Worldwide revival is no
longer just a hope churning within the hearts of some Christians. An ever increasing
multitutde are fervently declaring, "It's here now, and the Holy Spirit
is doing a new work to guarantee it!"
Influential leaders throughout
Christendom are pointing to what they perceive to be firstfruits of the Holy
Spirit in preparation for a great outpouring. The laughing phenomenon of the
"Toronto Blessing" and the ministry of Rodney Howard Browne, some
contend, began the process by restoring joy in the hearts of God's faithful
servants. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tens of thousands of pastors
received the "imparting of the Spirit" at the Toronto Airport Vineyard
and carried it across oceans and continents as well as across numerous denominational
lines. Thousands of churches in England were influenced by the movement. Leaders
of the Brownsville Assembly of God tell us that it was from an Anglican church
on that distant shore that the "imparting" returned to this country
and ignited their "Pensacola revival." With the Assemblies of God
hierarchy giving enthusiastic approval, Pensacola's "anointing" has
spread to a great many of the denomination's churches throughout North America.
During 1995 and 1996 many
students on Christian college and seminary campuses took part in what they
believed to be "a genuine revival." Christian media, both charismatic
and noncharismatic, have fostered the belief that revival is dawning. Recent
book titles such as The Coming Revival, Revival Signs: Joining the
New Spiritual Awakening, The Hope at Hand, and The Coming World
Revival not only testify that this eagerly awaited event is at our door,
but point to that which practically guarantees it: prayer.
David Bryant, chairman of
the National Prayer Committee and a leader in the Forum for National Revival,
writes,
God is stirring up his people
to pray specifically, increasingly, and persistently for world revival....He
will not let us pray in vain. He has promised to hear and answer us fully. We
can prepare for the answers with confidence.1
Prayer for revival, you
can be sure, has been the earnest endeavor of Christians of every generation
since the apostolic era. But this generation has taken it to another level.
In fact, the leaders in this worldwide prayer effort call it a "strategic"
level for doing spiritual warfare.
C. Peter Wagner, professor
of missions and church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World
Mission, is a central figure in the promotion of this surprisingly vast and
aggressive prayer-focused movement. Characterized by Wagner as "radical
concepts and practices" and termed "strategic-level spiritual warfare,"
the approach includes some familiar prayer activities with new labels, along
with some unfamiliar applications and some brand-new tasks. The terms "strategic-level
intercession," "territorial spirits," "spiritual mapping,"
"tearing down strongholds," "identificational repentance,"
and "prayerwalking, prayer journeys, and prayer expeditions" proclaim
the militancy of this endeavor. International prayer warriors are taking the
fight to the strongholds of Satan. Power encounters with demons are the rule,
not the exception, in this spiritual battle for global revival and world evangelization.
If all of these new ideas
are, to use Wagner's words, "some of the important things the Spirit is
saying to the churches these days," we should indeed take heed and submit
to the Holy Spirit's leading. On the other hand, what if most of these new activities
are the product of misguided zeal on the part of the movement's leaders and
participants?
In this two-part series
we will examine the writings and teachings of those who have laid the foundation
for the new spiritual warfare. In particular we will focus on C. Peter Wagner's
book, Confronting the Powers, which appears to be the most comprehensive
defense of this movement which has impacted a wide spectrum of professing Christianity.
The book's list of supportive evangelical organizations and individuals is impressive,
and includes Bill and Vonette Bright, Campus Crusade, World Prayer Assembly;
Ralph Winter, U.S. Center for World Mission; Thomas Wang, Luis Bush, a.d. 2000,
Lausanne II; Jack Hayford, Richard Foster and many others.
Be assured that we have
just as great a desire as anyone to encourage prayer in the lives of believers
and to see those efforts result in genuine revival and the salvation of lost
souls. At the same time, we believe it would be a spiritual tragedy of immense
proportions if the already hundreds of thousands of sincere Christians now spending
valuable time, energy and resources in this new spiritual preoccupation ended
up being, at best, unproductive or, at worst, unwitting pawns of the adversary.
Our basic premise in evaluating
the strategic-level spiritual warfare (SLSW) movement is to appeal to the Scriptures.
Isaiah's admonition still stands: "To the law and to the testimony: if
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them"
(8:20). God's inerrant, authoritative and sufficient Word is the only objective
basis a believer has for discerning truth in spiritual matters.
In establishing a beachhead
for the spiritual warfare movement, Dr. Wagner would not fully agree with the
above premise. While he maintains his belief in biblical inerrancy and the absolute
authority of the Scriptures, he reasons that there are many extrabiblical resources
for spiritual discernment, not the least of which is personally hearing from
God. Wagner's entrée into the development of SLSW had such a beginning:
"While in Manila, the Lord spoke to me in a voice that, although not audible,
was almost as clear as if it had been: 'I want you to take leadership in the
area of territorial spirits.'"2 Few believers would deny that
God can and does on occasion personally speak to the hearts of His own. While
that experience is sup-ported by Scripture, many would argue from the Scriptures
that it is the exception rather than the rule in God's everyday guidance of
believers. Certainly no doc-trine can be established on the basis of one's personal,
subjective word from the Lord. Thus, what is of concern is not that Wagner heard
from God, but what he heard. Is the doctrine of territorial spirits (to
be addressed in Part II) confirmed by God?
