A
The Dishonoring of God in Popular Spiritual Warfare Teaching
Refuting the Bad Theology Espoused by Spiritual Warfare Teachers
by Bob DeWaay
"The Lord has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty rules over all." (Psalm 103:19)
"[A]nd He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation" (Acts 17:26).
"Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." (Romans 13:1)
Many popular teachers question God's sovereign rule over His own creation. Their unbiblical scenario goes like this: God made Adam the ruler of the world; Adam committed "treason" and turned the rightful dominion of the earth over to Satan; and Christ's atonement was to regain this lost dominion. According to this theology, however, Christ turned the rulership of the world over to the church when He ascended into heaven. The church consequently lost it back to Satan by ignorance, unbelief, and dis-unity. Now in these last days supposed prophets and apostles are being raised up to take control over the Satanic forces in the heavenlies and Christianize the world. This happens as the church takes cities through binding and casting down the spiritual forces of darkness that rule over them. Many dominion spiritual warfare teachers embrace this scheme, though differing on some details.
The "dominion" scenario and its underlying theological premises are unbiblical. We shall consider the various claims of this teaching point by point and compare them with the teachings of the Bible. Quotations of popular teachers who espouse various new spiritual warfare teachings will be given to show how widespread these ideas have become.
Adam Gave World Rulership to Satan?
Dominion theology starts with this premise: Adam was not merely given dominion over the non-human creation, but over the whole world, spiritually and potentially politically. Some go so far as to claim Adam was "god" over the earth. For example, Kenneth Copeland teaches:
"God's reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself. . . He [Adam] was not a little like God, He was not almost like God, He was not subordinate to God even. Now this is hard on the human mind, but I am telling you what the Bible said."1
Copeland goes on to teach that Adam had complete dominion over the earth. Earl Paulk has a different version of this: "The only place under God's dominion at the time was the Garden, given to Adam and Eve. Spirits still controlled the earth, but God told Adam and Eve to subdue them"2 A consistent theme of the dominion spiritual warfare theology is that God's sphere of rulership is limited. It is as if delegating authority is the same as losing it.
The next step in the development of this teaching is the transfer of Adam's authority to Satan. Ed Silvoso writes, "Because Adam, God's deputy on earth, transferred his legal dominion to Satan, God became obligated to recognize Satan's legal standing in spite of the fraudulent way in which it was obtained."3 Kenneth Copeland described the situation after Adam, "committed high treason, used that authority and delivered it into the hands of an alien spirit." The result was, "Now God literally was on the outside looking in."4 Copeland reiterates this point, "After Adam had given it away, God didn't have any more authority here."5 The earth, its inhabitants, and even the spirit beings therein were outside of God's realm of authority, according to this popular teaching. Satan had supposedly obtained the legal authority over the earth from Adam, and God had to recognize Satan's authority.
If this were true, clearly the Biblical writers were unaware of it. The Old Testament asserts God's universal authority over all things that includes Satan. For example, in Job, Satan had to ask God permission to touch Job (Job 1:6-12). The Psalmist describes God's authority: "God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham; For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted" (Psalm47:8,9). Even when the wicked are devising evil and carrying it out, they are unwittingly furthering God's purposes as Joseph told his brothers: "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20). Even the crucifixion of our Lord, though carried out by evil men, was God's "predetermined plan" (Acts2:23,24).
The Bible hardly presents God as lacking legal authority over His own creation. Abraham called God, "the Judge of all the Earth." (Genesis18:25). In Ezekiel 18:4a God said, "Behold, all souls are Mine." Nevertheless, many popular teachers assert that God lost his dominion over the Earth to Satan. In Acts 17:26, Paul taught that God determined the "boundaries" of all nations which is a reiteration of Deuteronomy 32:8.God even used pagan kings, like Cyrus of Persian, to do His bidding and glorify Him (see Isaiah 45:16). It is inconceivable that God could determine the boundaries of nations if He were lacking legal authority over the earth.
