sPIRITUAL

W H AT T H E B I B L E T E A C H E S A B O U T S P I R I T U A L W A R FA R E
WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT

SPIRITUAL WARFARE
When some Christians think of spiritual warfare, they may be
­consumed with worry about what Satan will do to them next. Others
have been taught that they have authority over the demonic host.
Still others ignore the spiritual battle being fought right in their midst.

WARFARE
Using the Bible as their basis of authority, the authors ­answer such
questions as:
• What is demon possession?
• Can a Christian be demon possessed?
• Do demons make you sin?
• Can pagan objects haunt you?
• How did Jesus handle spiritual warfare?
• What is Satan’s strategy?
• Is exorcism biblical?
The battle strategy taught here is simple: You can resist the Devil and
rest in the knowledge that God is in control over all things. He will
have the ultimate victory over sin and death.

Robert Dean, Jr. (M.A., Th.M.,

D.Min.) is Pastor-Teacher of West Hous-
ton Bible Church in Houston, Texas
and President of Dean Bible Ministries
(www.deanbibleministries.org). He has been ROBERT DEAN, JR. and THOMAS ICE
in the pastoral ministry since 1981, has
published numerous articles, and has taught
the Bible in many countries around the world.

Thomas Ice (B.A., Th.M. Ph.D.) is

­Executive Director of the Pre-Trib Research
­Center (www.pre-trib.org). He has written
­dozens of books, his latest book is Under-
standing The Olivet Discourse. He and his wife
Janice currently reside in Godfrey, IL. Robert Dean, Jr.
and Thomas Ice

01-2024
Find thousands of hours of solid Bible teaching by
Dr. Dean on www.DeanBibleMinistries.org

Check out Dr. Dean’s Light From The Light

YouTube channel featuring ongoing weekly videos
on a variety of subjects, all for the purpose
of learning and internalizing the Word of God.
These videos are typically 15–20 minutes in length.

Dr. Ice’s Pre-Trib.org website is packed with

thousands of papers/articles/videos on prophecy,
dispensationalism, the Pre-Trib Rapture,
and other biblical topics.
 WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Robert Dean, Jr.

Thomas Ice

i
What the Bible Teaches About Spiritual Warfare
Previously published as Overrun by Demons: The Church’s New
Preoccupation with the Demonic.
© 1990, 2000, 2013, 2024 by Robert Dean, Jr. and Thomas Ice
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—with-
out written permission of Robert Dean, Jr. and Thomas Ice, except
for brief quotations in printed reviews.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from
the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, ©The Lockman
Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973. Used by
­permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version
of the Bible.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover artwork based on Ephesians 6:17: “And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dean, Robert, Jr.
What the Bible teaches about spiritual warfare / by Robert Dean, Jr.
and Thomas Ice
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Spiritual warfare—Biblical teaching. 2. Devil—Biblical teaching.
3. Demonology—Biblical teaching.
I. Ice, Thomas. II. Title.
BS680.S73 D43 2000 235’.4--dc21 00-030376
CIP

ii
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgements / iv
1. The Great War / 1
2. Ultimate Intelligence / 11
3. Origins of Conflict / 29
4. Worldview for Conquest / 52
5. The Enemy Within / 68
6. Invasion of the King / 87
7. Strategies of the Enemy / 104
8. Resisting the Attacker / 130
9. The Greatest Weapon / 146
10. Triumphant Warriors / 160
11. War’s End / 175
12. Successful Saints / 191

iii
 Dedication and Acknowledgements

To our parents, Alton and Vesta Ice and Bob and Gloria Dean, who
fought the good fight by leading us to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ and whose love and support through the years have enabled
us to fight the good fight. We love you.

Train up a child in the way he should go,

and even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

Since the Kregel 2000 edition went out of print, the manuscript has
gone through additional editing. No writer can make it without a
support team of editors and proofreaders. I [Robert Dean] have
been richly blessed with a number of wonderful such helpers in my
congregation, and this new edition would not have been possible
without their aid. So, I wish to express my deepest appreciation to
Connie Balthrop, Arlene Carner, Joy Porter, and Sandy Valcher.

No book is ever produced without the help and support of a number

of people. Dr. Charles Ryrie provided helpful suggestions and was
someone with whom to talk as we sought to refine our understand-
ing of the Scriptures. We are also grateful to our respective churches
for giving us the freedom and time to work on this book. Finally,
we wish to thank Grace Bible Church in San Marcos, TX; as well as
Gordon and David Whitelock and the folks at Camp Peniel, who
provided us with places to retreat from the pressing demands of our
churches so we could write. Without the help of all of these people,
we would still be on chapter one!

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 1
THE GREAT WAR
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according
to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the
flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortress-
es. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing
raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3–5

Another long, miserable day at work, and now this! Someone’s car
had overheated and blocked one of the two lanes left open on the
freeway while the other three lanes were under construction. Sue
was steamed. Not only had her day at the office been an absolute
disaster, but she now had to put up with this. She was going to be at
least an hour late getting to the daycare center to pick up her three-
year-old son, Joey, but the extra bills from the air conditioner repair
had left her with no extra money to eat out. After a day like this,
Sue dreaded having to fix dinner when she got home. She felt so
trapped. She couldn’t understand why life wasn’t going better now
that she was a born-again Christian.
For the last several months so many things seemed to have gone
wrong. First, the car needed a valve job, then Joey broke his arm so
badly that it needed to be surgically set. Then the compressor on her
air conditioner went out. She could not believe how the bills had
snowballed. It would take her at least a year, maybe two, to get all
of these bills paid off. And she knew that other unexpected expens-
es were sure to come up in the meantime. She desperately needed
something to perk up her spirits.
While she was waiting in traffic, she decided to turn on the ra-
dio; maybe that would help. That’s when she heard it—an adver-
tisement for the new steak restaurant that had just opened. As she
thought about it, she dreamed of how wonderful it would be if she
could just pick up Joey and go there for a nice, big steak and a good,
rich, chocolate dessert. But she knew she couldn’t afford a meal like
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this and ought to put it out of her mind. But that ­gnawing voice in-
side her said that she was worth it. After all, what difference would
another thirty dollars or so on her credit card mean? She was worth
it! She would face the money problems later.
Is this a valid response to the pressures and circumstances in
life? Or could it be that the small voice is really the influence of the
world system? What could Sue do to avoid this kind of thinking?
Can Prayer Exorcise a City?
José and Maria had been born-again Christians for only two years.
During that time, they had become quite involved in their church.
For several months, the pastor had been teaching about spiritual
warfare, especially prayer. One of his major emphases was that Sa-
tan and his demons held sway over certain territories and that in
Miami (where they lived) one of the reasons for the high incidence
of drug traffic, prostitution, and violence was the demonic oppres-
sion of the city. If Miami was ever to be freed from the dominion of
these demons, then Christians must gather together and pray. Only
through the effective prayer of the Christians would the holy angels
have the power to gain victory over the demons and enable Miami
to experience spiritual revival.
The series on spiritual warfare culminated with a week-long
prayer marathon. People in the church had been encouraged and
challenged to join six- and ten-hour prayer vigils and to pray and fast
around the clock. At the end of the week, words of prophecy were
spoken in the church, encouraging the people that their prayers had
been effective and that many of the demons had been routed.
José and Maria lived in the Colombian sector of Miami, and
many of their friends and family members were involved in the drug
trade. José and Maria were excited that this deliverance would final-
ly give them the opportunity to witness to family members without
hindrance from satanic opposition. When their words of witness
were met with the same familiar hostility, they did not question
God but waited in faith. Yet, as the days went by, they noticed that
there was very little difference in the moral climate of Miami. The
drug traffic continued, immorality was just as rampant, and gunfire
­continued to punctuate the night air.
Can prayer deliver a city or neighborhood from the influence
of demons?

2
 Can Christians be Demon Possessed?
Julia was in her mid-forties. She was divorced, and she struggled
to raise her two children on a single income. Yet, she was always
confident that God would provide. Life had been difficult, but the
one hope that carried her through was her sincere faith in God. De-
spite this confidence, she had struggled for more than ten years with
bouts of depression and had finally started visiting counselors. Al-
though she had seen three counselors during the last five years, the
depression continued.
One weekend, a visiting speaker at her church taught that
Christians could be demon possessed. Julia had always been taught
that a Christian could not be possessed, but the speaker said that
depression could be a sign of possession. She left church that night
with a mixed sense of relief and fear—relief because now she might
know her real problem and fear because now she believed that her
depression might be the result of demonic possession. She was not
sure just what to do about all of this.
Can Christians be demon possessed? What is the difference
­between demon possession and demon influence?
Can Christians be Cursed?
Frank and Martha were finally getting away for a weekend “second
honeymoon” together, although doing so meant leaving their high-
school-aged daughter at home alone. They trusted Linda because
she had never given them any real reason to doubt her. Now that
she was about to graduate from high school, they believed that the
time had come to give her the opportunity to show her maturity.
But unknown to them, Linda had planned to have a party the whole
time they were gone. During the party, a group of her friends who
were involved in both a satanic rock music group and a cult hid a
pentagram in a junk drawer in the kitchen and placed a curse on
the family.
Several days after Frank and Martha returned home, they sensed
that something was different about their life, but could not put their
finger on what it was. During the following weeks, they noticed a
deterioration in the circumstances of their lives. Several things went
wrong with their car, and the air conditioner in their home had to
be replaced. They also began to notice more bickering among the
family members and a certain spiritual confusion in the family.
About this time Frank heard from his neighbor that there had
been quite a bit of traffic in and out of their house while they had

3
been away. Eventually, the entire story came out, including the iden-
tification of some of the kids as members of a Satanist cult. When
Frank told a friend about all of this, his friend suggested that the
reason things were not going well for the family was because the
Satanists had probably put a curse on the house, and the family
would have to undergo some sort of exorcism before they could be
delivered. To Frank, this suggestion sounded more like supersti-
tious nonsense than sensible advice, but he began to wonder what
the Bible taught about demons, curses, and spells.
Can Christians be victims of occultic curses?
Will Mind Control Help You?
Carl was a very successful salesman. At twenty-five years of age,
his commissions for the past year had earned him almost two hun-
dred thousand dollars. Furthermore, he was being considered for a
sales manager position. Carl was overwhelmed by God’s blessing in
his life.
One day, the senior manager of his division called him into his
office. He praised Carl for his work and ambition and saw nothing
but the best for him. However, he suggested one particular sem-
inar that Carl should attend if he was ever to reach his goals. He
implied that Carl would probably not receive the promotion unless
he ­attended.
As Carl questioned his manager about the seminar, he discov-
ered that it was designed to teach him mind-control principles,
improve his memory, and enable him to influence other people
positively. One of the most important results of the seminar, Carl’s
manager told him, was that he would be introduced to a spiritual
counselor upon whom he could rely and who would give him an
edge over his competition.
Is Carl on the verge of being involved in occultic practices dis-
guised as sales techniques? Is mind control (positive mental atti-
tude) a biblical approach to handling life’s challenges? Or is it an
open door to demonism?
Can Demons Make You Sin?
Bob and his sister Susan had grown up in a Christian home and
had been well trained in the Scriptures. When Susan was in college,
however, she began to lose her spiritual bearings and became luke-
warm toward God. For several years, Bob had been praying for her,
and God seemed to have answered his prayers. Susan had joined

4
a new church that was quite alive, and she was more turned on to
Jesus than ever before.
This so impressed Bob that he, too, soon joined this same
church. He was impressed that these people seemed to act aggres-
sively on their faith and truly expected God to perform miracles and
signs and wonders, just as He had done in the New Testament. At
first, Bob was skeptical, but he heard so many glowing testimonies
from Christians who had been delivered from demons and were
now free from sins that had plagued them that he, too, was think-
ing that perhaps the problems he faced with sin were the result of
­demonic influence in his life.
Can demons—“spirits of lust, murder, anger, gluttony”—cause
Christians to sin, or is sin simply the result of choosing to follow our
own sin nature?
Can You Have a Demon of Lust?
Bill had been introduced to pornography as a young teen. Through
the years, it had become more and more of an obsession. This obses-
sion intensified in college when he began looking for more ways to
get his sexual thrills and discovered adult peep shows. While he was
a senior in college, he was led to the Lord through a campus minis-
try, and for several years, the pornography problem no longer both-
ered him. But after he was married, he again found himself tempted
by the pleasures of the pornography palace and the massage parlor.
What made this situation so difficult for him was that he was in his
second year of seminary, studying to be a pastor. He just couldn’t
understand why he could not overcome this sin.
Finally the guilt became so intense that Bill went to one of his
seminary professors for advice. This professor suggested that he very
likely was being influenced by a demon of lust and that he should
go through a deliverance session to gain freedom from this demon.
Do demons cause specific sins in people’s lives? How are Christians
to have victory over the sins with which they c­ ontinuously struggle?
Can Pagan Objects Haunt You?
Fred and Linda had been on the missionary committee at their
church for twenty years. Now that Fred was finally retired, they
went overseas to visit several of the church missionaries. When they
returned home, they brought with them a number of artifacts with
which they hoped to help people in their church understand the
various cultures where their missionaries served. So they included
these objects in a mission display in the basement of the church.
5
But soon a lady in the church confronted them, saying that some of
the objects that they had brought back were used in pagan rituals or
were idols and that Fred and Linda should destroy these things and
cleanse the church before they became victims of the demons that
are associated with them.
Can Christians who are obediently walking with the Lord in-
nocently or unknowingly pick up demons through objects that are
associated with occult practices? If so, what should they do about it?
Can You Inherit a Demon?
Sandy had grown up in a family that was deeply entrenched in oc-
cult practices and witchcraft. Both of her parents were in a coven
that her grandfather had founded. Her mother was also a palm
reader and astrologer. Her father had, on a number of occasions,
served as a channel for the spirit of a man who had allegedly lived
in India twenty thousand years ago. Because of Sandy’s upbringing,
this was all she knew about religion.
When Sandy left home in her late teen years to attend college,
her roommate, an evangelical Christian, began to talk to her about
Jesus Christ, who died for her sins. Sandy’s roommate explained
to her what the Bible taught about Satan, demons, witchcraft, and
astrology. At first, Sandy was hostile, but during the semester, she
accepted the challenge to read the Bible for herself. Under the guid-
ance of her roommate, she came to see that what she knew as re-
ligion would never provide eternal life and that she must trust in
Jesus Christ alone for her salvation.
After Sandy was saved, she began attending a large church in
town. Because of her background, she still had many questions
about her new faith and the witchcraft that she had left behind.
Her roommate suggested that she go to one of the counselors in the
church for answers. The counselor told her that trusting in Christ
alone as her Savior was not enough. Because Sandy had come from
such an occultic background, she needed to renounce all of these
practices and very possibly needed deliverance from the demons
that she inherited through her family.
Does the Bible teach that a person who is saved from an oc-
cultic background can have a demon that was passed on from one
generation to another? Must such a person not only turn completely
to Christ but also be delivered from these inherited demons as a
separate step?

6
 You Are at War
Each of the stories that you have just read is based on a true inci-
dent, and each represents a cross section of what is happening in the
lives of many people today. Each of these Christians wants to live a
life that is pleasing to God, yet each faces daily struggles and oppo-
sition in his or her walk with the Lord. The Bible teaches that life has
a dimension that goes beyond the material, physical environment.
This arena centers on the immaterial part of your being—the real
you—and your relationship to God. In opposition to God is Satan
and a vast army of immaterial, rational creatures that are subservi-
ent to him. They have all been sentenced to eternal condemnation
in the lake of fire (Matt. 25:41). Yet, that sentence has been post-
poned until the end of human history. Between the pronouncement
of that verdict and the execution of the sentence lies the entire pan-
orama of human history. Man was created to play a vital role in the
resolution of this angelic rebellion. Man is the focal point. This is the
essence of spiritual warfare.
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior,
then you, too, have declared yourself to be a warrior in this cosmic
conflict. Perhaps you did not realize this; maybe you are not aware
that the Bible teaches that Satan is the prince of the power of the
air (Eph. 2:2) and the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). Before you were
saved, Satan was at work in you as one of the sons of disobedience
(Eph. 2:2). Once you were saved, you became a significant soldier
in the greatest war ever fought, a spiritual war fought between the
power of God (light) and the forces of Satan (darkness). As we will
discover in the following pages, the Bible clearly teaches all of these
truths. In addition, the Bible teaches that each believer must learn
how to fight in the battle. The Bible is our combat manual, and in it
we find the vital instructions we need to combat Satan and his two
great allies, the world system and the sin nature.
We are called not simply to be in the army but to be champions
in Christ. At the moment of salvation, God graciously bestowed on
us every spiritual blessing and asset we would ever need to be vic-
torious in the conflict (Eph. 1:3). This is our positional strength, “in
Christ.” We have the completed revelation of God, which supplies
all of the information that we need, and the Spirit of God indwells,
teaches, guides, fills, and illumines our thinking to the truth of God’s
Word. In the power of Christ we stand. Just as the young David, un-
trained in the world’s methods of warfare, became a champion for
Israel against the mighty giant Goliath, so, too, must the b ­ eliever
7
t­oday be a champion in Christ. David chose to enter the battle on
the basis of divine resources, not human ability or technique. He
is our model. To be victorious in spiritual warfare, we must not
be seduced into using thinking or strategies that are influenced by
nonbiblical thinking. We most hold our ground on the provisions,
promises, and power of God. The battle is the Lord’s.
In the coming pages, we will examine each of these three ene-
mies: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. We will discover the fantas-
tic principles that God has freely given us in the Scriptures to defeat
these enemies in our personal lives. We will see more clearly the
role that Christians are to play in this cosmic spiritual drama. And
we will come to understand that our knowledge of these teachings
comprises the basics of the Christian life.
Watching the Game Films
Unfortunately, contemporary teaching on the crucial doctrine of
spiritual warfare has caused Christians to focus almost exclusively
on battles with Satan and demons. If this were truly the emphasis
of Scripture, then there would be no problem. However, because
this is not the primary focus of Scripture but only one aspect of the
teaching, then this overemphasis is misleading and even dangerous.
It becomes dangerous when it causes Christians to focus on attacks
and solutions in only one realm of spiritual warfare, leaving them
vulnerable to attacks from the other two realms. The Bible clearly
addresses spiritual warfare as taking place simultaneously on three
battlefronts: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. So must we.
Just as a football coach studies the game films of his oppo-
nent before the big game to discover his strategies and tactics, so
Christians must know the strategies, tactics, and abilities of their
enemies before they can effectively defeat them. In other words,
we must understand the nature of the warfare and who attacks us
before we can accurately understand what we should be doing. By
examining the lives of the great saints and the great spiritual battles
of Scripture, we can see the strategies of the enemy and learn prin-
ciples for avoiding the snares and assaults of the Devil, the traps of
worldliness, and the drive of our own sinful nature.
Once we understand the spiritual war of which we are a part,
then we must decide what we are to do. How can we live in the
world and not be worldly? How can we have victory over the lusts
of the flesh? And what does it mean to resist the Devil? We need

8
­ iblical insight into how we will be attacked so that we will know
b
what God has supplied for our protection.
The Highest Authority
Many Christians today are losing the battle in spiritual warfare
because they lack an adequate knowledge of God’s Word. This ig-
norance has led some people into occult practices that are cleverly
disguised as “neutral” self-help techniques. Others have one foot in
the world and the other foot in the Bible; thus compromised, they
cannot understand why biblical principles never seem to work for
them. Defeat is commonplace because their lives are not established
on truly biblical principles but rather on the shifting foundation of
human experience.
As we have surveyed much of the contemporary literature writ-
ten for Christians, we have discovered an extremely wide range of
ideas, many of which are mutually contradictory. Both the issues
and the solutions differ widely. We have read many fine-sounding
discussions on spiritual warfare that did not have a biblical basis.
Some people teach that Christians can be demon possessed, where-
as others teach that they cannot. On the other hand, if one view
is true, then Christians must live one way and the solutions to the
problem must lie in one direction. If the other view is true, then the
problems and solutions offered by the first view are irrelevant. How
can we find our way out of this maze and find timeless truth on
which we can base our lives?
We believe that the Bible is our highest authority, and only God
has sufficient, infinite knowledge and understanding of both our
enemies and our human nature to inform us accurately about spir-
itual conflict and what to do about it. The Christian must always be
like the men and women of Berea who received the highest praise
from the Apostle Paul because they did not simply take his word
but searched the Scriptures daily to verify his teaching (Acts 17:11).
The Real Source of Truth
Many of the errors that have crept into the church, some of which
have become very popular, are based on misunderstandings and
misinterpretations of Scripture. Sometimes this happens because
the interpreters have not taken into account the original languages
of the Bible or have misused them. Therefore, it is important that
we occasionally refer to the original Greek and Hebrew wording of
Scripture to interpret more accurately God’s Word.

9
 At other times, error creeps in because we rely upon interpreta-
tions of experiences or personal testimony that might not be consis-
tent with Scripture, especially in the area of Satan and demons and
what they can do to Christians. Testimonies of missionaries work-
ing among pagan tribes where demonic activity abounds are used
to support a particular line of teaching. How should these stories
be evaluated, especially since some of these occurrences are used to
support one position, and others are used to support a contradicto-
ry position? Is appealing to these types of experiences a valid means
to find truth?
Before we can ever hope to have victory over the sin and evil
that are part of our universe, we must first understand the role of
God’s Word. Much of what is taught today contains testimonies of
personal experience or the experiences of other people. We must
find out how we are to regard such testimony, and we must continu-
ally seek to determine a true, biblical approach to spiritual warfare.
Failure to do so is one reason that so many believers are impotent in
the warfare. They have either lost the sure foundation of the Word
of God or severely weakened it by relying upon interpretations of
experiences that run contrary to what the Bible clearly teaches.
When you have finished reading this book, we hope that you
will understand the difference between the worldly, almost super-
stitious views of Satan that have invaded many of our churches
and a truly biblical perspective of evil and our calling to spiritu-
al warfare. We pray that you will be armed with the truth of the
Scriptures and will stand firm against the schemes of the Devil and
his ­terrible ­deception.

10
 2
ULTIMATE INTELLIGENCE
The unfolding of Thy words gives light; it gives understand-
ing to the simple.
Psalm 119:130

During the Second World War, one of the most critical elements of
the Allied victory was provided by the underground forces in the
German-occupied countries. These groups kept tabs on the German
units in their vicinity and relayed this information to Allied head-
quarters in London. In London, General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s
military intelligence staff collated the information, which was used
to formulate strategy and tactics. Rarely did more than a handful
of people have access to all of this information. Lower-level com-
manders and soldiers were told only what they needed to know to
carry out their specific responsibilities. No soldier would ever have
thought to ask for all of the information available to Eisenhower so
that he could verify the validity of his own orders or even under-
stand why he was being ordered to carry out a particular mission.
Only God Knows
In the same way, only God has a complete picture and full under-
standing of the warfare that takes place in the heavenlies. Christians
are analogous to His foot soldiers. Our operations orders are out-
lined in the Scriptures, which tell us everything we need to know to
carry out successfully our specific mission. That mission is to ­pursue
maturity in the spiritual life, holiness, or Christlikeness.
Unlike human armies, which face physical opponents,
Christians face intangible and invisible opponents. Under normal
conditions, the enemy against which we wage war cannot be per-
ceived by human senses. The danger we face is attempting to rely
upon our own reason and experience to develop strategies for war-
fare. Because we know very little about the strengths, capabilities,
and strategies of our opponents and because we cannot see into
that realm, we must rely exclusively upon the combat information

11
r­ evealed to us in the Scriptures. Like the soldiers in physical mil-
itary conflict, God has not told us everything that is going on in
these realms, but He has told us all that we need to know to protect
ourselves and carry out our mission successfully. When we begin to
rely on information based on sources other than the Bible, we may
render ourselves vulnerable to defeat because we have unknowingly
overstepped our bounds.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:12, “Our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the pow-
ers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual
forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The struggle in which
Christians are engaged is not a physical struggle but a spiritual strug-
gle. It is a struggle that ultimately is not against other human beings
but against the powers of darkness. Left to our own resources, we
are totally blind and ignorant when it comes to knowing what the
enemy is doing. How can we know what is happening when we are
operating in the dark?
Not in the Dark
We operate in an arena in which we are virtually blind to all that is
taking place around us, especially when it involves the unseen spiri-
tual forces of the demonic realm. However, God is a loving God, and
He has not left us in the dark to attempt to figure things out on our
own. Just as God told Adam and Eve all that they needed to know
(but not all that they could have known) for them to live for Him in
the garden, so He has informed us in the Bible of everything that we
need to know about the powers of darkness. Not only does the Bible
tell us about the struggle in which we are involved, but also, if it
were not for the Scriptures, we would be only vaguely aware that we
were in a struggle in the first place. We would be severely limited by
our finite experience and knowledge. God has not only given Chris-
tians the Bible but also supplied the Holy Spirit, who enlightens our
minds so that we can understand the Bible and, on the basis of this
knowledge, exercise discernment in the decisions we make.
Scripture is clear that Christians are engaged in a struggle with
unseen forces. This knowledge should cause several important
questions to come to our minds. Who are these rulers, these powers,
these world forces of darkness? What is their objective, and how do
they operate? How can we identify them, how can we fight against
them, and how can we be protected from them?

12
 Today, we are faced with much teaching about these demonic
forces that cannot be derived from Scripture; instead, it derives from
the personal experiences of Christians. Is such experience a valid
source, or is Scripture all that we need to resist Satan ­successfully?
The One True Source
The Bible itself claims to be our only source of certain knowledge
about these forces against which we are struggling. It claims not
only to be the sole source of knowledge about this angelic rebellion
but also to give us all of the information that we need to be equipped
completely for this struggle.
Second Timothy 3:16–17 tells us that “all Scripture is inspired
by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate,
equipped for every good work.” This passage provides valuable in-
formation about the Scriptures. First, the source of the Bible is God.
This is not a book written by men who are relating their religious
experiences with God but a book written by God through men to
inform us about every area of life.
The Apostle Peter makes this fact clear in 2 Peter 1:20: “Know
this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own
interpretation.” The human authors of Scripture did not merely re-
flect on their experiences of life, write them down, and call this the
Word of God. That is the approach of men without revelation from
God. Instead, Peter insists, the divine Author initiated and produced
God’s Word: “No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will,
but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21).
The word usually translated “inspired” in 2 Timothy 3:16 is from the
Greek word theopneustos, meaning “God breathed.” The source of
the Scriptures is the true God, who is not a liar; therefore, the Bible
is absolutely true in everything it affirms.
Second, because the Bible is absolute truth, it is profitable to
teach us, to correct our thinking, to reprove or reprimand us for
wrong thinking and living, and to instruct us. Our Lord said in His
prayer for the disciples the night before He was crucified, “Sanctify
them in the truth; Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). It is the Word of
God alone that gives us the truth we need to live for Him.
The third point we want to emphasize from 2 Timothy 3:16–17
is the purpose of the Word of God: to make the believer, the man or
woman of God, completely equipped for every good work by com-
municating information that he can acquire from no other source.

13
The word translated “adequate” is the Greek word artios, which
means “fit, complete, capable, sufficient.” It means that the Word of
God gives us the information or guidelines necessary to meet every
situation that we face in life.
This point is further emphasized by the word translated “ful-
ly equipped,” which has the idea of being completely outfitted and
prepared for every contingency. In the ancient world, this word was
used to describe a ship that was fully loaded for a voyage or a rescue
boat that was completely outfitted and prepared for any emergen-
cy. The Bible claims not only to give us true and accurate informa-
tion but also all of the information we need to handle any and every
­situation that might arise in our lives.
Enough for Every Need
This passage is not the only passage of Scripture that teaches this
foundational doctrine that Scripture is completely and totally suffi-
cient for every need in the Christian’s life. Second Peter 1:3–4 says,
His divine power has granted to us everything pertain-
ing to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of
Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For
by these He has granted to us His precious and magnifi-
cent promises, in order that by them you might become
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the cor-
ruption that is in the world by lust. (emphasis added)
As we will describe in the next chapter, the corruption that is
in the world by lust came into the world as a result of the fall of the
angel Lucifer, and the consequent fall of the human race was a result
of the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1–7). The 2 Peter
passage teaches us that the only way to escape this corruption is
by means of God’s “precious and magnificent promises,” and that
through these promises God has given us everything that we need
to know pertaining to life and godliness.
The importance of the all-sufficiency of Scripture can hardly
be overemphasized. In some segments of Christianity today, the
inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture is being questioned. But we
believe that even among those who affirm the inerrancy and infalli-
bility of Scripture, many Christians deny this authority of Scripture
in the way they apply (or fail to apply) Scripture to their daily lives.
Many Christians do not seem to view the Bible as sufficient for every
good work when we look at certain practices that they have a­ dopted

14
that are built upon viewpoints found outside of the Bible. This is
especially true in the arena of spiritual warfare.
In recent years, much sensationalist teaching on demons and
exorcism has abounded. It has been popular to teach people to
“bind” the demons, to “take dominion” over Satan, or to give people
special instructions for dealing with so-called “territorial spirits.”
We should ask if these are scriptural concepts to begin with and, if
so, what they mean. We must also search the Scriptures to see exact-
ly what form spiritual warfare takes and what Christians are to do
when they encounter demonic forces.
The two passages mentioned earlier, 2 Timothy 3:16 and
2 Peter 1:3–4, teach clearly that in the Bible God has given us ev-
erything we need to know to handle any situation that might arise
in our lives. At the very least, this teaching includes every aspect of
­spiritual ­warfare.
Why Go to School?
Whenever we have taught this principle that the Scriptures are
totally sufficient for every need and situation in the believer’s life,
someone inevitably asks why, if this is true, we should even go to
school or pursue studies in any other area. If this were true, their
reasoning goes, then civilization would be set back hundreds of
years, and none of the technical advances made in the history of
civilization would have taken place because all that people would
have done was study the Bible.
This question arises because people do not realize how the truth
of God’s Word affects all of the different realms of life. In this book,
we are talking about the sufficiency of God’s Word in enabling us
to live a life that is pleasing to God. God’s Word does not claim
to be a textbook about oceanography or accounting or engineer-
ing; although, it does contain some broad but completely accurate
­information about these areas of study.
What the Bible claims to provide is absolute truth in all areas
of Christian life and spirituality. At the very least, this truth must
include information about the spiritual realm and how it affects
Christians. The Bible claims to tell us the truth about life, our pur-
pose for existence, and how we can lay hold of our eternal destiny.
All of these truths are issues in spiritual warfare; therefore, spiritual
warfare and the world of the demonic are areas in which Christians
should acknowledge the exclusive authority of the Bible.

15
 This book will not be dealing with how a biblical philosophy
of life (a “worldview”) is derived from the Bible and applied to
broader, extra-biblical areas of learning found in God’s creation. In
a nutshell, the Bible deals with every area of life indirectly through
the grid or framework that is taken directly from the Bible. Within
this biblical framework or mindset, we can examine the underly-
ing principles of science, art, literature, politics, and recreation and
evaluate them in the light of God’s standards.
The Bible does not tell us exactly how to pass a test for our driv-
er’s license, but it does tell us that we should obey the government
by having a driver’s license if we drive a car. Also, it tells us that
we should glorify God in everything we do, including the way in
which we take the test for the driver’s license. Therefore, the Bible
does speak to every area of life in God’s world, either directly (as in
the case of spiritual warfare) or indirectly (as in the case of getting
a driver’s license).
Reliance upon experience and reason when dealing with prin-
ciples of spiritual warfare is so common today that we must evalu-
ate the role that experience and reason should play in finding the
truth about spiritual warfare. We must ask the same question that
­Pontius Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). The an-
swer to this question will enable us to learn God’s principles about
spiritual ­warfare.
What is Truth?
Simply put, truth is what God says it is. People can find truth in
God’s Word. Something is true or false in terms of how it squares
with what God says about it, no matter what the majority of people
think on a given Gallup Poll. Truth is not a relative concept; it is
absolute and universal. There is not one truth that applies to one
person and an opposite truth that applies to someone else. If truth
were relative, situations would exist in which principles would apply
randomly to various people. For example, if two people jumped off
a tall building, then one might go up toward the sky while the other
one would plunge down to the pavement. Instead, all people fall
down because truth is true for all people. You cannot beat Christ’s
clear and simple statement on this subject: “Thy word is truth”
(John 17:17b).
Psalm 36:9 proclaims, “With Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy
light we see light.” Psalm 119:130 declares, “The unfolding of Thy
words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” The Bible

16
tells us that we come to know truth by God’s gracious revelation of
Himself. We can respond to His Word either by submitting to it and
thinking God’s own thoughts or by rebelling against His light and
thinking our own thoughts. Therefore, two basic approaches to our
search for truth and knowledge exist. Either we are dependent upon
God and the light of His revelation, or we are independent of God
and attempt to discover truth by our own fallible thinking.
Finding the Truth
There might be two ways to search for truth, but there is only one
way to find truth, and that is by taking God’s word for it. In fact,
because “the sum of Thy word is truth” (Ps. 119:160), to look for
spiritual truth in any place other than God’s Word is to guarantee
that we will not find it. This point is driven home by Christ in His
comments about the two ways to search for truth: “Everyone who
comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them … is like a
man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the
rock” (Luke 6:47–48).
Christ is saying that stability in life starts with trust in His
Word, and we must dig deep to lay a sure foundation upon the rock
of God’s Word. Many Christians are convinced that God’s Word is
true, but they do not dig deep into God’s Word to build their lives
upon God’s bedrock of truth. The benefit of laying our foundation
for life upon the rock is that “when a flood arose, the river burst
against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well
built” (v. 48b).
The believer who is truly grounded upon God’s Word will not
be wiped out by the flood of problems that we all face in life. Those
who do not have confidence that God’s Word is the rock will fail,
along with those who have not taken the time or made the effort
to dig down to the bedrock. Christ depicts “the one who has heard,
and has not acted accordingly” to someone who “built a house upon
the ground without any foundation; and the river burst against it
and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great”
(v. 49).
The emphasis of Christ’s contrast is between the one who dug
down to the rock and built a proper foundation and the one who
did not extend the effort to dig but just built upon the ground with-
out adequate preparation. Those who are not grounded upon the
foundation of God’s Word are not able to withstand the storms of
life without suffering severe damage. When the spiritual battle heats

17
up in their lives, they fall apart and end up living as if they were
still under Satan’s control. Those who are founded upon the truth
find God and His Word to be more than sufficient in handling the
adversities of life. When the battle comes to them, they are able to
stand firm and are not tossed about by the winds of false doctrine
(Eph. 4:11–14).
Which Viewpoint?
There are only two basic ways of looking at things: God’s way, which
we will call divine viewpoint, or man’s way, which we will call hu-
man viewpoint. From beginning to end, the Bible expresses one
consistent view of life and addresses every issue of life from that
viewpoint—God’s viewpoint on life. Understanding and applying
God’s viewpoint leads to capacity for life, love, and happiness, but
living according to human viewpoint leads to death: “There is a way
which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov.
14:12; 16:25).
Divine viewpoint and human viewpoint can be illustrated by
the two basic approaches that a parent can use when assembling a
new toy for his child’s Christmas present. One approach is to read
the instructions and follow the steps provided by the manufacturer
who made the toy. If the instructions are clear and if the parent has
read and understood the directions, then the parent can produce a
toy that is properly assembled and ready for the child to play with
it. The person operating from divine viewpoint studies God’s Word
diligently so he can look at life through God’s eyes—His Word—and
apply it to his own life. What satisfying results when one follows the
directions carefully!
The other approach is used when the parent either does not want
to bother to read the instructions or does not want to acknowledge
that he is dependent upon something or someone other than him-
self to do the project right. Sometimes we think that we are familiar
enough with a particular kind of toy that we can rely solely on our
intuition or experience to assemble it. This assumption is similar to
our living on the basis of human viewpoint about life and spiritual
matters. No matter the cost, we think that we must do it ourselves
without reading, understanding, and following the manufacturer’s
instructions. More often than not, this approach results in a toy that
fails to work properly or a frustrated parent who cannot understand
why the manufacturer included all of those extra parts!

18
 Independence and Idolatry
Independence and idolatry are the two main reasons for adopting
the human viewpoint in our search for truth. Independence—char-
acterized by self-assertion, self-rule, or self-law—forms the founda-
tion of idolatry. In the arena of knowledge, the independent person
constructs a worldview based on his own limited experience and
reason. This is what Adam and Eve did, and it resulted in their trag-
ic sin. An independent or autonomous person has an attitude of
inner hostility toward God’s revelation and creation (Rom. 3:10–12;
8:5–11). Because God has left His fingerprints upon virtually every-
thing, it is not surprising to see rebellious humanity attempting to
wipe off God’s set of fingerprints and replace them with their own.
This fact explains why unbelievers often are not even aware that
they are rebelling against certain things.
Although it is true that the person who is operating on human
viewpoint may include certain ideas from God’s Word that are true
(just as Satan did in the Garden), these ideas are always modified
or interpreted to fit the person’s self-determined framework. This
tendency can be compared to one’s taking pieces from one jigsaw
puzzle to fill the gaps left by missing pieces in another puzzle. The
pieces may or may not fit exactly, but in their new place, they have
a different meaning because they are in a different context. As Paul
said in Romans 1:25, the way of the human viewpoint is to exchange
“the truth of God for a lie.” Never will an independent thinker bow
his knee to the full authority of God’s Word.
Whenever the God of the Bible is removed from the picture,
something else takes His place. This is what the Bible calls idolatry.
As Romans 1:18–25 makes clear, when the Creator is not the object
of worship, the only candidates remaining are found in the creation.
Whether the object of worship is a physical idol, an idea, or a life-
style, ultimately it is man that is being worshiped because man is the
one who attempts to control the situation by determining what will
be worshiped. Idolatry is the worship of anything in place of the God
of the Bible. All gods other than the God of the Bible are simply pro-
jections of man’s own self. The narcissism of contemporary America
is a classic example of this self-worship.
Two Pursuits of Truth
Within the realm of human viewpoint, people usually attempt to
establish truth in two general ways. The first approach in attempt-
ing to find truth independent of God and His Word is often called

19
reason or rationalism. In its pure form, rationalism is the belief that
each person is born with certain innate ideas. The rationalist claims
that, on the basis of these innate ideas, man can use reason and log-
ic alone to discover ultimate truth. The rationalist does not believe
that he must be dependent upon God’s Word to think true thoughts
about reality. Because rationalists do not think that they need God’s
Word to think accurately, they replace God’s Word as the starting
point with the arrogant assumption that their own logic and reason
alone are sufficient for arriving at truth. What idolatry! However,
because the rationalist cannot prove those innate ideas, he is left
with an uncertain foundation.
Divine viewpoint does not reject the use of reason or logic—af-
ter all, God gave us a logical mind to use—but it rejects the indepen-
dent or autonomous use of reason and logic. The divine viewpoint
uses reason and logic dependently, starting with God’s revelation as
a basis for thinking God’s thoughts after Him. This use is called the
dependent use of logic: logic used under the authority of God’s Word
to maintain consistency of thought in accordance with God’s Word.
The all-knowing God has already told us through revelation what is
true, and dependent logic seeks to apply this truth to every issue in
life to see how it does or does not correspond with God’s revelation.
A person would be illogical to start with error, or a mixture of truth
and error, to try to end up with truth. Only when you start with
pure truth as a foundation can you arrive at the full truth in all of
its ramifications. The psalmist declared, “In Thy light we see light”
(Ps. 36:9).
The Misuse of Logic
Human viewpoint, on the other hand, uses reason and logic as the
ultimate authority to determine what is possible and what is not
possible. Reason is used to determine what can and cannot be, and
then these conclusions are imposed on the Bible. This process is ev-
ident in the thinking of those who reject the Bible’s accounts of the
miraculous. Because they cannot explain miracles on the basis of
their own reason, they, when reading miraculous accounts in the
Bible, reject these accounts as superstitious explanations. A ratio-
nalist denies the possibility that demons could possess and influ-
ence people—if he accepts the existence of demons at all. Because
he cannot arrive at the existence of demons on the basis of his own
reason and logic, he rejects the unseen world entirely. Instead, he
seeks to explain it in terms of some naturalistic, cause-effect theory

20
because this is the only world he personally knows; he has rejected
the witness of God’s Word. This attitude elevates human reason to
the position of ultimate authority: human reason determines what
is and is not true in God’s Word. By putting reason at a higher level
than the Bible, reason replaces God and so becomes an idol.
The real conflict is not between using reason at all and not using
reason at all but between using reason under the authority of God
and using reason independently of God. The true issue is the prop-
er place and use of logic. Human viewpoint uses logic idolatrously,
placing it in the arena reserved exclusively for God’s Word.
The fatal flaw in this use of reason is that it provides no external,
objective criterion for evaluating its conclusions because it rejects
the Bible as a valid criterion. Ultimately, this position must lapse
into some form of subjectivity, such as mysticism or emotional-
ism, because reason alone can never establish an objective criterion
upon which to determine why one thing is true and another thing
is not true.
The rationalist rejects the resurrection of Christ as irrational
by asserting that his reason is so great and his knowledge is so ex-
tensive that he knows for a fact that such a thing as resurrection
could never have happened. This attitude is not only arrogant but
also extremely subjective. God never intended people to use rea-
son as a tool to establish what is ultimately true; this is the role of
God’s Word alone. Reason and logic were given as tools to enable
us to study God’s Word and to help us think consistently in terms of
it so we may faithfully apply it in every area of our lives. We are
stressing this point because it is crucial to recognize that reason
and experience are miserable failures when it comes to providing
sure knowledge about God, angels, the nature of man, the need for
salvation, and the meaning of life. Only the Bible provides the basis
for such knowledge. Ultimately, the consistent rationalist must reject
the existence of God, angels, and demons because he has no way of
verifying their existence.
Misusing Experience
Because independent reason cannot serve as a basis for arriving at
the truth about God, angels, man, salvation, and the meaning of life,
philosophers have searched elsewhere for a solid rock on which to
build their views. This second human-viewpoint approach to truth
is often called experience or empiricism, and it is the backbone of the
scientific method. Empiricists believe that one can attain knowledge

21
of ultimate truth on the basis of sense perceptions. They claim that
by observing, collecting facts, forming hypotheses, testing hypoth-
eses, and further testing of sense data, man can ultimately arrive at
true knowledge about the existence of God, angels, the nature of
man, salvation, and the meaning of life.
Although the empirical approach—when used correctly—does
have a place within the plan of God, human viewpoint once again
misuses God’s intended purpose for this ability. Through the use
of empiricism in science, people can make many important obser-
vations about God’s creation. Empirical observations have helped
propel great advances in industry and technology in the last two
centuries. Yet, without a framework that consistently interprets and
applies the results of empirical observations, competing and contra-
dictory systems of thought develop. Furthermore, man’s experience,
even when it is extended through historical witness and instruments
to observe the microscopic, is still limited. Only the Word of God
provides an adequate basis for consistently evaluating and applying
the results of empiricism.
Ants and Angels
If we rely solely on empiricism apart from biblical revelation, we
will not always draw accurate conclusions. A look at the work hab-
its and social behavior of ants provides an interesting illustration.
One observer would note that there are multiple mates for any one
female. Another person might observe that the ants are industrious
workers. Without the biblical framework, human-viewpoint think-
ers could take both observations and apply them to human society.
In fact, some modern sociologists have done just that by observing
the rarity of monogamy in the animal kingdom and suggesting that
multiple mates would be a better situation in human life, thereby
rejecting the biblical idea of one mate until death. In contrast to the
subjectivity of this approach, the Bible gives us the framework for
rightly applying the data discovered through observation. We are to
learn from the ants in their diligence but not in their mating habits
(Prov. 6:6–11).
This same principle applies in the area of the existence of angels
and demons. The empiricist will gather all of the information he
can from those who claim to have had some experience with an an-
gel or a demon or from those who have helped deliver people from
demonic influence. He will find out what they learned from these
encounters and which methods, in their opinion, proved ­successful

22
in delivering a person from the demonic oppression. He will col-
lect these case studies and then draw conclusions about what we
are to do when we encounter a demon. Even when he does con-
sult the Bible in this process, no matter how high the empiricist’s
view of Scripture, in practice he treats the Bible as just another voice
or witness to demonic activity. This assumption always results in
his adjusting the biblical teaching on demons until it fits with the
­conclusions of various experiences.
Adding to Scripture
Numerous problems exist with the pure empirical method, but the
fundamental problem is a rejection of the complete sufficiency of
Scripture. Rather than believing that the Bible tells us everything
we need to know about angels and demons, the empiricist seeks to
find out more. Rather than being satisfied with what God has said
on the subject, the empiricist bases his understanding of demons on
experiences that he or other people have had. This insistence ulti-
mately leads to much speculation about demons: what they do, what
they look like, what their names are, how to perform exorcisms, and
how to protect ourselves from demons. We should remember that
the Bible expressly forbids such speculation because it goes beyond
the information contained in the Scriptures (1 Cor. 4:6; 1 Tim. 1:4;
2 Tim. 2:23).
One writer demonstrates this contemporary use of experience
over Scripture in his treatment of spiritual warfare with territorial
spirits. He suggests that even as it is a common practice to discov-
er the names of specific demons to deliver an afflicted individu-
al, “it might be reasonable to postulate that it could also be done
with territorial spirits.”1 Experience is then relied upon in order to
­determine the names of territorial spirits:
Latin American Rita Cabezas has done considerable research
on the names of the highest levels of the hierarchy of Satan. I will
not at this point describe her research methodology except to men-
tion that the beginning stages were associated with her extensive
psychological/deliverance practice and that it later evolved into
receiving revelatory words of knowledge. She has discovered that
directly under Satan are six worldwide principalities, named (allow-
ing that this was done in Spanish) Damian, Asmodeo, Menguelesh,
Arios, Beelzebub and Nosferasteus. Under each, she reports, are
1 C. Peter Wagner and F. Douglas Pennoger, eds., Wrestling with Dark Angels
(Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), 84-5.

