Some churches are quite comfortable never engaging in spiritual warfare.  They assign the supernatural works of God to no later than the first century and assign demonic activity to the same century.  For these churches, salvation is the forgiveness of sins and the development of good character.  Throw in reasonably good church attendance and occasional tithing and you have the Christian life.  For emotional and physical healing you go to doctors and therapists trained by the world and if you are really spiritual, you go to Christian doctors and therapists who were also trained by the world.  Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and set captives free.  We send them to clinics.

In many cases, the whole idea of discipleship is simply leading someone to pray the sinner’s prayer and then get him or her to the baptistery.  When that has been accomplished, the work of discipleship is done.  In churches I attended in the past, the sentiment was to shake your hand as you rose from the waters of baptism and then simply  wish you good luck.  Other than serving in the children’s department on Sunday mornings or greeting folks at the door there wasn’t much else.  How exciting.   If you were white, middle class, perhaps, that was sufficient.  When illness or the death of a family member jarred a family’s  world, there was a plethora of casseroles and caring people who took care of the grieving.

But what about the rest of the world?  Who reached out to those molested time and again as children or those defiled in human trafficking rings.  What about those who were abandoned and fell into drugs and heavy sexual addictions to medicate their pain?  What about those who tried to make sense of their pain and find some form of control in their lives and so fell into satanic cults and witches covens looking for power?  Some looked for it the church first but found none,  so they decided to play for the other team. What about those who were seduced by the homosexual culture and fell into lifestyles filled with shame and secrets?

The churches I attended didn’t have many of those folks in the pews because we didn’t know what to do with them and had no power to pull them out of the pain and bondage they were in.  If they came looking, it didn’t take long to know that we might care but we couldn’t help except to encourage them to try the things they had already tried with no lasting success.  Perhaps, we deceived ourselves into believing that those kinds of people were such a small percentage of the population that it didn’t really matter that much and, hopefully, they would find some street ministry run by former gang members or former addicts who could help.

When churches won’t face the reality of Satan still being very active in this world and the reality of demonic oppression and intense spiritual warfare, it does matter. First of all, many of the people already sitting in their pews are racked by demonic oppression and affliction. It is called depression, suicidal tendencies, and anxiety.  Hopefully the drugs will help. The Bible calls these things a spirit of heaviness, a spirit of death, a spirit of fear,and a spirit of bondage. If a spirit is involved, only spiritual warfare will provide a lasting solution.

Francis MacNutt  tells a story of one of those people that Jesus died for who desperately needed help to gain freedom.  She had been involved in a witch’s coven and wanted out. The coven had been desecrating churches and offering blood sacrifices in their rites.  She had approached some church leaders asking for help.  They were not sure if they could even believe her and they offered no help to escape the devil or the coven.  In her anger, she had retaliated against that church.

An interview with the woman went something like the following:

Q:  You told me earlier that one of the reasons you were engaged in the incident was because you were angry with the Church.

A:  Any church.

Q: Where did this anger originate?

A: From their not believing it was real.

Q: And your anger was first directed against (the name of a church)?

A:  Yes.

Q: And the prayer group there?

A:  I wanted to split them up and cause division.

Q: That was three years ago?

A: Yes, and I did.

Q: How did you cause division?

A:  Put thoughts in people’s minds…like, “This stuff isn’t for real.  What’s in it for me? Gossip about each other…not being secretive about each other when they should have been….I directed my anger at church leaders….(she talked bout splitting the leaders and causing one to believe he was homosexual, etc.)

Q: What would you say if someone said you were crazy?

A: I would say, Maybe so, but I know what I’m talking about. If they say I’m crazy, they had better back off, because they are in the line of fire. I know what is real and what isn’t. I know what I’ve been into and they don’t know what they are talking about. If they had seen and felt the power that I have, they wouldn’t be saying that.

Q:  What power do you have?

A: I’d rather not have it.

Q: What power is it?

A: The power of destruction and the power to help.

Q:  The power to help?

A:  The power to help is white magic, the power to destroy is black magic….

A:  So now you want the church to get involved?

Q: I don’t care how they work it out. I want help.  I can’t do it by myself.

(Deliverance from Evil Spirits by Francis MacNutt, p. 64-66)

This woman was in bondage to Satan and she new that the church should be able to help. When they would not or could not, she felt betrayed.  I wonder how many others sitting on our pews or passing through our doors feel betrayed?  If Jesus set people free, shouldn’t his church set people free as well?  If Satanists know that,  why doesn’t his church?  .