Another powerful counter-example to this theory is Jonah and Ninevah. No one cast down the principalities and powers over Ninevah. This city was exceedingly wicked, known for her oppression and violence. Jonah did not even want Ninevah to repent (Jonah 4:2). That the whole city repented cannot be attributed to any human spiritual warfare strategy. The Jews were hardly praying for the conversion of Ninevah. The conversion of Ninevah was God's doing, with human help coming only through a man who wanted nothing to do with it.
The Ransom Theory of the Atonement
The next error of the dominionist spiritual warfare revision of Biblical teaching is their change in the purpose of the atonement. Christ died, they reason, so God could get back from Satan what Adam had transferred to him. Historically, this is known as the ransom theory of the atonement. This theory was proposed early in church history, but lost out to the more Biblical teaching of the substitutionary atonement. The following is a summary of the ransom theory:
In this situation God offered Christ to the evil one as a ransom in exchange for sinners. Satan eagerly accepted the offer realizing that he was getting far more than he was giving up, but when he got Christ down into hell he found that he could not hold him. On the third day Christ rose triumphant and Satan was left with neither his original prisoners nor the ransom price.6
It is common for popular "faith" teachers to embellish this theory with dramatic accounts of Christ fighting it out with Satan in hell, some even claiming that Christ did so as a mere man, having lost his divinity.7
The ransom theory is connected to dominion spiritual warfare teaching in its supposed explanation of how God managed to reclaim legal authority over the earth and mankind. For example, Ed Silvoso offers this explanation: "Before Jesus' victory at Calvary, God would not become a trespasser by challenging Satan directly in matters related to man and the world under his control. If he did so Satan could have called God a trespasser."8 He goes on to explain that sending Jesus was the only way to "legally" recover the government of the earth.
This theory dishonors God. It assumes that God has to pay a debt to Satan to get back His own creation. What is blatantly ignored by this theory is the fact that man owed a debt of sin to God and was rightfully under His wrath! We were under the curse of the law Galatians 3 and facing eternal condemnation. The Bible uses the term "propitiation," as in Romans 3:25: "whom [Christ] God displayed publicly as apropitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed." The Greek word for "propitiation" in its noun form is also used in the New Testament for "mercy seat." The blood of the sacrifice was poured out on the mercy seat to appease God's wrath against sin. The atonement is about our being saved from God's wrath, not about God being saved from Satan's supposed legal right over God's own creation. "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." (Romans 5:9).
It is true that deliverance from Satan is a result of the atonement. But this result is based on delivering us from our guilt under the law, which held us in bondage to sin and Satan (Colossians 2:13-15). That idea is not the same as God paying a ransom price to Satan. The blood of Jesus is Biblical terminology for His laid down life. Blood was literally shed on Calvary when Jesus died for our sins. This blood was shed "once for all" as the Bible teaches in many places. It is not a metaphysical entity that can be invoked against Satan and demons. It is the price paid to God for our sins. Spiritual warfare teachers are regularly confused about this. For example: "[T]he number-one thing the devil cannot do is to penetrate the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus has already broken the power of the devil and it is a force, a power, an entity in this universe available to every child of God for deliverance and salvation from every situation, circumstance or sin."9 This makes the blood of Christ out to be a metaphysical entity that has magical powers against demons, like an amulet, rather than the price that was paid to God for our sins.
So Why are There Still Problems?
Having taught that Christ regained God's legal right to his own creation, spiritual warfare teachers go on to explain why the world is still in a mess. The problem is with the church. According to their theories, Christ gained victory, and sits far above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20-22), which is true. Christ has all authority. However, they claim that control over the heavenlies has to be gained by the church. Christ's exalted status will do no good if the church, to whom He has delegated His authority (remember that they assume delegated authority means lost or transferred authority), fumbles the ball. Alas, what happened with Adam potentially can happen again.
This problem is explained in a number of ways by various teachers. Ed Silvoso teaches: "The Church has now been placed potentially in control of the heavenly places once ruled by the prince of the power of the air. But the church must engage and defeat the enemy to retake the heavenlies in the name of her Lord, so that the eyes of those still being held captive by Satan will be opened."10 Of course the church lived in ignorance for nearly two thousand years until modern spiritual warfare teachers came along to teach us. The preaching of the gospel, faith toward God, and regeneration of the Holy Spirit supposedly is thwarted until the church "controls" the heavenlies.