23
six governors over each nation. For example, those over Costa Rica
are Shiebo, Quiebo, Ameneo, Mephistopheles, Nostradamus and
Azazel. Those over the U.S.A. are Ralphes, Anoritho, Manchester,
Apolion, Deviltook, and one unnamed governor.2
Like any good empiricist, this writer does not fully rely upon
this information alone but seeks verification. But verification is
found only circumstantially in the Bible. Considered as having equal
validity with the Bible are the Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses,
Devils, and Demons, the Apocrypha, Paradise Lost, and The Pilgrim’s
Progress (which are the other sources used to validate the preced-
ing statement). The whole statement is treated as having credibility
simply because two of the names happen to have been mentioned
in the Bible.
Borderline Spiritism
This type of activity comes dangerously close to spiritism, in which
information gained either directly or indirectly from demonic en-
counters is made a part of teaching on demons. In the same paper
on territorial spirits, the author accepts as valid the information re-
ceived from a former occult leader regarding the number of demons
and their operations in Nigeria.3 This information was acquired while
he was an occult leader, and so its source is demonic. We must re-
member that Satan is a liar and a deceiver. Methods that he and the
demons use are often designed to confuse and distract Christians by
getting them involved in illegitimate areas, with the result that they
unwittingly end up serving Satan’s ends rather than God’s ends.
An extreme example of this situation occurred in the mid-1970s.
A man named John found wide acceptance in certain Christian cir-
cles by giving people “inside information” about Satan and his cur-
rent schemes to which he had access as a former Satanist. His teach-
ings included such information as the proper names of some of the
demons, how they are organized, and certain of their strategies and
tactics. None of this information was gleaned from the Bible; rather,
it was gained from the time the man spent as a Satanist upon which
time he relied even as a believer. Many people within Christian cir-
cles were eager to listen to this information gleaned from demons
until they learned that the occult expert had ­fabricated much of what
he was saying while simultaneously s­ educing young Christian girls.

2 Ibid., 85.
3 Ibid., 76.

24
 Deceptions and Discrepancies
We are so limited in our ability truly to discern what is taking place
in the spirit realm that we are often completely distracted and, in
some cases, downright duped. Several years ago, an associate of
ours, whom we will call Bill, was involved in counseling a woman
whose background was marked by years of sexual abuse. From early
childhood, she had been raped and sexually abused by her father.
When she was in her twenties, she heard the gospel and put her
faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior. Although saved, she still strug-
gled with many issues rooted in her past. During the time that Bill
was counseling her, he discussed her case with a pastor from Fort
Worth, who suggested that the reason this girl had never had victo-
ry over these past problems was demonic influence or possession.
He believed that demons were involved in every case of sexual abuse
and ­suggested an exorcism.
One night, Bill and the woman met with three pastors in Fort
Worth for an exorcism. They apparently contacted seven different
demons, which they then cast out of her. The woman went home
much relieved; however, her “healing” had only short-term results
because she still had problems.
Several months later, Bill discovered a series of discrepancies in
the woman’s account of her life, and he began to question if any sex-
ual abuse had ever occurred in the first place. He and another man
who had also counseled her then confronted her with the evidence,
and she admitted that most of what she had said and done was made
up. When they asked her about the exorcism episode, she finally
admitted that it had all been an act motivated by her confusion and
what she perceived to be the expectations of her counselors.
Since then, we have discovered that this woman has had a long
history of using her problems as a means of gaining attention and
care from other Christians. Over a period of several years, she has
gone from church to church and from group to group with the sad
story of her life. Each time, some concerned and caring Christians
have taken her in to help her. However, each time they discovered
her deception, and then she would drop out of sight temporarily
only to surface again at another church. She is now under the care
of a nationally known biblical counselor. According to him, she was
never demon possessed or demon influenced in the first place, and
the whole episode only served to complicate an already complex
spiritual problem.

25
 The Failure of Secular Systems
The point of this story is to show that two groups of people, both
of whom claim to be biblical, attempted to help an unfortunate
­woman. In one case, the solution was sought through a demonic
deliverance; in the other case, the solution was sought through the
use of Scripture in counseling. We are not attempting here to de-
cide whether this girl was ever demonized. The point we are making
is that one particular group of pastors, who had had years of ex-
perience in a deliverance ministry and had developed a technique
of dealing with demonized people based on experience, was ap-
parently fooled. If they were not, then their empirically developed
­deliverance ­techniques were a failure.
Any time we base a technique for dealing with demonized peo-
ple on anything other than the clear teaching of the Word of God,
we are doomed to failure. In fact, using any approach based on in-
formation not directly derived from the Scriptures is, in practice, a
denial of the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. These examples
simply show the inadequacy of personal experience in validating
demon possession.
In the last two centuries, many philosophical systems have
sought to combine rationalism and empiricism. However, if neither
of these two methods can arrive at certainty about God and the spir-
itual realm on their own, combining them will not solve the problem
either. Rationalism and empiricism both fail to provide an adequate
basis for objectively verifying knowledge about the spiritual realm.
How then can we know about the existence of God and angels and
about the nature of man, salvation, and the meaning of life?
The Only True Basis
The only trustworthy basis for knowledge about the supernatural is
God’s revelation. Because man is incapable of arriving at ultimate
truth through his own resources, whether through reason or sense
data, he must rely upon God’s revelation. In Romans 1, Paul tells us
that although human beings have a clear testimony of God in the
creation all around them, they reject that evidence because they are
sinners: “That which is known about God is evident within them;
for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have
been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so
that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they
did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile

26
in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom.
1:19–21). The effect of Adam’s sin on the abilities of the human mind
is extensive and must never be underestimated when one is
­discussing the issue of knowing truth. The preceding passage from
Roman 1 tells us that man’s heart is darkened. Romans 3:11–12 says,
“There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is
none who does good, there is not even one.” Paul again stresses the
effects of sin in Romans 8:7–8: “The mind set on the flesh is hostile
toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it
is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot
please God.”
God describes the effect of sin on man in a number of different
ways: He says that the unsaved are in darkness, that Satan works
within them, that they are blind and ignorant, that they willfully
suppress the truth, and that they are enslaved to sin and unrigh-
teousness. The only path out of this predicament is the lucid Word
of God.
The Only Deliverer
The eighth chapter of the Gospel of John tells us of a very import-
ant dialogue between Jesus and some of the Jewish leaders. In that
exchange, He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free” (v. 32). It is the Word of God that brings light into
darkness and tells us everything we need to know about sin and
Satan and how to be set free from them. Remember Psalm 119:130,
which we noted earlier: “The unfolding of Thy words gives light; it
gives ­understanding to the simple.”
Some Pharisees, who were in the crowd, objected to Christ’s
statement, claiming that because they were Abraham’s offspring,
they did not need to be liberated. In fact, however, they were en-
slaved in at least four ways: They were in bondage to the Roman
Empire, they were in bondage to the religious traditions of the
Pharisees, they were in bondage to Satan, and they were in bond-
age to sin. Jesus stated that the only means of freedom was through
Him: “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed” (John 8:36).
The only source of deliverance from bondage is Jesus Christ.
According to Colossians 1:13, all people are born in the domain of
darkness, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we are delivered from
the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Jesus

27
Christ. If you have never taken the opportunity to put your faith
alone in Christ alone, you, too, are enslaved to sin and Satan, and
the only way you can be free is to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
The Equipment You Need
We hope that you have seen in this chapter that as God’s creatures,
we are dependent upon His Word alone as the sole basis for eval-
uating our thoughts and experiences in relationship to everything,
especially those things with which He has dealt specifically, such
as God, angels, demons, the nature of man, the need for salvation,
and the meaning of life. Although most Christians agree in theory
that God’s Word is sufficient to deal with the issues of Christian liv-
ing, more and more Christians are denying the sufficiency of God’s
Word in daily practice. Rather than relying on the Bible alone, they
seek more information about Satan and demons and end up relying
upon information gained from former occult leaders and from var-
ious experiences with demons. This information is then taught to
Christians as biblical doctrine when, in fact, its source is demonic
(read 1 Tim. 4:1).
In subsequent chapters, we will show that God’s Word alone is
sufficient to equip you to be a winner in your struggle against the
world, the flesh, and the Devil.

28
 3
ORIGINS OF CONFLICT
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will
raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on
the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself
like the Most High.”
Isaiah 14:13–14

A glimpse of the evening news or the daily newspaper reminds us

that evil is a very real problem in this world. War, rape, murder,
famine, terrorism, and child abuse all reveal to us that life is not
what it ought to be or what we expect it to be. All people seem to
have this awareness. Not only is life different from what it ought to
be in the hopes and dreams of humanity, but also natural disasters
such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes all testify
that even in the realm of nature things are not what they ought to
be. How did things get so messed up? Is this just the way it happens
to be, simply the product of our naturally evolving impersonal uni-
verse, or is there something more to it?
Four Explanations
When we are confronted with the existence of evil, only four possible
explanations can be offered. The first three explanations resolve the
problem of evil on the basis of finite human rationalism, empiricism,
or a combination of the two apart from the Scriptures. The first expla-
nation denies the ultimate reality of evil: Present suffering is merely
an illusion. This view is reflected in the thinking of the Greek philos-
ophy of Platonism, some Eastern religions, and most mind-­science
religions, such as Christian Science.4 Sometimes these s­ystems of

4 See. D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel (Peabody, Mass.:Hendrickson, 1988),

for a detailed analysis of how these metaphysical, mind-science ideas have in-
filtrated Christianity. When Christians have an impoverished and nonbiblical
understanding of suffering, they become vulnerable to false doctrines that shift
­responsibility away from the individual or diminish the reality of suffering, misery,
29
thought claim to be dualistic, recognizing some form of evil. At
best, they only give evil lip service. Because ultimate reality in those
systems is “one,” they must—to be consistent—deny the ultimate ex-
istence of real evil. According to this first answer, the suffering and
misery that we encounter in everyday life is simply an illusion; it is
not reality. Pain and suffering are merely delusions because we fail to
have the right knowledge; true reality exists on some higher plane.
A second way to resolve the problem of evil denies the existence
of morality. This view rejects the sense of a moral “ought.” Evil, suf-
fering, and misery are simply natural parts of the natural universe,
and all that is must be good. Darwinian evolution asserts the surviv-
al of the fittest, a principle that necessitates that struggle and death
are the normal realities of the universe; therefore, there is no good
or bad, just relative differences. Some states are better than others.
Because everything is relative, no basis exists for morality, for dis-
tinguishing between good and evil. T. H. Huxley, noted evolutionist
and “Darwin’s bulldog,” recognized this principle:
The thief and murderer follow nature just as much as the
philanthropist. Cosmic evolution may teach us how the
good and evil tendencies of man may have come about:
but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better rea-
son why what we call good is preferable to what we call
evil than we had before.5
Huxley was consistent with his naturalistic assumptions.
A third way by which people have sought to resolve the problem
of evil is simply to resign themselves to accept this tension as part
of the absurdity of life. This is the answer of modern existentialism,
which says that there are no rational explanations for life, so just
enjoy your life despite its irrationality. Frank Sinatra’s popular song
“That’s Life” embodies this approach. He sings, “You’re riding high
in April, shot down in May.” The rest of the song conveys the idea
that you just have to learn to roll with the punches because that is
simply the nature of life.
In contrast to these three attempts to resolve the problem of
evil on the basis of the independent use of human reason and
­experience, the Bible clearly teaches that evil is neither an illusion
nor natural. God’s original creation was holy and perfect and devoid

and despair in this life because we live in a fallen world. One consequence of this
kind of thinking is to blame someone else or something else (such as demons) for
personal suffering, addictions, and heartache.
5 Quoted by Cyril Bibby in TH Huxley (New York: Horizon Press, 1960), 84.

30
of evil. Perfect God can create only perfection. Evil in the universe
is the direct consequence of the sin of the angelic creature Lucifer;
thus, evil and suffering are not normal but abnormal, introduced by
the rebellious decision of the creature. This sin, this act of rebellion
on the part of the creature, introduced discord into the universe and
initiated the angelic rebellion against God, the invisible war in the
heavenly realm. It is in this cosmic conflict that the human race is
enmeshed. Autonomous human reason and experience cannot re-
veal this to us; only the infallible revelation of God in the Bible can
do that.
How the War Began
Before we can begin to understand our role in this war, why we are
involved, and what we should do about it, we must first understand
how the war began. The Bible clearly reveals Lucifer’s attempt to es-
tablish his own rebel kingdom in defiance of God. From the biblical
account of this takeover plot we learn of Lucifer’s goals and strat-
egies, his abilities, how he subverted the human race and brought
them under his authority and kingdom, and how God provided a
way for the human race to renounce their allegiance to this evil rul-
er. By turning to God when we accept His free offer of salvation
in Jesus Christ, we are rebelling against the unholiness and evil of
Satan and his kingdom. At that instant, we are transferred from the
dominion of Satan to the kingdom of God (Acts 26:18).
The Bible tells us that Satan is the prince of darkness, the “rul-
er of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11), and the “god of this world”
(2 Cor. 4:4). During this present time, God has allowed Satan to
have his own realm, domain, or kingdom, and Satan’s kingdom of
darkness wages intense war against God’s kingdom of light. Light
and darkness are often used in the Bible as figures of speech for
God’s kingdom (light in 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 1:5, 7) and Satan’s king-
dom (darkness in Luke 22:53; Eph. 5:8; 6:12; 1 Peter 2:9). Satan is the
archenemy of every believer. Scripture clearly teaches that everyone
is originally born in Satan’s “domain of darkness” (Col. 1:13; cf. Acts
26:18). The original Greek word for “domain” (exousia) means “au-
thority.” When we are born, we are under the authority of Satan,
who is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4); yet, when we turn to God
at the point of salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ as our Savior,
this same verse says that we are transferred to the kingdom of His
­beloved Son. The allegiance of the Christian is now given to God
rather than to Satan. Christians have become holy rebels against the

31
god of this age. If we are going to be champions for God in this spir-
itual warfare, we must understand exactly what the Bible teaches
about Satan, how he became Satan, and his goal for planet Earth.
The Sons of God
The first creatures that God created to inhabit His kingdom were
an order of rational, spirit beings called angels. Both the Greek an-
gelos and the Hebrew mal’ak mean “messenger,” indicating one of
the roles of these remarkable creatures. One of the oldest books of
the Bible tells us of Job, who faced an incredible number of per-
sonal tragedies. After resisting the bad advice of friends and fam-
ily to blame his suffering on his own failures or to “curse God and
die,” Job finally succumbed and began to question the goodness and
judgment of God. When God replied to Job, He never explained to
Job the reason for the adversity, but, through a series of questions,
God focused Job’s attention on his own limitations in contrast to the
Lord’s essence and right to rule creation according to His perfect
knowledge. Hidden in these questions are insights into the original
creation of the universe:
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth!Tell
Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements,
since you know? Or who stretched the line on it? On what
were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, When
the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God
shouted for joy?6
At the time of the creation of the earth, all the angels were still
unified. The term “sons of God” is an expression used in the Old
Testament to refer to angels.7 There was no hint of division or rebel-
lion, no pride, no one trying to outdo anyone else. They all rejoiced
together over God’s new creation!
The Highest of the Angels
This unity soon dissolved. At some point, a tragic split occurred
among the angelic host. The highest of all of the angels, Lucifer,
decided that he wanted to be like God. When God removed this
rebellious angel from his position of authority, Lucifer gathered a

6 Job 38:4–7
7 Gordon Wenham, Genesis, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 1 (Waco: Word
Books, 1987), 136 ff; Umberto Cassuto, Genesis, Vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press),
291-292; Stephen C. Lovelady, “The bene-ha’elohim Pericope: A Biblical and Theo-
logical Study” (Unpublished Th.M. Thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,
1986).

32
group of other angels and led a revolt against God. Two passages in
Scripture describe these events, revealing critical information about
Lucifer/Satan (Ezek. 28:11–19; Isa. 14:12–15). Understanding the
principles that are revealed in these passages will help us know our
enemy and avoid falling into his traps. Nowhere in the Scripture is
there any indication that he has changed since that day of rebellion.
The prophet Ezekiel describes this calamitous event (Ezek.
28:11–19). At the beginning of this chapter, Ezekiel is instructed to
take up a lament against the prince or leader of the city of Tyre (vv.
1–10). In this funeral dirge, Ezekiel pronounces judgment upon the
prince of Tyre because he has said in his heart that he is a god. In
verses 11–19, a second lament is taken up, but here it is directed
not to the prince of Tyre but to the king of Tyre, clearly a different
personage. The things said of this king of Tyre could not possibly
apply to a human leader of Tyre. For example, he is said to have
existed in Eden, the garden of God (v. 13) and to have been created
blameless (v. 15). The individual addressed in this section is the real
power behind the human king of Tyre: Satan or Lucifer. Often in
Scripture Satan is addressed through the creature that he influenc-
es. For example, when Jesus foretold His crucifixion, Peter began
to rebuke Him. But Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me,
Satan!” (Matt. 16:23). Peter was not possessed by Satan at that point;
nothing in the language of the text would suggest that. Peter voiced
an objection that represented the agenda of Satan to forestall the
saving work of Christ on the cross. Because he represented Satan’s
agenda, Christ addressed the ultimate problem behind the objec-
tion: Satan. A second example is when God pronounced a curse
on Satan in Genesis 3:14–15. There, God addressed Satan indirectly
through the serpent. So the “king of Tyre” mentioned here is none
other than Satan himself.
Here is how Ezekiel describes Lucifer in 28:12–16:
Take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to
him, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘You had the seal of per-
fection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in
Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your
covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl,
the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise,
and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your
settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were
created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub
who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy

33
 mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones
of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you
were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. By
the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with
violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as pro-
fane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you,
O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.’
Before his fall, Lucifer was a magnificent creature, the most
­incredible of all God’s handiwork.
Model of Perfection
This awesome creature is the model or prototype of perfection. He is
described as “having the seal of perfection,” which in the Hebrew
has the idea of one who sets the standard. Just as the national stan-
dard for all measurement is in the National Bureau of Standards, so
Lucifer was the ultimate standard of perfection. This quality high-
lights his superiority over all other creatures. Later, in Ezekiel 28:15,
we are told that he was blameless, or perfect, in all his ways.
As the prototype or pattern of perfection, he was also the most
beautiful and glorious of the angels; he was “full of beauty.” His ap-
pearance was nothing less than magnificent, and this was further
enhanced by his dress. His splendid personal adornment indicated
the most elevated of creaturely positions. His raiment was adorned
with a brilliant collection of precious stones. Whenever these jew-
els are mentioned together in Scripture, they have something to do
with the very presence of God. If you were a Jew at that time, this
description would instantly remind you of the uniform of the High
Priest of Israel. Eight of the nine jewels were in the breastplate worn
by the High Priest of Israel (Exod. 28:17–20), and six are also found
in the foundation stones of the wall of the New Jerusalem (Rev.
21:19–20).
Another way that Lucifer exemplified perfection was in his in-
telligence, for he was “full of wisdom.” Wisdom in the Bible is not
simply vast academic knowledge but the ability to skillfully apply
that information to produce incomparable art that glorifies God. No
other of God’s creatures has matched his intelligence, ­understanding,
and skill.
Not only did he have looks and brains, but he also possessed the
power and authority to go with these qualities. He was “the anointed
cherub.” The word anointed means “one who is set apart to God for
a special task.” This is the same word that is transliterated Messiah

34
and is rendered in English by the word Christ in the New Testament.
Lucifer is the first creature ever designated as “the anointed one.” In
Scripture, three groups of people were anointed: prophets, priests,
and kings. Prophets speak God’s word to people, priests carry the
worship of the people to God, and kings rule over subjects. Before
he sinned, Lucifer functioned as a prophet, a priest, and a king. He
was the ruler of the angels and led them in their worship and praise
of God.
An Anointed Cherub
Lucifer was a cherub, one of the highest ranks of angels associated
with the glory and presence of God. When God instructed Moses to
build the ark of the covenant, He told him to place on top of it two
cherubim looking down upon the mercy seat (Exod. 37:9). Their
wings were to cover the mercy seat, and this is the same word for
covering that is used here in Ezekiel 28:13–14. Typically, the im-
age that comes to mind when people hear cherubim mentioned is
that of a baby with wings. This absurd notion has no basis at all in
Scripture but was the innovation of medieval artists. Scripture has a
completely different description of cherubim:
This was their appearance: they had human form. Each of
them had four faces and four wings. And their legs were
straight and their feet were like a calf ’s hoof, and they
gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their
four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings
of the four of them, their wings touched one another. Their
faces did not turn when they moved; each went straight
forward. As for the form of their faces, each had the face
of a man, all four had the face of a lion on the right and
the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an
eagle (Ezekiel 1:5–10).
Images of cherubim were also embroidered on the veil or screen
which separated the innermost room of the tabernacle, the Holy of
Holies, from the outer room, the Holy Place. They were earthly sym-
bols of God’s heavenly throne room. The word for veil is the same
word that is translated “covering.” Apparently, Lucifer’s position in
the throne room of God involved personally covering the throne of
God with his wings. He held a very exalted position indeed!
That Lucifer operated in the very presence of God is further em-
phasized by the statements in Ezekiel 28:13-14 that he was in “Eden,
the garden of God.” Eden could refer to the earthly Garden of Eden,

35
but the context here indicates the heavenly throne of God because
he was “on the holy mountain of God” and “walked in the midst of
the stones of fire” (a phrase used of God’s presence).
As far as a creature can be said to be perfect, this one was. His
appearance was so impressive and brilliant that Isaiah referred to
him as Lucifer (14:12 KJV), which means “lightbearer” and was a
reference to the morning star, the planet Venus. This luminary an-
nounces the coming of the sun by its reflection of the sun’s light. In
the same way, Satan appears to have been the herald of God through
his reflections of God’s glory.
Turning Point
Perfect God can create nothing less than perfection. God did not
originate evil; evil originated from the disobedient choice of the
creature. The reason is given in the next verse (Ezek. 28:16): “By the
abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence,
and you sinned.” If we read between the lines a little, we see Eze-
kiel’s analogy with the culture of Tyre—a maritime power whose
economy was built upon trade. Because the people of Tyre excelled
as merchants and had a positive trade balance that elevated them
above other nations, they sought to take advantage of this fact to
build their own kingdom. Apparently, part of Lucifer’s responsibili-
ty was to carry the worship of the angelic hosts to God in his priestly
function, and in so doing, he began to trade on his influence to build
his own kingdom. When Lucifer sinned, Satan’s career began. The
exact nature of this sin is further described by the prophet Isaiah.
The Lord commanded Isaiah to “take up this taunt against the
king of Babylon” (Isa. 14:4). A taunt was a discourse designed to
humble those who have rebelled against God. As in the Ezekiel pas-
sage, the taunt is directed against a human king, but the statements
go far beyond the sin of any human king.
How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning,
son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth,
you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your
heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above
the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in
the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Never-
theless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of
the pit (Isaiah 14:12–15).

36
 Sin began not with an external act but with the internal decision
of his soul. Five times Satan said, “I will...” These statements reveal
the essence of sin: the assertion of the creature’s right to self-deter-
mination, independence from God, and personal autonomy. This
fact explains why the autonomous or independent use of reason, ex-
perience, or anything else is an expression of rebellion against God.
The Ultimate in Self-Esteem
Lucifer became so impressed with his own beauty, brilliance, intel-
ligence, power, and position that he began to desire for himself the
honor and glory that belonged to God alone. No creature ever felt
better about himself or had a better self-image than Satan. He was
no longer satisfied with obeying God; instead, he wanted to over-
throw God and be God himself. Filled with the violence of rebel-
lion, he rejected the authority of God in his life, ignored the fact that
he was who he was only because God had made him that way, and
led a revolt against God. The result was judgment. He was cast away
as profane (Ezek. 28:16). Profane is the opposite of holy; ­Lucifer
­became unholy because of his rebellion.
Lucifer’s fall was the result of his decision to strive after self-ex-
altation, to assert his own position rather than to remain in a posi-
tion of service to God. In other words, he gave in to arrogance and
pride. (The New Testament constantly reminds Christians to avoid
arrogance as the sin of the Devil [1 Tim. 3:6] and that God is against
the arrogant [1 Peter 5:5]).
When Lucifer sinned, he did not sin alone but led a massive
angelic revolt against God. As he carried out his commerce among
the angels, he began to entice and seduce a number of them to serve
him rather than God. When he sinned and was judged by God, these
angels followed him, and the insurrection mushroomed. Scripture
indicates that about a third of the angels followed him in his rebel-
lion (Rev. 12:4). These fallen or unholy angels are referred to in the
Scripture as demons, evil spirits, or unclean spirits.8
What’s in a Name?
Throughout the Scriptures, we find that names and titles indicate
something about a person’s character. For example, Isaiah 9:6 ­records
a prophecy about Jesus Christ that gives us four titles that describe
His character: “His name will be called Wonderful ­Counselor,

8 Some people have taught that they are the spirits of a pre-Adamic race or the
souls of the wicked who have died, but no basis in Scripture exists for this opinion.

37
Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” These names tell us
about the character of the Messiah. Wonderful Counselor refers to
the Messiah, who will bring counsel for eternal life and will rule
with perfect wisdom (Isa. 11:2). Mighty God identifies Him with the
power of God, which will ultimately be victorious over evil. Eternal
Father is a poor translation, for the Messiah is not God the Father.
A better translation is “Father of Eternity,” a Hebrew idiom indicat-
ing that this personage would possess the attribute of eternality, an
attribute unique to deity. Prince of Peace indicates that He is the one
who brings peace, both personal and, eventually worldwide, when
He inaugurates the Davidic kingdom at the Second Coming.
Just as we learn many important things about the Lord Jesus
Christ from the titles and names given to Him, so we also learn
much about Satan from the titles and names given to him. It is im-
portant for us to examine these so we can accurately understand
what he can do and his role in this age.
Serpent, dragon. In the Garden of Eden, a serpent appeared to
Eve and tempted her to disobey the command of God. Genesis 3:1
tells us that “the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made.” The identity of this serpent is made
clear in Revelation 12:9: “The great dragon was thrown down, the
serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the
whole world. …” This passage certainly tells us something about
his character. In the creation account of man in Genesis 1:26, God
made man to rule over the birds and over the cattle and over all the
earth and over every creeping thing. Man was to rule over the ser-
pent; yet, the serpent was crafty enough to subvert this authority by
getting man to listen and submit to him. We must remember that
Satan was created full of wisdom. His guile and cunning is so great
that he is able to confuse and deceive man to do his bidding if man
does not trust exclusively in God’s Word.
Satan, Devil, accuser of the brethren. Our word devil derives
from the Greek word diabolos, which means “slanderer” or “accus-
er.” In Revelation 12:10, Satan is called “the accuser of our brethren.”
A slanderer is one who makes false charges or tells lies that are in-
tended to defame and to damage someone’s reputation. Satan trans-
lates the Hebrew shatan, which means “adversary” or “opponent.”
Satan opposes God’s people in two ways. First, he brings charges
against believers before God (Zech. 3:1; Rom. 8:33). Second, Satan
accuses believers to their own conscience. His goal is to make us fo-
cus on our sin and failures and to get us wrapped up in our attempts

38
to deal with it on our own. Self-absorption is the first step on the
slippery slope of arrogance. By focusing on our failures, we forget
that sin is no longer the issue for the believer.
Every sin was paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. His substi-
tutionary death on the cross is the basis for our continual cleansing
for all sins committed after salvation (1 John 1:7). Post-salvation
sins do not cause us to lose salvation but merely disrupt our fellow-
ship with a holy, righteous God. The prescription is clear: when we
admit or acknowledge our sin to God the Father, then He instantly
forgives us (1 John 1:9). The slate is wiped clean, God no longer re-
members that sin. “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your trans-
gressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isa.
43:25; cf. Ps. 103:12).
When we become absorbed with past failures in guilt and re-
morse, we are rejecting the grace of God and His promised for-
giveness. By focusing on self, we follow Satan in his sin. Such self-­
absorption is the starting point for arrogance. We forget that for
the Christian, sin is no longer the issue; it is paid for by Christ.
The issue is spiritual growth, advancing toward spiritual maturity,
not self-flagellation over past failures (Philippians 3:13). No mat-
ter how heinous our offense, we still possess the imputed, perfect
righteousness of Christ. God looks upon us as righteous because of
the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us. To realize our
forgiveness sets us free from debilitating guilt feelings and frees us
to advance in our spiritual life.
Accused but Forgiven
A beautiful illustration of how God responds to Satan’s accusa-
tions is found in Zechariah 3:1–5, where Zechariah had a vision of
the heavenly courtroom. God is the Supreme Judge of heaven and
earth, and Joshua the High Priest of Israel stands before God. Satan
stands as the accuser, the witness for the prosecution. The response
of the Lord is to rebuke Satan as he indicts Joshua. The Lord re-
minds the court that Joshua has been “plucked from the fire,” that
is, saved from eternal condemnation in the lake of fire. Joshua, like
all sinners, stands before God dressed in the filthy clothes of his sin.
But God in His grace has clothed Joshua with clean garments of
perfect, divine righteousness and a clean turban about his head. As
a recipient of God’s grace, he is free from guilt and should no longer
be troubled by Satan’s accusations.

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 What a marvelous picture of what God does for every believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ! Satan stands as our accuser. From one per-
spective, he has every right to do this for, like Joshua, we once stood
before God dressed in the filthy garments of our sin. Isaiah 64:6 says
that “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” However, the
instant that we trust in Jesus Christ, God graciously dresses us in
His righteousness, so that we are no longer guilty, and Satan has no
ground to accuse us (Rom. 4:3–4; 2 Cor. 5:21). This is the message
of 1 John 1:1–2:2, which tells us that the substitutionary death of
Christ on the cross is the basis for our forgiveness of sin in time
and eternity and that as believers we have a defense attorney be-
fore the bar of divine justice to defend us against the charges of the
­accuser—Satan.
If you are not a Christian, this passage means that no matter
what you have done you can obtain complete forgiveness of sin by
trusting in Jesus Christ alone. If you are a Christian, this passage
means that when Satan seeks to accuse you, planting doubts in your
mind because you have sinned or rebelled against God, you can
stand firm on God’s promise that you have been clothed with the
righteousness of Christ and that for His sake God has forgiven you.
There is then no need to cave in to guilt or to a defeatist mentality;
to do so is a denial of God’s promise that He cleanses us and forgives
us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
More Sinister Names
The ruler of this world. Twice the Lord Jesus Christ refers to Satan
thus (John 12:31; 14:30). The word world here is translated from
the Greek word kosmos, which encompasses the entire world sys-
tem, including all of the ideas and philosophies that Satan promotes
among people to establish his kingdom on the earth. Some of the
more popular of these ideas today are evolution, psychology, materi-
alism, Marxism, pragmatism, secular humanism, moral ­relativism,
and New Age mysticism.
More will be said in the next chapter, but here we want to remind
every Christian that Satan is the ruler of this world system, that we
were born under his authority (cf. Acts 26:18 with Col. 1:13), and
that when we believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer
we committed the unforgivable sin as far as Satan is concerned. We
declared our allegiance to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and
became rebels against Satan’s illegitimate authority on this earth. He

40
is now out to get us, and the only way we can successfully survive is
by following the explicit instructions of Scripture.
Prince of the power of the air. This title is given to Satan in
Ephesians 2:2. It is related to the title “ruler of this world” and refers
to the atmosphere. Within God’s permission, Satan has control of
man’s environment; he is still in operational control of planet Earth.
This verse also points out that he is the spirit who is now work-
ing in the “sons of disobedience,” the unbelievers. Every person is
born as an unbeliever under the authority of Satan as the ruler of
this world, is influenced by him because he is the controller of the
environment, and has Satan working in and through him. Because
unbelievers are subjects in his domain, they may still be used by him
to gain his nefarious ends.
God of this age. This title is closely tied to the two previous titles
and is found in 2 Corinthians 4:4. It is during this age, between the
fall of Adam and Eve and the coming of Christ, that God has given
Satan the freedom to propagate his worldly system. This verse goes
on to say that he is blinding the unsaved to the truth. The only way
to overcome this tactic is through the teaching ministry of God the
Holy Spirit, who enlightens people to the truth of the Word of God.
Evil one. Several passages (Matt. 6:13; John 17:15; 2 Thess. 3:3;
1 John 5:19) refer to Satan by this title. In these verses, we learn that
in spite of his beauty, intelligence, and power, Satan is evil. Often
his evil is a beautiful evil, attractive to mankind, and not merely an
ugly evil, as is often thought. His evil pervades the whole world be-
cause it all lies in his power. Yet, as rebels against this incredibly evil
personage, we have the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His
present role as our intercessor, Christ prays that we be kept from the
evil one. We are also promised that because of His faithfulness, we
will be strengthened and protected from the evil one (2 Thess. 3:3).
Tempter. Matthew 4:3 gives this title to Satan when it tells how
the Holy Spirit led our Lord Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted
by the Devil. This is what is called objective temptation. Satan entices
and lures people to do his will. He sets the trap and baits it well, but
he does not have the power to make anyone step into it. We can fall
prey to his temptation only when we choose to do so. The reason we
so choose and Jesus did not is that we allow our sin nature to control
us and willingly fall into Satan’s trap. The internal or subjective side
of temptation is described in James 1:14: “Each one is tempted when
he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” If we are to avoid the

41
traps and spot the bait, we must do what Scripture says to control
our sinful nature. (We will discuss this issue in a later chapter.)
Roaring lion. First Peter 5:8 warns every Christian to be of sober
spirit, which means to have the right mindset, objective thinking
based on God’s Word, and not to be distracted but to be constantly
alert because “your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour.” This passage also gives us the ad-
vice that we need to avoid these attacks. (We will also discuss this in
a later chapter.)
Deceiver. Paul referred to the deceptiveness of Satan and warned
the Corinthians about it in 2 Corinthians 11:3. If Eve, who did not
have a sin nature, was deceived by the craftiness of Satan, how much
easier it is for believers who do possess a sin nature to be deceived!
This deception may take any number of forms, but one form to
which Paul refers in this chapter is religious deception. He warns us
that, in his role as deceiver, Satan disguises himself as an “angel of
light” and as a “servant of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14–15). Satan
has the power to deceive even through miracles and signs and won-
ders. In fact, this is the very tool that he will use to deceive many
people into following the coming Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:9–12). Jesus
also warned that many who appear to be Christians and who even
healed people, cast out demons, and performed many miracles in
His name will be told by Him at the last judgment to depart be-
cause He never knew them (Matt. 7:21–23). The only way by which
Christians can avoid the subtle deception of Satan is through a
­detailed knowledge of God’s Word.
This picture of Satan that Scripture paints should cause each of
us to recognize the incredible danger that Satan presents to every
human being. We must not forget who he is or how much pow-
er and intelligence he has. It is a serious mistake to become arro-
gant toward Satan and ridicule him, an attitude that is never re-
flected in the Scriptures. This type of mentality among Christians
was reflected in the message seen recently on a signboard outside a
church in the Midwest: “Jesus is Hefty, Hefty, Hefty; Satan is Wimpy,
Wimpy, Wimpy.”
Subversion of the Race
Satan’s genius in tailoring a temptation to appeal to each individual’s
lust patterns and areas of weakness is first seen in his attack on man
in the Garden of Eden. Now that Satan had instigated his rebellious
kingdom, he lusted to extend its influence. In the Garden of Eden,

42
he was able to subvert mankind and bring them under his authority
and dominion. As we look at how he did this, we see a basic pattern
of attack that he commonly uses even today.
The crowning achievement of God’s creation was mankind.
This creative act took place on the sixth day, as recorded in Genesis
1:26–27:
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to
Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on
the earth.” And God created man in His own image, in
the image of God He created him; male and female He
­created them.
God created the human race, one man and one woman, and
placed them over the earth to rule it as His representatives.
As God’s vicegerents over the planet, Adam and Eve were giv-
en everything they would need to carry out their responsibilities.
(This provision is always true of God’s grace toward His people.)
God created the world and its environment in a perfect condition
for man, then He filled it with both animals and plants. He provided
abundantly for the sustenance of man, and then He instructed him
about this provision (Gen. 1:29–30). His continued presence gave
Adam and Eve the opportunity to get answers to any problem they
might have faced. God always provides everything that man needs
to fulfill his obligations to Him.
Although God had provided everything for them, He also estab-
lished one simple test by which Adam and Eve could demonstrate
their love and devotion to Him: they were forbidden to eat of the
fruit of one particular tree in the Garden. This tree was called the
“tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). The Hebrew
word used for knowledge here suggests experiential knowledge rather
than academic knowledge. We have no idea what kind of tree this
was or what kind of fruit it bore. But the issue was clarified to both
Adam and Eve: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (vv. 16–17).
The test was simple: if they loved and trusted God, they would obey
Him; if they did not love and trust Him, they would disobey Him,
and the result would be death.

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 Satan’s Age-Old Strategy
After observing Adam and Eve, Satan apparently decided that if he
could win Eve to his side, winning Adam would be easier. A careful
analysis of Satan’s approach to Eve reveals much that is character-
istic of Satan’s strategy even today. He began by disguising himself
(in this case as a serpent). Genesis 3:1 states, “The serpent was more
crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”
The Hebrew arum, translated “crafty” here, carries the idea of being
wary of the traps and knowing the dangers and pitfalls into which
one can fall.9 Satan is in the business of deception. He does not ap-
pear openly, nor does he make his desires plain. Instead, he wraps
them in the cloak of apparent good (2 Cor. 11:14). Satan does not
normally come up to people and say, “Do you want to sin?” Instead,
his temptation usually takes the form of doing good.
Satan began to work on Eve by first questioning what God had
said (Gen. 3:1). Satan’s usual technique is to cause people first to
question the sufficiency of God and His Word and then to question
the truth of what God has revealed. God revealed to Adam and Eve
that they were not to eat of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil. He did not go into detail; He did not enlighten
them about His reasons for the command, neither did He explain
every facet of the ways by which they could be tricked into eating
the fruit. That was not necessary because all they needed to know
was that they were not to eat from that particular tree.
The thrust of Satan’s first statement was “Indeed, has God [real-
ly] said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1).
Through the use of innuendo, the shrewd Serpent planted doubt in
Eve’s mind, doubt that God really had their best interest in mind.
He suggested that God was holding back something good and desir-
able. He was also probing to determine how well the woman knew
God’s instructions and to what degree she was committed to obey-
ing Him. Satan uses these same strategies today. He first gets people
to think that God’s Word isn’t true, that the Bible contains errors,
and that the Bible is simply a record of the religious experiences of
different people, primarily the Jews. Then they, like Eve, dismiss the
revelation of God as irrelevant.
Satan’s arguments can be very subtle. For example, many people
today believe that the Bible is true and without error in all matters

9 Allan Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988), 132.

44
of “faith and practice.” That statement is true as far as it goes, but in
many cases it masks a subtle disregard for the actual inerrancy of
Scripture. The thinking Christian ought to ask certain questions. Is
the Bible true when it mentions historical events? Is the Bible true
when it makes observations about nature and the creation? Often
the critic of the Bible will say that it has mistakes in matters of his-
tory, geography, and science, but that we can believe the Bible when
it discusses spiritual matters. Unfortunately for the critic, when the
Bible discusses spiritual issues, they are not separated from history
or creation. The spiritual issues are intimately interwoven with the
historical statements, and the truth of the spiritual matter depends
on the reliability of the historical or creation issue. Jesus and the
apostles clearly believed that Adam and Eve were real, historical
people and that they sinned (Matt. 19:4; 1 Tim. 2:13–14). The Fall
was a literal event in history that changed history and had disas-
trous consequences on the human race. Because of their sin, Jesus,
the second person of the Trinity, had to come to earth to die for
man’s sin. If Adam had not sinned as a historical act, no need would
have existed for the Incarnation or the Crucifixion.
Spiritual and Physical Truth
In John chapter 3, we have the record of Jesus’ conversation with one
of the most prominent religious leaders of His day, a man named
Nicodemus. In the course of their conversation, Jesus explained to
Nicodemus that a person must be born a second time before he can
see the kingdom of God. This statement stunned Nicodemus. In all
of his years of study, he never had heard this statement, and he was
confused by it. Jesus went on to explain that people are born once of
their mother, but they are born sinners and spiritually dead: “What
is born of flesh is flesh.” When Adam sinned, he died spiritually, that
is, he lost the ability to have a relationship with God and to under-
stand divine truth (1 Cor. 2:14). Man’s problem is spiritual death,
and he needs to be reborn spiritually.
When Nicodemus asked how this spiritual rebirth could take
place, Jesus responded, “If I told you earthly things and you do not
believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John
3:12). The point is that spiritual truth cannot be separated from
physical truth. If we do not believe the Word of God when it speaks
about history, geography, nature, and creation—things we can see
and about which we can read—how can we trust it when it talks
about things in the spiritual realm? The Bible is not true just when it

45
speaks about matters of faith and practice, but it is true in everything
it says. We must be careful not to fall into Satan’s trap of believing
that God’s Word is only partially true.
Eve’s response shows that Satan’s strategy was already working.
Her answer reveals that she had already begun to drift from God’s
command and to add to it: “The woman said to the serpent, ‘From
the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit
of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said “You
shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die” (Gen. 3:2–3, emphasis
added). Eve was already accepting the idea that God was being too re-
strictive, and she revealed her inadequate knowledge of God’s Word.
In contrast, when Jesus was tempted by Satan, He used the
Word accurately (Matt. 4:1–10). Satan used the same technique of
misapplying the Word of God and twisting it to bring about confu-
sion. But Jesus relied solely on the Word. He did not oblige Satan
by entering a dialogue about theoretical possibilities. He just stuck
to the Word and used it correctly. The result was that He withstood
the temptation.
Has God Told Us Enough?
Another strategy of Satan is to cast doubt upon the sufficiency of
God’s revelation: Has God really told us enough? While there cer-
tainly is a lot more that God could have told us about a great many
things, the issue is whether God has in fact told us everything we
need to know. As we demonstrated in the second chapter of this
book, the Bible claims to tell us everything we need to know for life
and godliness (2 Peter 1:3–4). Satan’s question to Eve was designed
to make her doubt God’s instructions and to wonder why God said
what He said.
Satan’s question also implied that he could supply her with
more information about the matter, supposedly so she could make
a better, more informed decision. This is still one of Satan’s lures
today—the idea that he has additional information which God is
withholding from us, information that we need to deal with vari-
ous situations that are not covered in the Bible. Such a pursuit of
extra-biblical knowledge is really a criticism of God and His char-
acter. Too often, the motive for “needing” more inside informa-
tion is that we can check up on God to see if He has really made a
wise decision for us. Once we start this line of thinking, we open
ourselves to Satan’s distorted perspective on a situation, which, in
effect, is trusting Satan’s word instead of God’s Word. Eve should

46
have t­ rusted God and obeyed His simple command not to eat of the
forbidden fruit, without having to know more about why God gave
such a command.
The Bold Lie
Once Satan had put this suggestion in her mind and initiated the
doubting process, he then openly stated that what God had said was
not true: “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die!
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ ” (Gen.
3:4–5). God said that they would die, but Satan said that they would
not, that they had no reason to fear any harsh consequences for
their actions.
The second part of this statement impugned the character of
God. Satan stated that the real reason God did not want them to
eat of the fruit was because they would become like God. In other
words, God was holding back from them. God didn’t really have
their best interests in mind but was simply trying to keep them from
having everything they could have, trying to impede them from re-
alizing their full potential. Now that Satan had her attention, Eve
probably started wondering why God didn’t want her to eat from
the tree. And Satan came along with just the right answer: God
doesn’t want you to know everything He does because He’s jealous.
If you eat the fruit, you will be just like Him.
This lie of Satan is still prevalent today and is found increasing-
ly, even within the church. Some men who claim to be preachers of
the Christian gospel actually teach that people are gods—a heresy
prevalent in many false religions.
The Cyanide Principle
Throughout the temptation of Eve, Satan mixed a relatively small
part of a lie with a fairly substantial amount of truth. But remember
that a glass of water with just one drop of cyanide in it is lethal. It is
not the water that is harmful but the small amount of cyanide. The
first part of Satan’s statement was a lie: God had said that they would
die, and Satan said that they would not. But the second part of his
statement was true: When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, their eyes
would be opened, and they would become like God in the sense of
knowing good and evil. In Genesis 3:22–24, after Adam and Eve
had sinned and God had told them the consequences of this sin,
God closed off the Garden of Eden to them. In verse 22, God said,
“Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and
47
evil.” God did not say that they had become a god but that in one
particular and important way they had become like God, knowing,
in the sense of “determining,” what was good and evil. Adam and
Eve had set themselves up as the final arbiter of God’s prohibition.
The point of the original test in the Garden was to demonstrate
whether Adam and Eve would submit to God and do what He told
them and believe what He said. But Adam and Eve were not content
with that; they wanted to make up their own minds as to what was
good and what was evil. By so doing, they acted as if they were gods
because only God has the right to determine what is good and evil.
When Adam and Eve attempted to use their own experience and
reason without orienting it to God’s Word, they were acting as if
they were gods, and the result was catastrophic for the human race.
Satan was successful in his strategy, for he cast doubt on the
truthfulness of God’s Word, then on the sufficiency of God’s Word,
and then on the personal integrity of God. Thus confused, Eve al-
lowed herself to get in the position of trusting her own experience
and reason to make the decision instead of simply obeying God’s
Word. This is the danger point. Once we begin to doubt either the
truthfulness of God’s Word or its sufficiency, we begin to rely in-
stead on our own experience and reason. But our experience (even
after all of these years) and our reason (despite our IQ and advanced
education) are too limited and too affected by sin ever to be able
adequately to handle Satan’s shrewd strategies. Once we get to this
point, Satan can twist us around his little finger just as he did Eve.
Citizen’s of Satan’s Kingdom
Once Eve began to look at the fruit the way Satan wanted her to, she
began to desire it. She “saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make
one wise” (Gen. 3:6). She then ate of the fruit. Apparently nothing
happened instantly, and Eve began to think that the lie of the ser-
pent was the truth. So she went to Adam and gave him some fruit,
and he ate too. Then things changed immediately.
It was Adam’s sin that was determinative. The Scriptures teach
that Eve was deceived. She had been confused and duped into eating
the fruit, but there was no excuse for Adam. Adam sinned know-
ingly: “It was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being
quite deceived, fell into transgression” (1 Tim. 2:14). Adam was the
head of the race. He was the head of the family. His was the deci-
sion that made the difference. It was only after he ate that their eyes

48
were opened. Would the entire race have fallen if Adam had not
eaten? We can only guess at the possible outcome. The sobering fact
­remains that Adam did eat the fruit, and we have been living with
the consequences ever since.
When Adam chose to eat the fruit, he was choosing to disobey
God and to believe and obey the serpent. At that point, Adam re-
belled against the authority of God and aligned himself with Satan.
The result was that the human race came under the control and
dominion of Satan. By declaring their independence against God,
Adam and Eve became citizens of Satan’s kingdom and cast all of
humanity under his domain. Satan had won his victory and gained
the prize. The world and the human race became legally under
Satan’s authority.
Satan had promised them that they could be like God, without
anyone telling them what to think, believe, or do. But the horrible
truth was that now they were slaves to Satan, under his rule and
authority. Two key New Testament passages inform us that the un-
saved person is under Satan’s authority and dominion. In Acts 26:18,
Jesus commissioned Paul to go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel
“to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and
from the dominion of Satan to God...” Colossians 1:13 tells us that
when a person is saved by trusting in Jesus Christ as his Savior, he
is delivered “from the domain of darkness.” In both of these verses,
the literal meaning of the Greek word translated “domain” or “do-
minion” is authority. Because of Adam’s choice against God, all of
his descendants are born under the authority of Satan.
The Worst Kind of Death
The second thing that happened immediately after Adam and Eve
ate the fruit was that they died. God had said, “In the day that you
eat from it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Death in Scripture does
not refer to cessation of existence but emphasizes the idea of separa-
tion. Physical death is a separation from the physical world, but the
soul (the essence of each person) continues to exist. Spiritual death
is the separation of a person’s human spirit from God. The penalty
for sin was not physical death, but spiritual death. Physical death is
just one of numerous consequences of spiritual death. This was the
result with Adam and Eve, as can be seen in what immediately took
place after they ate the fruit. Ultimately, the unsaved soul spends
eternity separated from God in hell, an eternal death.

