On Christmas Eve we invited a few people from elsewhere to come and have a meal with us after church. So there we were an African, two Indians, and a few Brits/Swedes and we began talking about the spiritual condition of Sweden. The general consensus wasn’t too positive.

But as we talked some more our African friend made an interesting comment. He said, “In Africa we face the Devil every day. Here in Sweden, the devil has everything he wants so we hardly ever see him. If people saw evil like we see evil then people would start to believe in God.”

This echoes the sort of thing that CS Lewis said. As Chris Pappalardo wrote:

As C. S. Lewis pointed out in Screwtape Letters, most Westerners are so spiritually deadened that a direct attack would only serve to wake them up. The forces of darkness don’t care whether we know they’re at work or not; they only care that we’re on the broad road to perdition.

There is something there worth pausing and considering. So spiritually deadened.

As I meet and talk to people from all over the world many of them are absolutely sure there are evil spirits and malign forces at work in the world. These forces are terrifying, destructive. You can appease them or cast them out but you can’t play around with them because they will mess you up.

Harvey Kwiyani says one of the most generic questions African converts to Christianity ask is, “Will this Jesus be able to protect us from witches?” This is not a question that would make the top 100 of questions a new western convert might ask. And it’s instructive to wonder why that might be.

Kwiyani in another post goes on to say this is because,

At the centre of the European challenge is the cultural dualism that causes many to believe in the separation between the spiritual and the material (or the secular and the religious, as well as the holy and the profane). Of course, many Europeans do not even believe in an invisible world of spirits (apart from that of witches, like those seen in Harry Potter and Macbeth). Many of them talk about spirituality without believing in spirits.

An Antidote for Functional Atheism

This European perspective does not stop at the church door, far from it.

At this point I’m going to bring a post by Stephen Kneale and his post, Your depression is not demon possession. But first a few qualifications. I agree with Stephen’s overall point that we shouldn’t assume that the cause of mental health problems are demonic ((This report from Theos is worth reading)). But Stephen advances an argument, quite common in the reformed world, that the reason we see demons afflicting people in the Gospels is because of Jesus (stirring up a ruckus as some sort of last stand) but as Jesus fades from the scene so do confrontations with demons.

Demon possession, somewhat pointedly I would suggest, becomes a thing in the gospels and seems to be less of a thing after Acts. Which begs the question, why might that be?

It stands to reason that the coming of God into the world to fully and finally deal with Satan, sin and the powers of death and Hell might lead to some kick back. It stands to reason that demonic activity might increase with the coming of the Son of God, the Messiah who has been specifically sent to defeat them...

…Just as they ramped up with the coming of Jesus into the world, so we see very little mentioned about them in the letters. Similarly, we see as the disciples go into the world in Acts that they encounter such things, but again, it seems to be where the gospel is advancing in new territory (not unlike the baptism of tongues we also see in Acts and do not expect to see repeated today). As the gospel advances and churches are established, we begin to see very little about this issue altogether and it is not something that the Apostles seem to need to address as a live issue in the churches, which I think is telling.

Now I don’t think Stephen is saying he doesn’t think the devil and demons don’t exist. I do think he has a different understanding of demonic activity and uses the word ‘possession’ a few times, which I don’t think the Bible does, so neither do I. But he is making the case, and he’s not alone in this, that this sort of encounter we see Jesus having with evil forces was somehow exceptional or unusual. It is therefore not something anyone should reasonably expect to deal with, or perhaps at least not once the church in an area is established. So in what way then does he think the devil is at work in the world?

Satan and his demons are, likewise, hostile to Christ. In this sense, then, unbelievers are controlled and influenced by Satan and his demons. But that is not the same as possession exactly. Those who are under the influence of the prince of the power of the air are those who have no thought for Christ. The fruit of their lives is the kind of sin we expect to see in unbelievers. Most of what is written about Satan and demons in the New Testament concerns these kinds of things. They are pointedly not what we call demon possession. They are the normal things that we would expect from people who do not trust in Christ. It is equally not what many would consider demon possession. But this seems to be what the New Testament writers are most concerned with addressing if they talk about demons. Not exorcisms and casting out evil, but the kind of influence Satan has in the world more generally.

The devil and his army are at work generally but not it seems to follow specifically with regard to individuals. I think that’s true as far as it goes but it doesn’t go far enough. I’ve said myself,

I believe that many battles are won simply by teaching the truth of the gospel. It is a supernatural event when the gospel is heard and received and new life comes to the spiritually dead. It is a supernatural event when grace takes hold and truth takes hold where previously lies and deceit held sway. Much work of the enemy is cast out by preaching, proclaiming and instructing people in the finished work of Christ (2 Cor 10:4-5).

But I think there’s more to the war than just the battle for truth.

One day a few years ago in the summer I was cycling past a field near to my home and witnessed a huge crowd of several thousand Ethiopians gathered together. It was clear it was a religious ceremony and so I stopped to ask them what was going on. I was slightly taken aback I admit when I was told it was an exorcism. Numbers, I seem to recall primarily women, were to have to the devil cast out. Publicly. The devil had been at work and it was the job of the church to stop him.

Last summer, I spoke with some women who had converted to Christ from the New Age movement. They had been heavily involved in tarot readings, mediums, and a few of them would happily have described themselves as witches. The reality of what they had been dealing with wasn’t in the slightest bit general. It was quite specific.

In general I find Stephen’s argument that we shouldn’t particularly expect up close encounters with the forces of evil unconvincing. Paul was in his ministry quite familiar with demonic activity and certainly the sons of Sceva were to their cost (Acts 19). So when Paul tells the church in Corinth that he doesn’t want them to partner with demons (1 Cor 10:19) I don’t think he means this in the abstract. The pagans sacrifice to the demons, which I assume Paul thinks are quite real.

When Paul tells Timothy that some have been ‘paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons’ (1 Timothy 4:1) that is something more than just following the ways of the world.

I’m not sure what theologically has changed between, say Acts 19 and today? Instead I would suggest that battles take place on multiple levels. There is a battle for truth and the work of preaching the Gospel is an act of spiritual warfare. I think the call to spiritual formation and everyday discipleship is also an act of warfare (in the sense of being trained to serve), and I think there will be cases where people have come under spiritual oppression and the only fitting description of their situation is demonic. In those cases thinking it can’t or doesn’t happen isn’t particularly helpful.

One of the critical tasks of the church is to realise that we do not live in peacetime and wise up to the spiritual war and how setting the ‘oppressed free’ might be more than a matter of belief.

Related reading

• Where Did All The Demons Go?
• The Demons Who Never Left Are Back
• Regulating Demons
• Jesus The Exorcist

1. This report from Theos is worth reading

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