The church was never commissioned to control the heavenlies. Consider this: Jesus told Peter that Satan had demanded from God "permission" to sift Peter like wheat (Luke 22:31). God, in His sovereign oversight of the universe, gave it to Satan, but it only led to Peter's conversion and subsequent ministry. Once we are in charge of the heavenlies will Satan have to ask us rather than God for such permission? Does the church have sufficient knowledge, wisdom, and power to rule a realm of being that is only partially described in the Bible and to rule this realm for everyone's good? I think not the church is not designed and equipped to do so. God is in charge of the heavenlies. Whatever God's providence allows Satan and his evil cohorts to do will only lead to the benefit of God's people and the glory of God's immutable purposes (see Romans 8:28-39). Christ authorized the church to "make disciples," not take control over the heavenlies.
Many spiritual warfare teachers twist the scriptures to make it appear that we are to rule the earth and the heavenlies. They quote the following passage: "And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Ephesians 1:22,23). The assumption is that he gave the church as head over all things that as His body we are to exercise authority over "all things." However, the passage does not state that He gave "headship over all things to the church," but that He gave "Him as head over all things to the church"! There is a huge difference. We have received Christ, not headship. Christ rules and Satan still has to ask permission as in Peter's situation. Our security is in Christ and His benevolent rule over His own creation, not in our supposed rule in His stead.
Dominion spiritual warfare teachers think God is at the mercy of the church. They teach a "vulnerable" God, severely limited in His oversight of His own creation. For example, Silvoso teaches that the church has the power to turn the earth and the heavenly places over to Satan. He writes: "Satan's only option is to try to deceive the Church, God's agent on earth, into yielding to him what has been entrusted to her care by God, much like what he did to Eve, and then to Adam, in the garden."11 He consistently repeats the theme that the church is in the position to give jurisdiction over the heavenlies and thereby the destiny of the cities of the earth to Satan. God could supposedly be back in the same sorry state that these teachers claim He was in the Old Testament.
We ought not to consider God vulnerable and limited even in the context of our God-given responsibility to preach the Gospel. Yet Silvoso writes, "[P]rayer operates in the realm of God's self-imposed limitations. These are areas where God, for reasons unknown to us, chose to limit His options and, consequently, His freedom of action."12 Another spiritual warfare author says, "How vulnerable God has made Himself to us!" Christ will build His church. God chooses people out of the mass of perdition and sends them forth with His saving message. Never does God call us to be cosmic rulers or masters of a universe from which He has backed off and left us or else the devil to take charge.
To show that I am not over-stating their claims, consider this statement by Francis Frangipane who claims to have sold hundreds of thousands of spiritual warfare books:
The church that successfully wars against Jezebel will be a church that inherits the glorious "morning star," which will be visible outward glory, a symbol of hidden, inward purity. It will be a church that exercises "authority over the nations," uniquely because it has conquered the Jezebel spirit which sought to strip God's servants of authority.14
He supposes that the Jezebel in Revelation 2:20 is a spirit being that is currently controlling much of society and the church. Jezebel's principle enemies are modern prophets who are "Elijah" coming in spirit before the coming of the Lord. He states, "Seeing Jezebel so blatantly manifest herself only confirms that the spirit of Elijah is also here bringing repentance and raising up warring prophets throughout our land!"15 In keeping with common dominionist spiritual warfare claims, this assumes that the church throughout history allowed itself and the rest of society to be ruled by Satan's agents, but that now new prophets with new revelations are going to bring us into world dominion.
Refuting the Bad Theology Espoused by Spiritual Warfare Teachers
by Bob DeWaay
"The Lord has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty rules over all." (Psalm 103:19)
"[A]nd He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation" (Acts 17:26).
"Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." (Romans 13:1)
Many popular teachers question God's sovereign rule over His own creation. Their unbiblical scenario goes like this: God made Adam the ruler of the world; Adam committed "treason" and turned the rightful dominion of the earth over to Satan; and Christ's atonement was to regain this lost dominion. According to this theology, however, Christ turned the rulership of the world over to the church when He ascended into heaven. The church consequently lost it back to Satan by ignorance, unbelief, and dis-unity. Now in these last days supposed prophets and apostles are being raised up to take control over the Satanic forces in the heavenlies and Christianize the world. This happens as the church takes cities through binding and casting down the spiritual forces of darkness that rule over them. Many dominion spiritual warfare teachers embrace this scheme, though differing on some details.