49
 As had been usual, God came to walk with Adam and Eve in the
Garden. When Adam and Eve heard Him, rather than running joy-
fully to Him to spend time with Him, they hid themselves because
they were afraid. They no longer enjoyed fellowship with God. Their
sins had separated them from God.
The second result of their disobedience was that they acquired
a sin nature. They became selfish and irresponsible; their previous
relationship, which had been perfectly harmonious, became torn
apart. When God asked them why they hid themselves and if they
had eaten of the forbidden fruit, they responded by denying what
they had done and by passing the buck. Such is the trend of the
sin nature: to avoid personal responsibility for bad decisions and
to blame others, human or demonic. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve
blamed the serpent. They tried to avoid responsibility for their
actions and sought to shift it to someone else. The result of their
sin brought a horrible curse upon the human race, the curse of
­spiritual death.
The Fatal Blow
Although God justly pronounced this curse on them, in His grace
He also provided a way out, a way of salvation. God addressed the
serpent and told him He would “put enmity between you [the ser-
pent/Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the
heel” (Gen. 3:15). This verse is the first mention of God’s plan of
salvation. The seed of the woman refers to Jesus Christ, the Savior
whom God would provide, born of a woman. Although the serpent
would bruise Jesus at the cross, Jesus would then deliver the fatal
blow to Satan.
This is the good news: although man rebelled against God and
is born under the authority of Satan, God in His great love has pro-
vided a way of escape. The penalty for sin is death, but God provided
His own Son, who would pay that penalty for man by dying on the
cross in payment for their sins. “The wages of sin is death, but the
free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
Two Vital Secrets
We must not overlook two critically important lessons. First, Sa-
tan’s skill at deception was so clever that people with no sin nature
and who enjoyed an incredibly close relationship with God were
deceived. They were tricked because they allowed Satan to direct
their thinking away from God’s command and to entice them into
50
dealing with him apart from the revealed Word of God. If we are
to avoid the same snare, we, who do have a sin nature, must be
even more armed with the Word of God and ensure that we are
using it accurately. Unfortunately, the superficial knowledge that
most Christians have of God’s Word makes them easy marks for
Satan’s deceptions.
Second, failure to rely solely on the sufficiency of God’s Word
will always lead to disaster in spiritual warfare. God is a jealous God;
He wants to be trusted alone. To rely on anything alongside the
Word of God is to destroy its power in our lives. That is one reason
why so many Christians today lead such ineffective Christian lives
and struggle so much with sin. They are merging biblical teaching
with self-help techniques, psychology, drugs, unbiblical teaching
about demons and sin, etc. Only by understanding what God has
revealed in His Word about the enemies facing us can we erect the
defenses necessary to guard effectively against them.

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 4
WORLDVIEW FOR CONQUEST
Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any-
one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world_the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from
the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing
away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of
God abides forever.
1 John 2:15–17

Worldliness is one of the most difficult concepts for many Christians

to understand; therefore, we continue to be vulnerable to it. Funda-
mentalists have frequently identified worldliness with certain activ-
ities. A Christian who smoked or drank alcoholic beverages or went
to movies was often considered worldly. However, actions in them-
selves should not be classified as worldliness when viewed from the
biblical perspective. When a person submits to lustful temptations
and commits sinful acts, such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, or
gossip, these are sins of the flesh and not worldliness per se.
The biblical concept of worldliness has more to do with a way
of thinking, a mindset, or a worldview than with particular actions.
From generation to generation, the dominant worldly ideas that in-
fluence people tend to change. Satan is constantly working behind
the scenes, influencing the way people think—the attitudes and
ideas that influence each generation. In one generation, worldliness
might involve a trend toward a relativistic morality, whereas in an-
other generation, it might be expressed through an ultra-rigid mo-
rality. Worldliness is best understood as an overall philosophy of life
or way of thinking that stirs up the flesh to indulge in specific sins,
such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, gossip, or self-righteous
arrogance. Worldliness is a way of thinking about life that is con-
trary to the biblical way or divine viewpoint. Worldliness may con-
tain a large amount of truth, yet its overall makeup and foundation
is divorced from Scriptural authority. As such, worldliness provides

52
a rationale for sin, and it is often associated with false teachings that
blind people to the truth and lead them away from God (2 Cor. 4:4).
The New Testament contains several passages that emphasize
the distinction between the Christian and the world. This contrast
is so marked that James warns us that friendship with the world
is hostility toward God (James 4:4). There is no middle ground or
place of neutrality. When what we think aligns with the world, we
are hostile to God. And such worldly thinking will eventually trip
us up in the sins of the flesh. Remember, believers are not to be
conformed to the world (we must expunge from our thinking such
worldly influences as pragmatism, mysticism, idealism, and relativ-
ism) but transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2).
Therefore, it is critical that we understand what the Bible means by
the world, how worldliness is manifested in our present generation,
what the characteristics of worldliness are, and how God tells us we
can avoid worldliness.
What it Means to be Worldly
In the New Testament, the word world (from which we derive our
English word worldliness, or “world-like-ness”) is a translation of
the Greek noun kosmos. It was used to signify the orderly arrange-
ment of individual parts into an integrated whole, as of the orderly
arrangement of soldiers in battle formation. A synonym we will use
for this system of thinking is cosmic thinking.
In Greek thought, the concept of beauty and order were linked
together. So kosmos often expressed the idea of a beautiful arrange-
ment or an adornment or decoration. This word was appropriate for
the Holy Spirit to choose because Satan loves to decorate his ideas
with the most beautiful attire. We should understand world, worldly,
and worldliness as the external arrangement of nonbiblical thinking
(or what we called human viewpoint in chapter 2). Worldliness is
an organized and attractive system of ideas, concepts, attitudes, and
methods that Satan uses to compete with God’s concept of how peo-
ple should live on planet Earth. Satan is the head and controller of
this system of thinking. Whenever we think like the world, we are
thinking exactly as Satan wants us to think. Lewis Sperry Chafer, an
outstanding Bible teacher of a previous generation, described the
world system as follows:
The cosmos is a vast order or system that Satan has pro-
moted which conforms to his ideals, aims, and methods.
It is civilization now functioning apart from God—a

53
 civilization in which none of its promoters really expect
God to share, who assign to God no consideration in re-
spect to their projects. This system embraces its godless
governments, conflicts, armaments, and jealousies, [as
well as] its education, culture, religions of morality, and
pride. It is that sphere in which man lives. It is what he
sees, what he employs. To the uncounted multitude it is
all they ever know so long as they live on this earth. It
is properly styled the satanic system, which phrase is in
many instances a justified interpretation of the so-mean-
ingful word cosmos. It is literally a cosmos diabolicus.10
It is cosmic thinking that often shapes the themes of popular
television shows and movies in which man is depicted exploring
space to expand his empire, building his own world, searching for
meaning to life. Yet the God of the Bible is nowhere to be found.
Worldliness is often presented as something beautiful, desir-
able, and enlightening. As Eve thought after agreeing with Satan’s
temptation, “it was a delight to the eyes and … desirable to make
one wise” (Gen. 3:6). As this verse indicates, Eve was ready, willing,
and able to sin when she started looking at things from Satan’s point
of view rather than from God’s point of view. The cosmic system is
Satan’s window dressing, presenting evil in a way which seems like
the good, right, and proper thing to do. When a person is not trust-
ing God’s Word to direct him, it is very easy for him to be deceived
into adopting worldly thinking.
Because Satan is a beautiful creature of God, he is able to pres-
ent evil as a beautiful thing. Thus, we see an affinity between human
viewpoint, cosmic thinking, and Satanic philosophies.
Three Strong Desires
Many people today speak constantly about spiritual warfare. Often,
their attention is focused exclusively on Satan and demons, even
though spiritual warfare in the Bible is presented as a threefold op-
eration against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. As a result of
being so preoccupied with only one phase of the battle, many Chris-
tians have suffered profound infiltration on the fronts of the world
and the flesh.
If we want to be successful as Christians in avoiding worldli-
ness, we must first understand its basic characteristics. First John
10 Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol. II (Dallas Seminary Press, 1948),
77.

54
2:16 and James 3:15 are two crucial New Testament passages that
tell us about the nature of this cosmic system.
In 1 John 2:16, the Apostle John describes the totality of the world
system, “all that is in the world,” as composed of three parts: (1) “the lust
of the flesh,” (2) “the lust of the eyes,” and (3) “the boastful pride of life.”
The first component is “the lust of the flesh,” which refers to our
evil desire to satisfy the impulses that stem from our fallen nature
called “the flesh.” “If it feels good, do it,” a popular slogan generated
by the world a number of years ago, accurately captures the idea
behind the lust of the flesh. The idea often used in commercial ad-
vertising that we deserve all of the fine things in life is a worldly idea
that appeals to the lust of the flesh.
Then we come to a somewhat similar phrase, “the lust of the
eyes.” This has to do with desire for things that we see, things which
catch our eye. The emphasis is on external attractiveness without
examining the underlying values. “The lust of the eyes” is associated
with greed, envy, and covetousness. This type of greed is one of the
major controlling principles in the world system.
“The boastful pride of life” is cited as the third controlling prin-
ciple of this world system. It is the arrogant attitude by which people
think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. It is the
ambition to center one’s life on self rather than on God.
All three of these characteristics originated with Satan in his
fall, were passed down to Adam and Eve, and are daily the most im-
itated philosophy of life on the globe today. The central idea of the
world’s approach to life is selfishness, summarized in three words:
passion, greed, and pride. The world system favors “men who are
alienated from God [who] have [as] their ambition in life the desire
to please the longings of a nature corrupted by sin; to possess the
things they see and can enjoy; to prevail over their fellow-men in
power and prestige.”11 These are Satan’s rules for the game of life in
this present world system.
In contrast, the believer is called to live a life of love toward
God that makes transforming his thinking the highest priority
(Rom. 12:1–2; John 14:15). The cosmic system hates God and all
who are aligned with Him (John 15:19) because the principles of the
world are diametrically opposed to those of the Christian. Thus, the
Apostle John commands believers not to “love the world, nor the
things in the world” (1 John 2:15).

11 Ibid., 47-48.

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 The Apostle James contrasts the wisdom of the world with the
wisdom from above in James 3:15–17. Again we see only two ways
of thinking: the cosmic thinking of human viewpoint versus God’s
way of thinking, or divine viewpoint. The three terms employed in
this description—“earthly, natural, demonic” (James 3:15)—should
shake us up about many of our deeply cherished opinions. Here
James clearly delineates that human-viewpoint thinking is not
merely neutral or wrong but is specifically defined as demonic.
Wisdom in the Bible means “skill in living.” It includes not only
intellectual insights but also the element of knowing how to put
knowledge into practice skillfully and successfully. Worldly wisdom
excels at instructing us on how to solve problems in life and gain
happiness and stability in this life. Many of these systems work for a
time and provide a measure of happiness. Yet, their viability is never
the issue. Satan’s systems are often quite successful, yet their end
result is tragic: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its
end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Earthly has to do with one’s perspective. The wisdom of the
world does not have a perspective beyond the horizon of this tem-
poral environment. Neither a heavenly nor an eternal perspective is
found. It is time-bound. Natural refers to the nature of fallen man.
For something in the Bible to be natural means that it is still in the
fallen, unregenerate state, not under the influence of the Spirit of
God or the spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14). Demonic means just what it says,
a wisdom consistent with Satan’s program that attempts to control
us by doctrines of demons. It is a wisdom that rejects God as the
source for skill in living.
Let us bring the point home. What we have seen so far is that
every human being is born a sinner, a citizen of Satan’s domain, and
is brainwashed to think according to Satan’s cosmic system from
birth. Despite the presence of many true and accurate concepts, the
overall orientation of our thinking from birth is based on arrogance.
Thus, the Bible classifies the thinking of every human being from
birth as demonic—not a complementary picture. For this reason,
a transformation of the believer’s thinking on the basis of detailed
and extensive Bible teaching is a high priority. We must complete-
ly scrap our old mindset and way of thinking, not just exchange a
few pieces of wrong data for a few pieces of correct information.
We must renovate our entire frame of reference according to God’s
revealed Word. Romans 12:2 is not calling for simply learning Bible

56
stories and biblical standards; it is calling for a radical overhaul of
how we think as well as what we think.
Worldliness Fleshed Out
Perhaps a clearer way to grasp the idea of worldliness is to see it
fleshed out in the examples of the Old Testament. Because the Jews
did not have a Greek word like kosmos of the New Testament, they
developed the idea of worldliness by showing its characteristics
through a nation. It is primarily through the intellectual, cultur-
al, and spiritual heritage established in Babel that Satan molds the
image of worldliness in the Old Testament. Throughout the Bible,
­Babel and Babylon epitomize worldliness.12
Nimrod was a grandson of Ham, one of Noah’s three sons who
came to the new world on the great ark. Noah and his three sons
were responsible for founding society and its new culture after the
Flood. Nimrod was somehow able to coerce many men of his time
into forming a kingdom of his own making. Under Nimrod, sinful
people quickly resumed the evil activities for which God had sent
the Flood.
Babel was the birthplace and center from which Nimrod’s ac-
tivities and the kingdom of man went forth. Babylon was the first
attempt of men down through history to unify people to solve their
common problems. In essence, it was the first United Nations and
the origin of the global-unity idea that is at the root of all such move-
ments. This attempt to unite man apart from God brought down
God’s judgment. God confused the language of rebellious mankind
and geographically scattered them across the globe to prevent this
autonomous unification. God’s confusion of language was intend-
ed to minimize the spread of worldliness by adversely affecting the
communication of man’s false ideas from one group of people to
the next. This has served to slow down mankind’s reunification in
rebellion against God by causing fighting within humanity due to
the differences produced by rival languages and cultures.
Even today, nothing has changed. Man’s dream is still ultimate-
ly to solve humankind’s problems through global unity and apart
from God. This desire is clearly expressed today in the world peace
movements that seek to unify mankind under a one-world govern-
ment. The push toward globalism is on the rise. Yet, this very idea
that somehow man can solve his own problems apart from God is at
12Much of the information on Babylon is taken from Charles A. Clough, Dawn of
the Kingdom (Lubbock, Tex.: privately printed, 1974), 14–16

57
the root of cosmic thinking. In the Old Testament, this idea always
manifested itself by human pride and defiance of God, human wis-
dom and knowledge, human power to control and manipulate, and
vast human wealth.13
Pride and Defiance
First, worldliness manifests itself through pride and defiance of God.
This is the very sin that brought Satan down, and it is the root of all sin
(Isa. 14:13–14). Babylon typified this sin in the ancient world. Isaiah
47 gives a clear picture of how the Babylonians exalted themselves as
the queen of the kingdoms (vv. 5, 7). In their arrogance, they believed
they could provide financial and military security for their people (vv.
8–9). This pride also produced an alternate religious system (vv. 9,
12–15), somewhat like the contemporary New Age movement.
We see this same type of arrogance and defiance of God in
our world today. Those who promote globalism think that human
government is the solution to all man’s problems and that only a
one-world government will be able to provide financial security and
bring world peace. More often than not, these same people are pro-
moting New Age ideas, which are a mixture of astrology, divination,
sorcery, and various self-help techniques that either leave God out
of the picture entirely or merely give Him lip service. Little differ-
ence exists between this and the mindset of the ancient Babylonians.
The major motivating principle used by the cosmic system and
found increasingly within the church today is that of self. We are
taught that self is the center of the universe: self-image, self-love,
self-esteem, self-motivation. Self-absorption is one of the most
prominent characteristics of the baby-boom generation in America.
The result has been a breakdown in relationships and morality. (The
high divorce rate is a result of this self-oriented thinking.) This kind
of orientation to self is nothing more than an expression of pride,
the trademark of Satan and his kingdom. This self-orientation
breeds an attitude of rejection of any external authority, especially
that exerted by God. Defiance of God is increasingly becoming the
norm rather than the exception.
Wisdom and Knowledge
The second characteristic of worldly thinking places a high premi-
um on man’s wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10). This characteristic

13Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon, America: The Sorcerer’s New Apprentice (Eugene,
Ore.: Harvest House, 1988), 107–245.

58
not only involves man’s attempts to answer the basic questions about
life through the use of autonomous philosophy but also includes as-
trology and other occultic arts (Isa. 47:12–13): “All the nations were
deceived by your sorcery” (Rev. 18:23).
Because modern men do not submit to God’s wisdom and
knowledge, man takes greater pride and satisfaction in his own
thoughts. He has concluded that no one is going to save man ex-
cept himself, whether by his own rational thought or by New Age
mysticism. This explains why mankind has been so interested in
human-viewpoint philosophy, whether of the rational variety or the
mystical kind. This surely stems from pride because historians of
philosophy will be the first to admit that no one has been able to
come up with a workable philosophy in all of human history and
because the lure of occult secrets has always led to bondage or been
a great disappointment. However, human viewpoint says that it is
the search for truth which is important. And so this is all with which
they are left—a search having no genuine hope of ever finding that
for which they are looking: “Always learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).
This pride of human knowledge is often shown in the way we
try to solve personal problems. In some cases, we look to human-
istic psychology to find answers and help for our problems, not re-
alizing that many of the ideas and concepts in modern psychology
have their origin in demonic encounters.14 At other times, people
seek to resolve difficult situations on the basis of intuitive insights
rather than biblical precepts. Often, as pastors, we have counseled
people in marital difficulty who have engaged in extramarital affairs
because having this fantastic love seemed so right to them. They
assume that God certainly wouldn’t give them such a love and then
expect them to walk away from it. Worldliness says, “Go with your
feelings,” which gives the flesh a real basis for operation. When intu-
ition and emotion supplant the principles of Scripture, misery and
self-destruction become inevitable.
The Power to Control
A third characteristic of worldly thinking involves the power to con-
trol and manipulate. On the national level, this characteristic is ex-
pressed through the accumulation of military and political strength,
which our modern world uses not merely to restrain evil but to keep
14Paul B. Clingen, “A Portrait of Satan in Ezekiel Twenty-Eight” (Unpublished
Th.M. Thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1954), 39.

59
people under captivity to the state and its goals. Ancient Egypt and
Babylon were perfect examples of nations that were trusting in great
military and political strength, but God humbled them both.
In answer to Pharaoh’s arrogant question, “Who is the Lord that
I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord”
(Exod. 5:2), the Lord taught Pharaoh who He was and why even
rebels must obey the Lord. The Lord redeemed the Israelites out of
Pharaoh’s hand through the ten plagues, and in the process, Egypt’s
great military and political strength were smashed.
In Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar asked a similar question: “What
god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” (Dan. 3:15).
Nebuchadnezzar in his pride was trusting in military and political
strength to coerce his subjects to bow the knee and worship him as
a god. Yet Nebuchadnezzar ended up realizing that “the Most High
is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whomever He
wishes” (4:25). More recently, Adolf Hitler attempted to use military
and political strength to forge his Third Reich, which was to last for
a thousand years. It actually lasted only about ten years!
On a personal level, the pursuit of power has reached new
proportions. Just think about the terminology that we common-
ly use: power dress, power suit, power lunch, etc. This is one of the
enticing appeals of New Age or metaphysical thought: It promises
a new power to its adherents. Thus, seminars such as The Forum
(formerly est), Silva Mind Control, and ONE offer customers new
power over themselves and the ability to manipulate and control
other people so that they may be more successful in their business-
es. Unfortunately, the power to which some of their customers are
introduced is ­demonic.
Money as Security
Fourth, worldliness sees the accumulation of financial wealth as
the means to security and happiness in this life. An example in the
Bible seems almost contemporary. The metropolis of Tyre (Ezek.
27) shows the classic pattern of how vast wealth operates in Satan’s
world system. The central drive behind ancient Tyre’s success in
the commercial world was her drive to please self—in other words,
­selfish ambition.
So captivated was Tyre by her own ability that she undertook
daring expeditions, bold and unprecedented voyages. With her
excellent charts of the ocean, her study of the stars, and careful-
ly guarded records as to depths and distances, winds and currents,

60
she was able to outstrip all other competitors by sailing during
the night.15
Pride, conceit, self-absorption, a sense of grasping, and destruc-
tive covetousness all characterized Tyre and Satan’s cosmic system.
Tyre was famous for having the most aggressive merchants of the
world; they could get along with anyone as long as there was a dollar
to be made!
Someone has said that Americans are the salesmen of the
world, which explains why the pragmatist, the person who gets
the job done or closes the sale, is the most admired person in our
culture. We live in a time in which more and more people pursue
as the standard for happiness things that only money will buy. We
have an unquenchable thirst for status, fame, luxury, ease, comfort,
and ­entertainment.
Even within the church a whole new theology of health and
wealth is proclaimed and practiced. This is a characteristic of
Babylon and should be seen as the product of the spirit of this world.
Wealth is not evil in itself, but the drive to accumulate wealth by any
means and for the purpose of selfish desires is clearly contrary to
Scripture. It is the love of money which is a root of all sorts of evil
(1 Tim. 6:10). As with many modern Americans, wealth is pursued
for its own sake. A contemporary bumper sticker reads, “Whoever
dies with the most toys wins.”
By now you have some insight as to how you can spot world-
liness. At its very core, it is the assertion of man’s independence
against God. It is the idea that security and fulfillment in life can
be attained apart from submission to God and orientation to His
plan. Nimrod and his contemporary imitators seek to solve man’s
problems through global unity, even at the expense of personal lib-
erty. In their assertion of their independence, they turn to alterna-
tive religions, which are nothing more than thinly disguised forms
of Satanism.
But lest we miss the brilliance of Satan’s clever designs, we
should note that the goals and ideals of worldliness are always very
attractive. After all, who could be against world peace, nuclear dis-
armament, personal prosperity, saving the whales, or ending world
hunger? These goals are not wrong in themselves; what is wrong is
the fact that modern man has chosen to solve these problems on

15 Much help in this section was gleaned from Allan S. Maitha, “The World: Enemy
of the Believer” (Unpublished Th.M. Thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1970).

61
his own while denying his need for God. At the very core of man’s
efforts is his rebellion against God, his desire to make a success out
of planet Earth apart from God. The idea that man can solve his
problems on his own appeals to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the boastful pride of life.”
How can we escape the influence of worldliness? First, we must
understand how the system really works.
How the System Works
None of us who have been through military boot camp will ever
forget the experience. First, the drill instructor gives us a talk about
how he is in charge and how we are under his absolute authority.
Then he spends the rest of the day (from a very early start!) showing
us that he has authority over us by constantly yelling at us, calling us
all kinds of unrepeatable names, and making us do push-ups every
time we do not do exactly what he commands us to do. He exerts
this kind of control over us for the duration of boot camp, until
finally, an hour before graduation, he manages a smile and makes
a speech of appreciation for our accomplishments. One thing that
we all knew about our drill sergeant was that he was in total control.
The same is true of Satan’s rule over his domain during this present
age: he is in control.
The Apostle Paul labels the age in which the world currently
operates as “this present evil age” (Gal 1:4).1616 It is evil because
Satan is in charge of setting the agenda. Satan is said to be “the god
of this world [age]” (2 Cor. 4:4), as well as “the ruler of this world”
(John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Jesus Christ did not question Satan’s right
to give Him the “kingdoms of the world” if He would worship him
(Luke 4:5–7). In fact, during the future Tribulation, Satan will con-
fer authority over this world to the man of sin (Rev. 13:1–8), thus
fulfilling the offer which he made to the Lord.
God has given Satan a certain freedom of operation, within di-
vinely appointed limits, to act as God’s opponent during the pres-
ent age until the time when God will restrict him to the bottomless
pit (Rev. 20:2–3), thereby removing his influence from the world.
Indeed, it will be a new world when that day comes. Meanwhile, we
should not forget that even though Satan currently occupies a high
position and a certain degree of freedom, his days are numbered.

16 Ibid., 99–100

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God is sovereign, and His plan includes His rule over evil as well
as good.
Satan rules over all the subjects under his domain, which in-
clude both fallen angels and sinful mankind. John tells us that the
scope of Satan’s domain is the world: “The whole world lies in the
power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).
The fallen angels are Satan’s foot soldiers, who do his bidding
in the spiritual realm. They are an organized group described in
Scripture as “rulers,” “powers,” “world forces of this darkness,” and
“spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
Those who do not know Christ as Savior are said to have been
caught in “the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to
do his will” (2 Tim. 2:26). Every human being is at the beck and call
of Satan, unless he or she has escaped his clutches by becoming a be-
liever. Scripture describes unbelievers as those who walk “according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience”
(Eph. 2:2). All unbelievers are in bondage to Satan, making them his
unwitting allies against God. He makes them dance in harmony to
the tune of the world system.
This system operates similar to the way a radio station functions.
Satan is the program director who selects the agenda for the station.
The demons and fallen humanity produce the programming, which
propagates and reinforces the agenda (false doctrine). The station
then transmits the message over the air. However, you cannot pick
up the station unless you have a receiver tuned to the right frequen-
cy. All of fallen humanity is tuned to radio station “WORLD” with
the volume turned all the way up. The receiver is the flesh, which is
attracted to Satan’s frequency. All three aspects work in harmony:
the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
The sin nature is sympathetic to the evil nature of the world
system, so the two are attracted. The main difference between the
two is that the world system characterizes the corporate expression
of Satan, whereas the flesh embodies these same characteristics on
a personal level. When someone becomes a believer in Jesus Christ,
this alignment is broken but only by expelling cosmic thinking from
the soul by saturating our minds with the teaching of Scripture.
Winning the Battle
Jesus told the Pharisees in the temple that “you are of this world; I
am not of this world” (John 8:23). Later, He said that His followers

63
“are not of this world, even as I am not of the world” (17:14, 16).
Christ then prayed to the Father on behalf of all believers that He
not “take them out of the world, but … keep them from the evil one”
(v. 15). We see from the New Testament that Christ is our model for
how a believer should relate to the world. The well-known slogan
often heard in Christian circles is true: Believers are to be in the
world but not of the world.
The reason the believer is not of the world is that he has been
chosen out of the world (John 15:19) and born of God (1 John 5:18).
The believer has a new position in Christ because God has “delivered
us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). His new nature no longer matches
the tune being transmitted by the world system. The believer is now
able to tune the dial to a new frequency and match his regenerated
nature with the things of the Lord. He is now “the light of the world”
(Matt. 5:14). He goes from being a resident of this world to being a
cosmic tourist (Philippians 3:20). But how is he to conduct himself
and relate to the world now that he is an outsider?
The believer’s new relationship to the world system revolves
around two simple aspects: separation from the world and evange-
lism of the world. We are left in the world to evangelize it, because
in the world is the only place where we can call sinners to faith in
Christ. On the other hand, believers are to be separate from the
world because we are citizens of a heavenly country, have a different
system of thinking, and follow a higher code of conduct.
Living in a Monastery?
Many New Testament passages command separation from the
world. Some of them include the following injunctions: “Do not be
conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2); “instructing us to deny un-
godliness and worldly desires” (Titus 2:12); “keep oneself unstained
by the world” (James 1:27); “friendship with the world is hostili-
ty toward God” (James 4:4); “escaped the corruption that is in the
world” (2 Peter 1:4); “escaped the defilements of the world” (2 Peter
2:20); “do not love the world” (1 John 2:15).
Most Christians would agree that the Bible teaches us to sepa-
rate from the world, but we would not all agree on what this teach-
ing means or how it should be done. One popular answer has been
monasticism. Monastics isolate themselves from any physical con-
tact with the outside world. Usually, they build a large, stone edifice
(if they are located in a populated area) and shut themselves in so

64
that they will not come into contact with the world. They specialize
in refraining from practices that they consider to be worldly. Their
theory is that if they do not personally encounter the threat from
the world, they will not have to deal with it. The modern commune
is one such monastic approach to dealing with worldliness.
One of the problems with this approach is that the spirit of
the world is usually transferred from a secular expression to a reli-
gious rite. Too often, the occupants within the monastery are sur-
prised to find that the world actually resides within each of them.
Monasticism is, in fact, just a worldly approach to spirituality.
The New Testament teaches that we accomplish true separation
from the world by conforming to our new relationship to God and
to the world. This conforming can be done only by changing the
thinking in our soul to conform to God’s way of thinking. Only by
changing our thinking first will we see an internal transformation
that produces a substantive change on the outside. The standard is
the Word of God, which provides the basis for interaction with un-
believers and allows us to live before them such that they will see a
difference in our attitudes and actions. Christ said in the Sermon on
the Mount, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven”
(Matt. 5:16).
How do we do this? Because the world is out to benefit “number
one” (i.e., self), we should display the opposite attitudes and actions
by seeking what is best for others (i.e., love). Because the world takes
God’s truth and distorts it, believers should make it first a priority
to learn God’s Word. We cannot apply what we do not know, and
we cannot know God’s Word without making that the number one
goal of our lives.
Only then from a transformed, Christlike character can we
speak the truth in love. Living a life that contrasts sharply with the
lifestyle of the world provides a sound basis for the other aspect of
our relationship to the world: effective evangelism. First Peter 3:15
incorporates these two aspects in one passage: “Sanctify Christ as
Lord in your hearts [separation from the world], always being ready
to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for
the hope that is in you [evangelism], yet with gentleness and rever-
ence [the Christian attitude as contrasted with the cosmic attitude of
pride and arrogance].”
The believer separates himself from the world in two major
areas: in word and in deeds. The epistles of the New Testament

65
e­ mphasize how a believer is to think and believe and then how to
live in accordance with that doctrine. This is what is meant by not
being conformed to the world but being transformed by the renew-
ing of our mind (Rom. 12:2). The New Testament is full of teachings
that describe how the believer is to think and live based on the dy-
namics of the Christian life provided by the Holy Spirit. If a believer
loses his interest in doctrine and godly living, he is in serious trou-
ble because he has no other effective basis to combat the world.
Shining in the Darkness
Evangelism is the other major way by which the believer relates to
the world. Christ commanded His followers to “go into all the world
and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). To accomplish
this task from within the four walls of a monastery is impossible; to
reach people, we must be in the world where people actually are!
In evangelism, one temptation is to make the gospel appealing
to the world. The gospel is then watered down and reshaped to make
it attractive to worldly people. All too often, Christians are drawn in
by the trends and fads of the world as their platform for evange-
lism. Evangelism becomes based on salesmanship techniques. If the
world has success through a certain kind of music, then we incor-
porate the world’s music to attract them for evangelism. If the world
has social and moral problems, then we become “Christian” sociol-
ogists and psychologists to show them how helpful Christianity is so
that they will listen to the gospel. If the world uses certain tactics to
effect political and social change, then the Christians will have their
own similar version—except five to ten years behind the world’s
version! Sadly, many evangelicals have failed to realize the need to
renovate their thinking radically, and they have simply exchanged
one vocabulary for another, one set of lyrics for another, and one
social environment for another. Yet, they have failed to transform
the way they think.
God has already given us a platform from which to attract the
world so that we can preach the gospel to them. The New Testament
calls this the “light shining out of a dark place”; it is the godly be-
havior of the believer and the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christ bore witness to the sinfulness of the world’s conduct by
demonstrating the moral perfection of God in His life. Likewise, the
believer, by allowing the holy character of God to radiate in his life,
exposes the sinfulness of the world’s practices, showing that they
are contrary to God’s holy character. Christ also bore witness to the

66
truth by showing men who God is and what He requires of them.
Likewise, the believer bears witness to the truth, relating the life,
death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. In these two ways, the
believer fulfills his responsibility of being a witness to the world.17
Truly Unique
We are to relate to the world by being different, not similar, in our
lifestyles and our beliefs. Those of the world believe in themselves;
we believe in Jesus Christ. Their goals are earthly; our goals are
heavenly. Their trust is in their physical strength and beauty; our
trust is in God and the Holy Spirit. They seek selfish fame and for-
tune; we seek selfless proclamation of Christ. Unfortunately, many
brands of Christianity today are simply worldly counterfeits. The
world is materialistic, so Christians have their health-and-wealth
gospel. The world holds to a situation ethic, so Christians have their
licentious preachers who claim that we can freely sin because we
are forgiven anyway. The world is entranced by spirits and psychic
power, so Christians give undue attention to demons, spirits, de-
liverance, and exorcism. The world puts its faith in psychology to
solve life’s problems, so Christians blend the world’s answers with
the Bible’s teachings and thus destroy both.
Because of our new position in Christ, John tells us that we
have victory over the world: “Whatever is born of God overcomes
the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—
our faith” (1 John 5:4). We achieved victory over the false doctrine
about who Christ is when we believed the gospel, but the battle is
still raging. The world is in a pitched battle with us because we have
become soldiers against Satan and his world system. Therefore, the
world will do everything it can to remove us from the battle, either
by luring us back into the fold through the attractions of the world
(which still appeal to our sin nature) or by tempting us to renounce
our allegiance to Christ through persecution or martyrdom. But
whether tempted by bribery or torture, we have victory in Christ
because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

17 Ibid., 81.

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 5
THE ENEMY WITHIN
The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorali-
ty, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
Galatians 5:19–21

Russian by birth, Jewish by race, and British by choice, Sidney Reilly

was perhaps the greatest spy of all time. (Ian Fleming, the creator of
James Bond, at one time served with the British Secret Intelligence
Service. When he first created the Bond character, he reportedly said
that Bond was just a piece of nonsense that he had dreamed up—
certainly no Sidney Reilly!) Perhaps the most harrowing of Reilly’s
feats was his infiltration of the German High Command in the First
World War. But his greatest task of all was his final assignment.
With the threat of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and
Russia’s consequent withdrawal from the war, British intelligence
sent Reilly to Russia to overthrow the Bolshevik government, a task
that Reilly nearly accomplished. It took the Soviets another sev-
en years to stop him. His abilities to organize and mobilize peo-
ple against the Bolsheviks was unsurpassed. People said that Lenin
feared no enemy more than Sidney Reilly.18
Reilly was feared because his allegiance was to another govern-
ment. His secret activities were all aimed at subverting and over-
throwing the rule of the Bolsheviks. Governments fear nothing as
much as the traitor, the rebel within the camp, who covertly seeks to
destroy their work. Just as governments have their traitors and spies
within the camp, so Christians have theirs—the sin nature, called
“the flesh” in Scripture.
The Internal Rebel
The flesh, the rebel within, seeks to hinder and suppress the work
that God is doing in our lives. In previous chapters, we described
18 Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly: Ace of Spies (New York: Penguin, 1984).

68
the origin and nature of the first two enemies the Christian faces:
Satan and the world. Yet, these two are external enemies; neither has
the power to force any person to disobey God. What gives these first
two enemies an opportunity to operate in the believer’s life is that
this internal enemy provides a foothold of influence within each of
us. Satan (and demons) can tempt the Christian, and the world sys-
tem supplies philosophies and ideas that offer a rationale for sin, but
the individual makes the choices, yields to the temptation, or uses
the philosophy to justify his sinful actions.
From the moment Adam first sinned in the Garden, he acquired
something new. Some people might call it a principle, a nature, or
an influence, but whatever term is used, it is a predisposition, a de-
sire, a hankering to assert one’s own authority over God’s authori-
ty. This nature has been passed on from Adam to every one of his
­descendants—except Jesus Christ, who “knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The first mention of the power and control of sin is found in
Genesis 4 in the familiar story of Cain and Abel. The account says
that when the two men brought their sacrifices to God, God had
favor on Abel’s sacrifice but rejected Cain’s sacrifice. Hebrews 11:4
explains that Abel’s motivation was faith in the promise of God,
whereas Cain apparently relied on his own sufficiency. The result
was that Cain became angry (a mental-attitude sin) and his coun-
tenance fell (he was depressed because of rejection). Modern man
faces similar problems of anger and depression and looks for the
solution in many places. Yet, he refuses to place the blame on his
own volition and sin nature. God analyzed the problem for Cain
and gave him the solution:
If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And
if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its
desire is for you, but you must master it (­Genesis 4:7).
The Hebrew word for “crouching at the door” carries the image
of a ravenous beast ready to pounce and devour its victim. This is
what the enemy within seeks. The solution, simply put here, is to
master this enemy. The result is that depression, resentment, and
anger are conquered. The problem was not demons or a parental
disappointment in early childhood; the problem was personal sin.
The solution was mastery of the sin nature through reliance upon the
grace provision of God.
“And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for ­power
is perfected in weakness’ ” (2 Cor. 12:9).

