September 10th has now taken its place with September 11th and December 7th as dates we will always remember, because on those dates our nation was attacked and then tested.
The cowardly assassination of Charlie Kirk is, I believe, a watershed moment. I was praying about what to say or to write when no words seemed adequate. Then, as sometimes happens, a regular reader wrote a note to me and said, “I think what we are seeing is bigger than Trump or MAGA or Democrat vs Republican. It’s bigger than any of that. It’s good vs evil. It’s bigger than politics. Charlie went to campus after campus to preach the Word of God. The Secretary of War of the most powerful military in the history of the world said this is Spiritual Warfare. That’s remarkable, isn’t it?”
I’ve been writing, praying and thinking about Spiritual Warfare for over thirty years. I’m certainly not a theologian, but as a sinner, husband and father in the trenches, I’ve come to some conclusions on this important daily battle.
I took my friend’s note as an invitation to share those conclusions and several resources with you, so that as you hear the term Spiritual Warfare more often in the coming days, weeks and months, you’ll have at least one man’s thoughts for context.
To prepare, I’ve read all the Biblical passages on the subject, as well as several excellent books. The best and most relevant books are Conquer by Dr. Michael Youssef and Sense & Nonsense About Angels & Demons by Ken Boa and Robert Bowman, Jr. I strongly recommend both books.
The key truth is that Spiritual Warfare is not about angels and demons battling each other around us while we figuratively watch.
In fact there is little to no angel vs. demon combat today. That war was won long ago by God, Michael and the angels. The demons are here because they lost (Luke 10:18).
The combat now is over the souls of our family members and friends, between the lies of the demons and the Truth of God’s Word, as we,
human believers, are called to share His Word with non-believers. It is our actions, speaking, writing and prayers that carry the battle to the enemy. And therefore his hate and his attacks are directed against us, and against those whom we hope to save.
So we are not passive observers. We are the actual combatants—the war is waged by believers against the lies of the demons for the souls of our families and friends. For their eternities. God gave all of us free will. Each of us chooses. As believers, it is our incredibly important role to do all that we can to ensure that those whom we know and love choose God’s Truth.
How and with whom do we battle?
We battle other people who have accepted and repeat the lies of the Enemy. But those people are not our real enemy—our Enemy is Satan and his demonic forces—his demons—who plant and then cultivate his lies in people’s thoughts and actions.
The specific issues as well as Satan’s methods constantly change, but his primary goal is always the same—to prevent another human from receiving the message of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. And if, along the way, he can also ramp up our sin nature to make our lives miserable, cause physical and relational pain, destroy careers, and use us to further damage or mislead others, then so much the better.
Since all angels were designed by their Creator to be messengers, they presumably are very good communicators. They also must be able to adapt to the language and the culture to which they are communicating. Given their defined purpose, we should not necessarily impute any exceptional knowledge or wisdom to them. The fallen angels wound up on Earth as defeated messengers, and they had to adapt to their new world. They have been doing so for millennia.
In that sense they were the first to use what we now call learning algorithms, watching our individual traits, habits and weaknesses, learning over time what works well to destroy each of us. For example, since they don’t reproduce, they don’t experience a sexual drive. Yet they quickly learned that this human trait has incredible power to destroy relationships outside of marriage, and so they use it constantly and well with each new human generation.
Their learning algorithms always have one single purpose—to take us with them; but their specific methods change with the times. Demons are experienced early adapters of change, which can give them an added advantage as they pile on to whatever the World is telling us.
Since angels like to “look into these things” (1 Peter 1:12), I assume that demons study us and use improvements in technology to their advantage whenever they can. Given that their number has been fixed from the beginning but our numbers have exponentially increased, they may have some sense of being stretched thin, and therefore of welcoming the tools of movies, the internet, social media, false religions, etc. to accomplish more deceit with fewer demons.
“The Enemy now dominates the secular media. He wants to make his followers believe the lie that they can be perfect without having a relationship with Jesus Christ. In doing so he readily makes use of Christian values—compassion, care, understanding—because they provide him with an ideal cover. After all, who would join his side if he was known to be planning the total ruin of those who serve him?” (Youssef, p. 47)
At night when we sleep, I assume that they gather in friendly spaces to compare notes, plot strategies, jockey with each other for notice, and practice their lies.
The World (exterior stimuli), the Flesh (our internal fallen state) and the Devil constantly war against God. The non-believer has no strong defense, other than what he or she believes to be “moral and good” from the World’s teachings. When someone becomes a believer, the Holy Spirit resides in her or him, and the voice of the Holy Spirit can refute stimuli from the World and the Flesh. And when believers “lock the doors to their hearts” on a daily basis (Youssef, Chapter 5), the voices and lies of the demons, which enhance and weaponize those stimuli, cannot get through to harm us.
That is why Charlie Kirk was so passionate about challenging young men in particular to return to God’s common sense, ordained path for a fulfilling and
meaningful life: take responsibility, marry a believer, love her sacrificially for the rest of your life, protect and train your children, and set boundaries for yourself and them.
The family is the basic building block for preserving God’s values and for building a new generation of believers. Satan hates families, and fathers in particular. Look around: how is he doing? Charlie was calling us to something so much better.
Paul’s famous passage in Ephesians 6 describes the Full Armor of God which believers can put on every day to combat the deceits of the Enemy.
Until someone is drawn by the Father through His actions and the words of believers, and then becomes a believer himself, he does not have that voice in him, nor any spiritual armor, and so he is much more open to the demons’ lies. Without the Holy Spirit’s internal presence, his or her only defenses are the prayers, teachings, and examples of believers.
If a believer persists in sin, he can quench the Holy Spirit’s voice and also succumb to even greater temptation.
Again, we are not passive observers of a spiritual battle between demons and angels. Nor are we the passive victims of all-powerful demonic forces. We are the actual combatants—the war is waged by believers who take up the full armor of God against the lies of the demons. As believers, it is our role to do all that we can to ensure that those whom we know and love choose God’s Truth.
Let’s not be hesitant or timid about our faith, which points us to Truth and guides our beliefs and actions. It’s simply a huge part of who we are, and worthy of recognition and discussion when appropriate. And let’s, like Charlie and Erika, challenge others with a smile to investigate and consider that faith as the answer to so many issues in their lives. Satan won’t like it, and he will try to stop us with doubt, anxiety and rebuke from other people. But so what?
When we step up to respond to the lies which are served to us every day, let’s first do a little homework, so that, like Charlie, we can ask relevant questions and answer others with God’s Truth. And then let’s remember that the person serving up the lies is not actually the Enemy.
Prepare, pray, and then enjoy engaging as a warrior for the Truth.
RESOURCES
Besides the two important books already mentioned, Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and TPUSAFaith have resources on Spiritual Warfare.
Ken Boa has an excellent video teaching on Ephesians 6 and the Full Armor of God.
Here are two posts which I wrote earlier about specific aspects of Spiritual Warfare:
Spiritual Warfare and The Family: Some Thoughts for Husbands.
Finally, not to compare anything I have written to Turning Point, if you are looking for sources about God’s Truth as it informs our current debates, I gathered together eighty blog posts which I had written over the years, organized them by chapter subjects, and then published them as Seeking Truth at the Intersection of Faith, Economics and Policy.
And if you’re debating someone and need a small jackhammer to break up the hard soil of his beliefs so that the seeds of Truth can take hold, you might try these ten free short stories, Ten Lies and Ten Truths, which you can download immediately with this link.
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