Well, it’s about that time again.  Halloween is about eight days away and cable channels are gearing up for Friday the Thirteenth specials, zombies, vampires, and witches.  I just checked Amazon to see how many books on witchcraft and casting spells they were posting and found quite a few – especially casting spells for beginners.  The Walking Dead series seems to be a huge favorite in America and, of course, Ghost Hunters, is always good for a few goose bumps.

For a culture that celebrates men who argue against the existence of God, question the historical reality of Jesus, and write the Bible off as fiction, we have a strange obsession with the spiritual.  We are especially obsessed with the dark side of the spiritual realm and the resurrection of grotesque entities along with those who look good but have no body temperature and suck blood.  Maybe these are all metaphors for politicians but I really think it goes deeper than that.

In some way I think our culture is locked into a paradox, a fleshly spirituality.  Paul reminds us in Romans 7 that our flesh (the natural man) wars against our spirit (the redeemed or spiritual man). This flesh is focused on self, earthly things, power, immediate gratification, possessions, etc. and is fueled or amplified by demonic spirits.  On one hand you would think the flesh would deny the spirit and the spiritual realm because it represents competition. But in the last few decades it and the demonic realm seem to have changed strategies.

Now the flesh pushes everyone toward the spiritual or the supernatural realm but in ways that continue to draw us away from Christ.  The emphasis isn’t new.  Sorcerers have practiced their craft for millennia. But, the volume and cultural acceptance is what has changed. If you think about it, witchcraft and notions of the undead are simply cries for power and immortality.  Actually, both are offered by Christ to those who follow him but there is a difference.

The flesh wants the perks of power and immortality but doesn’t want to answer to anyone or submit to any God.  Christians are promised power, authority and eternal life but only as those things are directed and submitted to Jesus and his righteousness.  Dante suggested that Satan would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven because he did not want to submit to anyone. Willing submission is a quality of heaven but won’t be found in hell.

I think the spirit of anti-Christ is really at work here because there are no debates about the existence of Satan, just about the existence of God and the reality of Christ. In a twisted way, Satan is offering eternal life without the Lordship of Jesus. Vampire romances abound in movies and books. Witches cavort with demons and, of course, there are now good witches and good demons to be had. Zombies are ugly and dumb but they still live forever and answer to no one.

In part, my simple theory comes from counseling sessions with people who had recently been involved in witches covens and satanic groups.  Each one confessed that they had gotten involved in these covens because their lives felt powerless and out of control. Each one had met a person who suggested that they might be able to find that power and control by being part of a group that could get what they wanted out of life through spells and “prayers”. At first, curiosity drove them to the meetings. Later they began to believe in the power of spells and incantations to control demonic forces to do their bidding. But later, the power they had been promised to them was being exercised over them by the very demons they thought they could control.

The occult is like drugs. It promises much, gives pleasure in the beginning and can even be governed at first. Eventually, however, it begins to rule everything in the cult member’s life. Power and control is an illusion. Satan takes orders from no man and he will rule over the life of anyone who walks onto his playground.

The other demonic aspect of our culture is this fascination and romance with death that is displayed in books and movies. Even Christians are participating in zombie walks and heading for the theaters to see Twilight sequels. But our God is a God of life not death.  He is the God of the living not the dead and death is portrayed in the book of Revelation as the last enemy. Of course, if we die in Christ we are immediately in the presence of Jesus which is a wonderful thing. But death, by God’s standards, is not the way we were supposed to come into his presence. Death is a result of a curse and us not something God celebrates. In fact, death is one of the things that Christ died to destroy.

In all of this cultural shift, Christ and the truth about spiritual realities is being marginalized.  People begin to identify with these characters of darkness rather than identifying with the Son of God.  These vampires and witches are painted as having greater power than the King of Kings. In the old movies, when the vampire hunters produced a cross, the vampire cowered and ran.  Now the vampire just laughs as if the cross has no more power against evil.

I’m not a person who thinks every Harry Potter book should be stacked and burned or that watching old episodes of Bewitched will send you to hell.  But I do believe that our culture is under a great assault by demonic forces and that Satan is orchestrating something very sinister with this onslaught of fleshly spirituality and the romance of death. I know that Satan is real and demons afflict more people than you think. But I also know that Jesus has defeated Satan and his troops and that we as believers operate in that victory with his authority.  But I also know that Satan is the consummate liar who draws people away from God and into destruction with half-truths and fictions. We are surrounded by those now.

So this Halloween, I want to invite you not to participate in the Zombie Run or watch Romance of the Vampires or whatever and especially with your children. I believe we can tell stories about witches and magic and trolls and dwarves and keep those stories in the realm of fiction while we teach our children about the reality of Christ, his angels and demons in this real world. But there is something more going on here and I encourage you to be wise and not lose perspective on good and evil because Satan loves to blur the lines. They will be blurred a lot in the next two weeks.