69
 The Flesh Within
In the New Testament, the word used most often to describe this sin
nature is the flesh. The clear testimony of the New Testament is that
the flesh, the rebel within, is the major and most influential enemy
facing the Christian (cf. Rom. 7:14, 18; 8:1–17; Gal. 3:3; 5:13–21;
Eph. 2:3). The twenty-one epistles in the New Testament were writ-
ten to address the important issues confronting Christians in this
age, the church age. One can reasonably expect that if anything is an
important issue for the believer in this age, it will be given a com-
prehensive treatment in these letters; if something is not an issue, it
will probably be ignored.
Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything
pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowl-
edge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence
(2 Peter 1:3).
The silence of these letters in some areas speaks volumes. For exam-
ple, demons (or evil spirits) are mentioned only ten times, and most
of these instances simply relate to certain factual truths about de-
mons. On the other hand, these same letters contain more than fifty
references to the flesh as the primary enemy of the Christian (and
flesh is only one term used to describe this sin nature). Obviously,
the New Testament perspective emphasizes that the major source of
our problem stems from our own sin nature.
Flesh in the Scriptures has three basic meanings. The first mean-
ing is a reference to either a body or the basic material of a body (i.e.,
flesh and bone). The second sense focuses more on the limitations
of man in contrast to the power and ability of God. The third sense
is the one on which we are focusing in this chapter: the sinful nature
of man. Although flesh sometimes refers to the physical body and,
in some passages, to sensual sin, it is not restricted to that meaning
but covers the entire realm of sin (Gal. 5:19–21).
When you and I were born, we were in bondage to sin, “the
flesh” (Rom. 6:6, 17). We were enslaved by it so that everything we
did was marked by the flesh. Although some things that we did were
relatively good, the Bible teaches that we could do nothing that was
good in God’s eyes. Isaiah 64:6 informs us that “all our righteous
deeds are like a filthy garment.” Paul echoes this thought in Romans
7:18, where he says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is, in my flesh.” The “good” to which he refers is that which is good
in God’s eyes. What we learn from this fact is that, in the light of

70
God’s righteous standard, everything that is produced by man is evil
and sinful.
What is Sin?
We must ensure that we understand how the Bible defines sin. Too
often, people think of sin and the works of the flesh as only the baser
activities, but the biblical concept of sin is much broader. Romans
14:23 says that “whatever is not from faith is sin,” meaning that any
thought, word, or deed, no matter how noble, helpful, or religious,
if it is not done in dependence upon God (the meaning of faith)
by walking by means of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), it is done in depen-
dence upon our own powers, and God calls that sin. That is exactly
what Adam did in the Garden: Rather than depend upon God and
what He said, he depended on his own ability to handle the situation
himself. That is the essence of idolatry and self-worship.
The flesh produces not only the baser activities that we associate
with sin but also relative good. In Philippians 3:3–4 Paul warns us
from his own experience not to put any confidence in the flesh, for
the flesh produces a false religion, a religion based on human ability.
Paul certainly understood this phenomenon because for years he
was caught up in pursuing the religious standards of the Pharisees
and hoping that these good works would have value in God’s eyes.
No one was more religious or moral than the Apostle Paul before
his salvation, but in Philippians 3:8, he states that all of his good
works were no better than rubbish (literally “manure”) in contrast
to the true religion, which is based not on human works but on the
finished work of Christ alone.
Besides producing evil works, the sin nature also produc-
es works that often are thought of as good. The sin nature caus-
es self-deception: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is
­desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Paul emphasizes in Romans 8 the dangers of the mind con-
trolled by the sin nature. Here we see a contrast between the person
who is living “in” or “according to” the flesh and the person who is
living “in” or “according to” the Spirit. Romans 8:9 clearly states that
the person who is in the Spirit is a Christian: “You are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But
if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to
Him.” At the moment a person trusts Jesus Christ as his Savior, God
does a number of things for him, one of which is to give him the
Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer. If a person does not have

71
the Holy Spirit, then he is not a Christian; therefore, he is not “in the
Spirit” but is still living according to the flesh.
The person who is in the flesh is in rebellion against God. He is
not in a position of neutrality but—as harsh as it might sound—a
position of hostility. Romans 8:7 tells us that “the mind set on the
flesh is hostile toward God.” The result of this hostility is that the
mind that is operating on the sin nature rebels against anything that
God commands. People often overlook this point. It is easy for us to
think that some very nice people who seem to talk a lot about God
and engage in “spiritual” activities do indeed have a desire to know
God or perhaps even love God. But this is not what the Scripture
says. No matter how moral, ethical, or religious a person might be, if
they are walking according to the sin nature, believer or unbeliever,
they are at enmity with God.
Operating on the sin nature is tantamount to operating on prin-
ciples of the world system. Such affinity with and attraction to the
world system is antagonistic to God and condemned as such. So the
believer who is saved but is not operating on the principles of God’s
Word is at that point not only an enemy of God (James 4:4) but also
living according to principles that are demonic (3:15).
There is Hope
We have taken some time to detail what the Bible teaches about the
flesh because too often we take our own sinfulness somewhat light-
ly. Today, many people think that self is basically good—perhaps a
little misguided at times but still basically good. The passages that
we have examined, however, reveal the true degradation of the hu-
man race and how we are all defiled by sin. Yet, as horrible as this
picture is, God’s message of hope remains. When a person is saved,
he is freed from this unholy dominion and the wicked hold that the
sin nature has over each of us. Romans 6:18 tells us that when we
are saved, we are freed from sin and bondage to sin and, instead,
become slaves to righteousness. This doesn’t mean that the flesh or
our sin nature is eradicated but simply that its tyranny is broken.
Remember, any sin you could commit as an unbeliever, you can
still commit as a believer; however, the flesh controls a believer only
when he allows it to. That is the emphasis of Romans 6. Because the
Christian has been identified with the crucifixion of Christ, “the old
man” (the person he was in Adam before he was saved) is crucified,
dead, and gone. The Christian is now no longer the person he once

72
was. Instead, he is a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Yet, he still
retains his sin nature.
The flesh is not removed until we die and receive our resurrect-
ed body. Romans 6:6 says, “Our old self was crucified with Him,
that our body of sin might be done away with.” The “old self ” here is
not the sin nature but our old, unregenerate self. Ephesians 4:22, 24
shows the contrast: “In reference to your former manner of life, you
lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with
the lusts of deceit … and put on the new self, which in the likeness
of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
Although the English translation makes it appear that the believer is
to put off the old man, the Greek uses a construction here that is best
translated “you have put off the old man with his works.”
This fact is seen clearly by the parallel passage in Colossians
3:9–10: “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self
with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being
renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One
who created him.” We must recognize that the person we were be-
fore we were saved is dead and gone, crucified with Christ. But al-
though the old man is dead, the sin nature continues. We still have a
problem with the flesh. This is why so many commands in the New
Testament tell us to put to death the deeds of the flesh, meaning to
remove them from our lives. We should live as the new creatures
that we truly are in Christ.
Salvation in Three Phases
God’s package called salvation is implemented in three phases.
Phase one occurs when a person trusts Christ as his Savior: he is
instantly freed from the penalty of sin, is credited with the perfect
righteousness of Jesus Christ, and receives eternal life (2 Cor. 5:21).
Because God’s justice sees the righteousness of Christ, not our own
lack of righteousness, He judicially declares us to be righteous. This
act is known as justification: the believer is declared before the su-
preme court of heaven to be just because of who Jesus Christ is, not
because of who the believer is.
Phase two begins at the moment of salvation: we receive the
Holy Spirit, who enables us to have victory over the sin in our life.
This work takes place throughout the rest of our life and is a process
known as sanctification. During this phase, we learn to walk by the
Spirit, have victory over the present power of sin in our life, and

73
renovate our thinking based on the principles and precepts of the
Word of God (John 17:17).
Finally, when we go to be with the Lord and receive new bodies,
we will be saved from the very presence of sin. This third phase is
called glorification.
Although Christians are liberated from their enslavement to sin,
this does not mean that they never sin or that resisting sin is easy.
The sin nature is still very much present and is still set on assert-
ing itself. Man’s propensity to evil and rebellion against God is just
as much there after salvation as it is before salvation. It’s just that
after salvation he has a choice, whereas before salvation he had no
choice. He was a slave to sin (Rom. 6:17), he was “being corrupted
in accordance with the lusts of deceit” (Eph. 4:22), he was spiritually
dead (Eph. 2:1), and he was unable to perceive spiritual truth (1 Cor.
2:14). This is the power of the cross. The sin nature has power only if
the believer chooses not to trust in God’s Word and obey Him and,
instead, places himself in a position of obedience to his past master.
This is where the central battle in the believer’s spiritual life is
taking place. The flesh is set against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh (Gal. 5:17). Peter tells us that these fleshly lusts wage war
against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). It is not a battle that calls for demonic
deliverance, exorcism, or any other sort of exotic practice that holds
forth the empty promise that there will be no more struggle with a
particular temptation or habitual sin. This battle takes place in your
own heart. Are you going to “consider yourselves to be dead to sin”
(Rom. 6:11)? This means that you must believe that sin no longer
has power over you, and then you must live in light of that fact. It
means that you must master sin (Gen. 4:7), and through the power
of God supplied through the Holy Spirit in conjunction with His
Word, you can do so. To accept any notion of the Christian life that
teaches that you can have a one-time experience and never struggle
with sin and the flesh again is to accept unbiblical fantasy.
Several years ago, a news report described a number of immi-
grants from the Soviet Union who could not adjust to the freedom
of the United States and so returned to Russia after a few years. They
failed to adjust because many had not learned what was necessary
to have a capacity to appreciate freedom and live on the basis of
personal responsibility. Similarly, an unbeliever is born into a po-
sition of enslavement to a totalitarian regime with no freedom. If
he emigrates, he is suddenly faced with freedoms that he never
dreamed existed. At this point, he is faced with a choice: he can

74
e­ ither ­continue to live as though he had no freedom, or he can be-
lieve that he is truly free and begin applying those freedoms to every
area of his life. The people described in the article failed.
Most of us find it incredible that someone who has tasted
freedom could then put himself back into a bondage relationship.
Rejection of the grace of God is the reason. Israel did it at Kadesh
Barnea in the Old Testament. Having been delivered from the slav-
ery of Egypt, they faced the adversities of independence, rejected
God’s grace, and yearned to return to Egypt. Christians often follow
that same pattern. Rather than living in light of their freedom from
enslavement to sin and then enjoying their freedom in Christ in one
or many areas, they choose to continue living as though sin were
still their master.
Morality is Not Spirituality
Because the flesh can produce works that are disguised as morality
and spirituality, it might be difficult for a person to tell whether his
good deeds are simply the result of a sin nature that excels in pro-
ducing good works (counterfeit good). As usual, the Bible does not
leave us in the dark regarding the answer to this important question.
One passage of Scripture is particularly helpful. As you read it, you
might want to use it as a checklist for your own life.
In the epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul has to admonish
the Galatians for following after the false teaching of the Judaizers,
Jews who taught that salvation was not merely by faith alone in
Christ alone, but that to truly have salvation and grow in the spiri-
tual life, the Gentile Christian had to put himself under the Mosaic
Law. They not only taught the necessity of circumcision but also
enforced all of the mandates of the Mosaic Law. They were teach-
ing spirituality by morality instead of spirituality based on the Holy
Spirit (Gal. 3:3). This is not to say that spirituality is not moral, but
that the life of the Christian demands a much higher basis for life,
the Holy Spirit, and proclaims a system of ethics far beyond simple
morality. Indeed, the Christian life is a supernatural life demanding
a supernatural basis: walking by means of the Holy Spirit.
The Galatian believers were not an immoral or licentious con-
gregation like the Corinthians. They were obsessed with morality
and legal obedience. Yet, Paul castigates them for following a works-
or morality-based approach to their relationship with God. Paul
recognized that the flesh, the sin nature, can also produce morality,
a good that perhaps imitates the behavior of the spiritually mature

75
believer but that has the flesh as its source. In Galatians, he excori-
ated the congregation for attempting spirituality on the basis of the
morality of the law, which was sin-nature generated, in contrast to
walking by means of the Holy Spirit: “Are you so foolish? Having
begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
(Gal. 3:3)
In Galatians 5:17–21, the Apostle Paul describes the warfare ex-
isting between the Spirit and the flesh. To help us evaluate which is
in control, Paul lists fifteen characteristics of the works of the flesh.
No matter how good, moral, religious, or spiritual an activity might
appear, if it is produced by the flesh, then these are some of the
­results that it will always produce.
These fifteen deeds of the flesh can be divided into four groups.
The first group focuses on sensual sin. Immorality is based on the
Greek word porneia, from which we get the English word pornog-
raphy. It refers to any and all sexual activity outside the bounds
of marriage, including homosexuality, premarital sex, and mari-
tal unfaithfulness. Any sexual activity between two people of the
same sex or between people who are not married to each other falls
into this category. Impurity can refer to sexual sin, but it general-
ly includes more than immorality. Sensuality, too, is broader than
immorality and would include any sexual activity not necessarily
­involving ­fornication.
Physical and Mental Idolatry
The second category focuses on two activities typical of non-Chris-
tian religions: idolatry and sorcery. Idolatry is the worship of any-
thing in the place of God. In ancient times (and in primitive cul-
tures even today), people made idols as physical representatives
of their gods. In America, our gods are usually more sophisticated
idols of the mind, but even in ancient times idolatry started as a
thought in the mind before it was formed into a physical image.
Because we modern Americans do not usually fashion physical im-
ages, we often think that we are not idolatrous. Nothing is further
from the truth! Modern man still thinks the same kinds of idola-
trous thoughts as did the ancients, we just express them differently.
We worship the abstract idols of success, money, career, sex, family,
children, comforts, and the “good life.” Any one of these can take
the place of God in our lives and become a god unto itself. In one
sense, we may be more deceived than the ancients because at least

76
they were usually aware of what they worshiped. The average person
today would never admit that his career or his children are his god.
The second activity in this group is sometimes translated “sor-
cery” but actually translates the Greek word pharmakia (from which
we get pharmacy). Ernest De Witt Burton, in his classic c­ ommentary
on Galatians, says of this word:
… from Homer down [it] denotes a drug, whether
harmful or wholesome. Pharmakia signifies in general
the use of drugs, whether helpfully by a physician, or
harmfully, hence poisoning. … In the LXX the word is
uniformly employed in a bad sense, of witchcrafts or
­enchantments.19
This word encompasses all of the drug use and abuse so com-
mon today. Ultimately, it speaks of the reliance upon a drug (wheth-
er alcohol, cocaine, sleeping pills, or antidepressants) to provide the
joy, peace, and freedom from anxiety in the midst of adversity that
can come only through a right relationship with Jesus Christ (John
15:11; 17:13). (Of course, we are not talking about the legitimate use
of medications for their healing benefits.)
Relational Fragmentation
The third group of works of the flesh contains eight deeds that show
up in personal relationships: enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of
anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, and envying. Whenever peo-
ple operate in the flesh, disruption and fragmentation result, first in
the soul then in relationships. As we examine this list of deeds, we
cannot help but think about the large number of marriage problems
and the high divorce rate among Christians today. Neither can we
ignore the increase in child and spouse abuse that has become so
widely recognized in the last decade. These are manifestations of
sinful attitudes and living rather than living together to serve God
and glorify Him.
The first of these words is one used rarely today: enmity. It car-
ries the idea of antagonism and hostility. Fallen men are at enmity
with both God and other men. The only other place in the New
Testament that this word is found is in Ephesians 2:14–16, where
the topic is the hostility between Jew and Gentile. Strictly speak-
ing, in the context of the Bible, it has the definite connotation of

19Ernest De Witt Burton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to

the Galatians, in The International Critical Commentary Series (Edinburgh: T & T
Clark, 1977), 306.

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anti-Semitism, but in broader application, it would expand to the
whole idea of personal animosity and hatred.
Strife, the second word of this group, is the practical outworking
of the attitude of hostility. It focuses on the action of disruption and
conflict. Like so many of these works of the flesh, it is the result of
following self-serving desires rather than the desires of God.
Outbursts of anger, the third term, embodies the idea of temper
tantrums or explosive bursts of anger rather than a deep, burning,
long-term anger.
More Works of the Flesh
The next four words portray interrelated concepts: disputes, dis-
sensions, factions, and jealousy. Each word describes similar works
from a slightly different perspective. Each is based on self-seeking,
self-serving, self-assertive attitudes that bring disruption of per-
sonal relationships from the family to the church. These actions
characterized the Corinthian church. Because they were not serv-
ing Christ, but their own ends, the result was division. However, we
must remember that not all division is evil (see 1 Cor. 11:19). Al-
though the New Testament clearly exhorts Christians to be unified
(see John 17:21; Eph. 4:1–6, 13), it is to be a unity based upon the
clear doctrines of Scripture—a unity based upon doctrine and not
at the expense of doctrine.
The final group of products of the flesh focuses on two acts that
must be taken together: drunkenness and carousing. Drunkenness is
clearly described here as a work of the flesh. Too often today, drunk-
enness and alcoholism are treated as a sickness. Yet, the works of
the sin nature are clearly the results of our own choices. Although
the Scriptures do not categorically prohibit the use of wine or al-
cohol, they are always to be used in moderation and never to the
extent of producing inebriation or dependence. Although alcohol
abuse might lead to a chemical dependency in some cases, the root
problem is not physical but spiritual. Initially, the act was a sinful
choice of the will. Although the chemical dependency, or physical
problem, must be treated, the problem is only partially resolved if
the sin issue is not dealt with.
The second word, carousings, is one not often used today. A
more fitting word in today’s vocabulary would be partying: having a
celebration where liquor and drugs are freely used and abused, im-
moral activity is freely enjoyed, and fun and pleasure are indulged
in at the expense of God’s glory and holiness.

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 This litany of sins is as contemporary as the morning paper or
the folks at last Sunday’s church service. It is clear from this passage
that these actions are not produced by demons, Satan, or the world
but are the specific outworkings of a mindset and lifestyle that are
controlled by the flesh and produced by the volition of the individual.
The Devil Made Me do it?
The alarming fact is that a growing shift in belief exists among many
Christians that places more and more responsibility for personal sin
on demons or Satan. After reading articles and books written re-
cently, we have seen references to demons named lust, murder, envy,
gossip, and gluttony. Nowhere in Scripture is there any support for
this concept, but Scripture explicitly says that these actions are a
product of each person’s sin nature and volition. In fact, as Gala-
tians 5 clearly shows, these are not demons but works of the flesh.
Believers who seek to blame demons for their failures are not being
biblical in their handling of various issues.
Although those who teach such things may honestly desire to
help Christians overcome the sin in their life, we believe that such
teaching is nevertheless harmful because it supplies Christians with
an unscriptural rationale for denying personal responsibility for sin:
“The devil made me do it.” Rather than accepting responsibility for
our own bad decisions, we prefer to shift the responsibility to some-
one or something else. Rather than choosing the biblical solution of
confessing known sin to God (1 John 1:9) and then ceasing the sin-
ful thoughts or actions, many people attempt to solve the problem
by “binding demons” or practicing “exorcisms.”
Interestingly, passing the buck has been a convenient way of
avoiding personal responsibility for sin ever since Adam and Eve.
When God confronted Adam with his disobedience, Adam blamed
Eve, and then Eve blamed the serpent. But God refused to accept
this evasion and leveled a judgment on them because they were the
ones who chose to yield. If you are a Christian, the issue is not who
presents the temptation (Satan, demons, your sin nature, or your
best friend) but whether you are going to trust God and obey Him or
yield to the temptation. Christians who misplace their orientation on
this matter are led astray from fighting the real enemy that Scripture
says attacks in this area of warfare—their very own sin nature.
The Deep Cave of Sin
One reason many Christians fall into the trap of incorrect think-
ing on these issues is that too many people underestimate how
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i­ncredibly evil their sin nature is and how its effects have perme-
ated every aspect of their thinking. Because we are born in sin and
in Satan’s domain of darkness, it might be likened to being born
deep inside Carlsbad Caverns with the lights off. When we move
out in the direction of sin, it is like going even deeper into the cav-
erns. Because we cannot see reality as it is, we attempt to construct
a mental map of the cave and its appearance. Some aspects of this
mental construct correspond more to reality than do others. Yet, the
overall interpretation of reality is distorted by the lack of sight, the
absence of an objective view of reality. This is how every member of
the ­human race functions mentally until they are saved.
At salvation, the light of the truth of the gospel penetrates the
darkness. We begin to see reality as it is, not merely as we have imag-
ined it on our own to be. But that initial illumination is only the be-
ginning. It provides us, we might say, with a flashlight so that we can
see what is around us and begin to climb out of that darkness. The
“flashlight” is analogous to the Spirit of God illuminating our think-
ing with the principles of God’s Word. The more we use the light of
God’s Word, the more we see how things are in contrast to how we
thought they were when we were in the darkness. But the process
of reversing years of misconceptions and false ideas also takes time
and discipline to study God’s Word, and the humility to accept its
truth when it contradicts the “reality” we constructed based on our
experience. In our fast-food, drive-through, instant-gratification
culture, we deceptively think we can achieve success over life-long
habits of sin through some sort of quick-fix solution. We mistakenly
believe that if we confess our sin, repent, or feel sorrow or regret for
our sin, God will somehow lift us out of the cave by some spiritual
elevator to the surface. But this just does not happen.
What does happen is that by the power of the Holy Spirit and the
light of God’s Word, we are enabled to walk back out of the cave. It is
a step-by-step process. It is not easy, but it is possible. This is God’s
perfect grace solution that is available to every believer (2 Cor. 12:9).
As our thinking is transformed by the principles of God’s Word, the
Holy Spirit begins to produce a character transformation from the
inside out. Unfortunately, many Christians have either tried some
counterfeit gimmick to spirituality or have never really tried bib-
lical Christianity, and they have subsequently given up in failure.
They claim that the Bible just does not work. They then panic and
turn to some quick-fix solution such as emotionalism, mysticism, or

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s­ ecular psychology. One such solution that is currently popular is to
blame deep-seated sin on the demons.
Defeating the Traitor
The flesh, like a spy or traitor, seeks its advantage through deception
and secrecy. It seeks to avoid detection until its job of soul destruc-
tion is complete. It never surrenders, abdicates, or diminishes its
power in this life. The confident promise of the Scriptures is that
the sin nature’s activity can be brought to light and at least partially
neutralized by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the Word
of God.
Galatians 5 gives us not only a description of how to recognize
the symptoms of the flesh but also instructions for how to over-
come the flesh. Christians (and only Christians) can do this because
the tyranny of sin has been broken by our new position in Christ.
Romans 6:6–7, 15–18 tells us that we are no longer under bondage
to the sin nature; therefore, we are able to live in obedience to God.
We achieve this goal as we walk by the Spirit.
In Galatians 5:16, Paul begins his instructions about the conflict
between the flesh and the Spirit by simply commanding, “Walk by
the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” No
mandate could be expressed more emphatically in the Greek lan-
guage. In essence, Paul says, “Walk by means of the Spirit, and it will
be impossible for you to fulfill the lusts of the sin nature.” When the
believer is living in moment-by-moment dependence upon God the
Holy Spirit, in fellowship with God, and learning and applying doc-
trine, the sin nature is impotent. But the instant he chooses to yield
to the enticing temptation offered by his sin nature, he comes under
its control and begins to walk “according to the flesh.”
The apostle then continues by describing the conflict between
the two warring parties. He paints a vivid picture of what a person’s
life will be like depending on which of the two parties is in control.
The idea of walking involves a moment-by-moment faith in
something. In the cavern analogy that we used earlier, it is that
­moment-by-moment walk up and out of the cave in dependence
upon the light (the Holy Spirit and the Word of God). When we
choose to operate in the flesh, the light goes out, and we reverse the
direction of our walk. Our step-by-step, moment-by-moment living
is to be conducted in total reliance on the Word of God and the Holy
Spirit. We are either moving forward or in reverse.

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 Walking pictures the believer’s lifestyle as being dependent on
the Holy Spirit moment by moment. We choose to follow the im-
pulses of the sin nature, or we choose to depend on the Spirit. Too
often, we rely on the flesh to do what only God can do, and that is
why Paul penned this letter to the Galatian church. They had ad-
opted the Mosaic Law from the Old Testament as their standard for
living and were thereby attempting to live in reliance on the flesh.
Although they were moral and religious, Paul warned the Galatians
that they were attempting to do through their own power what only
God can do through the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:3).
Anyone, even unbelievers, can live a life that superficially ap-
pears to be in conformity to God’s standard. But we know from
Scripture that such living is done through dependence on the flesh.
The Christian must know that he is not to try to live out his life in
the power of the flesh. If he does, the effort will eventually manifest
itself through the works of the flesh.
The walk by the Spirit is further clarified by the statement in
Galatians 5:18: “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the
Law.” Because of the phrase “if you are led,” some people might
think that a Christian has an option in deciding whether to be led
by the Spirit, but this is not the case because every person who has
received Christ as Savior has been permanently indwelt by the Holy
Spirit. From the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit continually leads
the believer. Romans 8:14 tells us that “all who are being led by the
Spirit of God [all Christians] … are sons of God.” The context indi-
cates that this is a leading in truth and holiness. Because we become
children of God only when we receive Christ as Savior (John 1:12),
we can be confident that the Spirit constantly leads us. The issue is
not whether we are being led but whether we are following.
A New Understanding
When Jesus was preparing His disciples for the time when He would
no longer be with them, He promised to send the Holy Spirit, who
would guide them into all truth (John 16:13). This promise was ful-
filled on the Day of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2. Once the Holy
Spirit came, the new organism known as the church began and with
it a whole new era in God’s program.
Whenever a person in this age trusts Jesus Christ as his Savior,
the Holy Spirit immediately comes to live in him. At this same time,
the Holy Spirit also provides the ability to understand God’s Word.
This is not some kind of mystical, intuitive knowledge, and it is

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not simply picking up the Bible and immediately understanding it.
What this basically means is that we who were blind to spiritual truth
and unable to understand the Word of God are now given the capacity
to understand it. As we study the Word, learn it, and meditate on
it, the Holy Spirit enables us to understand it, and He applies it to
our lives. Often, our understanding of some of the more difficult is-
sues in Scripture might require years of study before we understand
them accurately. Theologians call this “the illuminating ministry of
the Holy Spirit.” It is not a guarantee of infallibility when we in-
terpret Scripture but a new, Spirit-directed capacity to understand
what we could not understand before we were saved.
This new capacity enables us to understand the truth of God’s
Word and put it into practice. Throughout the New Testament is
evident an important relationship between the Holy Spirit and the
Word of God, both of which are said to be the means by which
Christians grow. The Holy Spirit is the One who works in us and
leads us, whereas the Word of God is the means that He uses to
bring this about. They are best friends and never travel alone. In ad-
dition, they never have an argument; they always agree. After all, the
Holy Spirit is the agent that the Father used to write the Scriptures,
so He knows them quite well! Therefore, the Holy Spirit would nev-
er lead anyone to do anything that conflicts with the written Word
of God, no matter how convincing the circumstances or intense
the experience.
The Mechanic’s Tools
Suppose that we took a dented-up, poorly running 1957 Chevy to
an auto mechanic for renovation. Our lives when we come to Christ
may be compared to that Chevy. For years, we have been living in the
flesh, and our lives reflect that fact. When we are saved, we do not
automatically get a new set of ideas and a new set of circumstanc-
es. We have been regenerated, but now we must be transformed.
Regeneration is the work of God in us that gives us a new nature
and makes us willing to be transformed. Just as the auto mechanic
renovates the car, the Holy Spirit transforms the wreck of our lives
into something glorious for God.
If we took that old Chevy to a mechanic, no matter how tal-
ented and no matter how experienced he was, and expected him to
renovate the car with only a screwdriver and a hammer, he would
laugh us out of the garage. The mechanic personally has the ability
to perform the task, but he is limited by the tools we allow him to

83
use. The same is true of the Holy Spirit. The tools that He uses to
transform our lives are found in the Word of God. The more tools
we let Him use, the more equipped He is to perform the task. This is
why we are commanded to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2) and to let
the Word of Christ dwell richly within us (Col. 3:16). The failure of
many Christians to allow the Holy Spirit to use all of the necessary
tools is one of the major reasons why these same people often think
that Christianity and the solutions of the Bible do not work. They
then turn to a new experience that is supposed to enable them to
deal with their problems, or they start to think that the Bible needs
help from another source, such as psychology, to really help them
with their problems.
The Spirit of God leads us through the Word of God. By learn-
ing God’s Word, we give the Spirit the tools to renovate and trans-
form our life. This process takes place in two ways. First, when we
encounter temptation, the Holy Spirit recalls to our mind what the
Bible teaches regarding that sin. When we choose to yield to the
temptation and sin, we grieve the Spirit and shift from walking by
the Spirit to walking according to the flesh. Second, the Spirit leads
us through conviction, which takes place through our conscience
to the degree that our conscience has been transformed by the new
standards of God’s Word. When we refuse to yield to temptation
by applying what we have learned from the Word of God, spiritual
growth takes place. We are now on the road to maturity, increas-
ingly able to “discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). If we sin, when
we are convicted by the Spirit, we should turn away from our sin
and back to God. Part of this turning involves confessing our sin,
which, according to 1 John 1:9, is to be a standard characteristic of
the Christian life.
The secret to controlling the flesh is learning the Word of God,
letting it transform our lives, and then living in accordance with
this new standard. This explains Paul’s second use of “walk by the
Spirit” in Galatians 5:25. The Greek word for “walk” is stoicheo, not
peripateo. Stoicheo means to “follow a path, walk in the footsteps.”
The path that is laid out is the objective directions of the Word of
God. Thus, we walk in moment-by-moment dependence, led by the
Spirit down the path of God’s Word.
Nine Kinds of Fruit
Over a period of time, walking by the Spirit (just like walking by
the flesh) will produce certain results called fruit. The ninefold fruit

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of the Spirit is described in Galatians 5:22–23 These nine character
traits are evident in the life of the Christian who is walking by the
Spirit. God has given us these checklists so that we can evaluate our
lives to see if we are walking by the Spirit or the flesh.
Love, the first fruit of the Spirit, is often misunderstood today.
This is not an emotional or sentimental word. Several different
words are used in Greek for love, each focusing on a different shade
of meaning. The word used here is agape, which connotes a mental
attitude of selfless concern for others rather than an emotional at-
tachment. The best description of this love is found in 1 Corinthians
13 and in Christ Himself (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8).
The second fruit of the Spirit is joy. This is neither happiness nor
exuberance, but a kind of stable, uplifted mental attitude that is nei-
ther disturbed nor upset by shifting circumstances. It is the attitude
that Christians are to have when they face difficulties and suffering.
Peace is next. Most often in Scripture this word is used to indi-
cate the opposite of anxiety. It is not a reference to world peace, mil-
itary peace, or political peace but to a mental attitude that is relaxed
and untroubled by worry and anxiety because it rests in the care and
provision of God (Philippians 4:6–7).
Patience has the idea of longsuffering or not responding to im-
mediate threats but giving people time to change and come around.
The perfect example of this is the patience that God has with us.
This patience is manifested toward both people and events. This is
not some grim, bleak hanging-in-there attitude but is linked with
joy and peace.
Kindness and goodness are closely related ideas. Kindness is the
attitude, and goodness is the action. Kindness is in some sense re-
lated to patience. It is an attitude of courtesy, respect, and consid-
eration for people. Goodness describes the gracious actions toward
others that are motivated by kindness.
Faithfulness expresses the idea of loyalty and consistency—val-
ues sorely needed in contemporary society. This characteristic in-
cludes loyalty to God, loyalty to one’s spouse, loyalty to one’s chil-
dren, and loyalty to the church. Too often, commitments in these
areas are honored only when they are convenient. Faithfulness
is demonstrated when the commitment to these areas is neither
­convenient nor pleasant.
Gentleness is sometimes translated “meekness.” Someone who is
gentle or meek is too often pictured as being a wimp or a doormat,
but nothing could be further from the biblical concept. The ­biblical

85
idea of meekness is often contrasted with pride or arrogance, a
central characteristic of the world system. In this sense, meekness
is synonymous with humility. We must be reminded that “God is
opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
Gentleness flows from recognizing who we are and submitting to
God. This quality is in direct opposition to the self-assertive works
of the flesh.
The last fruit of the Spirit mentioned is self-control, or self-­
mastery. This particular type of self-discipline is often associated
with the control of sexual desire, but it also applies to every other
area of life. As we continue to grow and to develop godly habit pat-
terns in our life, the Holy Spirit strengthens our ability to master our
sinful self and to control those fleshly desires so that we do not give
in to sinful temptations.
The sin problem with which we so often struggle is the direct
result of yielding to our own sinful nature. It is the flesh that wars
against the soul. It is the flesh that is drawn and attracted to the
temptations of the world and Satan. It is the flesh that is weak.
Because neither Satan nor the world system can cause us to sin,
the secret of deliverance lies in learning to walk in moment-by-­
moment, ­step-by-step dependence on the Holy Spirit.

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 6
INVASION OF THE KING
If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom
of God has come upon you.
Matthew 12:28

Nolan Ryan is unique. Never in the history of major league baseball

did a power pitcher maintain a 95-miles-per-hour fastball at the age
of forty-three. A few pitchers have survived that long, but none be-
fore Nolan Ryan had been able to maintain that degree of effective
velocity on his fastball.
Jesus Christ is also unique, except He is infinitely greater. Never
before or since in the history of mankind has there ever been a man
who was also God. If Nolan Ryan is special in the field of baseball,
then to an infinite degree Jesus Christ is unique to the human race.
Never before was anyone like Him, and never again will there be
anyone like Him. Jesus Christ is the eternal, infinite, unique Person
of the universe.
God the Father sent Jesus Christ on a unique mission to the
earth to accomplish a number of unique objectives. Chief among
them was to live a perfect life to qualify Him to die on the cross as a
perfect substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world. No other
human in history could have accomplished this task because all oth-
ers inherited Adam’s sin and were disqualified. But Jesus Christ was
uniquely born through the virgin conception and birth; therefore,
He was untainted by Adam’s original sin. Jesus Christ, the eternal
second person of the Trinity, willingly came to earth and fulfilled
His mission: to free the human race from the penalty and slavery of
sin that man might be restored to his original relationship with God
to fulfill God’s plan for mankind.20

20Eugene Merrill, “Theology of the Pentateuch,” in Biblical Theology of the Old

Testament, ed. Roy B. Zuck (Chicago: Moody, 1991), 17-18.

87
 The Unique Ministry of Christ
When it comes to establishing a biblical basis for many of the cur-
rent deliverance ministries, many of them attempt to model their
ministries after Christ’s unique ministry, in which He came into di-
rect conflict with Satan and his demons. But these events in the life
of Christ were unique to His special ministry. Although we are to
be Christlike in emulating His character, many specific things that
He said and did were related to His ministry as the God-man who
came into the world to save sinners. How, then, do we distinguish
those aspects of the life of Christ that we are to emulate from those
that were part of His unique messianic ministry and that He alone
was called upon to do? We believe that the New Testament Epistles
were revealed to provide instructions on how Christians are to live
during the current church age. Therefore, the Epistles instruct be-
lievers in only those things that they have been specifically called
upon and equipped by God to do. Nowhere in the Epistles does one
find commands or examples relating to the exorcising, binding, or
rebuking of demons (more about this later).21
Although believers are mandated to imitate the character of
Christ, His miracles and His conflicts with the powers of darkness
were the calling cards to His unique messiahship. These miracles are
not a pattern for the types of direct encounters with demons that
many people within the deliverance movement claim. Although it is
true that believers today are tempted as was Jesus the Messiah and
that we are involved in spiritual warfare, we are to engage in warfare
in a somewhat different way, as we will seek to demonstrate in the
next chapter.
One reason many people get into trouble in spiritual warfare is
that they fail to understand why Jesus encountered demons during
His walk on earth and why these events are recorded for us. We will
have a proper perspective of spiritual warfare only if we understand
the purpose behind the unique ministry of Jesus.
Messiah Comes to Israel
The Gospel of Matthew was written to answer the primary ques-
tion that the Jews had about the messiahship of Jesus: If Jesus the
Nazarene is truly the foretold Messiah, then where is the messi-
anic kingdom? Many Jews had erroneously concluded that Jesus
was not the Messiah because the messianic kingdom had not yet
21Sidney Page, Powers of Evil: A Biblical Study of Satan and Demons (Grand ­Rapids:
Baker, 1995), 270.

88
arrived as ­anticipated. However, Matthew explains why the messi-
anic kingdom did not come. It was not because Jesus is not Messiah,
but rather because Israel in unbelief rejected their King, and there
cannot be a kingdom without a King. This explains why the events
of Matthew’s Gospel build toward chapter twelve and the famous
confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees, who accused Christ
of performing His miracles by the power of Beelzebul (“the ruler of
the demons”) or Satan (12:22–37).
At this point, Christ notes that Israel was committing the sin of
“blasphemy against the Spirit” (Matt. 12:31) by rejecting the Holy
Spirit’s testimony that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah. His claim to be
Messiah had been certified through His many signs, wonders, and
miracles, which included His power over Satan and demons, as the
immediate context reveals (12:22–37). Not even the Pharisees could
deny this fact. Therefore, instead of questioning the authenticity of
the miracles of Jesus, they credited the source of His miracles to
Satan rather than to God. Anything but admit the truth—Jesus was
the promised Messiah.
Matthew contrasts this unbelief with the belief of John the
Baptist in chapter 11. What gave rise to the expression of John’s
faith were the incidents related in Matthew 10, which tells us that
Jesus gathered His disciples and gave them “authority over unclean
spirits, to cast them out” (10:1), so that they could go throughout
Israel announcing that the King was there (“the kingdom of heaven
is at hand,” 10:7). What was the confirming evidence that would
demonstrate to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that Jesus was
the Messiah? The ability to heal and cast out demons (Isa. 29:18–19;
35:5–6).
After this event, John the Baptist, who had been incarcerated by
Herod, sent word to Jesus, asking if He was indeed the Messiah. Jesus
responded by pointing to the confirmatory signs: “The blind receive
sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear,
and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached
to them” (Matt. 11:5). The parallel passage also includes the casting
out of demons (Luke 7:21). John’s response clearly reveals the divine
purpose for these signs and wonders, including demonic deliver-
ances. The result: John’s faith in Jesus was reconfirmed, but his belief
was in stark contrast to the unbelief of the Pharisees. When they
witnessed the miracles of Jesus, they could not dispute them, so they
attributed them to Satan. The point that we dare not overlook is that

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Jesus’ encounters with the demons were directly related to His claim to
be the Messiah and His offer of the kingdom.
Preview of the Kingdom
Most readers have undoubtedly seen a film preview, either on tele-
vision or while attending another movie. The film trailer is designed
to indicate something, but not too much, of what the movie is like.
It sparks your curiosity to see that particular film. In a certain sense,
this was one of the purposes for Christ’s first coming, and it explains
some aspects of His ministry: to whet our appetite for the Second
Coming and the messianic kingdom.
One of the major reasons Christ demonstrated He had power
over sickness, nature, and the spiritual realm (including Satan and
demons) was to provide a glimpse of what the messianic kingdom
would be like if Israel would accept Jesus as their Messiah. But the
kingdom would not arrive until the nation Israel acknowledged
Jesus as their King. Instead, they rejected Him by choosing the reb-
el Barabbas in place of Jesus and said concerning Christ, “We do
not want this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). Jesus proclaimed
just before He gave the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24–25), “Your house
[Israel’s temple] is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from
now on you shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the Lord!’ ” (Matt. 23:38–39).
Israel’s kingdom was related to their response to the messiah-
ship of Jesus. Because they rejected Him, the messianic kingdom
was postponed until the yet-future time toward the end of the Great
Tribulation, when they will say, “Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord!”
The Apostle Peter made a similar point to his Jewish country-
men in Acts 3:19–21: “Repent therefore and return, that your sins
may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing [the Messianic
kingdom] may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He
may send Jesus, the Christ [Messiah] appointed for you [Israel],
whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all
things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets
from ancient time.”
Christ’s first coming upon the earth did not result in the inau-
guration of His messianic kingdom in any form. Even though Christ
offered it and provided a foretaste of what that time would be like,
Israel rejected the King; thus, the kingdom was postponed until
Christ returns to the earth in glory at the Second Coming.

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 By taking power and authority over Satan, demons, sickness,
and disease, Christ gave a preview of the glorious conditions that
will exist during the messianic kingdom, when the effects of the
Curse (satanic oppression and sickness) will be lifted for a thousand
years. How does this influence our study of Satan and demons? We
shall see as we examine Christ’s interaction with demonic forces
during His first coming.
Stirring Up the Insects
In parts of Texas during the summer, you can look out at a field
of Johnson grass and everything appears to be calm and inactive.
However, when you walk through that field you stir things up. Often
a wave of grasshoppers and other insects spring into action as you
plod through the field. Some of them might cling to your clothing as
you pass through, and occasionally you might come upon a jackrab-
bit or two or even a rattlesnake. What causes this kind of activity? Just
the presence of a human being walking nearby upsets the ­normal,
hidden activities that had been going on in this field of grass.
The same was true of Christ’s ministry. Often it was just His
presence passing through the land of Israel that caused the activity
of the demonic realm to become noticeable. The activity had existed
all along, but our Lord’s messianic presence stirred up the spiritual
realm and brought that activity out into the open. On one occasion,
a demon asked Christ, “Have You come here to torment us before
the time?” (Matt. 8:29), indicating his tremendous fear of the au-
thority of the Lord of the Universe. Yes, Christ had come to stir
things up at His first coming, but His final victory arrives only in the
future, when Jesus establishes the messianic kingdom. Much of the
demonic activity in Israel during that time can be attributed to the
mere presence of Christ, the God-Man.
That this heightened confrontation with the demonic realm
during Jesus’ life was related to His unique ministry is further seen
by studying the way and frequency with which the New Testament
talks about demons. The Greek word for demon (daimonion) and its
related words are used seventy-seven times in the New Testament.
Sixty-seven times the word is found in the four Gospels, seven times
in the Epistles, and three times in Revelation.
A similar proportion is found in the forty-two times that the
synonym for demons, “evil/unclean spirits,” is used: twenty-three
times in the Gospels, thirteen times in Acts, three times in the
Epistles, and three times in Revelation.

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 The Three–Part Plan
The frequency and way in which the New Testament handles is-
sues relating to the demonic are not consistent with the thinking
and practice being advocated by many people in contemporary
deliverance ministries. We are not setting one portion of the New
Testament against another; instead, because these two sections
are harmonious, we must recognize that the Epistles do not warn
­believers to look out for demon possession, nor do they describe
how to become engaged in a deliverance ministry. Yet, these activ-
ities were central to the ministry of Christ and to a lesser degree of
the ­apostles. Why was this the case?
We think that one of the primary reasons that 87 percent of the
119 references to demons occur in the historical section (Gospels
and Acts) of the New Testament is because they are tied to the
unique events associated with the messianic mission of Jesus and
the beginning and establishment of the church. Complete victory
over Satan and the demonic realm is scheduled to occur only when
the messianic kingdom arrives. Jesus came to offer Israel this king-
dom, but Israel rejected their King and His kingdom. Therefore, the
messianic kingdom is delayed during the current church age, until
Christ’s second coming brings the removal of Satan and his demon-
ic hordes from His thousand-year rule upon this earth. However,
because Christ was on the earth during His first coming, He was
engaged in direct battle with Satan and the demonic, whereas
during His current absence, the battle is carried out indirectly, or
­defensively, as we shall show in later chapters.
Make no mistake: Christ secured complete victory at the cross
over Satan and the demonic. The realization of Christ’s victory in
our experience is implemented in progressive stages. Phase one of
salvation is when we become believers, at which time we are justi-
fied (declared righteous, Gal. 2:20), we are given new spiritual life
(regeneration, Titus 3:5), and we become new creatures in Christ (2
Cor. 5:17). All of which—plus much, much more—God does for us
at the moment when we trust Christ alone for our salvation. During
phase two, we live the Christian life. We still possess a sin nature and
are still able to commit any sin that any unbeliever can commit, but
we are also able not to sin. It will not be until phase three, however,
when we receive our new, resurrection body, which is free from a
sin nature, that we will be totally and absolutely free from all aspects
of sin.

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 God’s plan is certain and sure because the price of our full re-
demption has already been paid by Christ on the cross. It is not an
issue of whether He can do it; rather, His plan is being accomplished
in different phases. So it is with Christ’s victory over Satan and the
demonic realm: It is being carried out in phases. This fact is crucial
to understanding what is going on when Christ encounters Satan
and the demonic powers in the Gospels.
Now let us take a closer look at how Jesus dealt with the powers
of darkness.
Satan Attacks Jesus
At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus Christ went into the wil-
derness to pray and fast for forty days (Matt. 4:1–11). At the end of
this fasting period, Satan appeared and tempted Him three times.
When He was tempted, Christ countered Satan with Scripture but
did not enter into extended dialogue with him or argue with him
over the interpretation of a passage. On the third temptation, Christ
rebuked Satan and told him to be gone. Satan left immediately, and
no e­ xtended dialogue or argument ensued.
Satan did not try to cast a mystical spell over Jesus to bind Him
to his will as though He were a mere robot. Instead, the force of
Satan’s temptations was based on the intended compulsion of his ar-
guments. The first argument was an attempt to flatter Christ because
He is God’s Son (Matt. 4:3). Here Satan used a fallacious theology
based on Jesus’ deity. If Jesus had succumbed, He would have been
operating independently of the Father’s plan and, thus, would have
compromised His mission. Jesus countered by correctly quoting
and applying Deuteronomy 8:3, which emphasizes the priority of
obedience to God over all else.
In the second argument, Satan became more sophisticated and
quoted Scripture (Ps. 91:11–12). Indeed, it was both a misinterpre-
tation and misapplication of the passage. Satan tempted Christ to
put on a show of His miraculous power by leaping off the pinnacle
of the temple (Matt. 4:5–6) and having the angels rescue Him, there-
by gaining fame and notoriety. In other words, Satan attempted to
get Christ to act by Satan’s methods. Christ parried this argument
by accurately interpreting and applying Scripture: “You shall not put
the Lord your God to the test” (Matt. 4:7, quoting from Deut. 6:16).
In the third argument, Satan offered Christ the whole world
if He would worship him (Matt. 4:8–9). Jesus did not dispute Satan’s
ability to make the offer; the Tempter was truly the “god of this

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world.” But Christ’s terse and pointed response in verse 10 was an
accurate use of Deuteronomy 6:13: “You shall worship the Lord
your God, and serve Him only.”
Jesus’ response to the attack of Satan serves as a prototype for
how the believer is to handle such attacks. First, unlike Eve, at no
time did Christ give in to the logic of Satan’s temptations. Instead,
Christ penetrated the deceptive approach of Satan because He knew
the Scriptures and was able to counter with God’s way of thinking.
He accurately used the “living and active” Word of God (Heb. 4:12).
Second, the nature of this encounter was not mystical, two sorcerers
attacking each other with their magical powers, as has been depict-
ed in contemporary cartoons. Third, the power that enabled Jesus
to defeat the temptations was the truth inherent in the Scripture,
not a metaphysical power or use of the Holy Spirit. Remember that
Jesus is handling these temptations in His humanity and, thus, set-
ting the pattern and example for us. This encounter with Satan is
not designed to provide credentials, as was the case with casting
out demons.
Christ’s handling of Satan’s temptations is the exact pattern of
dealing with such temptation that is prescribed in the Epistles for
believers. Since Satan and his demons are still tempting God’s peo-
ple during the church age by spewing out false ways of looking at
life’s issues in terms of cosmic thinking and doctrines of demons
(1 Tim. 4:1; James 3:15), Christ’s handling of the temptation serves
as the model of how believers can stand firm and counter the attacks
of Satan and the demonic powers. This is the pattern laid out in the
Epistles as well.
Binding and Loosing
Some years ago, we witnessed a “deliverance” service conducted by
a well-known pioneer in the field. Many bizarre things happened
at the service. Many of the demons had names, such as the demon
of lust, gluttony, worry, gossip, and criticism. One demon was even
named after a particular food.
The deliverance evangelist had a routine that he followed in
casting demons from people. First, he found out a little about the
individual. He then asked him what his problem was. (He always
assumed that it was caused by a demon rather than some other
source.) Then he spoke authoritatively to the demon and command-
ed the demon to manifest itself. Having done this, he usually car-
ried on a conversation with the demon, often quite humorous, as he

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would insult, question, and finally command the demon to leave “in
the name of Jesus” and “by the power of the blood of Christ.” Some
demons require several conversations before eventually departing.
One of the things he always did when he was commanding them to
depart was to bind them and send them to the “pit of hell.”
The practice of binding Satan and/or the demons and evil spirits
is not only something that some Christians do during public and
private deliverance sessions but also is often a personal activity ex-
ercised regularly by an increasing number of Christians. Sometimes
a person will pray that Satan will be bound from blinding a person
to whom he or she is presenting the gospel in the belief that this will
improve the likelihood of the listener’s trusting Christ as his Savior.
Or someone might pray that an upcoming event would be protected
from the influence of the demonic powers by binding the demons
from having influence in relation to that event. On other occasions,
people attempt to bind Satan and his demons from certain geo-
graphical locations, such as a new house into which the person will
be moving, a new church building, or a particular location in a city
or neighborhood. Doing this, they believe, could improve the power
and moving of God in the lives of believers as well as unbelievers.
Many people view this practice as necessary for successful spir-
itual warfare. Let us look at the primary Bible passages from which
those who hold this belief say they have a scriptural mandate for
such a practice.
Mandate for Binding?
The misinterpretation of three passages in Matthew forms the pri-
mary basis for the popular “binding” teaching and practice. First, we
will consider Matthew 12:29, in which Jesus said, “How can anyone
enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property unless he
first binds the strong man?” Christ made this statement as an illus-
tration in His refutation of the Pharisees’ assertion that Jesus “casts
out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons” (12:24). The
Pharisees refused to admit, as many of the people were beginning to
suggest, that Jesus was truly the Son of David (12:23), the promised
Messiah of God. Therefore, they attributed His power to an alliance
with Beelzebul, their only other supernatural alternative in the uni-
verse. Christ’s response affirmed His sovereignty over Satan. The
illustration pointed out that one would have to control the strong
man before his house could be robbed. The logic of Christ’s argu-
ment is that Christ was not in league with Satan but was casting

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out demons by the virtue of His inherent divine power. It would be
wrong to conclude from this passage that Christ was laying down a
universal pattern for believers to follow. Instead, this was a historic
illustration of Christ’s personal power over Satan.
A day will arrive when Satan, “the strong man,” will be bound,
along with his demonic host, and we do not have to speculate as to
when that will be. Revelation 20:1–3 reveals that Satan will be bound
for a one-thousand-year period during the millennial kingdom im-
mediately after Christ’s second coming. He is not released again un-
til the final days of the millennial kingdom, when he instigates the
last insurrection against the Lord in the Gog and Magog revolution.
Following the millennium, Satan will be deposited into the lake of
fire for all eternity (Rev. 20:10). Meanwhile, during the current age,
Satan is “a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The antidote for the believer is not to bind him but to “resist him,
firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9 with James 4:7). Jesus Himself will
bind the strong man, Satan, on behalf of His followers at a future
time. He never uses believers to act on His behalf in this area.
The Keys of the Kingdom
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and
whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been
loosed in heaven.
Matthew 16:19

Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have

been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth
shall have been loosed in heaven.
Matthew 18:18

The focus of these passages is on the word bind (deo). How is

this word used in context, and what does it mean? The word has the
basic meaning of “to tie up by binding.” The result is inactivity on
the part of the one bound. Here, the word bind is used with its op-
posite, loose. In these contexts, the idea of binding and loosing has
the force of the judicial notion of forbidding and permitting. Israel’s
religious leaders used this phrase in Christ’s day to refer to what was
forbidden (bound) and what was permitted (loosed). This is why
our Lord told Peter that He would give him “the keys of the king-
dom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound

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in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
Peter was to become one of the apostles upon whom the
Christian church would be founded (Eph. 2:20). Therefore, Peter
and the apostles would be the human agents through whom en-
trance into the kingdom of heaven would be denied or allowed, de-
pending upon whether one’s key matched the lock. The words shall
be bound and shall be loosed as used in the Greek perfect tense mean
that the binding and loosing in heaven will precede the binding and
loosing on earth.
A translation that brings out this aspect of the original Greek
would read as follows: “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom
of the heavens, but whatever you bind on earth is that which shall
already have been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on
earth is that which shall already have been loosed in the heavens.”
Peter was to bind things upon the earth but only what had already
been bound in heaven. Peter was to set the standard on earth for
entrance into the kingdom of heaven based upon the standard that
God had already set in heaven—those who respond to the gospel
of faith alone in Christ alone will be eternally secure in their salva-
tion. Peter was to be a mediator of the Word of God between God
and man, and that standard is what Peter stated in Matthew 16:16,
namely, that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The
instant that a person trusts Christ as Savior, he is “bound,” destined
for eternity in heaven. When a person rejects Christ as Savior, he is
“loosed,” that is “judged already, because he has not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
Affirming God’s Will
Binding and loosing are used in exactly the same way in Matthew
18:18, which is literally translated as follows: “Truly I am telling you,
whatever you may bind upon the earth shall be that which has al-
ready been bound in heaven; and whatever you may loose upon the
earth shall be that which has already been loosed in heaven.” Jesus is
saying that believers can have confidence that when they justly ex-
communicate someone on earth, they are fulfilling the will of God
that has already been determined in heaven. This truth should give
them confidence in what they are doing. So, in this context, binding
and loosing carry the idea that corresponds to our modern judicial
language of declaring someone guilty (binding) or innocent (loos-
ing). The court decision does not make someone guilty or innocent

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but simply determines whether his past acts violate or conform to
God’s heavenly standard.
In both passages, neither word suggests anything similar to
the contemporary notion of binding Satan or the demonic powers.
Instead, these references refer to carrying out God’s heavenly will
upon earth as it has already been determined in heaven. In fact, the
contemporary idea of binding and loosing has more in common
with the methods related to the casting and removal of spells found
in the occult than with anything related to biblical Christianity.
Therefore, we as believers must be extremely careful when we adopt
practices that are not mandated by the Scriptures. One scholar in
commenting on these two passages has said:
A purely magical binding and loosing such as may be
found elsewhere in Greek and Rabbinic usage [passages
outside of the Bible] is ruled out by the context. Jesus does
not give to Peter and the other disciples any power to en-
chant or to free by magic. The customary meaning of the
Rabbinic expressions is equally incontestable, namely, to
declare forbidden or permitted, and thus to impose or
remove an obligation, by a doctrinal decision.22
Neutral Practice?
Someone might claim that this is a neutral practice used either for
good or for evil. This is the same logic that is often used in magic.
Those who believe that they use magic to do good call it white mag-
ic, whereas an evil use of magic is called black magic. The problem
is that the Bible does not teach the use of this technique at all. It is
an unproven assumption that extra-biblical practices can be used
for good. The Bible teaches us to do God’s will in God’s way. We
are not saying that everyone who uses this approach is necessarily
flirting with the occult, but we are saying that it is possible for sin-
cere use of this technique to result in the occult practice of casting
and countering spells because the Bible does not advocate this type
of technique.
From Revelation 20:2, 10, this kind of direct conflict with Satan
and the demonic powers seems to be is carried on in the h ­ eavenly
realm, not the earthly realm. God either directly moves to limit
Satan and the demonic powers, or He uses His elect angels to ac-
complish His will in this regard. As we shall show in the rest of
22Friedrich Buchsel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans., 1964), 2:60.