The "dominion" scenario and its underlying theological premises are unbiblical. We shall consider the various claims of this teaching point by point and compare them with the teachings of the Bible. Quotations of popular teachers who espouse various new spiritual warfare teachings will be given to show how widespread these ideas have become.
Adam Gave World Rulership to Satan?
Dominion theology starts with this premise: Adam was not merely given dominion over the non-human creation, but over the whole world, spiritually and potentially politically. Some go so far as to claim Adam was "god" over the earth. For example, Kenneth Copeland teaches:
"God's reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself. . . He [Adam] was not a little like God, He was not almost like God, He was not subordinate to God even. Now this is hard on the human mind, but I am telling you what the Bible said."1
Copeland goes on to teach that Adam had complete dominion over the earth. Earl Paulk has a different version of this: "The only place under God's dominion at the time was the Garden, given to Adam and Eve. Spirits still controlled the earth, but God told Adam and Eve to subdue them"2 A consistent theme of the dominion spiritual warfare theology is that God's sphere of rulership is limited. It is as if delegating authority is the same as losing it.
The next step in the development of this teaching is the transfer of Adam's authority to Satan. Ed Silvoso writes, "Because Adam, God's deputy on earth, transferred his legal dominion to Satan, God became obligated to recognize Satan's legal standing in spite of the fraudulent way in which it was obtained."3 Kenneth Copeland described the situation after Adam, "committed high treason, used that authority and delivered it into the hands of an alien spirit." The result was, "Now God literally was on the outside looking in."4 Copeland reiterates this point, "After Adam had given it away, God didn't have any more authority here."5 The earth, its inhabitants, and even the spirit beings therein were outside of God's realm of authority, according to this popular teaching. Satan had supposedly obtained the legal authority over the earth from Adam, and God had to recognize Satan's authority.
If this were true, clearly the Biblical writers were unaware of it. The Old Testament asserts God's universal authority over all things that includes Satan. For example, in Job, Satan had to ask God permission to touch Job (Job 1:6-12). The Psalmist describes God's authority: "God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have assembled themselves as the people of the God of Abraham; For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted" (Psalm47:8,9). Even when the wicked are devising evil and carrying it out, they are unwittingly furthering God's purposes as Joseph told his brothers: "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20). Even the crucifixion of our Lord, though carried out by evil men, was God's "predetermined plan" (Acts2:23,24).
The Bible hardly presents God as lacking legal authority over His own creation. Abraham called God, "the Judge of all the Earth." (Genesis18:25). In Ezekiel 18:4a God said, "Behold, all souls are Mine." Nevertheless, many popular teachers assert that God lost his dominion over the Earth to Satan. In Acts 17:26, Paul taught that God determined the "boundaries" of all nations which is a reiteration of Deuteronomy 32:8.God even used pagan kings, like Cyrus of Persian, to do His bidding and glorify Him (see Isaiah 45:16). It is inconceivable that God could determine the boundaries of nations if He were lacking legal authority over the earth.
Another powerful counter-example to this theory is Jonah and Ninevah. No one cast down the principalities and powers over Ninevah. This city was exceedingly wicked, known for her oppression and violence. Jonah did not even want Ninevah to repent (Jonah 4:2). That the whole city repented cannot be attributed to any human spiritual warfare strategy. The Jews were hardly praying for the conversion of Ninevah. The conversion of Ninevah was God's doing, with human help coming only through a man who wanted nothing to do with it.
