What’s War? The Existential Question of Spiritual Warfare
In 2005, American writer David Foster Wallace delivered the commencement address at Kenyon College in Ohio.1 He began his speech with a story about two young fish being greeted one morning by an older fish. “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” As the story goes, the younger fish swam on for a moment until one turned and asked the other, “what’s water?” Wallace bounced off that story to ask the graduates the existential question about the meaning of life. Does this meaning come from within or from without? Is the real meaning of life baked-in, or is it something we learn? These questions are difficult to answer, Wallace concluded, because mankind has an inherent problem with awareness (we call this spiritual blindness: 2 Cor 4:3-4). People are like the two little fish swimming in the pond. Most do not understand who they are, or the environment in which they live.
Like Wallace’s unphilosophical fish, many Christians are immersed in the waters of spiritual warfare with little awareness of themselves or their dangerous environment. Mankind is engaged in part of a cosmic struggle between God and Satan. This conflict began sometime in eternity past when Satan arrogantly exalted himself before God (Is 14, Ez 28). The warfare broke out into the open in the Garden with the temptation of Eve. Since then, God’s people have been in the middle of the great war. There have been periods where this war was more evident than others. Moses fought against demonic powers in Pharaoh’s court. Elijah and Elisha were involved in various conflicts that required supernatural intervention. Of course, the era of Jesus and the disciples was fraught with spiritual conflict including interaction with demons. The Scriptures also highlight Daniel’s time in Babylon and Persia, as well as a future conflict between Michael and Satan when the Devil will be bound and cast into the Lake of Fire. During the millennia and a half when the Bible was written, spiritual warfare was evident throughout.
So why do so many reject spiritual warfare as an important subject for Christians today? Why are there no Bible college courses on the subject? Why do seminaries typically avoid it? Why has the subject been relegated to a few on the lecture circuit or a couple of devotional books? There are a few reasons for a lack of awareness of spiritual warfare. First, some are convinced it is just Pentecostal nuttiness. The rise of Third Wave Charismaticism in the late 20th Century resulted in some concluding spiritual warfare is not biblical. They argue that spiritual warfare was something with which God’s people struggled when the Bible was being written, but that we live in a different time. But if that’s true, then Paul’s warning: “We wrestle (now) against principalities and powers …” (Eph 6:12) has no meaning for us. That conclusion rejects any identifiable reason to guard ourselves by putting on God’s armor (v. 11).
A second reason for this lack of awareness is that some have adopted a Western worldview that has all but virtually eliminated the reality of Satan and demons. They believe what occurred in Jesus’ day was the result of a pre-scientific-age reaction to disease and not an authentic explosion of demonic activity. While they rarely articulate it in these terms, they have adopted a secularist viewpoint. Their theology includes the reality of the spiritual warfare because you cannot just jettison Ephesians 6 from the Bible, but their practice denies it. They interpret the story in Matthew 17:14-18 where Jesus healed the demon possessed boy as being a case of epilepsy. They argue that the situation was a treatable medical condition, not demonic oppression. This conclusion changes the entire thrust of Matthew’s text.
Finally, some leaders in nouthetic Christian counseling argue that what appears to be demonic influence is merely a simple sin problem. With counseling, they contend, those who appear to be demonically oppressed may find relief by repenting of the underlying sin. Spiritual warfare is not really a fight against an unseen external spiritual power as much as it is about an internal struggle with one’s own sinful flesh. While there is much for which to commend nouthetic counseling, this position misses the mark. If these were counseling Job, as clear a case of demonic oppression as there is in Scripture, they would likely take the same position that Job’s friends took. We all know how that story ended.
If a fear of Charismaticism, a modernistic worldview, or the influence of well-meaning, but misguided nouthetic counselors has caused you to lay down your weapons, then you lack awareness of your situation. You’ve disarmed at the wrong time. You do not realize the serious, soul-endangering conflict in which we live. I would encourage you to reread Ephesians 6:16 and seriously mediate on its meaning. What are Satan’s “fiery darts?” Is it important that we defend ourselves against them? What happens to us if we don’t use our armor?
On September 12, 2008, David Foster Wallace hanged himself on the patio of his house in Claremont, California. Those who knew him well lamented that he died before his time, before he had a chance to finish giving the world his wisdom. [1] He said he wanted awareness, even craved for it. Sadly, Wallace was spiritually blind. He groped for God not knowing what it was he was looking for and with no means to find it. It is not overstating the case to claim his soul as a casualty of the spiritual war.
In the next installment, I’ll examine liberal theology’s view of spiritual warfare.
Matt Walker is the pastor of College Park Baptist Church, Cary, NC.
[1] D.T. Max, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/03/09/the-unfinished, accessed June 26, 2018, 4:37pm.
- David Foster Wallace, “This is Water,” https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/. [↩]