98
the book, God’s strategy for humanity is to deal with the specific
issue or sin through which Satan and the demonic powers might
be attacking us and to deal with that sin or issue directly. Believers
are never authorized to engage Satan or demons directly. When we
obey God’s will relating to the issue, God and His angels will deal
with Satan and the demonic powers behind the scene.
Christ’s Conflict with the Demonic
Demon-related material occurs on eleven occasions in the first
three Gospels. It is helpful to notice the following breakdown of this
material (parallel passages in parentheses). Three general statements
about casting out demons:
1. Matthew 4:24 “… they brought to Him all who were ill, taken
with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralyt-
ics; and He healed them” (cf. Mark 3:11; Luke 6:18).
2. Matthew 8:16 “When evening had come, they brought to Him
many who were demon possessed; and He cast out the spirits
with a word, and healed all who were ill” (cf. Mark 1:29–34; Luke
4:38–41).
3. Luke 7:21 “At that very time He cured many people of diseases
and afflictions and evil spirits; and He granted sight to many who
were blind.”
Eight specific incidents are also described:
1. Mark 1:23–28 (cf. Luke 4:33–37)
2. Matthew 8:28–34 (cf. Mark 5:1–20; Luke 8:26–40)
3. Matthew 15:21–28 (cf. Mark 7:24–30)
4. Matthew 17:14–21 (cf. Luke 8:2)
5. Mark 9:14–29 (cf. Luke 9:37–43)
6. Matthew 12:22 (cf. Luke 11:14)
7. Luke 13:10–17
8. Matthew 9:32–34
Two passages cover the disciples and the demonic: (1) Matthew
10:1–16 (cf. Mark 3:13–19; Luke 9:1) and (2) Mark 6:7, 13. One
incident of teaching was related to the Pharisees’ accusation that
Christ’s power came from Beelzebub (Matt. 12:43–45; cf. Mark
3:22–30; Luke 11:14–26).
In the first section, we see three general statements relating
to Jesus’ casting out of demons. In the first incident, many people
were bringing the sick and demon possessed to Jesus, and He was
healing them and casting out “many demons” (Mark 1:34). The
purpose for these events was to demonstrate that Jesus was the Son

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of God, as some of the demons were testifying (Luke 4:41). This
point is consistent with the purpose of the first three Gospels: to
demonstrate that Jesus was the Messiah because He had power and
­authority over the demonic realm.
One reason why this fact is significant goes back to the first
prophecy about the Messiah in the Bible found in Genesis 3:15: “I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall
bruise him on the heel.” The Messiah would gain victory over
Satan, and Jesus demonstrated this to Israel. Because He had pow-
er and authority over Satan and the demonic powers, He was the
­promised Messiah.
When Jesus cast out the demons, many of them were “crying
out and saying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ And rebuking them, He
would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the
Christ [the Messiah]” (Luke 4:41). This incident is in stark contrast
to many people within the contemporary deliverance ministries
who carry on conversations with demons. Generally, Christ did not
permit them to speak or even to convey the truth that He was God’s
Son, apparently because He did not want otherwise lying spirits to
testify to the truth.
Only once did Jesus ask them to identify themselves (Mark 5:9).
Jesus wanted Israel to believe the truth because it came from the
mouth of God and not from the mouth of demons. Also, He did not
want to give the people who were weighing the evidence of His de-
liverance an opportunity to reject Him because the testimony came
from an unreliable source, thus affirming the principle that a right
thing done in a wrong way is still wrong. The ends never justify
the means. Man cannot compromise with evil—even to achieve an
alleged noble end.
Jesus’ unique ministry is again seen in the third general state-
ment of casting out demons. This incident involved John the Baptist,
who had been imprisoned by King Herod because he offended
Herod’s wife with his preaching. While in prison, John began to
wonder if Jesus was really the Messiah after all. He sent a messenger
to Jesus to inquire about the matter, and Jesus’ response is described
in Luke 7:21: “At that very time He cured many people of diseases
and afflictions and evil spirits.” This description of what Jesus was
doing was enough to remove all doubt from John because it was a
description of indisputable messianic activity.

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 Category Scripture
Matthew Mark Luke
Three general statements of 8:16 1:29–34 4:38–41
casting out demons 4:24 3:11 6:18
7:21
Eight specific incidents de- 15:21–28 1:23–28 4:33–37
scribed with details 8:28–34 5:1–20 8:26–40
17:14–21 7:24–30 9:37–43
12:22 9:14–29 8:2
9:32–34 11:14
13:10–17
One incident of teaching 12:43–45 3:22–30 11:14–26
related to the Pharisees’
accusation that Jesus’ power
came from Beelzebub (Satan)
Two occasions regarding the 10:1–16 3:13–19 9:1
disciples 6:7, 13

The Specific Cases

The seven specific incidents described in the first three Gospels fol-
low the general pattern that we observed earlier. In the first incident,
Jesus entered a synagogue, a place of worship, and an unclean spirit
cried out of someone, “What do we have to do with You, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the
Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24). Once again, Jesus commanded the
demon to be quiet, and then He cast the evil spirit out of the man.
This incident brought Jesus notoriety regarding His authority over
the demonic powers.
Undoubtedly, the most extensive narrative relating to the de-
monic powers occurs in the incident often titled “The Gadarene
Demoniac” (Mark 5:1–20). This is the story about Jesus casting de-
mons out of a man and into a herd of swine. As usual, the encounter
began when the demons in the man recognized Christ as “Jesus, Son
of the Most High God” (v. 7). Jesus then cast out the demons, but
here He commanded the unclean spirit to first give Him his name.
The demon replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many” (v. 9).
Notice that the demon was not named lust, gossip, adultery, hate, or
any of the other names often given to demons by those involved in
contemporary deliverance attempts. “Legion” is more of a generic
description that shows that many unclean spirits were within the

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man. It could not have been a proper name unless the entire multi-
tude all had the same name—a highly unlikely possibility. Instead
of the current popular belief that names of demons are related to
the sin or habit that they inflict upon their subject, the Bible reveals
something quite different.
This is the only place where Jesus carried on any extended di-
alogue with demons, but it was not to acquire information from
them, as some contemporary deliverance practitioners advocate but
rather to accommodate a request from the demons as to where they
would be going. When the man was delivered, Jesus forbade him to
travel with Him but instead instructed him to return “home to your
people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for
you, and how He had mercy on you” (v. 19). Christ did not allow the
demons to testify to whom He was, but He did want this delivered
man to testify to God’s mercy and grace, which was the basis for
his deliverance.
Incidents three through seven follow the same general pattern
as is noted in the previous examples.
One of the most significant observations we can make is that
not a single one of these cases reveals someone who came to Jesus in
order to be delivered of a demon! Each person was brought by some-
one else, except for the Gadarene. And in that instance, he did not
come to Jesus to be delivered, but “he ran up and bowed down,” in-
dicating worship, and asked, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God?” Then he begged Jesus not to torment
him. This man clearly was not coming for deliverance. If anything
can be inferred from these examples, it is that demon-possessed
people do not seek deliverance.
A second observation regards terminology. Never is it said that
Jesus or the disciples exorcised a demon. The English exorcism is a
transliteration from the Greek exorkizo, which is always used of the
magical, ritualistic attempts of unbelievers to remove demons. In
the biblical accounts, Jesus and the disciples only “cast out” (ekballo)
demons—a vital distinction in methodology. The practices of mod-
ern deliverance practitioners, whether extremist or more moderate,
have more in common with the exorcists of Jesus’ day than with
the disciples.
The Disciples and the Demons
The twelve disciples of Jesus became involved in casting out demons
when Jesus sent them out to declare to their fellow Israelites that

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the kingdom of God was at hand. Mark seems to indicate that this
commissioning occurred twice, in 3:13–19 and 6:7–13. Clearly, the
reason Jesus delegated this power and authority over the demonic
realm to His disciples was as an authenticating sign to their fellow
countrymen that their Rabbi was indeed the Messiah. Only Messiah
could truly deliver those under the domain of the demonic powers.
This was a power and authority given only to the twelve disciples,
and lest there be any misunderstanding who they were, they were
specifically named in Matthew 10:2–4. Jesus instructed them, “As
you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal
the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Matt.
10:7–8). Just like the ministry of Christ, so the ministry of the twelve
disciples in relation to casting out demons was a sign pointing to the
coming of the messianic kingdom.
All of this evidence that Jesus was the Messiah led to a head-on
collision with the Jewish leaders of Christ’s day. They feared that
they would lose their positions of leadership if Jesus really was the
Messiah. So when they were backed into a corner, having to admit
the genuine messianic quality of the miracles and demonic deliver-
ance that Jesus demonstrated, they tried to say that the source of His
power and authority came not from God but from a deal that Jesus
worked out with Satan himself so that He could put on a good show.
Lucid Claims
The central role of Jesus’ demonstration of His power and authority
over Satan and the demonic powers comes center stage in the dra-
ma of the Gospels. One particular incident was triggered by Jesus’
deliverance of a demon-possessed man (Matt. 12:22). The response
of the people was that of amazement as they wondered, “This man
cannot be the Son of David, can he?” (v. 23). When the scribes and
Pharisees heard this, they accused Jesus of being in league with Satan
himself. Christ refuted them personally first, then went on to refute
the logic of their charge, showing it to be false. The point is clear:
Jesus’ rule over Satan and the demonic powers was a sign that He
was Messiah because only Messiah would be stronger than ­Satan.

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 7
STRATEGIES OF THE ENEMY
When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes
through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any
it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” And
when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it
goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than it-
self, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that
man becomes worse than the first.
Luke 11:24–26

Tonight was the night for which several of us had been waiting all
week. The evangelist was going to hold a deliverance service on the
final night of a week of meetings. This “deliverance minister” had
been teaching us all week about Satan and the demonic powers,
and now the time had finally arrived to see him practice what he
had preached.
Our carload of Christians focused our discussion on Jane as we
expectantly drove to the other side of town. After hearing the teach-
ing that week, Jane had come to believe that the demon of gossip re-
sided in her. We were all attempting to discern, on the basis of what
we had been learning, if the reason Jane spent six to eight hours a
day on the phone gossiping was because she had a demon or, as her
husband thought, simply because this was the area of sin to which
she easily succumbed. Jane decided that she would go forward that
night to be delivered from a demon that she was convinced was the
root of her problem.
As we pulled into the packed parking lot, we knew that this
night would witness the largest crowd of the week. We wormed
our way through the crowd to the pew we had occupied all week
and sat down, charged with anticipation. We were not disappoint-
ed. During the course of that evening we saw some truly amazing
things. Multiple voices shrieked out of one woman. A second wom-
an keeled over with convulsions when the minister commanded the
demon to depart in the name of Jesus, and then a young boy passed

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out and lay on the floor unconscious for a long time. Another lady
literally vomited up what the minister called the demon of gluttony
in response to the evangelist’s command to that evil spirit to leave.
Virtually every case handled by the deliverance minister seemed
­bizarre and required his vast experience and discernment finally to
see through the nefarious bag of tricks implemented by the demons
in their always-futile effort to continue to control their victim.
Jane made it to the front as nine o’clock approached that eve-
ning. The evangelist motioned to her that she would be next. He
rapidly began his interrogation of Jane in the style that had preceded
the deliverance of the others.
“Are you a Christian?”
“Yes.”
“Have you renounced all of the works of Satan from your
past?”
“Yes,” she proclaimed.
“Then what is the nature of your oppression?” he asked in an
effort to find the basis of her plight.
Jane then confessed her excessive participation in gossip. She
renounced it ‘in the name of Jesus’ as the minister ordered the de-
mon to manifest himself. When the evil spirit finally spoke, the
minister demanded to know the demon’s name.
“Chatter!” the voice screamed back. “I love to talk about
­other people!”
“Well, your use of this child of God’s vocal cords is about to
cease, because I am sending you to the pit,” proclaimed the minister.
He then commanded the demon to leave Jane in the name of Jesus
as he “pled the blood” over his subject. The demon let out a sudden,
high-pitched screech that startled most of us in the room and then
departed. Jane returned to her seat having apparently gained victory
over Satan.
Time ran out shortly after Jane’s deliverance, so the evangelist
had all who believed that they had some kind of demonic oppres-
sion raise their hands. Almost every hand in the place shot into
the air. He then led them through a group deliverance and gave a
few parting words on how to keep delivered and not return to the
­bondage of demonic oppression.
Deliverance Expert?
I (Thomas) recall the next few months. Every time I had any kind
of problem in my life, I instantly believed that it was some kind

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of demonic oppression. I would go through the steps that we had
learned at the meeting for casting out demons, just in case they were
still there.
My friend Jane quickly developed into our local deliverance ex-
pert, and she spent much time on the telephone repeatedly casting
out demons from our friends anytime they encountered the slightest
problem. Jane’s life went from one crisis experience to another. Her
husband was transferred out of town a few months later, and about
a year after that, I heard that they were experiencing severe marital
problems, which eventually led to divorce. After that, I ­never heard
from either of them again.
I was a young Christian when I went through this exposure
to contemporary deliverance teaching and practice. After years of
studying the Scriptures, however, I have become convinced that this
kind of teaching and practice is not authorized by the Bible at all.
As I look back on what I went through then and see this same kind
of approach to Satan and the demonic powers growing by leaps and
bounds in our own day, a number of questions repeatedly come to
mind. How much control does God allow Satan to have over peo-
ple? More specifically, what can Satan do and not do to believers?
However, the most provocative question of all—which neither the
deliverance minister, myself, nor my friends brought up for discus-
sion at that time—was whether a true, born-again believer could
even be demon possessed. If Christians cannot be demon pos-
sessed, then the whole notion of a believers’ deliverance ministry is
not scripturally valid. If a Christian can be indwelt by a demon, then
a whole different scenario would follow for spiritual warfare. To un-
derstand the answers to these questions, we must first understand
how much control Satan has over people.
The Power of God
The book of Job is considered by many Bible scholars to have been
the first book of the Bible given to man from God. At the beginning
of the story, when all of the angels (both the holy and the unho-
ly) came to present themselves before the Lord, He said to Satan,
“From where do you come?” Satan answered, “From roaming about
on the earth and walking around on it” (Job 1:7). Why was Satan
“cruising” the earth? A similar expression is found in 1 Peter 5:8,
where Peter says that “your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The answer is clear: Satan
roams and walks around the earth to find someone whom he can

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devour. H­ owever, as we continue to follow the development of Sa-
tan’s dialogue with the Lord, we find that even though the evil one
is capable of attacking human beings, this does not mean that he is
permitted to.
A major emphasis in the book of Job is the sovereignty of God.
We need to recognize that nothing happens in God’s creation with-
out God’s permission, including evil. God is not the author of sin,
but His plan for His creation allowed for man’s choice and the pres-
ence of evil. Satan and mankind are responsible for introducing and
maintaining sin in God’s world. Despite this, God is still sovereign
over the evil that happened to Job.
First, God appears to have had a regular time in which all of the
angels, both the elect and the evil, had to report to Him (Job 1:6; 2:1).
This indicates His authority over both domains. Second, the Lord
initiated the conversation with Satan by asking him if he had “con-
sidered My servant Job.” Third, Satan then sought permission from
the Lord to harm Job. Surely Satan would not be seeking permission
on such a matter if it were not necessary! Fourth, Satan recognized
that the Lord had put a hedge (fence) around Job and his house that
prevented Satan from stalking Job without divine permission. Fifth,
after granting Satan permission, God limited the extent of suffering
that Satan would be permitted to inflict (Job 1:12; 2:6).
God’s sovereignty over His creation means that Satan does not
have a free hand to run roughshod over God’s creatures, especial-
ly His children, without the Lord’s permission. The psalmist says,
“Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain” (Ps. 76:10 kjv). The interaction between God
and Satan in Job illustrates this point. However, some people ad-
vocate the view that we have to “pray a hedge of thorns” around
fellow believers to protect them. The Scriptures indicate that God
automatically erects a hedge of thorns around His children. Like any
loving Father, God moves to protect His family members from the
moment of salvation. Praying for a hedge of thorns is unnecessary.
We must keep in mind God’s sovereignty over all of His cre-
ation if we are to avoid two common errors. First, when some peo-
ple learn about the things that Satan can do, they might respond as
if God does not restrain Satan’s activity. Other people might claim to
know that God is sovereign but then fail to apply that aspect of His
character to their thinking by acting as if protection from Satanic or
demonic attack depended on their own actions. Once again, they
admit in theory that God is sovereign, but they behave in a way that

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actually denies His sovereignty. Those who are especially vulner-
able to this incorrect perception worry constantly about whether
they might have some unknown sin, curse, or family heritage with
which they have not specifically dealt and that could be the basis for
a “satanic stronghold.” This error fails to realize that God sovereign-
ly applied all aspects of His salvation to our lives when we became
His children.
Second, if we do not take into account God’s sovereignty as we
study what Satan can do to people, then we might react to this in-
formation fatalistically. Knowledge of the many ways in which Satan
might attack people could cause us merely to throw up our hands
in surrender and say, “What’s the use of trying to battle against
impossible odds?” This is the flip side of the first error. The bibli-
cally oriented believer should respond with an active trust in God
­characterized by a quiet confidence in God’s protection.
God’s sovereignty is like a filter that protects us from anything
that He has not planned to bring into our lives to mold us into the
image of our model—Jesus Christ. Now that we have our filters
snugly in place, we will examine what Satan does to people.
Satan’s Subordinate Power
Satan and demons can affect people in many ways. Yet, just because
they have this capacity does not mean that all of the things we will
list happen with the same frequency or to all people, or even that
they are necessarily demonic in origin in a particular case. We are
pointing out the things of which Satan is capable and that he has
done at one time or another as revealed in Scripture.
We have already seen that Satan is the opponent of God, which
explains why all of his activity seeks to distort what God has made.
Jesus makes this point in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal,
and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might
have it abundantly.” Jesus creates something, but Satan destroys it.
If God has given us a gift, Satan wants to steal it. God has given
us life, but Satan wants to bring death. If God has built or created
something, Satan wants to smash and destroy it. God gave Adam
and Eve the gift of a beautiful life in Eden, but Satan said that God
was still holding back something good. When the first couple fell
for that lie, they lost the gift of Eden and were cast into a wilderness
as a result.
God has given to each person life, both physically and spiri-
tually. Satan often attempts to persuade people that death is to be

108
preferred over life. This may take many forms. He may encourage
one person to take the life of a fellow human being, as Cain did to
Abel. Or he may try to convince a person that the only way out of
his problems is to take his own life—to commit suicide, as King Saul
did. Or Satan might use a worldly rationale, such as “I need to reach
my full potential” to convince a man that he could be happy only if
he left his wife and four children. But Christ came to give life back
to fallen man through salvation, as well as to instruct us how to live
a lifestyle that is called often in Proverbs “the way of life.” Proverbs
15:4 informs us that what we say now affects the quality of life we
live now: “A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it
crushes the spirit.”
God is the One who created the marvelous world in which we
live. Satan, on the other hand, is continuously attempting to de-
stroy the work of God. Satan loves to destroy relationships such as
marriage and the family. Satan is like the malicious little child who
breaks everything on which he can get his hands.
Satan wants to destroy and pervert our relationship with and
worship of God by promoting idolatry and false religion. He does
this by distorting who Jesus really is, by making people feel good
about their false worship and idolatry, and by teaching that we
can achieve salvation by doing good works. Satan and his demons
are the source of false doctrine. Paul called this kind of deception
“doctrines of demons” produced by “deceitful spirits” (1 Tim. 4:1).
James went further, identifying all nonbiblical thinking as “earthly,
­natural, demonic” (James 3:15).
Satan’s Other Powers
Satan also has an impact upon nations and human history. Dan-
iel 10:13 records the incident of a heavenly struggle, lasting three
weeks, between an elect angel and the “prince of the kingdom of
Persia,” representing the demonic realm. It became necessary for
the elect angel to gain the assistance of a higher-ranking angel, Mi-
chael, because he could not handle the prince of Persia alone. This
event took place in relation to God’s revelation of His plan for Israel
and the Gentile nations. Therefore, this angelic conflict affects the
affairs of nations upon earth. Revelation 16:13–16 is an example of
a similar effect that demons will have in influencing the plans and
actions of leaders during the Tribulation. Possibly the rapid chang-
es that have taken place in Eastern Europe have been the result of
angelic interference. But whether this is so is not the concern of the

109
believer. The principles for living the Christian life and the response
to external circumstance do not change, whether the attack is from
fallen humanity, fallen angels, or our own fallen nature.
Unfortunately, some people have used these passages to devel-
op the doctrine referred to as “territorial spirits.” At the root of this
teaching is a small element of truth—that demons do, according to
Scripture, indeed exercise a certain geopolitical influence. However,
this is all that Scripture says about the subject. The vast majority of
what is said today about territorial spirits is developed from experi-
ence, not from the Bible. Remember that it is not the glass of water
but the small amount of cyanide in the water that harms you.
The Scriptures contain no indication, mandate, or authoriza-
tion for believers to pray away the influence of these demons or that
it is even necessary to free a city, neighborhood, or nation from the
influence of these demons as a precursor to evangelism. Once again,
this view reflects a “devil-made-me-do-it” approach and subtly shifts
responsibility for personal decisions away from the individual and
onto some other entity or event. Advocates of this doctrine assume
that people in a given area fail to respond to the gospel because they
are being kept from it by demons. Could it not be that they simply
reject the gospel and suppress the knowledge of God by their own
volition (Rom. 1:18–20)? The Scripture never presents the problem
as anything other than an issue of a personal volition. Although it is
true that all unsaved people are being blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4),
Scripture contains no example or command urging us to pray away
these demons before there can be a gospel impact. In fact, every
believer in human history, including the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus,
was initially blinded by Satan until they responded to the truth of
the gospel.
Paul and his associates certainly never practiced a deliverance
prayer ministry in the book of Acts. This idea is really based on too
low a view of God’s power and too high a view of Satan’s power.
Besides blinding people to the gospel, Satan and his demons
may also inflict physical disease and even death upon people. This
fact is illustrated in the first two chapters of Job, where the Lord
gives Satan permission to harm Job with physical sickness and then
to kill his children. Some of the physical diseases listed in the Bible
that might have a demonic source include epilepsy (Matt. 17:15–
18), dumbness (Matt. 9:33), blindness (Matt. 12:22), deafness (Mark
9:25), and physical deformity (Luke 13:11, 16). Although disease
might have some demonic source, however, Satan still must work

110
in and through the biological laws that God created. These maladies
are not mystical diseases that befuddle physicians and are cast away
by magical incantations, as in paganism. A disease caused by Satan
would still have all of the pathology of a disease that is brought on
naturally; the same cure that worked on the latter would work on
the former.
Some mental disorders may also be induced by demons (Mark
5:4–5). Such bizarre behavior may include violence (Matt. 8:28), out-
bursts of abnormal strength (Mark 5:4), raving/crying/screaming
(Mark 5:5), self-mutilation (Mark 5:5), foaming at the mouth (Mark
9:20), nakedness (Luke 8:27), and grinding of teeth (Mark 9:18).
It is absolutely imperative to state that these conditions are not
always caused by demons. Often, believers mired in the self-destruc-
tive emotional and mental consequences of their own bad decisions
may become delusional, psychotic, and divorced from reality and
may imitate many characteristics that are associated with demon
possession. King Saul is one example from the Scripture. In addi-
tion, not every bona fide demon possession has identical effects.
Today, many people may make the incorrect mental leap that a vio-
lent person must be demon possessed simply because one symptom
may sometimes be a characteristic of demon possession.
Moreover, even when the ultimate cause of the disease or prob-
lem is supernatural, the biblical solution does not necessarily lie in
a direct engagement with the demon. Scripture always presents the
solution in terms of steadfast progress in spiritual growth through
learning biblical principles and applying them consistently to the
thinking and lifestyle of the believer. Never does the Scripture au-
thorize or even hint that believers should engage in identifying, re-
buking, or attacking the demons. (We will say more about this issue
in the next chapter.)
What happens when a person accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior
and becomes a Christian? In what way does this influence how
Satan and his demons can affect that person?
What is Demon Possession?
How does the Bible describe and define demon possession? To un-
derstand properly the biblical teaching about spiritual warfare, we
must begin with a clear understanding of what Scripture means
when it refers to demon possession. A wrong perspective on this
matter will result in our misunderstanding God’s Word as He has
spoken it, causing us to rely instead on human opinion.

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 Because the Old Testament contains no clear example of de-
mon possession, our examination will concentrate on the New
Testament. The New Testament uses more than one term to refer to
demon possession. First, the Greek word daimonizomai is a parti-
cipial form of the more commonly used noun for demon (daimon-
ion). Daimonizomai is usually translated “to be possessed by a de-
mon,” or, when it is used to describe a person in that condition,
it is rendered “demoniac.” The word is used thirteen times,23 all in
the Gospels. It is increasingly popular to dilute the meaning of this
word by translating it as “demonized.”24
The second term in the Greek is daimonion echein, “to have
a demon.” This phrase is used eight times in Matthew, Luke, and
John.25 The Greek grammar conveys the idea that the subject is
characterized by having a demon indwell him.
A classic definition is one given by the late Merrill Unger:
Demon possession is a condition in which one or more
evil spirits or demons inhabit the body of a human be-
ing and can take complete control of their victim at will.
By temporarily blotting out his consciousness, they can
speak and act through him as their complete slave and
tool. The inhabiting demon (or demons) comes and goes
much like the proprietor of a house who may or may not
be “at home.” When the demon is “at home,” he may pre-
cipitate an attack. In these attacks the victim passes from
his normal state, in which he acts like other people, to
the abnormal state of possession.26
So far, this is a fairly accurate definition; however, as Unger sub-
sequently develops his definition, it becomes apparent that he is re-
lying, at least to some degree, on experiences with what he believed
to be demonically possessed people.

23 Matthew 4:24; 8:16, 28, 33; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22; Mark 1:32; 5:15, 16, 18; Luke 8:36;
John 10:21.
24 C. Fred Dickason, Demon Possession and the Christian (Chicago: Moody, 1987),

37–35; and Clinton E. Arnold, Three Crucial Questions About Spiritual Warfare
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), 75–79 .
25 Matthew 11:18; Luke 7:33; 8:27; John 7:20; 8:48, 49 (“to not have a demon”), 52;

10:20.
26 Merrill F. Unger, Demons in the World Today (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1971),

102.

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 Extra-Biblical Confusion
We believe that a sound definition of demonization must be based
solely on the information in the Bible. Unfortunately, some people
today let experience determine even more of the definition:
The difficulty with Dr. Unger’s definition is that although
it may be correct in some cases, it may not be broad
enough to function in all cases of demon possession.27
This writer critiques Unger’s biblically derived definition from
the vantage point of his own experience. Like many others, he offers
his own autonomous definition of demon possession. He elevates
his interpretation of his experiences to the same level as scriptural
accounts. Then, on the basis of this assumption, he uses the combi-
nation of biblical events and contemporary clinical events to derive
conclusions about possession. This is the type of invalid methodol-
ogy that usually leads people to the conclusion that Christians can
be demon possessed.
Once a person moves beyond Scripture as the sole authori-
ty, anything becomes possible if it is carried to further extremes.
(And there always seem to be some people who are willing to push
an idea further than the contemporary consensus.) The following
list reveals what people in the seventeenth century believed to be
­symptoms of a demon-possessed person:
1. To think oneself possessed
2. To lead a wicked life
3. To be persistently ill, falling into heavy sleep and vomiting un-
usual objects (either natural objects—toads, serpents, worms,
iron, stones, etc.—or artificial objects—nails, pins, etc.)
4. To blaspheme
5. To make a pact with the Devil
6. To be troubled with spirits
7. To show a frightening and horrible countenance
8. To be tired of living
9. To be uncontrollable and violent
10. To make sounds and movements like an animal28

27 John Wimber, Spiritual Warfare (Anaheim, Calif.: Mercy Publishing/Vineyard

Ministries International, 1989), 98.
28 Cited by Willem Berends, “The Biblical Criteria for Demon-Possession,” in The

Westminister Theological Journal, 37, no.3, (spring 1975): 342. First published in
R.H. Robbins, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology (New York: Crown
Publishers, 1959), 395.

113
 Even in the seventeenth century definitions of demon posses-
sion were based on human experience, or human experience plus
the Bible, not on the Bible alone.
If we allow any basis at all for extra-biblical thought on this mat-
ter, it opens a floodgate of errant thought. For example, who could
say that the preceding seventeenth-century list is wrong if the Bible
alone is not the standard? Everyone’s opinion becomes just as possi-
ble as anyone else’s opinion. Let’s see how the Bible alone describes
demon possession.
The Clarity of the Context
Because the Bible contains no systematic definition of demon pos-
session, the best way to understand this issue is to examine the char-
acteristics in the biblical examples that define these words for us.
We see from the two basic terms noted earlier that someone who is
said to be “demonized (daimonizomai)” or “to have a demon (echo
daimonion)” is a person who has one or more demons dwelling
within him; they have taken up residence; inside the body, not in-
side the soul or spirit. For example, while the Gadarene demoniac
is labeled as “demonized” in Mark 5:15–16, 18, the same person is
said to “have a demon” in Luke 8:27. A variation of this synonymous
usage occurs when demon-possessed people are said to “have an
unclean spirit” (Mark 5:2, 8). If our information about demon pos-
session was limited to these three words, then it might be legitimate
to conclude that these are merely generic terms describing some
sort of demonic activity in relation to human beings. In fact, this
view is exemplified in an approach that is becoming increasingly
popular today. The claim is made that the idea of demon possession
per se is not in the Greek of the New Testament:
To be demonized means to be under the control of one
or more demons. Demonization is not a matter of ex-
tremes, such as the either/or idea of being completely
free or totally bound; it’s a matter of degrees.29
This writer claims that the English terms demon possession and
demon influence are merely theological inventions that do not ac-
curately reflect the original language of the Bible. All that the Bible
says, so the reasoning goes, is that people are demonized. But is this
true? Absolutely not! A correct understanding of the Greek r­ eveals

29Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker (Eugene, Ore: Harvest House, 1990),
174.

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that the standard way of translating this Greek term as demon
­possession has been correct all of the time.
This approach commits the fallacy of defining a word based
on its root meanings, or etymology, rather than on how the word
is actually used and defined in context. Demonized and to have a
demon are used in Scripture of only one extreme type of demonic
activity: to have one or more demons take up residence inside the
body of a person and exercise control by overriding the individual’s
volition in relation to their bodily functions. The person’s soul, his
identity, is still there, although perhaps unconscious. His volition to
believe or reject the gospel is still there, but his ability to control his
body is not. These words never describe a case involving anything
less, such as mere influence or putting ideas into someone’s mind.
For example, these terms never describe Satan’s activities of accusa-
tion, temptation, deception, or persecution; they describe only the
­extreme case of being inwardly controlled by a demon.
Jesus gives us a picture of demon possession in one of His di-
alogues with the Pharisees. In Matthew 12:28–29, 43–45, Jesus
pictures the possessed victim as a house in which demons dwell.
Casting out the demons is analogous to throwing the inhabitants
out of the house. Therefore, demon possession clearly includes evil/
unclean spirits (another term for demons) indwelling an individual.
This point is further reinforced by the terms used to describe the
moving in and eviction of demons from their captive. Both transi-
tions are recorded in Mark 5:13, with the “coming out” (exerchomai)
of the demons from their human hostage as they then “entered into”
(eiserchomai) the herd of swine. Mary Magdalene is described in
Luke 8:2 as the woman “from whom seven demons had gone out
(exerchomai).” These precise terms provide clarity for the meaning
of daimonizomai, making it indisputable that the word means noth-
ing less than the indwelling of a demon in the body of a human host.
Dr. Unger’s earlier definition describes well how, once inside
a person, demons can then “speak and act through him as their
complete slave and tool. … When the demon is ‘at home,’ he may
precipitate an attack. In these attacks the victim passes from his nor-
mal state, in which he acts like other people, to the abnormal state
of possession.”30
In the Bible, demon possession is the direct, inward control by
demons (also called evil spirits) of their victim by their residing in

30 Unger, Demons, 102.

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him. We will now examine the crucial issue of whether Christians
can be demon possessed. Can this happen to Christians?
Can a Christian Be Demon Possessed?
We do not believe that the Bible teaches that a Christian can be
possessed, which means to have his body, or the physical home of
the immaterial soul, indwelt by a demon. We do believe, howev-
er, that Christians can be severely influenced or oppressed by Sa-
tan and the demonic powers. The key issues on this matter revolve
around the differences between internal control/inhabitation and
­external ­influence.
The Holy Spirit. Scripture clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit in-
dwells each believer. First Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom
you have from God?” The Holy Spirit lives inside every believer in
the church age. He has converted their physical body into the dwell-
ing place of the Trinity. In addition, 1 John 4:4 tells us, “Greater is
He who is in you [the Holy Spirit] than he who is in the world [Satan
and the demonic powers].” Therefore, a demon is not able to enter
into and take control of a believer’s physical body because the Holy
Spirit lives there. Think of it thus: Because the Holy Spirit lives in the
material house of a believer, then every time a demon knocks at the
door the Holy Spirit answers. Since God the Holy Spirit is stronger
than any demonic being, including Satan himself, then no demon
or evil spirit could enter. It’s that simple: God is greater than Satan;
thus, He protects His children.
Jesus used this same analogy when He refuted the Pharisees:
“When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through wa-
terless places, seeking rest, and does not find it” (Matt. 12:43). In
this illustration, the demon is searching for a new home because he
was cast out of the individual whom he once occupied. The word
for “cast out,” exerchomai, is the same word used of the departure of
a demon in other possession episodes. Then the homeless demon
says, “I will return to my house from which I came” (v. 44). The
demon and his friends can only enter the house if it is empty, that
is “unoccupied.” Because the house is vacant, the demons entered,
eiserchomai, another technical term for demon possession. In the
case of all believers, the house is occupied, and God the Holy Spirit
answers the door even if repossession is attempted. This passage is
saying that only empty houses—unbelievers—can be reoccupied;
therefore, Christians cannot be demon possessed.

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 Kept from the evil one. Several other New Testament passages in-
dicate that Christ’s victory over Satan and the demonic powers was
so extensive and His power is so vast that it totally protects believ-
ers “from the evil one.” First, Jesus prayed in His great high-priestly
prayer that the Father “keep them [Christians] from the evil one”
(John 17:15). But what exactly did He mean, “keep from?” As one
writer notes, if this is a prayer to protect believers from simple in-
fluence or temptation, then it was a vacuous prayer that was never
answered.31 Such would not be in harmony with the intercessory
power of the second person of the Trinity, so something else must
have been intended.
The preposition ek here is used to indicate severance or separa-
tion. Whatever else our Lord intended, this would exclude the in-
vasion of the body of a child of God by unholy demons. Because we
know that the Father has heard and is fulfilling Christ’s request, this
must at least include protection of all believers, both the obedient
and the disobedient, from demon possession.
The Apostle John later wrote that each believer is kept by God
and that “the evil one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18). The con-
text of 1 John 5:18–19 reflects the Lord’s intercessory prayer in John
17:19. He also refers to the believer living in the world, in the very
power sphere of the Devil. This particular passage is one that involves
several technical difficulties that must first be resolved before accu-
rate interpretation is possible. First, the identity of he “who is born
of God” (a perfect participle) is undisputed and refers to the regen-
erate believer. Second, the identity of he “who was born of God” (an
aorist passive participle) is debated. Some people argue that the shift
in tenses indicates a shift in reference, so that the second participle
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ.32 Thus, the verse would be translated,
“We know that no regenerate believer sins; but Jesus Christ, the One
who was born of God keeps him ...” This translation would again
indicate that our Lord keeps and protects us from demon posses-
sion. However, those who want to say that Christians can be demon
possessed reject this interpretation. Although we agree that the pre-
ceding view is the best interpretation, we will assume, for the sake
of argument, the alternate position.

31Dickason, Demon Possession, 89.

32I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 251–
252; Stephen S. Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 51 of Word Biblical Commentary, (Waco,
Tex: Word Books, 1984), 302–3; and John R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 191–93.

117
 This raises the second difficulty with this passage. The object of
the verb keeps is him in some but not many ancient manuscripts. An
alternate reading found in the Majority Text might be understood
to mean “himself.” Those who believe that Christians can be demon
possessed attempt to avoid the implication of this passage by reject-
ing the standard reading of the Greek text in favor of the Majority
Text alternate reading.33 But even if we grant for argument’s sake
that this is the correct reading and interpretation of the text, it nev-
ertheless still supports the view that a believer cannot be demon pos-
sessed. Majority Text advocate Zane Hodges, who follows the same
alternate reading that C. Fred Dickason suggests, concludes that the
passage still means that believers cannot be ­demon ­possessed.
John thus affirmed that “the one who has been born of
God keeps himself (there is no word for safe in the orig-
inal).” This restates the truth of [1 John] 3:9 in a slightly
different form. A believer’s new man (or “new self ”; Eph.
4:24; Col. 3:10) is fundamentally impervious to sin and
hence the evil one (cf. 1 John 2:13–14; 3:12), Satan, does
not touch him.34
It is not the textually disputed phrase but the verb in the final
clause that clinches the argument against demon possession of the
believer. The Greek hapto in the middle voice means “to touch, take
hold of, or hold.”35 This word indicates touch with intent to harm,
which means that Satan cannot touch or do any serious damage to
the believer.36 Because this interpretation would include at the least
indwelling by an unclean spirit, the Christian is clearly protected
from demon possession. The final clause, “the evil one does not
touch him,” is not conditioned upon the previous clause but is an
33 Dickason, Demon Possession, 94. Dickason attempts to obfuscate the passage by
throwing out several interpretations and then concluding that the passage just is
not clear. If this same methodology is applied to the rest of Scripture, then noth-
ing can be known because there are a plethora of contradictory interpretations of
almost every verse in the Bible. In our opinion, the exegetical confusion is prede-
termined by presuming the validity of clinical observations.
34 Zane Hodges, “1 John” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, ed. Roy B. Zuck,

John F. Walvoord (Wheaton: Scripture Press, 1983), 903.

35 Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich,, “hapto,” in A Greek-En-

glish Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2d ed., ed.
F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press,
1979), 102–3. This source suggests that the nuance is to touch for the purpose of
harm; It is also likely that the verb is a synonym for echo, another common word in
possession narratives.
36 Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, 303.

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additional reality. It is hard to imagine how a believer could be de-
mon possessed but also be said to have not been touched by the evil
one! Certainly this passage would add weight to the teaching that
believers cannot be demon possessed.
Paul declared in 2 Thessalonians 3:3 that “the Lord is faithful,
and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” The
Greek preposition apo, translated “from” here, is different from the
previous passages. Here the preposition has the idea of being kept
away from something, and when it is used in combination with the
infinitive to guard, it means to protect something “so that it is not
lost or damaged.”37 This protection is based upon the Lord’s, not
man’s, faithfulness. Nothing in the context indicates it applies only
to believers who are walking in obedience. To assume that view is
to presume one’s interpretation to predetermine the conclusion.
No wonder some writers believe that the Scripture is unclear on
the matter!
It is hard to believe that our faithful Lord’s protection would
allow one of His children to become demon possessed. It doesn’t
make sense in the light of Scripture. Why, then, do some people as-
sert that believers can be open to some form of demonic possession?
Is Experience More Lucid than the Scriptures?
A popular approach today supports the claim that Christians can
be demon possessed on the basis of case studies. Dickason is typi-
cal of some who conclude that Christians can be demon possessed.
Following a lengthy analysis of biblical arguments used to support
or deny demon possession, he concludes that the biblical data are
inconclusive: “From the survey and analysis for arguments pro and
con, we conclude that we cannot say with reasonable certainty that
either position is correct.”38 How does he seek to resolve this alleged
tie? He enters into the realm of “scientific investigation.” After cit-
ing many case studies from reputable sources, he concludes, “We
must allow the distinct probability that biblically guided investi-
gation and counsel has shown in experience that some Christians
have been demonized. The evidence is heavily weighted toward that
conclusion.”39 Apparently unable to interpret the Bible decisively on
this issue, he is able to analyze and interpret human experience out-
side the realm of Scripture such that the scales are tipped in favor

37 Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon, 102–103.

38 Dickason, Demon Possession, 147.
39 Ibid., 186.

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of Christian demon possession. Dickason’s interpretation of these
case studies leads him to declare that the “burden of proof lies with
those who deny that Christians can be demonized.”40 Why? In a tie,
no burden is assessed on either side. But we think that Scripture
is clear, and the burden of proof is with those who think that the
Scripture is unclear.
Like many other people who have struggled to answer this ques-
tion, Merrill Unger changed his view, although the change was not
the result of further Bible exegesis or insights into word meaning.
He shifted away from the statement “To demon possession only un-
believers are exposed”41 to the statement “Demon influence [includ-
ing demon-possession] may occur in different degrees of severity
and in a variety of forms, both in Christians and non-Christians.”
What changed Unger’s mind? As with Dickason, it was the inter-
pretation of experiences of Christians. Unger wrote, “Since the first
publication of Biblical Demonology in 1952, the author has received
many letters from missionaries all over the world who question the
theory that true believers cannot be demon possessed. ... The claims
of these missionaries appear valid.”42 But how can anyone this side
of eternity know with certainty that these were believers or were
demon possessed?
To summarize this position, we see Dickason and Unger claim-
ing that the Scriptures are fuzzy and that God has not sufficiently
clarified the issue of demon possession. Man is left to his own re-
sources to determine the answers to this important question. Under
this cloud of uncertainty, man must enter a different arena to decide
the issue—the arena of experience. This experiential evidence is so
overwhelming, they assert, that we must break the tie in favor of the
concept that Christians can be demon possessed.
However, this approach has some serious problems and fatal flaws.43
Back to the Bible
First, the whole idea that any area of thought is removed from the
divine-viewpoint authority of Scripture is a fallacy. Scripture is to
be the source from which we derive a biblical framework so that
we can then enter the other fields of thought to extend our learning
and develop wisdom. Without definite conclusions from the Bible

40 Ibid., 175.
41 Merrill F. Unger, Biblical Demonology (Wheaton: Scripture Press, 1952), 100.
42 Unger, Biblical Demonology, 117.
43 Unger, Demons, 113.

