Spiritual Warfare Part Two

I came across several helpful quotes in a book I was reading today, Missions in the Third Millenium by Stan Guthrie. Guthrie is commenting on the particular understanding of spiritual warfare advanced most powerfully by Frank Peretti's book, This Present Darkness. I think the comments Guthrie makes in regard to the worldview put forward by this book are very perceptive.

"These depict a God who lets angels and demons 'duke it out' while remaining largely on the sidelines. Much of the spiritual warfare movement implies the existence of a God who is either unwilling or unable to work without specific, targeted prayers to first neutralize the satanic hosts pervading the planet" (80). Later, Guthrie adds, "Claiming the truthfulness of a teaching based on recent experience or a new revelation is the modus operandi of a cult, not of biblical Christianity" (81). Finally, Guthrie helpfully reminds us, "If this 'warfare' emphasis was not known or needed in the church's first two millennia, why would it be for the third millennium? And if it is a true way of becoming 'equipped for every good work,' why did God take so long to reveal it? And how do proponents defend themselves against the charge that they are promoting just the latest gnostic teaching in the church? Gnosticism, long a bane of the church, is an approach to faith that says that some special, hidden knowledge available only to the few is necessary to properly live the Christian life or to do God's will. The warfare emphasis certainly seems to imply this" (82). To end on a positive note, Guthrie offers this concluding comment: "Despite its flaws, it would be a mistake to dismiss the spiritual warfare movement out of hand"..."The spiritual warfare movement rightly reminds us that we battle not only the world and the flesh, but the devil as well" (82).