Extrabiblical revelation
is the cornerstone for the development of most of the doctrines of the new spiritual
warfare. Though considered spurious not too long ago by the majority of evangelicals,
extrabiblical revelation is now regarded by a growing number of leaders as necessary
to fulfill God's mandate to the church today. They profess to find support for
their belief in the doctrine of rhema. In brief, there are two Greek
words in the New Testament which refer to the Word of God: logos and
rhema. Although Peter Wagner acknowledges that the two words are used
interchangeably, nevertheless he and others promote a distinction foundational
to their doctrine: logos designates the written Word of God, while
rhema indicates the spoken word of God. Regarding spiritual warfare,
rhema, in contrast to logos, means receiving valid knowledge about
the invisible world "from hearing the voice of God, as He communicates
His thoughts directly to us as individuals." Wagner states that "Both
forms of the word of God...are valid sources of know-ledge, and both should
be used, as God directs, to confront the enemy in spiritual warfare."3
Underscoring the fact that the rhema doctrine is becoming a prominent
evangelical teaching, he wrote that he is
...[one] among rapidly increasing
numbers of others who believe that a valid source of divine knowledge comes
through what some would call "extrabiblical revelation." I daresay
that the standard-brand evangelical doctrine of "logos only"
that we were taught might now find a place on an "endangered doctrines"
list, about to become extinct.4
Dr. Wagner qualifies the
above by adding that any such knowledge which contradicts Scripture must
be rejected by faithful Christians. While that may shore up the confidence of
some, his extrabiblical revelation has many other problems, as we shall see;
and the decisive fact remains that it has completely denied the sufficiency
of the Bible (2 Tm 3:16-17; Jn 8:31-32; 2 Pt 1:3).
John Wimber, to whom Wagner
refers as his mentor in the realm of signs and wonders, is presented as an example
of one way in which extrabiblical revelation is authenticated; i.e., by the
credibility of those who observe or experience them.5 Dr. Wagner
tells of continuous years of suffering from headaches for which no painkiller
could bring relief:
Then in 1983, John Wimber
received a rhema word from God that the root cause of my headaches had
been a demon and that I was to drive it out myself rather than ask someone else
to do it for me. I obeyed. I cast out the demon in the name of Jesus, and I
have not suffered any such headaches since that day.6
While we do empathize with
C. Peter Wagner in regard to his suffering, his example raises many questions
of concern. Dr. Wagnera Christian--had a demon? The demon had a specialty? Wagner
drove it out himself? God told John Wimber to tell his friend these things?
With no biblical support, that's a great deal to swallow as being from God himself.
Moreover, why would Wimber's credibility be put forth as validating the
authenticity of this rhema word-from-God testimony? His track record
of prophecies is far less than trustworthy. In the early '80s Wimber also had
a rhema word from God that He would heal well-known Anglican vicar David
Watson, suffering from terminal cancer. Some months after Wimber's announcement,
Watson succumbed to the disease.
Wagner's example in support
of validating extrabiblical revelation reflects some of the teachings basic
to the SLSW movement. Since demons are the focus of most of those developing
spiritual-warfare strategy, they offer a great deal of information gained from
extrabiblical sources. C. Peter Wagner believed he had a demon because John
Wimber, Neil Anderson, Fred Dickason, Charles Kraft, Mark Bubeck and nearly
all those promoting strategic-level spiritual warfare believe Christians can
be demonized. Those advancing this doctrine admit that the Bible has neither
teaching nor example of Christians having demon spirits. Dr. Wagner nevertheless
offers extrabiblical evidence such as "personal ministry experience,"
"a consensus...from others who have ministered in the area of deliverance,"
having "seen many positive, even dramatic, results in the lives of those
Christians who have been delivered from demons," and that "none of
[these reasons] contradicts any explicit biblical teaching"7
(Emphasis in the original)
Although Wagner gives no
details in his book regarding his self-deliverance, the strategy common to spiritual
warfare circles is to ascertain the demon's name for better control purposes
and then cast it out. A survey of the most popular SLSW literature reveals that
in nearly every case each demon has a name which is indicative of its duty (e.g.,
Lust, Anger, Rebellion, Deception, Pornography, etc.). So the key, say those
experienced in this, is to spiritually discern the name of the demon in order
to facilitate a successful deliverance. While Wagner and others admit that methods
based upon such spiritual information (often from the demons themselves) should
be viewed with suspicion, that hasn't appeared to have slowed down the SLSW
proponents. Why? Because they are getting results! On the other hand, as any
student of military strategy will tell you, results aren't always what
they appear to be.
One of the underlying suppositions
of the strategic-level spiritual warfare movement is spiritual pragmatism; i.e.,
if something seems to produce good results, it must be of God. Trial and error
accompanies such thinking. Wagner indicates that experimentation is used
by SLSW people as their mode of developing "some of the more radical forms
of praying...."8 Is this how we are to grow spiritually? Search
as you may, you won't find this approach in God's Word. Deuteronomy 13 tells
us that just because something works, that doesn't indicate it's good. A false
prophet getting a true result may simply be the bait to lead a person astray.
Subversive ministers of righteousness can be some of Satan's finest (2Cor 11:14).
Sadly, many who are a part
of the spiritual warfare movement will see our concerns as ignorance based on
the presumption that we have not "been there, done that." The more
charitable participants in SLSW perceive us as either "just not called
to the spiritual front lines" or "pitifully blind to the dynamic things
the Holy Spirit is doing in our day." On the contrary, rather than quenching
or grieving the Holy Spirit, we are simply trying to point to that which the
Spirit of Truth has already made clear in the Scriptures for truly effective
spiritual warfare. In Part II we will address more details of this growing spiritual
army and its various methods of attempting to win its battle with Satan. TBC
Endnotes
1 David Bryant, The
Hope at Hand (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), 231
2 C. Peter Wagner, Confronting
the Powers (Ventura, CA, Regal Books, 1996) 20