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to guide us in the unseen spiritual realm of the demonic powers, we
are no different from someone trying to explore Carlsbad Caverns
in the dark. When we do this, we have, in effect, abandoned God’s
Word in this area and substituted our own thoughts and experienc-
es, instead of interpreting our experiences within the light of the Bi-
ble. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that He descended from heaven
specifically for the purpose of revealing heavenly things (vv. 9–13),
which we earth-bound creatures cannot discover at all if God does
not tell us. So case studies and experience are not the way to break
the alleged tie found in Scripture.
Second, Dickason interprets so loosely the biblical data for why
a Christian cannot be demon possessed that he naturally concludes
that the Bible is not clear. Because he believes that he has accurately
interpreted his experience, he assumes that valid arguments must
exist that indicate that a believer can be demon possessed. He is
predisposed to declare the Bible totally inconclusive on this subject.
The fact that the Trinity indwells and protects the believer should
be reason enough for anyone to conclude that Christians cannot be
demon possessed. Furthermore, when this fantastic truth is com-
bined with the reality that demon possession is not even mentioned
as something with which believers should be concerned after the
resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day
of Pentecost, then it should remove any lingering doubt. The burden
of proof lies with those who believe that Christians can be demon
possessed because the Scriptures do not support that point of view.
Valid proof must flow from the Scriptures, not from experience.
Dickason and others go to enormous lengths in their tapes and
books to show from their case studies that the Christians whom
they counseled were under such great demonic bondage that only a
diagnosis of demon possession accounts for their symptoms. This is
anecdotal theology, not exegetically sound, biblical theology. Often,
the believer, in dealing with his or her problem, is pictured as hav-
ing tried unsuccessfully all of the techniques of the Christian life as
found in the New Testament. The point that is often emphasized is
that if the person had not realized that he was demon possessed and
been delivered, he would never acquire the means to overcome his
problem by applying the God-given principles found in the Bible.
A Reverberating Silence
But if Christians can be possessed, then why do the New Testament
Epistles, those letters written specifically to teach believers how to

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live a victorious Christian life until the return of Christ, not tell us
that believers can be demon possessed, or command us to cast out
demons from Christians, or otherwise tell us how to deal with this
problem? It is unthinkable that the Epistles would not deal with a
subject as important as this.
If Scripture is foggy as to whether Christians can be demon pos-
sessed, as is claimed, then it certainly cannot be clear as to how to
deal with Christians who are demon possessed. Conversely, if the
Epistles gave instructions on how to cast out demons, then it would
be clear that Christians could be demon possessed. Therefore, be-
cause no instructions exist for dealing with demon-possessed
Christians in the New Testament, and assuming that believers can
be demon possessed, then once again it is back to experience and
trial-and-error as our teacher for functioning in this area.
To those who suggest that some of our arguments are based
on the silence of Scripture, we believe that such silence speaks vol-
umes. In chapter two, we showed that the Bible clearly claims to
give us everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) and
is adequate to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). Christian
demon possession is certainly a vital matter pertaining to godliness
for which we should be equipped. If the Bible claims to give every-
thing pertaining to godliness but ignores this particular subject, we
can be absolutely confident that Christians need not worry about
demon possession. Therefore, those who teach Christian possession
are by implication denying the sufficiency of Scripture and are go-
ing beyond its authority by promoting the authority of their own
experience. They have forgotten the warning of Paul: “… that in us
you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one
of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other”
(1 Cor. 4:6).
Unger in his earlier book, Biblical Demonology, made the
­following helpful observation:
To demon possession only unbelievers are exposed; to
demon influence, both believers and unbelievers. In the
one case, the personality is actually invaded, the body
inhabited, and a dominating control is gained; while in
the other instance, attack is made from without, through
pressure, suggestion, and temptation.44

44 Unger, Biblical Demonology, 100.

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 This statement accurately expresses our own view and properly
distinguishes the demonic impact upon unbelievers and believers.
The major characteristic of possession is an internal assault upon
the unbeliever. Demonic influence upon believers is an assault from
without and is related to ideas and thought, more aptly described
as the thinking of the world, which is characterized as demonic
(James 3:15). The difference is as great as having an enemy within
your house who has a gun pointed at your head making you obey
his wishes versus having someone outside who is trying to persuade
you to do something. As Unger noted, demonic influence from
without takes the form of persuasion “through pressure, suggestion,
and temptation.”45 The believer, therefore, is not under the type of
bondage that those who believe that a Christian can be demon pos-
sessed often imagine. Instead, the will has been freed by Christ to
obey, although the believer may choose to submit to the sin nature
and follow satanic ideas rather than Christ in a given instance. On
the other hand, if he were truly demon possessed, he would have to
be delivered before he could be free to obey.
Some Christians make a similar distinction between posses-
sion and influence in theory but then define what they mean by
“influence” such that for all practical purposes they are saying that
a believer can be demon possessed. We have heard one version of
that view expressed something like this: “Demon possession really
means demonization in the New Testament. A Christian cannot be
demon possessed, but he can be demonized.” (As we saw earlier, to
be demon possessed is to be demonized and vice versa.) This view,
then, describes “influence” upon believers such that it is really the
type of internal possession that affects unbelievers.
No Demon-Possessed Believers in the Bible
“Satan can and does demonize believers,” declares John Wimber.
46 He attempts to support his belief that Christians can be demon

possessed from several biblical passages. His first example is King

Saul, whose story is told in the book of 1 Samuel. We agree with
Wimber that Saul was a believer because Samuel indicated that
they would be together in paradise (1 Sam. 28:19). However, Wim-
ber wrongly equates the fact that Saul was tormented (16:14) with
­demon ­possession.

45 Ibid.
46 Wimber, Warfare, 100.

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 For several reasons, this situation could not have been a true
case of demon possession.
1. The evil spirit is said to have been sent from God, not Satan
(16:14).
2. The evil spirit would leave when David played his harp (16:23),
and no demon is said in Scripture to depart at the playing of mu-
sic. Instead, demons are cast out in the name of the Lord.
3. Saul later repented of his sin (26:21). The New Testament pres-
ents a demon-possessed person as a victim who needs freedom,
not repentance.
4. The Hebrew prepositions clarify that the evil spirit would come
upon Saul or depart from upon him; it is never said to have en-
tered into Saul, as would be expected if demon possession was the
intended idea. We saw earlier that the language of demon posses-
sion is that of entering into and exiting out of a person, not com-
ing upon. The description in this passage is consistent with an
external attack that does happen to believers. Finally, because the
case of King Saul is considered the strongest candidate for demon
possession in the Old Testament, it follows that there are no gen-
uine cases of demon possession recorded in the Old Testament.
Wimber cites Luke 13:16 and the fact that Jesus called a wom-
an who had been demon possessed for eighteen years “a daughter
of Abraham.” He thinks that this statement means that she was a
believer. First, he has not proved from this that a New Testament
believer can be demon possessed, especially a post-Pentecost
Christian. Second, “daughter of Abraham” is a nationalist term for a
female citizen of Israel. Many Israelites were believers, but most of
them were not. Nothing in the text indicates whether she was at that
time a believer.
A third suggestion is that Judas was a believer because he was
one of the twelve disciples. There is no question that Judas was de-
mon possessed. John 13:27 uses clear “demon-possession” language
(cf. Luke 8:30) in describing the fact that “Satan then entered [eiser-
chomai] into him [Judas].” It should be equally clear, however, that
Judas was not a believer. First, Jesus commented in John 6:70, “Did
I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”47
Judas is singled out as that devil in the next verse. This is hardly a
47The anarthrous (no article) use of diabolos here is comparable to the anarthrous
use of theos in John 1:1 and emphasizes the quality of the noun, its essence or attri-
bute. Thus, Jesus is making a clear statement at this early stage that Judas is already
indwelt by Satan.

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term for a Christian. Certainly the burden of proof would be on
someone to demonstrate that Judas was a believer after a comment
like that on his résumé. Second, Jesus tells the Twelve in the Upper
Room that all of the twelve disciples were “clean,” except Judas (John
13:10–11).48 “Clean” (katharos) in this context clearly indicates sal-
vation. Third, Judas, the “son of perdition” perished (apolummi),
the same word used of those who fail to believe in Christ alone for
salvation (John 3:16). It is wrong to equate a disciple as necessarily
being a believer because not all of Christ’s disciples were believers.
Peter is said by some to have been demon possessed when he
was rebuked by Jesus in Matthew 16:23: “But He turned and said to
Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for
you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Once
again, this is an inferential assumption that can be demonstrated
to be wrong. Satan’s influence was that of persuasion from outside,
not an operation from within. Why? Because Peter had accepted a
wrong view about the role of Messiah: Peter did not want Jesus to
die. But this was contrary to God’s plan for Jesus, so Jesus rebuked
Peter to let him know the source of that type of false thinking. False
thinking is equated to demonic thinking (James 3:15).
Earlier, when Peter had declared that Jesus was “the Christ,
the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), Jesus had said that the
source and inspiration of that thought was a revelation from God.
However, when Peter rebuked Jesus for following the revelation of
God’s will for His life, Jesus wanted to ensure that Peter knew that
the source of this thinking was not God but Satan. Notice that Jesus
explained after His rebuke that Peter was not setting his “mind on
God’s interests, but man’s” (16:23). This statement is a picture of
Satan’s using persuasion from outside Peter to try to convince him
to believe false teaching.
Ananias and Sapphira are other candidates for examples of be-
lievers who were “demonized” to lie because “Satan filled your heart
to lie to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:3). The reasoning is that someone
whose heart is “filled” with something is experiencing internal
control and thus demon possession. We will not debate whether
Ananias and Sapphira were believers, but we will assume that they

48 In the Greek, two different words are used for washing. The first word, luow, is
the same word the LXX uses to describe the head-to-toe bath of the High Priest at
his consecration, which is analogous to the believer’s salvation. This bath symbol-
izes the judicial cleansing of sin that occurs at the believer’s salvation. The cognate
noun describes the “washing of regeneration” in Titus 3:5.

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were. The difficulty with this verse is that so little information is giv-
en. It is possible to understand the phrase “Satan filled your heart”
in two ways. The first view is that Satan, the “father of lies” (John
8:44), influenced the heart of Ananias to lie. This situation would
be similar to the type of external, mental persuasion that we saw
in the previous event involving Peter. The second view, the way in
which deliverance practitioners understand it, is that Satan him-
self entered the heart of Ananias. However, if this were the case,
then it would be Satan who lied; yet, it was Ananias who lied and
was punished. Had Ananias been Satan—or demon possessed—it
would have been Satan inside him who was lying, and the solution
would have been to cast out Satan because Ananias would be the
innocent victim and not the perpetrator that the Bible declares him
to have been. The next verse says, “Why is it that you [Ananias]
have conceived this deed in your heart?” (Acts 5:4). Ananias, like
every believer, is in control of his thoughts and responsible for his
thinking, decisions, and actions, not Satan. Therefore, this situation
is an example of Satan’s using the rebellious thinking of a Christian
as a base of operations, influencing him with “doctrines of demons”
(1 Tim. 4:1).
A final example focuses on the incestuous man in 1 Corinthians.
5. Some people contend that he was a believer whose behavior was
a symptom of demon possession. Thus, Paul placed this man out of
the church and into the sphere of Satan for discipline, with the result
that the man could lose his physical life, even though this would
not affect his eternal destiny (v. 5). However, Satan does not have
to possess a person internally to kill him. King Saul was not demon
possessed, but he was driven to death by an evil spirit (1 Sam. 31).
Job was certainly in no danger of being demon possessed, but the
Lord told Satan that he could do anything to him except kill him.
Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to buffet him, a demonic messen-
ger (called an aggelos or “angel” from Satan, 2 Cor. 12:7), yet he was
not demon possessed.
A Sliding Scale
When answering this important question of demon possession of
Christians, especially in the light of various experiences that seem
to indicate demonic possession of Christians, we find it helpful to
use the following chart.

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 General satanic attack Personal demonic Demon possession
and temptation influence/oppression

A B C D
Less direct and intense More direct and intense

The line represents the entire spectrum of demonic activity to-

ward people. The intensity of this activity increases from left to right
on the line. The first section, between lines A and B, covers the gen-
eral attacks of Satan toward all people, including believers. This as-
sault includes temptation, opposition, and attempts to influence and
control through false doctrine. The second section, between lines
B and C, covers all areas of intensified demonic oppression from
outside the body. This assault may include influence through false
teaching and even occult activity. The third section, between lines C
and D, covers demon possession, the internal dwelling by a demon
or demons. The Bible itself does not give us a full description of ev-
erything of which demons are capable. Because of this lack of com-
plete information, in light of the satanic ability to deceive, combined
with our own shortcomings in the area of discernment, it is likely
that certain activities—such as vocal cord control or even a demon’s
throwing someone on the ground—may be caused by a demon
without requiring internal habitation, but it imitates possession.
This point is indicated by the shaded area. To say anything more
definite on this issue goes beyond the information that Scripture has
given and is pure speculation on our part.
In the final analysis, it is unnecessary for us to define these dif-
ferences because God has not called us to be spiritual diagnosticians.
No matter what the degree of demonic influence, the solution is the
same: Christians are to “submit therefore to God. Resist the Devil
and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). At no point in Scripture is the
solution for the believer phrased in such deliverance terminology as
“binding” or “rebuking” the demon.
The Apostles and the Demonic
On three occasions the apostles are said to have been involved in the
casting out of demons (Acts 8:5–8; 16:16–18; 19:11–12). None of
these passages involves a debate over whether those delivered were
Christians; everyone would agree that they were not. The signifi-
cance of these events is as signs that the apostles had the authority
from their risen Head (Christ) to act and speak on His behalf, as

127
was demonstrated by the fact that they had authority over Satan like
their Master. Once the foundation of the church had been laid by the
apostles (Eph. 2:20) and the boundary and nature of the gospel mes-
sage was established, the norm for dealing with d ­ emon-­possessed
unbelievers had become the preaching of the gospel.
Upon belief in Christ as Savior, an unbeliever is delivered not
only from his sin but also from any demon possession that might
have afflicted him. So the proper biblical way to deliver an unbe-
liever from demons is to preach the gospel to him. It does not benefit
the victim for someone to cast out demons (if possible) only to have
him remain in his unsaved condition. Christ told the Pharisees in
Matthew 12 that when the demon comes back to his old house and
finds it swept and clean, he will go and get seven other demons, so
that the state of the person will be worse than at the first. Any be-
liever can deliver another person from demons by leading him to
Christ. The Scriptures do not require a second step of deliverance
for a believer that he may be freed from the demonic powers; Christ
sweeps the house clean at the moment of salvation and the Holy
Spirit fills it.
Our True Focus
Because Christians cannot be demon possessed, they need not be
delivered from demon possession. Satan can influence us from
without, but God the Holy Spirit protects His children from internal
repossession after salvation. One of the tragedies of the contempo-
rary deliverance ministries is that they are attempting something
that is a complete waste of time—trying to deliver Christians from
demons. As we have noted in previous chapters, true spiritual war-
fare is focused primarily on the world and the flesh, not on pre-
occupation with demons. The focus of the Christian should be on
proper ethical conduct in accordance with God’s Word, not on a
metaphysical battle with Satan and his demons.
Increasingly, Christians today seem to be getting caught up in
preoccupation with Satan and the demonic powers. This distraction
has caused them to forget that there is a three-front war going on—
not just with the Devil, which is very real, but also with the world
and the flesh. Many Christians have become so obsessed with Satan
that they are being overrun on the other two fronts—the world and
the flesh. In fact, many of the false teachings today about Satan and
the demonic powers are really products of this world system. Also,
some of the very people at the forefront of the deliverance ministries

128
are being overwhelmed by the sin nature in many areas of their lives
because they think that they are possessed by the Devil instead of
their own lusts.
The call for today is to let the Bible tell us who our real enemy is,
what our battle plan involves, and how to carry it out. As Christians,
we must be completely submissive to Jesus Christ and His Word.
Satan wants you to get your eyes on him; God wants you to get your
eyes on Him and His Word.

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 8
RESISTING THE ATTACKER
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you.
James 4:7

The forces of darkness influence and, in extreme circumstances, op-

press Christians. Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom
he can devour. He and his demonic forces are an ever-present en-
emy against Christians. In the previous chapter, we saw the many
ways that Satan and the demons can influence and affect Christians.
What, then, is our defense against these enemies?
One form of popular teaching today focuses on the solution of
deliverance or exorcism. According to this view, deliverance is not
only for Christians but also for non-Christians. Usually, deliver-
ance is presented in terms of exorcism, rebuking, or binding Satan.
However, it is exceptionally strange that we do not find any instruc-
tions or commands in Scripture for rebuking or binding Satan;
instead, we find the important command to resist the Devil. This
command is found in three crucial and similar passages in the New
Testament: Ephesians 6:10–18; 1 Peter 5:6–9; and James 4:7. These
passages not only strengthen our confidence in spiritual warfare but
also supply certain assurance that we cannot be blindsided by Satan.
The Problem of Fear
Much popular teaching today fosters an attitude of fear among
Christians. Recently, an example of this came across my desk. The
writer of this story is a former missionary who now engages in a
deliverance ministry.49 At one time he did not believe that Chris-
tians could be demon possessed, but then he had an experience that
he says completely changed his worldview. Such a reversal is com-
mon. But rather than coming to this change because of intensive
Bible study, people change their views because they have some sort
49Ed Murphy, “My Daughter Demonized,” in Equipping the Saints 4 (Winter 1990):
27–29. The story is a summary of this article, and all quotes are taken from it.

130
of experience that does not quite fit their previous understanding
of Scripture. Although we do not believe that Christians can be
­demon possessed and so question this writer’s interpretation of his
experience, other factors in the story raise an even greater concern:
He fosters fear and anxiety among Christians instead of promoting
confidence in Christ and the sufficiency of His Word plus nothing.
The episode that this author relates occurred in the 1960s
when his daughter was a young teenager. While he was away from
home, he received a very upsetting phone call from his wife, who
insisted that he return home immediately because their daughter
was acting strangely, and the wife believed the young girl to be de-
mon possessed. At that time he rejected this explanation, not be-
lieving that Christians could be demon possessed. Nevertheless,
he quickly returned home and discovered a very frightened and
­confused ­daughter.
He began questioning her about her relationship with the Lord.
Her response, as he relates it, indicates a young girl who seemed to
be walking with the Lord. She said, “Dad, help me. I’m scared. I love
Jesus, and I want to do what’s right. What’s wrong with me?” As he
prayed with his daughter, he noticed a pentagram on a chain hang-
ing around her neck. In response to his inquiries, she said that it was
a gift from a friend. When he asked what it symbolized she replied,
“I don’t know; I guess it’s kind of a good luck charm. It’s found on
the dust covers of some musical albums. A lot of kids wear them.”
After discovering the significance of the pentagram as a symbol
of the occult, he told his daughter that she needed to remove it and
renounce the spirit forces associated with it. As she obeyed, he says
that they were immediately involved with a face-to-face confronta-
tion with evil spirits. He prayed and renounced the demons asso-
ciated with it, and after a second episode later that night, he relates
that she was finally delivered.
While it is beyond our intent and knowledge to explain exactly
what was taking place in this young girl’s life, the way the story is
told leaves us with some very significant, unaddressed questions.50

50 This is not a cop-out. Much goes on in this life that we are unable to explain
because we do not have all of the data. Therefore, believers must rely exclusively on
the veracity of God’s Word and not experience. We know little, if anything, about
what goes on either in the invisible spiritual warfare around us or in the recesses
of sinful, carnal human souls. To draw dogmatic conclusions based on limited ex-
perience invites calamity. Only when the truth of God’s Word becomes more real
to us than our experiences, emotions, circumstances, and situations do we “walk

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If this interpretation of the event is, in fact, correct, then we should
have a legitimate fear that we, too, might unknowingly pick up a de-
mon and become demon possessed. At first glance, the father seems
to present his daughter as a fairly mature Christian for her age and
one who is walking with the Lord. In complete innocence, she had
been introduced to occult symbols and practices by a friend and
thereby picked up a demon. Anyone who hears of such an expe-
rience would wonder if he might innocently pick up a demon by
unknowingly having an occult object lying around the house. If he
or she walked through or by a store that sells such objects, might
he not “pick up” a demon? In the story the father does seem to give
some indication that the girl knew more than he first realized. Not
only did she have the one pentagram necklace, but also she had an
entire box of occultic trinkets and had been exposed to heavier rock
music and transcendental meditation (TM).
Asking Questions
The thinking Christian should pose several questions at this point.
Can a Christian unknowingly be exposed to occultic objects and
thereby pick up a demon and become demon oppressed or pos-
sessed? Second, if the involvement is innocent and done out of igno-
rance, where is the protection of a loving and sovereign God? Third,
if this sort of thing happens (demonic oppression but not posses-
sion), what is to be the believer’s response? What is the ­Christian to
do to ward off the attacks of Satan in this age?
First Peter 5:8 is a well-known passage describing the strategy
of Satan during this age as a roaring lion: “Be of sober spirit, be on
the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion,
seeking someone to devour.” God in His wisdom not only warns us
about the attacks of Satan but also provides clear instruction on how
to deal with these attacks: “But resist him, firm in your faith, know-
ing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished
by your brethren who are in the world” (1 Peter 5:9). This further
explanation clarifies the way in which the Devil prowls.
Peter wrote this epistle to believers who were scattered and un-
dergoing persecution for their faith. It was not Satan personally at-
tacking them but an indirect assault through the cosmic system: the
culture, the ideas, and the unbelievers around them whose thinking

by faith, and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). This faith is not a faith in faith, a faith in
feelings, a faith in intuition but an unshakable reliance on the truth conveyed in the
Scripture alone.

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was dominated by those false, human viewpoint ideas, which are
also termed demonic in James 3:15. The context of 1 Peter strongly
suggests indirect attacks of Satan through the cosmic system and not
direct engagements with Satan and demons. Nevertheless, whether
we are attacked directly or indirectly by demonic forces, the solu-
tion is always the same: “Resist the devil and He will flee from you”
(James 4:7).
Some might think that resistance includes exorcism, so before
we can understand the meaning of resisting the Devil, we must first
examine exorcism.
Is Exorcism an Option?
With the popularity of the movie The Exorcist (as well as the empha-
sis by deliverance teachers), the answer that many people expect the
Bible to give to the problem of demonic oppression or possession is
exorcism. However, as we have seen, this is not what the Bible actu-
ally teaches. The only people the Bible ever says cast out demons by
the power of God were the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles, and Phil-
ip. However, the Bible also records that unbelieving Jewish exorcists
attempted to cast out demons in Jesus’ name (Acts 19:13) and that
there would be many people at the final judgment who had cast out
demons in Jesus’ name and performed many miracles in His name,
but Jesus would reject them by saying, “I never knew you; depart
from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). The fraudu-
lent or even real casting out of demons neither validates the experi-
ence nor indicates that its practitioner is a child of God. In a recent
interview, Paul Hiebert, professor in the World Mission department
at Fuller Seminary, told of exorcism episodes that he had witnessed
in India in which Hindu gurus performed exorcisms, and people
were apparently delivered from demons. Clearly, this was not done
by the power of God.
A prevalent attitude that seems to be communicated by deliv-
erance ministries is that anyone who is oppressed or possessed by a
demon should be delivered. It might surprise some people to learn
that this view apparently was not held by the Apostle Paul. Acts 16
says that when Paul and Silas were in Philippi, a slave girl who had
a spirit of divination (a demon who gave her fortune-telling abil-
ity) followed them around, giving an accurate testimony of their
message. Many people would think that Paul would have dealt with
this problem early on, but he did not. Acts 16:18 tells us that “she
continued doing this for many days.” Finally, Paul became “greatly

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annoyed” and commanded the spirit to depart from her. Notice that
he did not command the spirit to depart so that he could witness to
the girl, nor did he command the spirit to depart so that he could
have a better reception to his message, nor did he command the
spirit to depart out of compassion or care for the girl. Instead, he
commanded the spirit to depart because he was annoyed, probably
because he did not want the truth that he proclaimed to be validated
by a testimony from an evil spirit.
Signs and Wonders
When we examine the New Testament, we find that the casting
out of demons was one of the many miracles that came under the
classification of signs and wonders. Acts 5:12 says, “At the hands of
the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the
­people.” The passage goes on to describe in detail of what these signs
and wonders consisted: healing the sick as well as those afflicted
with unclean spirits. Signs and wonders were specifically designed
to authenticate and validate the ministry of the apostles; they were
unique to the apostles and the people who were closely associated
with them. If others in addition to the apostles could perform these
signs and wonders, then the Apostle Paul could not have said: “The
signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perse-
verance, by signs and wonders and miracles” (2 Cor. 12:12). These
passages clearly show that the only legitimate practice of casting out
demons as a sign or wonder was apostolic.
In some churches today are those who maintain that the apostol-
ic office has continued. Although it is beyond the scope of this book
to go into a lengthy discussion of this matter, let us say that the Bible
does not support this view. Apostles were men who had witnessed
the Lord’s life and resurrection and had been directly commissioned
by Him (Acts 1:21–22). This office was a foundational office and
thus unique to the beginnings of the church (Eph. 2:20). Those who
maintain the continuation of the office do so without scriptural ba-
sis. Because this gift/office has ceased, signs and w­ onders have also
ceased and, with them, the casting out of demons.
This fact does not mean that God no longer performs miracles
or delivers the afflicted from demons. During the time of our Lord’s
ministry on the earth and the beginning years of the church, God
delegated the ability to perform miracles to a chosen few. These
men performed those miracles through the power of God at their
own discretion. They determined when they would perform these

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miracles and whom they would heal. God mediated the miracles
through these individuals. Today, God still performs miracles and
frees people from demons, but He performs these actions directly
rather than indirectly through His people. (Of course, He may do it
in response to the prayer of one person for another or in response
to the prayer of an unsaved person who turns to Christ and seeks
salvation.) The writer of Hebrews, which was written late in the
apostolic period, recognized that even by the late apostolic period,
signs and wonders were a thing of the past (Heb. 2:3–4). Clearly, the
biblical solution to demonic oppression or possession in this age is
never expressed in terms of casting out demons but rather in terms
of resisting the Devil.
How to Resist the Devil
The only command given to believers for dealing with Satan is to
resist the Devil. It is significant that this command is given three
times in the New Testament (1 Peter 5:9; James 4:7; Eph. 6:13). The
word translated resist means “to stand against” or “to oppose.” It is
a compound of the Greek preposition anti, meaning “against,” and
histemi, which means “to stand.” The word came to mean “to set
oneself against, to oppose, to resist, to withstand.”
Ephesians 6:10–18 instructs the believer to put on the full armor
of God so that he will be able “to resist” or stand against the Devil.
Notice that when Paul explains why we are to put on the armor, he
says not only that it will enable us to stand against (antihistemi) (v.
13) but also that we may be able to stand firm. The word for “stand
firm” is simply another form of the Greek word used for “resist.” It
is the word histemi, which means “to stand.” We resist the Devil by
putting on the armor of God.
This word group reflects a military usage. It is the word used in
orders given to a sentry. His responsibility was primarily defensive
rather than offensive, since a sentry’s responsibility is to guard the
encampment or fortress and to watch for the enemy. If the enemy
is spotted or seeks to infiltrate the camp, then the guard is to alert
the troops so they can defend their position. It is not the guard’s
­responsibility to go on the offensive, to seek out and engage the e­ nemy.
It is extremely important to pay attention to the defensive aspect
of this command because it is just the opposite of what some peo-
ple are teaching today about spiritual warfare. The ideas of binding,
rebuking, performing exorcisms, or taking dominion over Satan
and demonic strongholds are offensive ideas. When believers go on

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the offensive against Satan, they are stepping out of their legitimate
bounds by becoming involved in situations that the Lord has never
intended for them. This offensive type of response was described by
Peter as characteristic of false teachers (2 Peter 2:10–11). Often, this
response opens the door to demonic oppression in the believer’s life.
Just as a guard who spotted the enemy and went out to engage
him would be dangerously exposed to the attacks of the enemy, so
a believer is vulnerable to increased satanic attack when he stops
resisting and starts attacking. Perhaps the reason some churches
have so many people who have problems with demons is that they
are involved in an aggressive campaign against Satan that has put
them in a position of biblical disobedience and opened them up
to demonic oppression. We must recognize that the battle is the
Lord’s, not ours. No amount of spiritualizing with religious ter-
minology can t­ransform binding and rebuking into some form of
­defensive ­language.
Standing Firm
A beautiful example of what is meant by standing firm is found in
the flight of Israel from Egypt. As the Israelites followed the Lord’s
command to leave Egypt, they were followed by Pharaoh and all
of his chariots and cavalry and infantry. Pharaoh represented the
greatest military establishment at that time, and he threw every-
thing he had against the Israelites. This threat surely overwhelmed
them and struck fear in their hearts—a situation not very different
from the Christian who is the target of Satan. When the Israelites in
their fear accused Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to be killed,
Moses demonstrated the kind of attitude and action that Christians
are to have in spiritual warfare: “Do not fear! Stand by (histemi in
the LXX) and see the salvation of the Lord... The Lord will fight for
you while you keep silent” (Exod. 14:13–14). As they obeyed and
stood firm, the Lord delivered them first by opening up the Red Sea
as a path of escape and then by drowning the army of Pharaoh in the
waters as they closed back on them.
The Israelites were to stand firm; that was their responsibility.
The Lord would deliver; that was His responsibility. In the same way,
believers today are to stand firm against Satan; that is our respon-
sibility. We are to stand our ground in our position in Christ. God
then deals with Satan. We are on the defensive, and God ­exercises
the option of the offensive.

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 How to Put on the Armor of God
When we ask specifically how we are to resist or stand firm against
the Devil, the Scriptures are clear: Christians are to resist or stand
against the Devil by putting on the full armor of God. Twice Paul
states this fact in Ephesians 6 to ensure that we get the point. Just
as a guard would put on his armor and collect his weapons before
going out to his watch post, so the believer is to put on his armor so
that he will be able to stand firm.
This passage on spiritual warfare begins by instructing the
Christian to “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His
might” (Eph. 6:10). This reminds us not only of Moses’ statement to
the Israelites that they were to stand still and see the deliverance of
the Lord but also of David’s statement that “the battle is the Lord’s”
(1 Sam. 17:47).
One of the titles given to God in the Old Testament is that of
Lord of Hosts, or Lord of the Armies. This title refers to His position
as Commander-in-Chief over all of the angelic hosts. Once we be-
come citizens of heaven, we are to submit ourselves to His authority
as the Commanding General. It is in His strength that we fight and
according to His orders.
This point means first that we must submit ourselves to Him
and His lordship if we are to have victory in our spiritual combat.
Submission involves the attitude of humility. This is why the two
other passages related to standing against the Devil emphasize the
attitude of humility and submission to God. Peter tells us, “Clothe
yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to
the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, there-
fore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the
proper time” (1 Peter 5:5–6). James’ command is almost identical
in 4:6 and 4:10. Sandwiched between these two sentences he says,
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
This is a fantastic promise from God. When we submit our-
selves to God as our Lord and as the Commander-in-Chief of the
warfare, then we are exhibiting humility. It is no longer our will but
His that we follow. This attitude of humility was exemplified by Jesus
Christ when He clothed Himself with humanity by taking the posi-
tion and form of a bondservant and humbling Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death (Philippians 2:8–9).
The essence of humility is to put ourselves in the position of
a servant of God and to give up all claim to personal rights. Jesus
expressed this principle when He said, “If anyone wishes to come
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after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me”
(Matt. 16:24). If we are going to take up the full armor of God and
operate in His strength, we must first humble ourselves under the
mighty hand of God.
Only with such an attitude of humility are we able to submit
ourselves to God and put on the full armor. But before we look at
the armor, we must understand some things. First, the armor pas-
sage is simply an analogy. We must be careful not to read too much
into each piece. The armor is simply a visual aid to help us under-
stand what it means to put on Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14). “Putting
on Christ” means to put on the character of Christ. In essence, put-
ting on the armor is an illustration of the Christian life: By putting
on His character, we will be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the Devil, just as Jesus did when He was tested in the wilderness.
Six Pieces of Armor
Putting on the full armor of God involves two aspects. The first as-
pect looks at putting on the full armor, whereas the second aspect
looks at each individual piece. When we decide to follow the Lord
Jesus in spiritual warfare and submit to Him, in one sense we put
on the full armor. This does not necessarily mean that every piece
is fully in place, needing no more adjustment, but that the armor
as a whole is in place. When we first trust Christ as our Savior, we
become identified with Him and receive His righteousness. This
condition is called positional sanctification or positional holiness. Be-
cause our position is “in Christ,” in the eyes of God, we are credited
and clothed with His perfect righteousness.
Yet, although we are positionally righteous and holy, we still
sin, and we still need to grow as Christians. This growth process is
known as progressive sanctification. It is the progressive, sequential,
daily walk of the believer in which he gradually learns the principles
of God’s Word, applies them consistently, and advances toward spir-
itual maturity. To summarize, positional sanctification is putting on
the full armor of God, whereas progressive sanctification focuses on
each piece of the armor.
In the book of Joshua, the Israelites invaded the land of Canaan
to take it for themselves as God commanded. When they first en-
tered the land, they had a few pitched battles and conquered some
key towns, such as Jericho and Ai. After these victories, they were
basically in control of the land, but the battle was not over. They
were in control positionally but not totally because they still had to

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carry on a mopping-up operation, which involved years of taking
out different pockets of resistance.
The armor that Paul described in Ephesians 6 contains six pieces.
Many interpreters believe that the idea of this illustration came to
Paul as he was in Rome under house arrest, probably chained to
one or two members of the Praetorian Guard. As he observed their
armor and readiness for battle, he used this equipment to illustrate
how the believer is to defend himself against the schemes of the
Devil. Paul clearly used this illustration to make a particular point
because he did not mention every piece of armor that a Roman sol-
dier might wear. It is especially important to note the order in which
he presented these pieces.
The belt of truth. The first thing we need to do to be successful in
spiritual warfare is to put on the belt of truth. For a Roman soldier,
the belt was a very important piece of equipment. A Roman soldier
normally wore a long, free-flowing tunic. Obviously, such a garment
would get in his way if he were in a battle, hindering his movements.
So he would strap a belt around his waist, then pull the loose ends
of the tunic up through it to keep it out of his way. This prepared
him for action and kept him from stumbling or being hindered by
the tunic.
Jesus used this same phrase in Luke 12:35: “Be dressed in read-
iness.” The idea of putting on the belt emphasizes readiness, prepa-
ration, watchfulness, and alertness. This same idea of removing
hindrances is found in Hebrews 12:1, where the analogy is a race.
We are to “lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so eas-
ily entangles us.” Using the soldier illustration in his second letter
to Timothy, Paul reminded him that a good soldier wouldn’t get
tangled up with the affairs of this life because it would hinder his
­success as a good fighter (2 Tim. 2:4).
The belt that removes the hindrances to our fight and prepares
us for the battle is the belt of truth. Truth in this verse refers to the
Word of God as objective truth. Some people have suggested that this
refers to truthfulness or integrity because the sword that is men-
tioned later is also the Word of God. But there the idea is the Word
of God put to use in specific situations. The belt of truth cannot refer
to general truthfulness and personal integrity because these are in-
adequate as a preparation for warfare against satanic forces. It is only
the Word of God that prepares us and instructs us about sin in our
lives, so that we may remove the sin that hinders us in our ­spiritual

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warfare. The truth of God’s Word also is the anchor of our soul, just
as the belt helped tie down the breastplate and held the sword.
Jesus stressed the necessity of the Scriptures for sanctification
when He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free” (John 8:32). Only when we personally put on the belt of
truth, committing ourselves to the absolute truth and sufficiency
of God’s Word, are we freed from hindrances in spiritual warfare.
Many Christians today are ineffective in their Christian life and in
spiritual warfare because they have not committed themselves ful-
ly to the Word of God, which alone is sufficient to prepare them
for every situation in life. Often, the Christian today falls into the
trap that we explained in chapter two: merging the Bible with other
forms of truth. Rather than taking the Bible alone, many people to-
day are merging the divine viewpoint of the Bible with the human
viewpoint of psychology, sociology, or self-help techniques. They
are trying to solve the problems in their lives not by Christ alone but
by Christ plus something else. This tendency has left them danger-
ously handicapped in carrying out their resistance against Satan. In
fact, by taking the Bible plus something else, they are doing exactly
what Satan wants them to do.
The breastplate of righteousness. No Roman soldier would ever
go into a battle without wearing his breastplate. At times, Roman
soldiers used breastplates made of leather or animal hooves, al-
though the most common breastplate was a solid piece of metal
that covered the front of the soldier’s torso from the base of the
neck to the upper thighs. This plate protected all of his vital organs,
­including the heart and the bowels.
In the Bible, the heart and the bowels are very significant be-
cause they represented the immaterial part of man. The word heart
often referred to the mind, and the word bowels represented the
emotions. Proverbs 3:5 instructs us, “Trust in the Lord with all your
heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 4:23
warns us, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow
the springs of life.”
In the original languages of the Scriptures, the bowels or kidneys
are used to represent emotions. Many times when we are in a very
emotional condition, such as worry or anger, we feel it in our stom-
ach. The King James Version translates Philippians 2:1 literally, “…
if any bowels and mercies.” Often the word translated “­compassion”
in English has the sense of “bowels” in the original Greek.

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 The point of all of this information is that our thoughts and
emotions are to be protected from Satan’s attacks by the breastplate
of righteousness. Some of Satan’s primary tactics are to influence
people through false doctrine and reliance upon their emotions
rather than on the truth of God’s Word. To protect the mind and
emotions, the Christian is to put on the breastplate of righteousness.
This righteousness has two aspects. The first aspect is the
righteousness of Christ, which has been imputed or credited to us:
“To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).
Righteousness refers to our right standing before God. Satan and
his demons often attack the Christian by raising doubts about his
salvation or his relationship with God or by accusing the believer
because of sin in his life. The only basis we have for response to
such attacks is that our standing before God has nothing to do with
our own righteousness but is based solely and completely on the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. However, there is more to putting on
the breastplate of righteousness than just enjoying our positional
righteousness in Christ.
The second aspect involves our personal righteousness. This does
not refer to our own goodness, for we have none. Instead, it refers to
the righteousness and holiness that the Holy Spirit produces in our
lives as a result of our growth in Christ, obedience to divine pre-
cepts, and living in dependence upon the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:15–26).
This aspect is the progressive part of our sanctification.
Although every believer is positionally righteous in Christ, he
is also responsible to pursue holiness in his life by being obedient
to Christ and having his character transformed and conformed to
the character of Christ. This process takes place in a believer’s life
as he recognizes the sin in his life and then turns away from it to
Christ. Peter also relates this process to dealing with the lusts of
the flesh: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former
lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One
who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because
it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14–16).
This is part of what is meant by standing firm against the Devil.
In James 4:7–10, we see that this concept is related not only to the
idea of submission and humility but also to cleansing from sin.
James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you dou-
ble-minded.” Although the basis for the believer’s cleansing from

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sin is the redemption of Christ, believers still sin (1 John 1:8). The
solution to sins committed after salvation is confession, admission
of known sins to God (Ps. 32:5): “If we confess our sins, He is faith-
ful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Whenever a Christian sins, he is, in essence, giving his loyalty
to Satan and rebelling like a child against his Father. At this point,
the Christian is being influenced by either his flesh or the world to
follow Satan in obedience. At the point of sin, the Christian opens
himself up to satanic attack. Once this breach in his defense occurs,
if he does not turn from his sin but continues in it, the toehold that
Satan has in his life may be expanded. Eventually, the believer can
be living in full-blown rebellion against God. At some point, the be-
liever possibly can become involved with some aspect of the occult
and become oppressed by a demon. This is exactly what happened
in the life of King Saul in the Old Testament, and it eventually re-
sulted in demonic oppression, severe depression, and involvement
in the occult.
However, as with Saul, the solution to the problem of demon-
ic oppression is to confess your sin and begin living in obedience
to God. Many times God gave Saul the opportunity to turn from
his sin, but because he never did, God continued to discipline him
through the demonic oppression.
This same thing occurred in the New Testament. In two differ-
ent instances, the New Testament tells about Christians who had
fallen into serious and prolonged sin, and, because they failed to
turn from it, they were given over to Satan for discipline (1 Cor. 5:5;
1 Tim. 1:20). The solution to this problem is never presented in the
Scriptures in any other way than submission to the plan, precepts,
and principles of God. If the believer does this, Satan will flee.
Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Today shoes
are often purchased on the basis of fashion rather than function.
But anyone who works on his or her feet (or jogs or hikes) knows
the value of a well-made pair of shoes or boots. Roman soldiers also
valued their shoes because they realized that their effectiveness in
combat could well depend on the sureness of their footing. They
wore sandals, heavy soles bound to their feet with leather straps.
The bottoms of the soles were reinforced with hobnails or studs to
give added protection against spikes or stakes stuck in the ground
for defense.

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 Likewise, the spiritual shoes worn by Christians give them both
a sure-footed stance against the Devil and protection. The shoes are
described as “the preparation” of the gospel of peace. Literally, that
means readiness. What prepares or makes us ready, what gives us
stability and protection against the attacks of Satan is the “gospel
of peace.”
Scripture tells us that before we were saved, we were enemies of
God, but that the death of Christ is the basis for our reconciliation:
“If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the
death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). When we trust Christ as our Savior,
we are justified by faith. The result is that we now have peace with
God: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1). This is the gospel of
peace—the fact that we are at peace with God, that we have been
transferred permanently to the kingdom of His Son, and that we
are now on His side against the rebellion of Satan. This is our new
position in Christ, and it is on the basis of this new position that we
are able to resist the Devil.
Therefore, whenever we find ourselves tempted to doubt or to
sin, because of our position in Christ as a child of God (and because
we are at peace with God), we can stand firm. Satan can attack and
tempt all he wants, but it need never faze us. We can remain stead-
fast and immovable because our feet are firmly grounded on our
immovable relationship with God.
The shield of faith. Although Roman soldiers carried one of two
types of shields, the larger one is mentioned here. This shield was a
very large oblong shield, some four feet tall and two and one-half
feet wide that the soldier used to hide behind for protection from
the arrows and flaming missiles that the enemy would hurl at him.
The shield that protects the Christian is the shield of faith. To
exhibit faith means to trust God. No matter what the situation and
no matter how difficult God’s instructions might seem, we are to
trust in God. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he
who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder
of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). Only by believing God can we
avoid the traps and snares that Satan sets for us. Adam and Eve fell
into Satan’s trap in the Garden of Eden because they trusted in their
own ability rather than in God’s Word. Satan’s major weapon is to
get us to distrust God’s Word. Whenever we sin, we are believing
Satan and giving our allegiance to him. Remember, faith means that

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God’s Word is more real to us than our experiences, feelings, and
circumstances.
With the shield of faith, we are not only able to extinguish in a
general sense the missiles that Satan throws at the world but also to
extinguish all of the missiles that Satan throws at us. God’s Word is
sufficient to handle every temptation, every assault, and every prob-
lem that Satan throws at us, not by launching an assault of rebuke,
not by binding, and not by exorcism but by standing firm and put-
ting on the armor of God. By trusting God and obeying Him, we
need not worry about any attack that Satan might use; every trick
that he tries can be handled by simply trusting God.
The helmet of salvation. The Roman soldier’s helmet was made
of leather and metal and was designed to protect his head against
arrows and swords. What protects the Christian is his salvation.
However, Paul is not saying that the person needs to get saved be-
cause he already is saved; otherwise, he wouldn’t be wearing the
other pieces of the armor.
In earlier chapters, we mentioned the three phases of our salva-
tion that the New Testament describes. The first phase is called justi-
fication, which takes place when a person puts his trust in Christ for
his salvation. This is salvation from the penalty of sin. The second
phase is sanctification, which is the phase known as the Christian
life, when we learn God’s Word and apply it to be delivered from the
power of sin. The third phase is glorification, which occurs when a
Christian goes to heaven and is freed from the very presence of sin.
The helmet of salvation speaks of the application of God’s Word
to our present life on earth. This is phase two of our salvation. Paul
speaks of it in Philippians 2:12, where he instructs us to work out
our salvation with fear and trembling. We put on the helmet of sal-
vation by letting the principles of God’s Word renew and transform
our minds.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The sword
mentioned here is the short sword that the Roman soldier carried.
It was used in close combat and was a weapon that had to be used
very precisely. Its function was primarily defensive because it was
used to ward off the close-range attacks of the enemy. It was not
the large broadsword, which would be the weapon of choice in an
offensive campaign.
The sword that the Christian carries is described here as the
Word of God. But this is not the Word of God generally. The term
translated “word” here is not the Greek logos, but rhema, which

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r­ efers to a specific word or utterance, such as a promise or a principle
from Scripture. In spiritual warfare, it is not enough to have merely
a general knowledge of the Scriptures; we must also have a specific
knowledge of the Scriptures and use this knowledge ­correctly.
Our Lord graphically demonstrated this point when He faced
His temptation in the wilderness. When Satan tested the Lord, Jesus
did not attack or rebuke Satan but countered his thrusts with spe-
cific parries from Scripture. When Satan tempted the Lord, he dis-
played a knowledge of Scripture, but he twisted it and used it inap-
propriately. Because Jesus had an excellent and accurate knowledge
of the Scripture, He was able to defend Himself against Satan. In the
same way, the Christian is able to defend himself against the attacks
of Satan by using Scripture accurately. This fact means that we must
know Scripture well enough to use it in any situation and to use it
correctly. Many Christians are ineffective in the battle against Satan
because they have only a partial (and in many cases inaccurate)
knowledge of Scripture.
God’s Promise to You
We are to take up a defensive posture against Satan and submit our-
selves to God. As we resist the Devil with an attitude of humility and
submission to God, we are promised that God will take care of the
battle for us, and Satan will flee. The picture here is of two differ-
ent forces. On the one hand is the believer, whose responsibility is
the defensive, whereas on the other hand are the Lord and the holy
angels, whose responsibility is the offensive. When we rest in our
proper position, the Lord and His angels attack from the flank and
defeat Satan.
Perhaps you have been plagued by demonic manifestations.
Perhaps you were involved in the occult before you were saved or
have become involved since then. But whatever the reason, perhaps
you are facing serious spiritual oppression. If so, the significance of
Ephesians 6 must not be lost on you because it is a passage of great
comfort. When you are under attack by Satan, you must rest in your
position in Christ, trust in His Word, and submit to God. The re-
sult will be that Satan and his hosts must flee. This is God’s promise
to you.

