermore, that Satan appeared to Jesus in some sort of visible
form. If the Devil visually manifests himself to you, then perhaps
you will have a biblical basis to quote Scripture to him! If
not, quote your Scriptures to yourself or those who are with
you, for the only invisible being you have a biblical basis
for addressing is God. If Scripture provides no justification
for speaking to angels or departed saints, why should we think
it is OK to talk to Beelzebub and his demons?
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