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 9
THE GREATEST WEAPON
Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another,
so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righ-
teous man can accomplish much.
James 5:16

In the previous chapter, we learned that the Bible gives us clear in-
structions on how to have victory in our struggle with the forces of
Satan: we are simply to put on the whole armor of God and thereby
resist the Devil. Although this instruction is simple in concept, it
is not so easy to do in actual daily living. As Paul concludes his de-
scription of the armor, he makes a very pointed statement that we
all too often overlook in our practical daily experience:
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit,
and with this in view, be on the alert with all p
­ erseverance
and petition for all the saints (Eph. 6:18).
The action that undergirds and strengthens the armor is two-
fold: prayer and perseverance. These actions are so vital for today,
yet so lacking in the lives of many Christians that we want to take
two chapters to focus on what these two things mean and how they
apply in daily spiritual warfare.
Does Prayer Really Change Things?
Prayer is so often mentioned and commanded in Scripture that its
necessity can hardly be questioned. But why should we pray? After
all, if God is sovereign and works all things after the counsel of His
will (Eph. 1:11), why bother asking God to do something if He has
already determined what He will do? This question is sometimes
phrased, “Does prayer really change things?”
Prayer is simply communication to God by a Christian. Prayer
as seen in Scripture may contain one or more of the following ele-
ments: confession, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, intercession for
others, and petition for oneself. Prayer is the means by which a be-
liever’s communion with God is strengthened. In prayer, we pour

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out our souls to God; in the process, our souls are nourished, our
spirits are revitalized, our attitudes are conformed to God’s charac-
ter, and our focus is sharpened by the promises of God. In short, our
ability to stand firm is strengthened.
Three aspects of prayer are important in spiritual warfare. The
first aspect is thanksgiving. Often in the heat of the battle, when
we are faced with discouragements or suffering, we are strongly
tempted to become self-absorbed and to succumb to self-pity and
the “poor me” syndrome. We begin to focus on the problem and
the conflict and forget that the Lord is battling for us. As time goes
on, spiritual fatigue sets in. This is why prayer and perseverance
are so often linked together. In prayer, we are rested, refreshed, and
­refocused on the work of God in our lives.
The second aspect of prayer that is vital in spiritual warfare is
confession. Confession means that we recognize sin in our lives and
admit it to God. The attitude underlying confession is humility. We
recognize that we have disobeyed God and acknowledge our culpa-
bility. Underlying confession is the realization of our own depen-
dence upon God and the reality that Christ has already paid in full
for that sin. First John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.” The word translated “cleanse” here is the same
word used in James 4:8: “Cleanse your hands, you sinners.” As we
saw in the previous chapter, the statement of James 4:6–10 must be
taken in its entirety. That passage is framed in verses 6 and 10 by
commands to be humble because true humility involves confession
of sin. This is part of submitting to God and resisting the Devil. This
is what it means to draw near to God. As we do so, we are promised
that God will draw near to us. Jesus linked our level of obedience to
a greater disclosure of God: “He who has My commandments and
keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be
loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to
him” (John 14:21).
The third aspect of prayer that is vital in spiritual warfare is pe-
tition. As we encounter opposition and hostility in the world from
the flesh, the world, or Satan, we call upon God to come to our aid.
This again demonstrates the basic attitude that is foundational to
spiritual warfare—humility. In prayer, we adopt an attitude of sub-
mission and humility toward God. We call on Him to intercede in
our behalf.

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 Total Dependence
The primary image of prayer in the Bible is that of a subordinate
coming to his superior to make requests. It emphasizes the attitude
of total dependence, even when the request is known beforehand
to be the will and the desire of the superior. Although an employee
(let’s say a sales manager) might know that his boss wants him to
conduct regular training sessions with the sales force, he still must
go to his boss to arrange times, coordinate the meetings with other
events, and confirm permission for what he is doing. This consult-
ing demonstrates the sales manager’s submission to his boss and his
recognition that he serves a higher authority.
In prayer, we go to God in dependence, asking for what we
already know is generally the will of God, requesting God’s aid in
certain areas, and then waiting on the Lord to work out the details.
Sometimes our request might be generally within the will of God,
but in this specific instance, outside God’s sovereign will. It might be
a matter of timing (when God is simply saying “wait”), or it might
be a matter of God’s simply denying the request. Sometimes God’s
denials are hard for us to comprehend, especially when they involve
prolonged suffering, poverty, unemployment, sickness, or living in
a difficult relationship. At those times, we are tempted to attempt
impatiently to solve the problem on our own terms rather than to
wait on the Lord. We need to persevere in our dependence.
Sometimes we wonder why God does not answer certain of our
prayers, especially when they seem to us to be completely within
God’s will. After all, we have the promise in 1 John 5:14–15: “This is
the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us
in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we
have asked from Him.” This passage clearly states that when we ask
according to God’s will, He will answer.
Other prayer promises that Jesus made also indicate that when
we come to the Father in Jesus’ name, He will hear and answer us.
Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me
anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:13–14).

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask what-

ever you wish, and it will be done for you (John 15:7).

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 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will ­receive
(Matt. 21:22).

Must God Answer Prayer?

These great promises of Scripture that indicate God’s certain an-
swers to our prayers raise another question. If we follow all of the
guidelines presented in the Bible for prayer, does that obligate God
to answer our prayers? The answer to this question is both yes and
no. It is yes in the sense that when we pray according to God’s clear
promises to us, God is obligated to answer (exactly what we mean
by this will be clarified later in the chapter), although the timing
is up to Him. But the answer is also no for three reasons. First, we
often link the “when” and the “how” to the general prayer request,
thus putting man, the creature, in control of God, the Creator. In
current spiritual-warfare practice, the prayers of many people, al-
though expressed in words that indicate a request, are in fact noth-
ing more than commands by the believer toward God to intercede
in a particular way. This is pride, not humility. A proud approach in
prayer makes this type of prayer satanic rather than holy. Whenever
we do anything in pride, we are following Satan in his rebellion.
Petition is essentially the request of a child to a father to in-
tercede and protect. How this is done and when it is done are left
completely to the sovereign will of the Father.
A very important prayer promise is found in James 5:16b: “The
effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James
then draws upon the prayers of Elijah to illustrate this principle.
But before we look at Elijah to find several principles that are char-
acteristic of efficacious praying, we must first ask what “efficacious
praying” is.
The King James Version translates this phrase “the effective fer-
vent prayer,” which is similar to the New American Standard trans-
lation, and implies that fervency somehow makes prayer more ef-
fective. Some people interpret this to mean that the harder we pray
the more effective the prayer, thereby treating prayer as something
mystical or magical. Some churches have been known to promote
marathon prayer sessions based on this interpretation. However,
the Bible always distinguishes between prayer and magic.
The difficulty with this verse is the unusual Greek construction.
Without laboring the point, we suggest that the most consistent
way to understand this verse is to realize that it is not the prayer

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itself that is strong or efficacious but rather the One who answers. In
essence, “the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much when
it is effective.’’51 Elijah furnishes the example of how much can be
­accomplished through prayer.
Elijah and the Promise
Effective prayer is based on the promises of God. The specific in-
stance mentioned by James occurred at the beginning of Elijah’s
ministry. James 5:17–18 states, “He prayed earnestly that it might
not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six
months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the
earth produced its fruit.” (The incident to which this passage refers
is recorded in 1 Kings 17:1–18:45.)
Elijah’s ministry was to the northern kingdom of Israel during
the time of the divided kingdom. Ahab, the king of Israel, had mar-
ried Jezebel, the daughter of the high priest of Baal worship in Tyre,
who used her position as queen to impose and advance the wor-
ship of Baal in the northern kingdom. She instigated a policy of
executing any known prophet of God. (This time was one of the
darkest periods in the history of Israel.) The few prophets who re-
mained alive were hiding in caves, and the people gave themselves
­completely to the idolatrous worship of Baal and the Asherah.
At this time, Elijah suddenly appeared on the scene, announc-
ing God’s judgment on Israel for their rebellion. The judgment an-
nounced is grounded in the promise of God in the Mosaic Law. As
Israel prepared to enter the land that God had promised to give
them, Moses reminded the people of their covenant obligations to
obey God. Part of the covenant contained promises of blessing for
obedience and warnings of judgment for disobedience. A specific
judgment mentioned for idolatry: “Beware, lest your hearts be de-
ceived and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them.
Or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will
shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will
not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land
which the Lord is giving you” (Deut. 11:16–17).
Elijah was able to stand before the powerful king of Israel and
announce this judgment on him because he knew the promise of
God. We are not told whether God specifically told Elijah to con-
front Ahab or whether Elijah simply knew the promises of God and
51James 5:16, see, Peter Davids, Commentary on James in New International Greek
Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 196–97.

150
applied them to his situation. (We believe that the latter case is more
likely, especially because 1 Kings 18:1 specifically states that God
told Elijah to go to Ahab to announce the end of the drought.) In
either case, however, Elijah’s actions were grounded on the promise
of God.
Between the time that God instructed Elijah to announce to
Ahab the termination of the drought and the coming of rain, two
things happened: Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal, demon-
strating the impotence of their god, and he prayed to the Lord. This
prayer yields principles of effective praying.
First, it was a prayer that was based on the promises of God.
Peter tells us,
His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining
to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him
who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by
these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent
promises, in order that by them you might become par-
takers of the divine nature, having escaped the c­ orruption
that is in the world by lust (2 Peter 1:3–4).
Is Every Promise Made to Me?
At this point, we must warn against wrongly applying God’s prom-
ises. Someone has stated that the Bible contains more than seven
thousand promises, but not all of those promises are for Christians.
It is important to distinguish between promises to specific individ-
uals, promises to the nation Israel, promises to the disciples, and
promises to the church.
Some promises are individual in nature. For example, God
made specific promises to David, Moses, Elijah, Mary, and the dis-
ciples. These promises were conditioned by certain historical events
and are not to be applied to anyone else, as we will see. One ex-
ample of an individual promise that is often used in contemporary
spiritual-warfare contexts to justify the practice of casting out de-
mons is Jesus’ statement to His disciples in Matthew 10:7–8: “As
you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you
­received, freely give.”
Based on just these two verses, it would seem justifiable to sug-
gest, as some people do, that these four activities should accompany
the proclamation of the gospel. This view has come to be known as
“power evangelism.” Casting out demons, it is suggested, should be

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one thing that accompanies the true preaching of the gospel. But
before we decide whether this is true, we must consider Jesus’ entire
statement. These two verses must not be removed or isolated from
the entire commission that Jesus gave His disciples at that time.
For example, not only did He command them to heal the sick and
cast out demons, but also He prohibited them from going to the
Gentiles, limiting them to only the house of Israel (Matt. 10:5–6).
Immediately after His instructions regarding the message that they
were to proclaim, Jesus also prohibited His disciples from accepting
any money or taking any supplies or luggage with them—even an
extra change of clothes or shoes. We suggest that if this promise of
Jesus to cast out demons is valid for today, then these other condi-
tions must also be met. This is the kind of problem that results from
misapplying Scripture and taking verses out of context.
Other Promises
Another type of promise is that given exclusively to the nation of
Israel. The Old Testament is filled with promises that were meant
only for Israel and are related explicitly to their obedience to the
Mosaic Law. Yet, often these verses are taken out of context, and
God is expected to fulfill promises to the church or the United States
that were meant only for Israel.
One example of this error is the use of 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If …
My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray,
and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear
from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Even
a superficial look at the surrounding verses shows that this was a
statement made to Solomon concerning God’s people Israel at the
dedication of the temple. The phrase “heal their land” is a refer-
ence to the judgment of drought mentioned in the previous verse,
which itself is a restatement to Solomon of the passage quoted earli-
er (Deut. 11:16–17). In 2 Chronicles 7, God is reaffirming His cove-
nant promises to Israel with Solomon. Because the Mosaic covenant
was made with Israel, the promise of verse 14 must be understood
in that context and applied only to Israel.
Still another type of promise is general or universal. Although
many promises in the Old Testament are specifically addressed to
certain individuals or to Israel, many others are general. We are cer-
tainly not trying to imply that the Old Testament has no relevance
for Christians today; we simply wish to caution you to ensure that

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when you hold God to a promise, that promise was not intended for
someone else.
Here are some general New Testament promises to Christians:
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me
(­Philippians 4:13).

God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining

­salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:9).

We know that God causes all things to work together

for good to those who love God, to those who are called
­according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28–29).

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor

principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38–39).
Using God’s Promises Correctly
All promises, even general ones, ought to be used correctly. One
often misused promise is found in Matthew 18:19, immediately fol-
lowing Jesus’ statement that “whatever you shall bind on earth shall
have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall
have been loosed in heaven” (v. 18). In chapter 6, we discussed the
meaning of this passage. The context is one of church discipline, and
the language is that of a courtroom. This is also true for Matthew
18:19: “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about
anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father
who is in heaven.”
Often, this passage is applied to any type of prayer: whenever
any two Christians agree together in prayer, then God is obligated
to answer that prayer. But the context shows that this is a promise
related to the execution of church discipline, or excommunication.
The “two” mentioned in verse 19 and the “two or three” mentioned
in verse 20 are the same two or three witnesses that testify against
the accused in verse 16. Christians must be careful not to be led
astray into wrong prayer methods by incorrectly applying this verse.
Elijah could have the boldness to confront Ahab and announce
the drought because he correctly understood and applied the prom-
ise of God in Deuteronomy 11. Because this was a national promise

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of divine discipline on Israel for idolatry, Elijah could confident-
ly expect God to fulfill His promise. After three years of drought,
God directed Elijah to go to Ahab and announce the return of rain.
This was an individual promise to Elijah, so Elijah could confidently
­expect God to bring rain to the land.
Because God made this specific promise to Elijah, why did
Elijah still pray for rain? In 1 Kings 18:41–42, Elijah announced the
coming rain to Ahab and immediately went to the top of Mount
Carmel and began to pray. Often, we make the mistake of generally
trusting God without backing it up with prayer, but Elijah contin-
ued to humble himself in prayer even though God had specifically
promised the rain. Often, our general reliance upon God without
specific prayer reveals a subtle influence of pride. But Elijah shows
us that although we have a specific promise from God, we must
­continue to pray to God. Perseverance in prayer is critical.
Get Alone with God
Too often in our busy lives, pressed as we are by the demands of
people and the overcrowding of our calendars, one thing that gets
lost is our personal time alone with God. Yet the prayer lives of the
great saints of Scripture reveal how often they took time to get alone
with God. After announcing the coming rain to Ahab, Elijah with-
drew from the crowds to pray. He recognized that crushing crowds
and crunching calendars might destroy communion and fellowship
with God. We simply must withdraw and get alone with God.
When our Lord was on the earth, He recognized the same truth.
Several times the Bible mentions that after busy times of ministry,
when the press of the crowds and the demands of ministry closed
in around Him, Jesus withdrew to be alone with God. One busy day
began with the news that John the Baptist had been executed. In
response, Jesus withdrew to be alone (Matt. 14:13). But His disciples
found Him, the crowds followed Him, and He spent the rest of the
day healing the sick. When evening came, He miraculously multi-
plied five loaves of bread and two fish to feed them all. After a busy
day like that, many of us would crash on the couch in front of the
TV or head off to bed early, but not our Lord. He realized that He
was in need of spiritual revitalization, so “after He had sent the mul-
titudes away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray; and
when it was evening, He was there alone” (Matt. 14:23). Jesus recog-
nized the importance of time in communion with the Father. If He
who was one with the Father needed to spend time in prayer alone

154
with the Father, how much more do we who are His children, yet
still sinners, need to be alone pouring out our hearts to the Father?
As reports of Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry traveled
throughout the land, people poured out of the villages to hear Him
and to be healed. We can only imagine the demands that this put
on Jesus’ time. Yet, in spite of this, He never failed to get alone with
God and pray. “The news about Him was spreading even farther,
and great multitudes were gathering to hear Him and to be healed
of their sicknesses. But He Himself would often slip away to the
­wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:15–16).
Another important time for prayer is during times of deci-
sion-making. Jesus exemplified this fact before He chose His disci-
ples. We are not told for what He prayed but simply that He prayed.
And He didn’t pray for just fifteen or twenty minutes; “He spent the
whole night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12).
We must ask ourselves at this point how often we spend even a
single morning in prayer. Would we even know what to do during
an extended time of prayer? Would we fall asleep, or get bored and
daydream, or use the time to think about other things, or plan our
coming week? Too often, we think of prayer as just one-way com-
munication with God, and we just do not have that much to say,
especially since God knows everything anyway.
Or we might realize that prayer is two-way communication
with God but fall prey to the fallacy that God speaks directly to us
during prayer, so we just sit and wait for God to speak to us. Then
we either get bored in the silence and go to sleep or mistake our own
thoughts for the words of God.
How God Speaks to Us Today
Prayer is clearly two-way communication with God, but today God
speaks to us through His Word. Even in the days when God spoke
directly to people, His direct communication was rare and to only
a select few, so people were encouraged to meditate and memo-
rize whatever Scripture had already been revealed. Repeatedly, the
psalmist expressed the importance of meditating on God’s Word
while praying. Psalm 5:1–2 clearly shows the connection: “Give ear
to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the
voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray”
(KJV). The word used here for meditation is a word that has the idea
of murmuring or muttering. The object of meditation is the person
and work of God and His Word.

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 The vivid picture painted by this word meditate reminds us of
our days in seminary when students were learning the basic verb
and noun forms in Greek. We wrote these words on index cards
and carried them around in our pockets so that we could review
them at any opportunity. We took them out of our pocket to look
at them and then repeated them over and over to ourselves as we
walked along. You can always spot the first-year language students
at seminary because they are walking around muttering verb forms
under their breath!
This is what we as believers are to do. As we pray without ceas-
ing (1 Thess. 5:17), we are also meditating day and night (Ps. 1:2),
praying God’s Word back to Him and giving Him the tools that He
uses to work in our lives. The result of this continued meditation
produces wisdom that guides us through life (Ps. 119:99). As the
Word enters our souls, the Holy Spirit uses it to convict us of sin and
shows us how to apply the Scriptures to our lives. Meditation also
provides us with a knowledge of God’s promises, which, in turn, re-
inforces and strengthens our prayer life as we learn more about that
for which we should be praying. If we, like Elijah, are going to be
effective in our prayers, we must be often alone with God in prayer
and meditation.
Persist in Prayer
We have already noticed that Elijah did not simply rest upon God’s
promise to provide rain, but when the time came, he prayed for the
rain to come. But when we look at that prayer, we see that he prayed
continually until the rain finally came. He began to pray, then sent
his servant to see if the rain was coming. When it wasn’t, he prayed
again. This went on seven times, until finally a cloud began to ap-
pear. Elijah was effective in his prayer because, knowing the will of
God, he was persistent.
Jesus emphasized this same point to His disciples when they
asked Him to teach them how to pray. In Luke 11:5–10, He related
the following illustration:
Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to
him at midnight, and say to him, “Friend, lend me three
loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a jour-
ney, and I have nothing to set before him”; and from in-
side he shall answer and say, “Do not bother me; the door
has already been shut and my children and I are in bed;
I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even

156
 though he will not get up and give him anything because
he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get
up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you,
ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who
asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who
knocks, it shall be opened.
Jesus again emphasized this point in Luke 18:1–8. At that time,
He used the illustration of a widow coming for protection to a judge
who neither feared nor respected God. At first, he was unwilling,
but he finally gave in because of her persistence. Jesus then made
the point: “Shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry
to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” (Luke
18:7). The point in both passages is that if sinful men are moved by
persistence, how much more God will be moved.
However, mere persistence is not necessarily the basis for God’s
answering our prayers. If something is not God’s will for us, no mat-
ter how persistent we may be, He will be even more persistent in
saying no. An episode of this type is found in the life of the Apostle
Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells his readers that he was given a
“thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (v. 7). Even
Paul came under demonic attack! How did he respond? He neither
bound nor rebuked Satan. Instead, he prayed! “Concerning this I
entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (v. 8).
Although Paul prayed, God’s answer was no because He had a rea-
son for allowing the attack: it was to keep Paul humble, to teach him
that God’s grace was sufficient, and to teach him to persevere. Again
we see that prayer and perseverance are linked.
Strengthening God and Angels?
Some people claim that our persistence or lack of it strengthens
or weakens God’s ability to answer. Recent teaching among some
groups of Christians has been that the angels that God uses to
answer our prayers are strengthened to perform their task by the
prayers of the saints, and if there are no prayers, then the angels
are weakened and are defeated in their combat with the demons.
This approach views prayer as a great battery charger that energizes
the angels for action. Although it is true that God uses the angels
to carry out His answers to requests, nowhere in the Bible is there
any indication that God’s answers are determined by the prayers of
the saints.

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 This false teaching is the same basic error that is prevalent
among positive-confession advocates, which places God in a po-
sition of obligation to man and puts the creature in a position of
control over the Creator. This error denies the clear biblical teaching
of the sovereignty of God. God will certainly work out His purposes
and plans for man and is not limited by the prayers of the saints.
The only passage that we can find that someone might use to
suggest that angels gain strength from the prayers of the saints is
Daniel 10:12–21. Daniel had been praying for three weeks for un-
derstanding from God, but no answer had come. During that time,
he continued to pray and to fast, but still no answer came. Finally, at
the end of the third week, an angel appeared in answer to his prayer.
It took three weeks to get an answer because the angel had been in
combat with the “prince of the kingdom of Persia,” a clear reference
to the chief demon working to influence the government of Persia.
Some people might be tempted to think that it was Daniel’s prayer
and fasting that enabled the angel to persevere, but that is not what
the Scripture says. The passage does not contain a cause/effect con-
nection between Daniel’s prayer and the angelic action. The angel
who came to interpret Daniel’s vision was clearly sent on the first
day in response to the prayer, but the delay was because he was op-
posed by an evil angel. He was able to overcome the demon not be-
cause of Daniel’s continued prayer and fasting but because Michael,
“one of the chief princes of God,” assisted him in winning the battle.
Nowhere in this conflict are Daniel and his prayer in any way related
to helping the angel get through to Daniel. All that we see is the con-
flict and opposition viewed from below. To infer that Daniel’s prayer
helped the angel get through is illegitimate speculation.
Expecting Answers
There was no doubt in Elijah’s mind that God would bring rain. Be-
cause Elijah prayed on the promise of God, because he knew the
God behind the promises (because he had spent much time alone
with God benefiting from His grace), and because he was persistent,
he was completely confident in God’s answer. When Elijah saw the
small cloud in the sky on the edge of the horizon, he turned to Ahab
and warned him to hurry home so that he would not get caught in
the downpour. What a tremendous example of confidence!
This is the same attitude that the believer is to have in his prayer
life. Jesus told the disciples, “Everything you ask in prayer, believ-
ing, you shall receive” (Matt. 21:22). We know from Scripture that

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without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). This fact
does not mean, however, that God is obligated by our faith but that
in those areas where God desires to give us certain things, He with-
holds them because we do not trust Him. This is why James says,
“You do not have because you do not ask” (4:2).
These four principles should govern our prayer lives: We
should pray on the promises, we should cultivate a time for be-
ing alone with God, we should be persistent, and we should be
­confidently ­expectant.
Prayer is the communication lifeline of the believer. Just as a
soldier behind enemy lines relies heavily on his radio to commu-
nicate with his support team, so the believer living in Satan’s world
must rely heavily upon prayer for his support team. If we are going
to be effective soldiers in our defense against Satan, we dare not
allow ourselves to be cut off.

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 10
TRIUMPHANT WARRIORS
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses sur-
rounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and
the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
Hebrews 12:1–2

I (Thomas) remember the Saturday afternoon as if it were yesterday.

When the phone rang, it was one of my best friends, Gary. During
the previous couple of years, we had done much together—studied
the Bible, prayed, worked, evangelized, traveled, and fellowshipped.
Gary was the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off of his
back if you needed it, probably without having to ask.
I said hello to Gary and asked him what was up. Gary informed
me that he just wanted to let me know that he was quitting the
Christian life. “What?” I asked. “Quitting the Christian life? Why?”
“I’m tired of confessing my sin,” Gary replied. “But you don’t
just quit Christianity—it doesn’t work that way!” I responded.
Unfortunately, Gary is just one example of many believers who
start with a bang but then stray from the course. Some people, like
Gary, completely quit the race, whereas others just wander around
in a state of spiritual confusion. Probably you also have friends who
have followed a similar path. Why don’t some Christians finish
the race?
On the other hand, I also know believers who have endured even
under great pressure. Some of them have had everything against
them, humanly speaking, yet they continued to exhibit steady faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anyone who is a fan of racing knows that mere speed is not
enough to win races consistently. Effective contenders must also
have endurance. Many auto races come down to a contest of who can
stay in the race until the end. During a race, a car may be knocked
out of competition for various reasons. Some drivers might blow

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an engine; others might crash into a wall or collide with other cars.
A fire in the engine, an electrical failure, or a flat tire can lead to an
early exit for a given contestant, even if he is leading the race at the
moment. Endurance is a primary ingredient for any racer.
Endurance is also a primary ingredient in the Christian life.
What, then, are some of the roadblocks that a growing believer will
encounter in the marathon of the Christian life?
Suffering in a Feel-Good Society
We cannot think of a single instance of believers wanting to quit
the Christian life that does not relate in some way to suffering. This
point is especially true in our modern, feel-good society. A person
grows weary or is disappointed by what is required of him. Endur-
ance, perseverance, and patience all require that a person suffer at
some point, but suffering certainly does not feel good. As the writ-
er of Hebrews put it, “All discipline for the moment seems not to
be joyful, but sorrowful” (Heb. 12:11). Therefore, many Christians
want to quit the race when they begin experiencing some pain or
discomfort. The second half of Hebrews 12:11 goes on to say, “Yet to
those who have been trained by it [discipline], afterwards it yields
the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Suffering is an inevitable part
(though not all) of the Christian life. If suffering is not handled
with endurance and faith, a believer will be tempted to drop out of
the race.
Because suffering, if not properly understood and handled, of-
ten leads to an early exit from the race, we must look at suffering
from the perspective of God’s Word. The Bible teaches that God,
being good, did not directly create evil. Instead, evil entered the uni-
verse through God’s rebellious creatures. However, now that evil has
entered God’s creation, He sovereignly uses evil for His own good
purposes (Gen. 50:20; Exod. 3:18–20; Prov. 16:4; Rom. 8:28).52 God
is in control of all evil, and the suffering that we experience in this
life He will use to help us mature into Christlikeness.
The Ultimate Good
The greatest example of how God turns evil into good is seen in the
death of Christ. First Corinthians 2:6–9 tells us that those people
who were involved in crucifying Christ did it out of an evil ­motive.

52 Some of the material in this section, including the reasons why Christians suffer,
is adapted from Charles Clough, Laying the Foundation (Lubbock, Tex.: Lubbock
Bible Church, 1973), 64–66.

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However, Scripture also informs us that this was something “which
God predestined before the ages to our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7). The
death of Christ resulted in the greatest of all blessings to mankind—
our salvation from sin. Paul goes on to explain that God kept cer-
tain aspects of His plan a secret because had the rulers of this age
understood it, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (v.
8). This passage further explains that future blessings are included
in the plan of God that He has not yet revealed but that are go-
ing to be worth waiting for. The implication is that just because we
cannot understand everything that God is doing in our lives at the
present time, including the suffering, does not mean that God has
no glorious purpose in store for us. The Bible teaches that there is
a divine purpose behind all of the suffering that evil brings upon
God’s children.
It is not as important to know in each case of suffering into
which category we fall, as it is to endure suffering with joy, hope,
and endurance. Regardless of the purpose that God might have for
specific events of suffering in our lives, we should handle each situ-
ation with the same Christian character. The future will reveal many
of the specific reasons why we have suffered, as can be seen from
the life of Job, but our calling in the present is to trust God to know
what He is doing in our lives.
Scripture reveals at least four reasons why Christians suffer.
1. Christians suffer because of the curse resulting from Adam’s fall.
Christians, like all of the rest of humanity, suffer under God’s
curse upon creation as a result of the fall of Adam into sin (Gen.
3:8–24; Rom. 5:12–21). This is the broadest purpose behind mor-
al and physical evil and suffering. Those who have suffered the
loss of a loved one (especially if it was sudden and unexpected) or
have been associated with someone with birth defects have expe-
rienced firsthand the effects resulting from Adam’s fall. This kind
of suffering and pain is not part of God’s original creation, but it
is something resulting from man himself. Sometimes Christians
realize this fact but still react bitterly toward God because He
could have prevented the loss of a loved one but did not in their
specific case. Although God is gracious, we should realize that
God is also fair and just in His dealings with us. We just have to
trust Him in these kinds of matters. Scripture recognizes the ab-
normality that Adam’s sin has brought upon the human race and
teaches that our only hope is in God’s plan.

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 The pain related to the Curse is noted in Romans 8:18–25.
Paul contrasts “the sufferings of this present time” to “the glo-
ry that is to be revealed to us” in the future (v. 18). Why does
humanity experience present suffering? Paul explains that it is
due to Adam’s fall (vv. 20–21). The point of this passage is to let
believers know that we have a hope for the future that will one
day release us from the pain of present suffering. This is not a
hope for unbelievers because their destiny is eternal suffering in
the lake of fire. Because we have the hope of future glory and
know that suffering and pain is only a temporary feature for the
Christian, “with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (v. 25). Paul
is saying that the future hope of glory produces perseverance in
the present life of a Christian.
2. God disciplines His children and uses adversity to produce spir-
itual maturity. This is probably one of the primary reasons for
Christian suffering (Heb. 12:3–15). When we respond to these
experiences with patience, we learn what it means to be con-
formed to Christ (Col. 1:24; James 1:2–4; 2 Peter 1:5–8). Anyone
who has ever been involved in athletics knows that disciplined
workouts are required, not because the coach is angry at his play-
ers but because players must have a competent endurance level
to compete in a game. The same is true of a soldier who is pre-
paring for combat. Similarly, training in righteousness requires
the tough exercise and discipline of learning to follow God’s
will instead of our own selfish and often lustful feelings, regard-
less of the pain that might be involved in crucifying the flesh.
But this kind of discipline produces the godly characteristic of
­perseverance needed to finish the race.
3. Some Christians suffer in a hostile world because we are identified
with Christ. Jesus made this truth clear to His disciples in His
farewell address to them in the upper room: “If the world hates
you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you
were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you
are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you” (John 15:18–19). People who have not trust-
ed Christ as their Savior from their sins have an innate animosity
toward Christ and His people when they are challenged about
their relationship to God. Often, they take out their hatred to-
ward Christ on His messengers. Christ is telling every believer
that we can expect this type of response. In a sense, this behavior
is normal, so we should not be surprised when it occurs. Our

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 goal should be to respond to this kind of suffering the way the
early disciples did as recorded in Acts 5:41: “They went on their
way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had
been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”
4. Christians sometimes suffer that they might be a testimony to all
creation of God’s grace. They are a testimony to angels (Eph. 3:10),
other Christians (2 Cor. 1:3–6; 4:8–12), and non-Christians
(1 Peter 2:12–20; 3:13–17). When we respond to suffering and
hardship properly, that response can be an encouragement to
other believers of the grace of God. We can be an encouragement
and not a detriment to others, as Paul explains: “If we are afflict-
ed, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it
is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of
the same sufferings which we also suffer” (2 Cor. 1:6).
In addition to encouraging other believers, we learn from
Ephesians 3:10 that angels (“the rulers and the authorities in
the heavenly places”) are learning lessons “through the church.”
What lessons do they learn? Ephesians 3:4–7 indicates that as
history unfolds they are learning about God’s grace as expressed
in Christ. The angelic realm cannot personally experience saving
grace, so they must learn about it from believers in Christ.
Non-Christians are part of the “all creation” cited in this rea-
son. When non-Christians observe the way that Christians han-
dle suffering, they can see a testimony of Jesus Christ working in
our lives. First Peter 3:17 says, “For it is better, if God should will
it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing
what is wrong.” Thus, “those who revile your good behavior in
Christ may be put to shame” (3:16). Unbelievers often watch us
believers who have spoken out for Christ to see how He has af-
fected our lives. What better testimony to the world than the way
we handle adversity and suffering? Perseverance, endurance, and
patience are the biblical response of the Christian to suffering.
Suffering God’s Way
Christians can learn much about the nature of perseverance by un-
derstanding the Greek word for perseverance in the New Testament.
The verb hupomeno is made up of two smaller Greek words: hupo,
meaning “under,” and meno, meaning “to remain.” Taken together,
they mean “to remain under.” Remain under what? It depends on to
what the word is referring. If it is talking about the sufferings related
to trials, as in 1 Peter 2:20 (“when you do what is right and suffer

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for it, if you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God”), then
perseverance, endurance, or patience refers to the ability to remain
under the pressure of a given situation rather than seeking to escape
it for the temporary relief from the pain of suffering.
How does this apply to the issue of spiritual warfare? Some de-
liverance teachers say that many of our problems and trials can be
dealt with simply by rebuking Satan, and then these trials will be
removed instantly from a believer’s life. This idea is very appealing
to many modern Christians who have grown up in a society where
we don’t have to wait very long for anything. However, this is not the
way God normally works. In the first place, many of our problems
stem from the flesh. Therefore, God wants us to learn how to resist
sin in our lives through the often-painful process of learning to trust
Him to overcome these problems. The red herring of instant relief
from our trials does not lend itself to the development of patience
in our trials. It is the lessons learned from “remaining under” the
pressure of a given situation which produce Christlike character in
our lives. This is what Paul means in Romans 5:3–4 when he tells
us that “we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation
brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and
proven character, hope.”
Rebuking the Devil?
Many people are being led astray by deliverance teachings that
promise instantaneous victory over one’s problems by a timely re-
buke of the Devil. This teaching misleads people from the biblical
path of exercising endurance or patience in meeting their trials.
As a result, many believers are not developing the kind of proven
­character that they need to handle trials.
This character-building approach is illustrated by Paul’s thorn
in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7–10). The thorn is described as “a messenger
of Satan to buffet me—to keep me from exalting myself ” (v. 7). It
is possible that this messenger was a demon. The Greek word for
“messenger” is angelos, the word for “angel.” Deliverance teachers
today view this kind of situation as something that is out of keeping
with the will of God, and they would seek to rebuke this “messenger
of Satan” and run him out of town by giving him two black eyes in
the process. But this was not Paul’s response. Instead, he “entreat-
ed the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (v. 8). Yet,
God did not grant Paul’s request. But do we not have power in the
name of Jesus? Yes, we do, but it is to be exercised within the will

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of God. The Lord was more interested in building Christlike char-
acter in Paul as a true display of His power (v. 9) than in putting
on the kind of fireworks display that many people today are calling
“­power ­encounters.”
Within certain circles today, it is common to hear a speaker lash
out against Satan with various rebukes. Often, the speaker will re-
buke Satan in the area of health, wealth, and peace of mind. It is
not unusual to hear more preaching against Satan and the demonic
powers than to hear preaching on Christ and His resources. Many
people become so concerned with what the Devil is doing that they
take their eyes off the Lord.
We must realize that believers are never instructed to rebuke
the Devil or his demons. The New Testament views rebuking as
the sole prerogative of Jesus as an expression of His lordship and
sovereignty over the spirit realm.53 The only acceptable condition
for a believer to rebuke is when he lovingly corrects a brother who
has fallen into sin (Luke 17:3; 1 Tim. 5:20). Throughout the New
Testament, rebuke is understood as the sole prerogative of the Lord,
and this is why Michael said when he was challenged by Satan, “The
Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9).
Marks of a False Prophet
Second Peter 2:1–9 describes and denounces false prophets who will
be active within the church until the second coming of Christ. Peter
exposes their self-centered motives and conduct in the first three
verses and then pronounces their condemnation in the next six
verses. The rest of the chapter concludes with a description of their
characteristics. One characteristic that the contemporary church
would do well to note is found in verse 10: “Especially those who
indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring,
self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.”
The earlier context indicates that these self-willed false prophets
were engaged in reviling fallen angelic majesties-demons. Remem-
ber that this is characteristic of false prophets, so it is a warning for
Christians not to engage in such practices.
Peter goes on to explain this practice in greater detail in verses
11 and 12. He notes that “angels who are greater in might and power
do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord” (v.
11). Angels know better than to do such foolish things as rebuking
53Gerhard Kittle, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1964), 2:625–26.

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or reviling other angels. They have much greater strength and power
than the most powerful human being, yet they know better than to
engage in such practices. Certainly God’s holy angels cannot be just-
ly accused of not being involved in spiritual warfare, but for them,
as it should be for us, it is a question of being properly involved.
Jude 8–9, in a similar warning about false teachers, gives a spe-
cific example of this kind of incident. Jude uses almost identical lan-
guage when he notes that the false teachers “defile the flesh, and
reject authority, and revile angelic majesties” (v. 8). How do they
do that? He tells us that “Michael the archangel, when he disputed
with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare
pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord re-
buke you” (v. 9). This passage is telling us that even Michael, the
highest-ranking elect angel, would not rebuke the Devil; yet many
Christians today do it regularly. The text says “did not dare,” which
means that doing such a thing was so unthinkable for Michael that
he would not even come close to it. Michael did not even say what
we hear many people saying today: “I rebuke you, Devil, in the
name of the Lord!” Michael simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
Unlike many modern Christians, Michael knew that rebuking was a
prerogative of the Lord alone!
With not one but two warnings in Scripture against such prac-
tices, we must ask, “Why do so many Christians and Christian lead-
ers regularly engage in such practices?” Both passages give us the
answer: They are acting out of ignorance. “These, like unreasoning
animals, … reviling where they have no knowledge, …” (2 Peter
2:12). “These men revile the things which they do not understand
…” (Jude 10).
This verse is an example of ignorance of God’s Word leading
to wrong practice in the area of spiritual warfare. No wonder many
Christians are growing weary and dropping out of the battle! Many
of them are following leaders who are leading them on wild-goose
chases through beliefs and practices that open them to attacks from
the enemy rather than the advertised protection from the enemy. A
believer in Christ can develop true maturity only through genuine
biblical training, which teaches us to keep our eyes upon Christ and
not be preoccupied with the demonic powers.
Training for the Big Game
The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers who had trust-
ed Christ as their Savior. As time passed, some of them were starting

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to “drift away” (2:1) from Christ back into the comfort and familiar-
ity of Judaism. The writer of Hebrews demonstrates the error of this
thinking by showing that the old (Judaism) was merely temporary,
and he looked forward to the fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah. Jesus
the Messiah fulfilled the shadows of Old Testament ritual in His
ministry; therefore five warning passages are issued to the Jewish
readers, showing that if they grow impatient with Christ and His
work, a return to the old way will lead only to judgment because
they then have no Messiah who actually took away sin. After show-
ing that the new things in Christ are superior to the old things in
Judaism, the writer of Hebrews notes how the saints from the Old
Testament never received these promises in their lifetimes but faith-
fully continued in their trust of God (Heb. 11). By the time the writ-
er gets to Hebrews 12, he is telling the Hebrews, and us, that if their
brethren displayed such faith and endurance without having seen
Jesus the Messiah, their faith should be even greater because they,
and we, are able to look back to Jesus as our example. This fact forms
the context for understanding Hebrews 12.
A good friend of ours was a pro football player who was a starter
on a winning Super Bowl team. He told us how this is the ultimate
test for a pro athlete because the importance and national interest of
such a game provides a powerful incentive for any player to prepare
and perform at his best. A similar picture is painted in the first two
verses of Hebrews 12. The stands are packed with “so great a cloud
of witnesses surrounding us” (12:1), which are the Old Testament
saints from chapter 11. The players are readying themselves by lay-
ing “aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles
us” (12:1). The hindrances in the race are said to be sin generated by
each believer, not external demonic attacks. The resolve carried into
the contest consists of running the race “with endurance” (12:1).
The Christian life is not a sprint, but a marathon that requires
­endurance, which, in turn, requires training and resolve.
The Right Example
Hebrews 12:2 pictures the runner in the starting blocks fixing his
eyes on Jesus. On Jesus, not on Satan and the demonic powers!
Christ is our example because He has run the race before us and is
the model of how to run the race properly. Three things furnished
Christ’s motivation and should be ours as well. First, He emphasized
“the joy set before Him.” His orientation was not on the present
pain of the race but on the joy that would result when He finished

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the race. He was future-oriented, not present-oriented. Second, He
“endured the cross.” He did not let the suffering aspect of His mis-
sion knock Him out of the race because of His future orientation.
Third, He was “despising the shame.” The world viewed His death
as a shame, an embarrassment. But Christ despised that. When He
endured and finished the race, He “sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.” The glory comes after we have endured the pain of
the race; then we are able to sit down and receive the glory.
Next, we are told to “consider Him who has endured such hos-
tility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary
and lose heart” (12:3). Consider means “to contemplate, to think
about.” In context, it implies that we are to sit down and think
through a strategy that will enable us to run this race of endurance
successfully. How are we to develop the character and internal for-
titude to complete such a race? By modeling our own race strategy
after the one that Christ ran. There is a twofold purpose for this
plan. The first purpose is that we “may not grow weary” or become
discouraged. This often happens to a runner who starts a long race.
Early in the race, he begins to realize that it is going to be a long,
tough haul, and soon he becomes discouraged and begins to think
about dropping out of the race. The second purpose is that we might
not lose heart or suffer from low morale, which could also lead to
dropping out of the race.
Over the last few years, we have talked with many Christians
who have become discouraged with the “quick-fix” approaches to
spiritual warfare in which they were taught to rebuke Satan rather
than resist him to handle their problems. When this strategy didn’t
work, they become discouraged and dropped by the wayside. Often,
these people didn’t really want to quit the race; they simply had not
received the proper training or developed the kind of maturity and
character necessary to endure the tough battles. Their basic problem
was that they had been on a spiritual diet of ice cream and cookies,
and their exercise program had amounted to watching games on
television while relaxing in their easy chair.
Hebrews 12 goes on to speak of the need to develop discipline
and maturity in our lives if we are to complete the race properly,
as those in the stands have already done. This training “yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness” (12:11). Godly character takes time
to develop through practice and discipline.

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 Helping the Weak
When I (Thomas) was in Army boot camp, we often went on long
marches. Our goal was for the whole company to complete the
march successfully. If one man dropped out, then we did not com-
plete our mission; therefore, the strong were encouraged to help the
weak by carrying their packs or helping them make it to the finish
so that the company as a whole could make it to the finish line. Like-
wise, some Christians are stronger than others, and we are admon-
ished in the New Testament to help those within the body of Christ
who are weak. Repeatedly, the New Testament says that the cause
of their weakness is sin in the person’s life with which they have not
properly dealt. Such sin hinders a Christian’s spiritual development,
rendering him spiritually weak (Heb. 12:1).
The danger we face is growing weary in the struggle. The writer
to the Hebrews exhorts us to consider Jesus so that we will not grow
weary and lose heart. The Greek word for weary here occurs in two
other important passages, Revelation 2:3 and James 5:15. In both
the Hebrews and the Revelation passages, the word clearly is used
in contrast to endurance. The same is true in the James passage.
Unfortunately, the passage has traditionally been understood as
teaching something about healing physical sickness. We recognize
that this is a debated passage, but we believe that it—when properly
understood and applied—offers great hope to the believer whose
endurance is failing.
Can All Illness be Healed?
Many people have struggled with the traditional explanation of
James 5:13–16, which focuses on physical sickness. The reason for
this struggle is that verse 15, “the prayer offered in faith will restore
the one who is sick,” appears to be an unconditional promise but
often seems to be unfulfilled.
On July 7, 1952, my (Robert) mother was stricken with polio. I
was born less than a month later, and I have never seen my mother
walk. When I was a child, with the faith of a child, I regularly prayed
that God would heal her so that she could walk again. This prayer
was never answered. Later, I realized that God does not always an-
swer a prayer for healing. However, James 5:15, if it is talking about
physical disease, indicates that God will always heal. Another well-
known case of God’s not healing someone is that of Joni Eareckson
Tada. She writes that many Christians have prayed for her, anointed
her with oil, and laid hands on her, yet she is still a quadriplegic

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to the glory of God. In light of these and many other situations in
which God has not healed, we must be open to the possibility that
this passage might not be talking about physical healing at all, but
spiritual healing instead. We all recognize that many sick people for
whom we pray never recover and even die. Is this true because we
lack faith or because God is not faithful? Or could it be that the
sickness mentioned here is something other than physical illness?
The word translated “sick” in verse 14 (“Is anyone among you
sick?”) has two meanings in the Greek. At its root is the idea of
weakness. In some places, the weakness is physical (Matt. 10:8; Luke
4:40; John 4:46), and in other places the weakness is spiritual (Rom.
6:19; 8:26; 2 Cor. 12:5, 9–10). The context determines whether the
meaning is spiritual or physical. In James 5, two different Greek
words are translated “sick.” The first word is in verse 14 and trans-
lates the Greek asthenes. The next verse translates the Greek word
kamno as “sick.” Because kamno clearly means to be spiritually wea-
ry (Heb. 12:3; Rev. 2:3), we learn that James did not have in mind
physical weakness, but spiritual weakness.
This fact is further supported by the fact that the entire thrust of
James, especially this last chapter, is on patience (5:7–8, 10) and en-
durance (5:11). The example that James used to illustrate his point
is from the Old Testament, where Elijah persevered in his confron-
tation with Ahab (1 Kings 17:1). If James were talking about healing
a physical disease, that same chapter in 1 Kings provides a much
better illustration: Elijah’s restoring life to the widow’s son.
Excellent biblical grounds exist for understanding this passage
to be talking about what to do if and when a believer is growing
weary. First, he is to lean upon more mature believers and their
prayers. He is to call upon the elders to have them pray for him.
Furthermore, if there is sin in his life, sin that entangles him and
destroys his endurance, he is to confess that sin (James 5:16). The
result is that he be “healed.” Again we find that the original Greek
word used here is also found in our other endurance passage,
Hebrews 12, where we find the writer concluding his exhortation
to endurance by saying, “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are
weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your
feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but
rather be healed” (vv. 12–13). The context makes clear that the writ-
er is using a physical-healing figure of speech to describe what must
take place in the body of Christ when a brother or sister is weary

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of the s­ truggle: He must be lifted up, he must lean on the stronger
Christian, and he must be strengthened in his faith.
The Scriptures are consistent in stating that the solution to
struggle in the Christian life is based on prayer—a recognition of
our submission to God and reliance upon His strength rather than
our own strength. We must confess and turn from sin in our lives
as we move toward obedience to the truth. When we are weak, we
should cry out to God, as David did many times as recorded in the
psalms. We should also seek the counsel of more mature Christians
to encourage and help us along the way, as we have seen in James 5.
Patience in Action
As we have already seen, the Epistle of James has much to say about
patience and endurance. James begins his letter with the admoni-
tion to be joyful through trials because this produces endurance in
the life of the faithful believer (1:2–4). Toward the end of the epistle,
James returns to the theme of endurance or patience and cites three
examples of patient endurance needed to handle our trials (5:7–11).
Some of us may be happy to know that there are limits on how long
believers are expected to patiently endure; we must only be patient
“until the coming [rapture] of the Lord” (5:7). After that event, the
race is over, and patience and endurance will no longer be required
of Christians.
The first example of patient endurance is illustrated by the
farmer who has to wait on rain for his crop to grow into a harvest
(James 5:7–8). Then the Old Testament prophets are presented as
“an example, brethren, of suffering and patience … who spoke in
the name of the Lord” (5:10). These men had to suffer during their
lifetime for giving a prophecy that would not be fulfilled in their
lifetime. This act took patient endurance.
James also reminds us, “You have heard of the endurance of Job
and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is
full of compassion and is merciful” (5:11). Job had to trust God to
vindicate him and bless him even though he was engaged in one of
the most severe attacks from Satan in the history of the world. So
the life of Job is a model of a believer handling a satanic attack with
endurance and patience. Now let’s look at what occasioned Satan’s
encounter with Job.

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 The Patience of Job
When I (Thomas) was a teenager, a group of us would pile into a
car and go cruising. This activity is still common for many young
­people who are looking for potential excitement. In the first chapter
of Job, the Bible tells us that Satan does some cruising of his own and
that God gives even Satan access to His presence (Job 1:6). Much of
Satan’s time is spent cruising the earth looking for Christians who
do not know how to resist Him by submitting to divine authority.
When God asked Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan re-
plied, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on
it” (1:7). The Hebrew word translated “roaming” is used to describe
the way a lion roams an area looking for his prey. When the lion
locates a potential victim, he stalks his prey and, at just the right
time, moves in for the kill. This is the same description used to
explain Satan’s activities when the Lord asked him about a certain
individual, Job. “Have you considered My servant Job?” the Lord
challenged. Apparently Satan had, because he shot back, “Does Job
fear God for nothing?” Today we might say something like, “He’s
only in it for the money.” But to demonstrate that Job served God
because he loved God for who He is and not just for the benefits that
Sugar Daddy provides, God allowed Satan to attack Job to such a
severe degree that the very name Job has become synonymous with
­undeserved suffering.
The Apostle Peter must have had the Job passage in mind when
the Holy Spirit moved him to picture Satan, the Devil, as one who
“prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”
(1 Peter 5:8). What did Peter prescribe for the believer in light of
Satan’s persistent harassments? We are to be persistent in our fight
against him. Peter says that the hard times through which Satan
puts us do not result in aid to Satan’s cause; instead, godly resis-
tance to Satan produces Christlike character and maturity, giving a
­battle-tested stability to our lives (vv. 9–11).
Response for Persevering Believers
How does Peter instruct a Christian to react to Satan’s attacks? Not
by talking about how we are going to run the Devil out of town or
give him a black eye. Rather, Scripture says that we are to resist him
(1 Peter 5:9). James 4:7 and Ephesians 6:11, 13–14 repeat this com-
mand. This is what the Bible specifically and repeatedly says is to be
our strategy when Satan attacks us. Scripture does not tell us to de-
velop from experience a formula of rebuking, binding, insulting, or

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arguing with Satan and the demonic powers. Instead, we are to fol-
low God’s explicit instructions on this issue. By habitually following
God’s Word, we will see the Lord bring stability and character into
our lives, including the type of endurance that we need to engage in
spiritual warfare without fainting in the day of battle.

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 11
WAR’S END
I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key
of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid
hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and
Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and threw
him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so
that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the
thousand years were completed.
Revelation 20:1–3

After Satan led his rebellion against God, during which he recruited
one-third of the angels and all of humankind, God launched a coun-
terattack. He enlisted believers from Adam’s descendants, those
whom He has called out from the darkness of their sin to be a part of
His coming kingdom. The battle, which involves the eternal destiny
of humanity, is moving rapidly toward its grand climax. Although
Satan and his minions are a defeated foe as a result of Christ’s work
on the Cross, the war still rages. Some of the hottest battles are yet
to come. How will the war end, and what significance does that hold
for believers today?
The Two-Stage Conquest
God’s victory over Satan is being worked out historically in two
stages. Stage one was accomplished on the Cross. At that time, Sa-
tan’s defeat was ensured, his destiny certain. But defeated though he
was, he still has power to operate, so much so that he is still called
the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). His ultimate defeat will be ac-
complished in stage two during the second coming of Christ. At this
time, Satan will be defeated and bound in the bottomless pit for one
thousand years, after which he will be released for a short while,
only to be defeated again and thrown into the lake of fire for eternity
(Rev. 20:1–3, 10).
Because we live in the interim between stages one and two
called the church age, we must determine what our strategy toward

175
Satan should be. We have seen that in the current church age we, as
believers, are to engage in spiritual warfare defensively by standing
against Satan. We do so solely on the basis of our position in Christ,
which Christ gained for us at His first coming, when His humili-
ation brought about the forgiveness of our sins. Ultimate victory
will be accomplished at His second coming when, in glory, He will
sweep Satan and his demons from the field of battle and remove
them from the realm of human activity. Meanwhile, Christians
are to remain faithful in their defensive position, standing firm in
the faith.
The defensive posture toward Satan and his demons appears to
have been part of God’s plan for His creatures even before the fall of
man. God told Adam to subdue and rule over the earth (Gen. 1:26),
not the heavens. When God placed man in the Garden, He told him
to cultivate and keep the garden (Gen. 2:15). Many Bible scholars
have pointed out that the word for “keep” (shamar) includes the idea
of guarding. The implication is that Adam was to guard against an
intrusion, which we know from Genesis 3 was Satan. As God’s crea-
ture, man has always been in the position of defending himself with
God’s Word. Apparently, for a creature to go on the offensive against
Satan is to usurp a divine prerogative that is reserved for God alone.
The creature’s posture is trust in God by taking a defensive stance.
Wrong Strategy
The last decade has seen the rise of many people teaching that the
church of Jesus Christ is to take up an offensive strategy against Sa-
tan and the demonic powers before Christ returns. This error is the
result of a poor understanding of God’s purpose for both this age
and the age to come and is a failure to distinguish the threefold as-
pect of Satan’s defeat. From the earliest times in history, Satan has
attempted to deceive God’s people into doing something that is good
(in this case, launching an offensive attack against Satan and the
demonic powers) but engaging in it wrongly or prematurely. Satan
tempted Adam and Eve with a promise of knowledge, something
that they would have received from God anyway had they not been
arrogant and presumptuous. However, they believed that they could
have it on their own terms, and this assumption resulted in humani-
ty being cast into sin. Satan later tempted Christ unsuccessfully with
the kingdoms of this world, something that Christ will end up with
anyway (Rev. 11:15).

176
 In a military briefing, I (Thomas) was once told that the Russian
offensive strategy was to attack in three waves. The first wave would
strike, initiating the attack. The second and third waves were held
in reserve, waiting for the time when the battle would become fierce
and the momentum of the attack was being slowed. Because of our
inferior numbers, we Americans have countered with a strategy that
is designed to make the Russians think prematurely that they have
met large pockets of resistance that necessitate deployment of their
second and third waves. This strategy of premature deployment is
designed to trick the Russians into expending their energy and re-
sources in fighting a phantom enemy. Then, when they have spent
themselves, the Americans can move in and exact a fatal blow. This
strategy is similar to what Satan is attempting to do to Christians
who try to go on the offensive before our General—Jesus Christ—
has decided on such a plan.
When Satan tricks Christians into expending their time and en-
ergy in wrong directions, he has achieved a temporary victory, and
that is why it is important to know how the war will conclude. It will
terminate during the final seven years of history (the Tribulation)
with a series of the most spectacular events the world will ever see.
Part of those events will include both direct combat between Jesus
Christ and Satan and battles between the holy angels and the de-
mons. Jesus Christ will be victorious. Only by understanding this
fact can we live effectively as Christians today and avoid being
duped by Satan into premature deployment. As believers, we must
not fall into the trap (as many people within the church are doing
today) of substituting Satan’s strategy for God’s plan.
Two major errors are being advocated today that often lead to
improper strategies in spiritual warfare. The first error relates to the
means of our spiritual warfare, which we have already discussed at
length. The second error relates to the timing of Christ’s ultimate
victory, which we will explain in the rest of this chapter.
Binding Satan and Demons?
In chapter 6, we dealt extensively with this error, but we will men-
tion it again further to drive home the point that this is an error
relating to both timing and means. First, the time when Satan and
the demons will be bound is in the future, not in the present, as Rev-
elation 20:2 tells us: “He laid hold of … Satan, and bound him for a
thousand years.” The Bible describes our current strategy as resist-
ing Satan (Eph. 6:11; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9). Second, God will not be

177
using believers to round up Satan and put him out of commission
by binding. Instead, the means that God will use is stated clearly
in Revelation 20:1, where it says that “an angel coming down from
heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand”
will do the honors. Therefore, the idea that believers have removed
Satan and his demon armies from spheres of influence because they
have prayed for Satan’s binding is unbiblical.
Inherited Curses?
This error of timing misinterprets Scripture from a past era and
wrongly applies it to present circumstances. It is the view that oc-
cult powers or curses are passed from parent to child. Those who
advocate this view usually quote Exodus 20:5: “You shall not wor-
ship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third
and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” Proponents of
this view believe that if a parent’s or grandparent’s curse or occult
power is not specifically uncovered and removed by renouncing
it, a Christian can be oppressed by such a past curse which would
­include “demonization.”54
For at least two reasons this view is an inaccurate interpreta-
tion and application of the passage. First, when a person becomes a
Christian, he is delivered from all of his sins, including occult sin,
because a Christian cannot be demon possessed. The Bible does not
recognize occult sin as a special category of sin that has not been dealt
with by the Cross. Remember, everyone is born under the authority
of Satan (Col. 1:13) and has Satan working through him (Eph. 2:2).
Second, it is wrong to assume that Exodus 20:5 refers to God’s “visit-
ing the iniquity of the fathers on the children” because of inheritance
rather than because each successive generation decides to follow in
the footsteps of their parents. Ezekiel 18:2–20 says that God curses
each Israelite individual for his own sins and not specifically be-
cause of something that his ancestors might have done. God specif-
ically states in verse 4 that “all souls are Mine; the soul of the father
as well as the soul of the son is Mine.” God goes on to state that if the
son does right, in contrast to the parents’ sins, including occult sins,
then “he shall surely live.”
This kind of “I-inherited-it-from-my-parents” view is also a
popular explanation for all kinds of aberrant behavior within many
54C. Fred Dickason, Demon Possession and the Christian (Chicago: Moody, 1987),
162–63.

178
Christian psychology circles as well. It is used to avoid personal re-
sponsibility and to explain mental and emotional disease, chronic
sickness, all sorts of female problems from miscarriage to premen-
strual syndrome, marriage and financial problems, and rebellious
teenagers. But the idea that a Christian might have to be delivered
specifically from a curse or occult power that salvation in Christ has
not covered is not found in Scripture. In fact, not one example exists
in the entire Bible of a saved person being under a satanic curse that
had to be broken by Christian exorcism or distinct confession. The
only curses that the Bible treats as effective are those uttered by God.
This attempt to shift responsibility for current failures to someone
else is reminiscent of Adam’s attempt to shift to Eve the blame for
his sin.
The passages used to support generational cursing derive from
the Old Testament (Exod. 20:4–7; 34:6–7; Num. 14:17–19; Deut.
5:7–10) and are all directed to Israel. In the context, these curses
are part of the cursing and blessing pronouncements in the Mosaic
Covenant directed to Israel. Those who obeyed God would be
blessed; those who violated the covenant would be disciplined, or
“cursed.” Because these statements applied only to Israel under the
Old Covenant, these curses have no application today (Rom. 7:1–6;
10:4; Gal. 3:19; 3:24–4:7). Furthermore, because these curses derive
from God as discipline on the disobedient, we know that the way to
avoid the wrath of God is through faith in Christ (Rom. 5:8).
The nature of the curses in the Mosaic Law was to recognize
that parents pass on certain traits and teach patterns of life to their
children. When parents have rejected Christ and mire themselves
in paganism, idolatry, and the occult, they teach these sins to their
children. The result is the transfer of rebellion from one genera-
tion to another. But this fact does not remove from the subsequent
generation their own responsibility for sin. In fact, the Bible teach-
es just the opposite. No matter what false religion is passed on by
one generation to another, the children decide to accept or reject
it. They are punished (“cursed”) for their own decision to follow
the rebellious path of their parents. Jewish expositor Umberto
Cassuto speaks strongly against the possibility of this “ancestral
­principle” ­interpretation.
In regard to the fearful threat of punishment that will
be inflicted upon the children and children’s children,
various apologetic interpretations have been advanced,
which it is not possible to accept. It has been s­ uggested,

179
 for example, that we should see here an allusion to the
transmission of parental qualities to the character of
the children and children’s children, but this is merely a
modernization of the verse; … The difficulty exists, how-
ever, only for those who overlook the fact that the verse,
in its simple signification, is directed to the entire na-
tion as a single entity in time throughout its generations.
Since a man, and particularly an Israelite, grieves over
the tribulation of his children and grandchildren not
less? nay, even more? than over his own affliction, the
Bible issues a warning, so as to keep man far from sin,
that in the course of the nation’s life it is possible that the
children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences
of the iniquities of their father and grandfather.55

This concept of the transfer of curses or demons is prevalent

within animistic religions but not biblical Christianity.
This doctrine … rests on the assumption that our vul-
nerability to demonic influence derives from physical
or symbolic contacts or contiguity with some object,
word, or person rather than on moral, spiritual and doc-
trinal grounds—an assumption which is at the heart of
magic and animism—but which biblical Christianity
­nowhere propagates.56

Other deliverance teachers claim that any Christian with an oc-

cult past must specifically renounce those sins, or he will not be free.
In other words, salvation is not enough; there must also be a sepa-
rate, post-salvation deliverance from pre-salvation occult sins. Yet,
if this is true, then Christ’s work is not sufficient, and salvation does
not truly break the tyranny of the sin nature (Rom. 6:6–7; 17–18). If
their position were true, then we would need to specifically go back
and name all our sins in order to be saved. But this is completely
55 Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, 1967), 243; See also C. F. Keil and Franz Delitsch, “The Pentateuch,” vol. 1 of
Commentary on the Old Testament (1875; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975),
116–17.
56 Robert J. Priest, Thomas Campbell, and Bradford A. Mullen, “Missiological

Syncretism: The New Animistic Paradigm,” (paper read at the annual meeting of
the Evangelical Missiological Society, Chicago, III.: November 17–19, 1994), 22.
Quoted in, David G. Moore and Robert A. Pyne “Neil Anderson’s Approach to the
Spiritual Life,” Bibliotheca Sacra 153, no. 609 (January 1996): 82.

180
contrary to the entire teaching of Scripture that Christ died for all
sin—past, present, and future—and that every believer is delivered
from all of his sins at the instant of salvation.
Those who teach the ancestral inheritance principle quite nat-
urally and logically also teach that a post-salvation deliverance is
necessary in order for the believer to really be free from the impact
of one’s ancestral past. However, the idea that a Christian might
have to be delivered specifically from a curse or occult power which
salvation in Christ would not have taken care of is not found or
implied anywhere in Scripture. This notion is even more far-fetched
when one considers the fact that the individual did not even com-
mit the sin. In fact, there is not one example in the entire Bible of
a saved person being under a satanic curse, which had to be “bro-
ken” by Christian exorcism or distinct confession. On the other
hand, one example of demonic deliverance by Christ in the New
Testament seems to imply that the ancestral inheritance principle is
totally off base.
John 9 records the incident of Jesus healing a man who was
born blind. Apparently, Christ’s disciples believed wrongly that the
man’s blindness was a result of the sin of his parents, just as many
people wrongly believe today. Perhaps those Jews two thousand
years ago misinterpreted the same passages that are being cited in
our own day to come to their false conclusion. Notice the dialogue
in John 9:2–3: “And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who
sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’ Jesus
answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but
it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”
Regarding this “curses” approach, Dr. John Hannah makes the
following perceptive comment:
Christians do face demonic opposition, for which God
has provided the appropriate spiritual armor (Ephesians
6:10ff.). We must put it on and utilize it to the fullest ex-
tent. However, we do not need some additional proce-
dure for dealing with evil curses, for which there is no
scriptural warrant. This is a mixture of Christianity with
Zoroastrianism, Eastern mysticism, and black magic
voodoo). We do well to remember the old fable of the
“tar baby and the rabbit’’!57

57John David Hannah, “The ‘Curses’ Syndrome—An Evaluation,” unpublished

paper delivered at the Evangelical Minister’s Fellowship, Houston, Texas, Spring,

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 Dominion Theology
The 1980s witnessed the rise of the idea that because we are now in
the kingdom, we should take dominion over Christ’s enemies, in
essence running them out of town.58 This thinking has been around
for a long time, but it has become dominant in many circles today.
This error stems from the wrong view that we are currently in the
kingdom/millennium instead of the church age. Once again, pro-
ponents of this view confuse the characteristics of the future with
those of the present. Those who hold this view suggest that because
Satan and the demons will be gone during the kingdom, the church’s
responsibility is to take the offensive and “run them out of town.”
They tell us that if we will do this, territories that have been un-
der the control of demons and evil spirits will be liberated, and this
result will greatly facilitate evangelism, social reform, and godly
­political progress.
This view could be viewed as something similar to Christian
“ghost busters.” If there is something weird in your neighborhood
and if you know the right group to call, you can exterminate your
neighborhood of demons and evil spirits. With the Devil and his
crowd out of town, then you can get down to the important busi-
ness of solving the world’s problems. Whatever happened to sim-
ply preaching the gospel and trusting God the Holy Spirit to do
His work?
The April 1990 issue of Charisma magazine featured cover sto-
ries on how to defeat “territorial spirits.” John Dawson, author of a
new book, Taking Our Cities for God, contributed an article titled
“Winning the Battle for Your Neighborhood: How you can drive
away the demon forces now dominating the streets where you
live.’’59 Steven Lawson wrote on the subject “Defeating Territorial
Spirits: Battles against evil spiritual forces controlling our cities can
be waged and won.’’60 Lawson gave many examples of dealing with

1985, 3.
58 For critiques of these movements, see H. Wayne House and Thomas Ice, Domin-
ion Theology: Blessing or Curse? (Portland: Multnomah, Press, 1988); Hal Lindsey,
The Road to Holocaust (New York: Bantam Books, 1989); Dave Hunt, Whatev-
er Happened to Heaven? (Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House, 1988); and Albert James
Dager, Vengeance is Ours: The Church in Dominion (Sword Publishers, 1990).
59 John Dawson, “Winning the Battle for Your Neighborhood: How you can drive

away the demon forces now dominating the streets where you live,” Charisma,
April 1990, 57.
60 Steven Lawson, “Defeating Territorial Spirits: Battles against evil spiritual forces

controlling our cities can be waged and won,” Charisma, April 1990, 47.

182
territorial spirits, usually along the lines that a Christian ministry
was ineffective in a particular area until the Christians tuned in
to the fact that territorial demons were in control. Once they did
prayer battle, they were able to identify these strongholds and force
the demons to give up their territory. They allege that this action
resulted in the outbreak of spiritual revival.
C. Peter Wagner of Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission
sees the defeating of territorial spirits as central to fulfilling Christ’s
Great Commission. Wagner suggests that certain countries, such as
Japan, that have had a low response rate to the gospel compared
with similar countries could be bound by territorial spirits. If some
brave soul could discern the location and nature of these spirits and
break their stronghold, then such action could lead to a harvest of
souls in Japan.61
Although it is certainly true that the demonic realm has within
it a form of organization (Eph. 6:12), it does not follow from this
fact or any other biblical evidence that demons can interfere with
our sovereign God’s work of evangelism. God can save His elect
through the preaching of the gospel no matter what the spiritual
climate. He is sovereign! In addition, the idea that we can run these
so-called “territorial demons” out of town is based on an error in
timing. This kind of offensive tactic is invalid during the church age,
which is a time when God is “taking from among the Gentiles a
people for His name” (Acts 15:14). The offensive defeat of Satan and
the demonic powers is something that awaits the end times and will
be accomplished not by Christians but by Christ Himself and His
holy angels.
This kind of dominion teaching impatiently confuses God’s
defensive strategy for believers during this age with the offensive
­strategy of Christ and His angels during the age to come.
Restoration Teaching
Another teaching derived from dominion theology is the idea that
the Lord cannot and will not return until the body of Christ has
reached some kind of unity, which will contribute to increased pow-
er within the church, thereby leading to the greatest revival that the
world has ever seen. Sometimes related to these views is the idea
that Christians must submit to certain leaders and their teachings so
that they will have phenomenal power and influence when apostolic
61C. Peter Wagner and F. Douglas Pennoger, eds., Wrestling with Dark Angels
(Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1990), 89.

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Christianity is restored and the revival of the “latter rain” begins,
probably in the early decade of the new century.
Many of these teachings sprang up in the late 1940s through
Pentecostals such as Franklin Hall and William Branham, and they
were disseminated from meetings held at Sharon Orphanage and
Schools in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in early 1948. The lead-
ing Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God, declared
these and other teachings stemming from that source to be heresy,
and the movement died down for a while. But in the recent years
many bits and pieces of these teachings are rising to the surface like
scum on a pond.62
Many of the teachings are based upon alleged revelations re-
ceived by various leaders in the movement, who are considered to
be prophets and apostles. Unfortunately, when they try to support
their views from Scripture, they repeatedly take passages that refer
to God’s unfulfilled future restoration and blessing of Israel in the
last days and wrongly apply it to the church. Acts 3:19–21 is an ex-
ample of their misunderstanding of the timing for the fulfillment
of that passage. Shortly after the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached
a second major sermon to the Jews in Jerusalem showing that Jesus
was their promised Messiah. He concluded with an explanation that
only when Israel (not the church) received Jesus as their Messiah
would the promised kingdom come:
Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped
away, in order that times of refreshing may come from
the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the
Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive un-
til the period of restoration of all things about which God
spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ­ancient time
(Acts 3:19–21).
Certain key phrases must be properly understood in the con-
text in which Peter spoke them. “Times of refreshing” (v. 19) is a
description of the millennial kingdom promised to Israel in the
Old Testament. This time would come when Israel accepted their
Messiah (Matt. 23:37–39; Zech. 12:10). The “period of restoration of
all things” (Acts 3:21) is a term used by the Old Testament proph-
ets to refer to the restoration of Israel at the end times (Jer. 15:19;

62 See Albert James Dager, “Latter-Day Prophets: The Kansas City Connection,”
Media Spotlight (1990). See also Thomas Ice, “What is Dominion Theology?” Bibli-
cal Perspectives 1, no. 3 (May–June 1988).

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16:15; 24:6; 50:19; Ezek. 16:55; Hos. 11:11). Nowhere does the Bible
speak of the church ever being restored. The Bible reveals noth-
ing of a great revival, a latter-day rainstorm that will be produced
by a “perfected” body of Christ or some kind of restoration of a
“­super-spiritual” brand of Christianity shortly before Christ’s sec-
ond coming. The New Testament does not comment directly one
way or the other about an increased or decreased rate of conversion
at any point in the church age. However, it does teach that there will
be increasing apostasy as the age progresses (2 Tim. 3:1–17), hardly
an environment that is produced by a church in revival!
Much of the false teaching related to the restoration-and-over-
comer concepts lies behind the contemporary teaching about spiri-
tual warfare. This teaching often revolves around the theme that you
need the special insights that a given teacher or ministry espouses to
defeat Satan and the demonic powers so that you can become one of
God’s special end-time warriors.
Colossians 2:18 warns believers about getting involved in “the
worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, in-
flated without cause by his fleshly mind.” Because we are in a spir-
itual warfare with the demonic powers, we must take seriously the
Bible’s sober warnings against falling prey to false doctrine that is
being propagated by “false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising
themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Cor. 11:13). True biblical dis-
cernment is an essential ingredient for Christians who desire to
grow to spiritual maturity and be champions for Jesus Christ.
Doctrines of Demons
Paul warns believers in 1 Timothy 4:1,
The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall
away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits
and doctrines of demons.
What does the term later times mean? It very likely refers to the
“later times” of the current church age. Notice that Paul did not say
“in these last days,” as the writer of Hebrews did to refer to the whole
church age (1:2). Paul used a different expression to convey the clear
idea that the Holy Spirit is talking about the “later times” of the cur-
rent church age. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is giving a dual warning
for the church in our day: first, not to “fall away from the faith,” and
second, do not pay “attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of
demons.” We have already called attention to the problem of aposta-
sy in the church today. The second warning is especially interesting

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in light of the fact that those within the church who depart from the
faith are said to be especially open to demonic teachings.
We think that it is significant that both biblical terms for the de-
monic realm are used in this verse: spirits and demons. A clear con-
trast is drawn between what the Holy Spirit is saying explicitly and
what “deceitful spirits” and “demons” are saying. The Holy Spirit’s
teaching that the “later times” will be characterized by apostasy in
the church is strengthened by the addition of the term explicitly, so
that there is no mistaking what He is trying to say. However, many
people today in these “later times” who repeat this Spirit-inspired
warning about the increase in apostasy are accused of being nega-
tive, polemic, and divisive and of obstructing the work of the Holy
Spirit. Yet, simultaneously, these critics are teaching concepts that
can be proved from the Bible to be error. This passage would lead us
to believe that they are “paying attention to deceitful spirits and doc-
trines of demons.” “Deceitful spirits” are the agents that Satan uses
to generate these teachings, which are then described as “­doctrines
of demons”—that is, doctrines that come from demons.
The Tragedy of Spiritism
This problem is illustrated in the life of King Saul in the Old Testa-
ment (1 Sam. 28). Early during his reign as the king of Israel, Saul
disobeyed God and strayed from the faith. God withdrew the min-
istry of the Holy Spirit, which gave to the king of Israel guidance and
direction to know God’s will in important matters of governing the
nation. When Samuel died, Saul no longer had access to God’s guid-
ance for the nation. Toward the end of Saul’s life, he wanted to know
whether he should engage in a battle with one of Israel’s enemies,
but God would not speak to him. In his distraught condition, Saul
turned from God and His clear warning in the Law not to consult
mediums (Deut. 18:10–12), and he visited a medium in Endor so
that he could consult with Samuel. The next day, God killed Saul
and his sons in battle as a result of Saul’s resorting to spiritism.
Too many people today are engaging in a form of “spiritual war-
fare” that involves carrying on conversations and discussions with
demons. In fact, some such people are teaching as fact information
that they have learned from demonic sources, whether explicitly
from a demonic statement or implicitly from the way they operated.
Some people are being told the names of demons, the hierarchical
order of demons, and how many and which demons ­supposedly rule

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over certain territories.63 Other examples of information learned
from demons sometimes include what the demon is doing, why he
is inhabiting a particular person, his intents and purposes, and gen-
eral conversations. Because demons are liars and deceivers, how can
anyone ever trust anything a demon would say? To engage in such
practice is to come close to being involved in spiritism.
Walter Martin described spiritism as “the masquerade of de-
monic forces, who pretend to be departed spirits with the intent of
deceiving through the power of Satan those foolish enough to be-
lieve the testimony of demons in preference to the authority of the
Word of God Himself.’’64 Because spiritism involves unauthorized
communication with demons, this abomination is a very real pos-
sibility for those who are practicing the new spiritual warfare. This
approach seems twice as risky in light of the many biblical warnings
for believers to stay away from such things (Exod. 22:18; Lev. 19:26,
31; 20:6, 27; Deut. 18:9–12; Isa. 8:19).
Demonic Dangers
Many of the current teachings on spiritual warfare promise great
benefits to the church if they are followed. They promise a great
hope in the area of evangelism—the greatest ingathering of souls in
the history of the church. They also promise believers greater free-
dom and increased spiritual power. Unfortunately and tragically,
when these teachings are examined in the light of Scripture, this
new spiritual warfare seems closer to fitting the description of the
final apostasy during the end times of the church age. In addition,
the new spiritual-warfare theology increasingly appears to fit the
description of the false religious system headed by the false prophet
in the coming Tribulation. Apparently, Satan and his demons are
giving many advocates of the new spiritual warfare the types of
“power” experiences they are seeking as a means to deceive them.
Because these advocates tend to emphasize only the demonic realm
(and that from a false perspective), they are open to Satan’s attacks in
the realm of the flesh and, especially because of lack of d
­ iscernment,
the influence of the world system and its false teachings.
The apostasy of the last times during the church age leads up
to and helps prepare the world for the coming false religion during
the Tribulation. As we look at some of the passages describing

63Wagner and Pennoger, Wrestling with Dark Angels, 76, 84–5.

64Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship,
1965), 199–200.

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c­ haracteristics of this final deception, many aspects of the new spir-
itual warfare apparently are increasingly similar to the character-
istics of this coming false religion. Notice that these attributes that
we are about to list could be called “occult sins.” The false teachers
are not noted for wanting to take away from the Word of God by
denying God’s Word, as evil as that error is, but for wanting to add
to Scripture in the name of the Lord.
In Matthew 7:21–23 our Lord says, “Not everyone who says to
Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (v. 21a). This
statement is followed by the response of the people who are con-
demned, who boasted of three activities that they thought should
qualify them to go to heaven: “Did we not prophesy in Your name,
and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform
many miracles?” (v. 22). These are the very areas in which the new
spiritual warfare claims achievements and are major emphases
in many of the teachings found within the new spiritual-warfare
movement. However, our Lord’s sobering reply was a command to
depart from Him because “I never knew you” (v. 23). According
to Christ, true spirituality is evidenced not by power signs but by
­genuine Christian character (v. 20).
In 2 Corinthians 11:13–15, Paul warns believers that Satan
and his demons are subtle and seductive in their dealings with
Christians. Demons are able to disguise themselves as angels of light
and servants of righteousness. Many people who are involved in the
new spiritual-warfare movement give lip service to this notion, but
they seem open to information learned from any experience with
the supernatural realm or any person who claims to speak in the
name of the Lord no matter how much his teachings and lifestyle
differ from those of the Bible.
The Final Apostasy
The apostasy of the last days is not a failure to believe in miracles.
Instead, the apostasy will be characterized by an unbiblical empha-
sis on the miraculous and supernatural. A passage that describes
this phenomenon is 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12. Paul states that the fu-
ture deception will include the following demonic activities. There
will be a false spirit or message or letter (v. 2); there will be decep-
tion (vv. 3, 10); the deception will be persuasive because of the ac-
tivity of Satan, which includes all power (miracles) and signs and
false ­wonders (v. 9); and God will send a deluding influence (v. 11).

188
 Matthew 24:24 describes the Tribulation as a time to be on
the lookout for “false Christs and false prophets,” who “will arise
and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possi-
ble, even the elect.” Notice that these false signs and wonders are
called “great,” which means that they are highly impressive displays.
However, their purpose is to mislead, not to edify.
Revelation 13 includes a description of the religious false proph-
et who performs “great signs” (v. 13), which includes the ability to
deceive “those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which
it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast” (v. 14).
This kind of occult power will be impressive to those who are not
biblically discerning and who think that just because something is
miraculous it must be of God.
The book of Revelation describes the major reason for rejecting
Christ during the coming Tribulation consists primarily of occult
sins, including the worship of demons and idols as well as sorcery
(9:20–21). In 16:14, we see “spirits of demons, performing signs,
which go out to the kings of the whole world.” Babylon the great is
said to be “a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean
spirit” in 18:2. The world during the Tribulation will be preoccupied
with Satan and the demonic realm, but believers are supposed to be
preoccupied with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Victory with Christ
The Bible teaches that Christ Himself will gain the final victory over
Satan at His Second Coming. Scripture also tells us that upon His
return, the saints will rule with Him in victory. This fact is made
especially clear in the seven letters to the churches in Revelation
chapters 2 and 3. These letters are written to church-age believers
and contain specific commendations that will be the basis for fu-
ture rewards. Even here, the Christian is seen as resisting the evil
generated by Satan and the demonic powers by remaining true to
the Lord in a defensive posture. Spirituality in the sight of God is
measured by transformed thinking and character, not by metaphys-
ical power. The eternal rewards and positions of leadership are given
on the basis of achieving true victory over the enemy by remaining
faithful to the Lord’s Word.
Revelation 2:25–27 is typical of what the Lord expects of His
children. In Thyatira, believers are expected to “hold fast until I
come” (v. 25). When Christ returns, He will take believers to rule
over the nations with Him (v. 26). This event is still in the future, but

189
future status is gained through present faithfulness to God and His
Word. Revelation 3:21 offers a similar promise to Christians.
The war will end with Christ Himself exercising victory over
Satan and the demonic powers. What a glorious victory that will be!
But we must not get trapped into thinking that we can experience
that victory in this age. In the current church age, the believer is
called to evangelism and spiritual warfare on a threefold front: the
world, the flesh, and the Devil. We are not to take dominion but
to stand firm. We are not to run the Devil out of town but to resist
him. As believers in Christ, we are called upon to resist the Devil
by focusing upon Christ until He returns from heaven and takes
us home.

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 12
SUCCESSFUL SAINTS
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put
on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand
firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:10–12

I (Thomas) recently heard a nationally known televangelist preach

a sermon. He began by looking fiercely into the camera and saying,
“I rebuke you, Satan, and bind you by the blood!” I took out a piece
of paper and divided it in half. Every time the televangelist made
a reference to Satan and demons, I noted it; every time he talked
about Christ, I noted that, too. It turned out that his sermon was
not supposed to be about Satan but about the Christian life, yet this
televangelist mentioned Satan and the demonic realm about twice
as often as he did our Lord Jesus Christ!
This kind of preoccupation with Satan is becoming all too com-
mon in Christian circles today. We certainly believe that demonic
activity is real and should be taken seriously. In fact, we have written
this book precisely because the Bible takes this subject seriously and
gives specific instructions for dealing with the Devil. Our goal is to
help the church of Jesus Christ look upon spiritual warfare from the
perspective of God’s infallible Word and not from the perspective of
rationalism or experience.
The Bible views spiritual warfare as a conflict that is fought on
three fronts: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Unfortunately, the
common practice today is to major on Satan and demons while ne-
glecting the other two fronts. We have seen that the enemy within—
the flesh, the sin nature—is just as evil as and is to be taken just as
seriously as the worst demon from hell. Christians tend to be weak-
est in understanding how Satan influences them through his use of

191
the world’s thought system. It is in these areas of confrontation that
believers must be especially on their guard.
The New Testament gives us a specific strategy for handling the
attacks of the Devil, whether by land (the flesh), sea (the demonic
realm), or air (the world). This biblical framework is more than suf-
ficient to equip us to resist Satan and to stand firm while enduring
through prayer.
On this basis, we can understand how to handle some of the
situations that we noted in the opening chapter. You might want to
read them again to refresh your memory about the details involved
and the questions raised.
Answers to the Questions
In answer to the first question, pressures in life should be dealt
with by realizing that Christians should act responsibly in every sit-
uation. If we succumb to the pressures of the moment because of
self-absorption, self-indulgence, self-pity or other invalid reasons,
we will never develop the type of resistance to the temptations of
the sin nature and the thought systems of the world that we need to
please the Lord. First Corinthians 10:13 assures us,
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common
to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be
tempted beyond what you are able, but with the tempta-
tion will provide the way of escape also, that you may be
able to endure it.
Sue was not looking to the Lord for deliverance from the situ-
ation. She had adopted the worldly thinking of arrogance that she
was entitled to certain pleasures even if it meant financial irrespon-
sibility. All too many people have perpetuated ungodly habits by
saying each time, “Just one more time.”
In the second example, José and Maria are to be commended
for wanting to see friends and relatives come to faith in Christ. One
can hardly pray too much, but it is possible to pray wrongly and
for the wrong things. God has made clear in His Word that Satan
and the demons will not be run out of town or from the earth until
Christ and His angels accomplish this feat at the Second Coming.
José and Maria should not be misled into thinking that we must
sterilize an environment of the demonic powers before God can
save people or bring revival. Christ’s strongest language during His
earthly ministry was directed against “fine, church-going people,”
who were just as blinded by Satan as were demon-possessed people.

192
Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, “You are of your father the
devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44). All
unsaved people are in a sense equally blinded by Satan (Eph. 2:2).
God uses the same dynamics to save all people who are deeply into
sin; He has no special gospel or unique approach for those who are
demon possessed.
Because Julia was a Christian, she could not be demon pos-
sessed. Satan and demons can influence a believer but not against
the individual’s will. Demons can tempt and exert influence, but
each believer ultimately makes his or her own decision whether
to sin or to resist. Flip Wilson’s famous statement “The devil made
me do it” is biblically incorrect when it is applied to believers. The
quick-fix solutions that deliverance practitioners offer sound allur-
ing, especially if we have struggled for a long time over a particu-
lar sin. However, this is not the biblical way to solve problems. A
believer in this situation usually just needs to keep learning scrip-
tural principles, applying them consistently, walking by means of
the Holy Spirit, and growing in his Christian life because spiritual
maturity equips a Christian to handle his problems in a godly way.
The Bible contains absolutely no indication that a believer can
be bound by occult curses. Like Frank’s friend, many people to-
day interpret events in their lives as the products of a curse. Yet,
if this were possible, the New Testament would have provided us
clear warnings and instructions on how to deal with such curses.
Interestingly, curses are common fears of those who traffic within
the occult world. The superstition that a Christian can be cursed
and must have the curse discovered and broken before he can have
spiritual victory is now being taught in many Christian circles, but
the Bible clearly teaches that because we are in Christ, He protects
us. Believers should be concerned about the influence of the teach-
ings and beliefs from the occult, but not about their spells. The same
principle would apply to Fred and Linda’s situation concerning the
lady’s worry about bringing a demon into the church.
In the fifth example, Carl should not participate in occult prac-
tices no matter how much they are said to be scientific or neutral
because they are based upon accepting false views of God, man, and
change. Many Christians need to be warned in this area. Many mo-
tivational seminars and psychological techniques have their roots
in the occult. These methods are often whitewashed using neutral
terminology, but this cover-up does not change their basic nature.

193
 The only times the New Testament speaks about lust, murder,
and anger, it is always as a product of the flesh or our sin nature. Bob
and Bill would be wrong to interpret their problems as the prod-
ucts of evil spirits. Scripture clearly states that “each one is tempted
when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust” (James 1:14).
Demons might be involved in the temptation process in the same
way that an amplifier projects a voice, but the Bible teaches clearly
that the flesh is our primary culprit.
Christ’s payment for sin deals effectively with all of the sin in a
person’s life when he becomes a believer. To say that a person must
go through a separate step of deliverance for occult sins, as Sandy
was told, is not found in the Bible. Once again, superstition might
suggest such a notion, but the Bible does not.
The Sure Word of God
We are calling on the body of Christ to reject the proliferating su-
perstitions in Christendom. These beliefs are the products of hu-
man thoughts and experiences, but they cannot be verified from
the Bible. Possibly the fact that so many people have recently been
converted out of the occult explains why spiritual warfare in many
circles increasingly resembles a “tit-for-tat” battle between two
sorcerers. But the Bible says that our minds are to be renewed by
God’s Word itself, not by the Word of God as interpreted from a
non-Christian framework, especially a framework that has much in
common with the occult.
As believers in Jesus Christ we have been called to fight Satan
and the demons through spiritual warfare, but our commissioning
and orders come only from Holy Scripture. The Holy Spirit, who in-
spired the Bible through its human authors, does not say one thing
in the written Word and then contradict Himself through a new
teaching that is claimed to have come from the Holy Spirit. As Peter
noted, “We have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you
do well to pay attention …” (2 Peter 1:19). When a contradiction
occurs between human teachings and the Bible, we have no choice
as members of the family of God who have sworn allegiance to our
Lord except to follow the sure Word of God. Won’t you join us as
we seek to faithfully serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ until
He returns?

194
We’ve heard the call
of the Lord of Hosts:
Fight the good fight of faith—
Be strong in the Lord.
Gird your armor on
When your enemies assail,
For He is a strong deliverer
All power is given unto Him.
Go fight! Go fight!
Fight the good fight of faith.
~Author Unknown

195
Comments or questions can be addressed to Robert Dean, Jr. at
­[email protected].

Robert Dean, Jr. (M.A., Th.M., D.Min.) is Pastor-Teacher of West

Houston Bible Church in Houston, Texas and President of Dean
Bible Ministries (www.deanbibleministries.org). He has been in the
pastoral ministry since 1981, has published numerous articles, and
has taught the Bible in many countries around the world.

Thomas Ice (B.A., Th.M., Ph.D.) is Executive Director of Pre-Trib

Research Center (www.pre-trib.org), which he founded in 1994 with
Dr. Tim LaHaye to research, teach, and defend the pre-tribulational
rapture and related Bible prophecy doctrines. He has written dozens
of books, with his latest book being Understanding the Olivet Dis-
course. He and his wife Janice currently reside in Godfrey, IL.

Both Dean and Ice are known for their accurate, clear, and practical
explanation and teaching of the Scripture as they interact with the
issues of our time.

196
197
198
Find thousands of hours of solid Bible teaching by
Dr. Dean on www.DeanBibleMinistries.org

Check out Dr. Dean’s Light From The Light

YouTube channel featuring ongoing weekly videos
on a variety of subjects, all for the purpose
of learning and internalizing the Word of God.
These videos are typically 15–20 minutes in length.

Dr. Ice’s Pre-Trib.org website is packed with

thousands of papers/articles/videos on prophecy,
dispensationalism, the Pre-Trib Rapture,
and other biblical topics.
 sPIRITUAL

W H AT T H E B I B L E T E A C H E S A B O U T S P I R I T U A L W A R FA R E
WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES ABOUT

SPIRITUAL WARFARE
When some Christians think of spiritual warfare, they may be
­consumed with worry about what Satan will do to them next. Others
have been taught that they have authority over the demonic host.
Still others ignore the spiritual battle being fought right in their midst.

WARFARE
Using the Bible as their basis of authority, the authors ­answer such
questions as:
• What is demon possession?
• Can a Christian be demon possessed?
• Do demons make you sin?
• Can pagan objects haunt you?
• How did Jesus handle spiritual warfare?
• What is Satan’s strategy?
• Is exorcism biblical?
The battle strategy taught here is simple: You can resist the Devil and
rest in the knowledge that God is in control over all things. He will
have the ultimate victory over sin and death.

Robert Dean, Jr. (M.A., Th.M.,

D.Min.) is Pastor-Teacher of West Hous-
ton Bible Church in Houston, Texas
and President of Dean Bible Ministries
(www.deanbibleministries.org). He has been ROBERT DEAN, JR. and THOMAS ICE
in the pastoral ministry since 1981, has
published numerous articles, and has taught
the Bible in many countries around the world.

Thomas Ice (B.A., Th.M. Ph.D.) is

­Executive Director of the Pre-Trib Research
­Center (www.pre-trib.org). He has written
­dozens of books, his latest book is Under-
standing The Olivet Discourse. He and his wife
Janice currently reside in Godfrey, IL. Robert Dean, Jr.
and Thomas Ice

01-2024