The Ransom Theory of the Atonement
The next error of the dominionist spiritual warfare revision of Biblical teaching is their change in the purpose of the atonement. Christ died, they reason, so God could get back from Satan what Adam had transferred to him. Historically, this is known as the ransom theory of the atonement. This theory was proposed early in church history, but lost out to the more Biblical teaching of the substitutionary atonement. The following is a summary of the ransom theory:
In this situation God offered Christ to the evil one as a ransom in exchange for sinners. Satan eagerly accepted the offer realizing that he was getting far more than he was giving up, but when he got Christ down into hell he found that he could not hold him. On the third day Christ rose triumphant and Satan was left with neither his original prisoners nor the ransom price.6
It is common for popular "faith" teachers to embellish this theory with dramatic accounts of Christ fighting it out with Satan in hell, some even claiming that Christ did so as a mere man, having lost his divinity.7
The ransom theory is connected to dominion spiritual warfare teaching in its supposed explanation of how God managed to reclaim legal authority over the earth and mankind. For example, Ed Silvoso offers this explanation: "Before Jesus' victory at Calvary, God would not become a trespasser by challenging Satan directly in matters related to man and the world under his control. If he did so Satan could have called God a trespasser."8 He goes on to explain that sending Jesus was the only way to "legally" recover the government of the earth.
This theory dishonors God. It assumes that God has to pay a debt to Satan to get back His own creation. What is blatantly ignored by this theory is the fact that man owed a debt of sin to God and was rightfully under His wrath! We were under the curse of the law Galatians 3 and facing eternal condemnation. The Bible uses the term "propitiation," as in Romans 3:25: "whom [Christ] God displayed publicly as apropitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed." The Greek word for "propitiation" in its noun form is also used in the New Testament for "mercy seat." The blood of the sacrifice was poured out on the mercy seat to appease God's wrath against sin. The atonement is about our being saved from God's wrath, not about God being saved from Satan's supposed legal right over God's own creation. "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." (Romans 5:9).
It is true that deliverance from Satan is a result of the atonement. But this result is based on delivering us from our guilt under the law, which held us in bondage to sin and Satan (Colossians 2:13-15). That idea is not the same as God paying a ransom price to Satan. The blood of Jesus is Biblical terminology for His laid down life. Blood was literally shed on Calvary when Jesus died for our sins. This blood was shed "once for all" as the Bible teaches in many places. It is not a metaphysical entity that can be invoked against Satan and demons. It is the price paid to God for our sins. Spiritual warfare teachers are regularly confused about this. For example: "[T]he number-one thing the devil cannot do is to penetrate the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus has already broken the power of the devil and it is a force, a power, an entity in this universe available to every child of God for deliverance and salvation from every situation, circumstance or sin."9 This makes the blood of Christ out to be a metaphysical entity that has magical powers against demons, like an amulet, rather than the price that was paid to God for our sins.
So Why are There Still Problems?
Having taught that Christ regained God's legal right to his own creation, spiritual warfare teachers go on to explain why the world is still in a mess. The problem is with the church. According to their theories, Christ gained victory, and sits far above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20-22), which is true. Christ has all authority. However, they claim that control over the heavenlies has to be gained by the church. Christ's exalted status will do no good if the church, to whom He has delegated His authority (remember that they assume delegated authority means lost or transferred authority), fumbles the ball. Alas, what happened with Adam potentially can happen again.
This problem is explained in a number of ways by various teachers. Ed Silvoso teaches: "The Church has now been placed potentially in control of the heavenly places once ruled by the prince of the power of the air. But the church must engage and defeat the enemy to retake the heavenlies in the name of her Lord, so that the eyes of those still being held captive by Satan will be opened."10 Of course the church lived in ignorance for nearly two thousand years until modern spiritual warfare teachers came along to teach us. The preaching of the gospel, faith toward God, and regeneration of the Holy Spirit supposedly is thwarted until the church "controls" the heavenlies.
The church was never commissioned to control the heavenlies. Consider this: Jesus told Peter that Satan had demanded from God "permission" to sift Peter like wheat (Luke 22:31). God, in His sovereign oversight of the universe, gave it to Satan, but it only led to Peter's conversion and subsequent ministry. Once we are in charge of the heavenlies will Satan have to ask us rather than God for such permission? Does the church have sufficient knowledge, wisdom, and power to rule a realm of being that is only partially described in the Bible and to rule this realm for everyone's good? I think not the church is not designed and equipped to do so. God is in charge of the heavenlies. Whatever God's providence allows Satan and his evil cohorts to do will only lead to the benefit of God's people and the glory of God's immutable purposes (see Romans 8:28-39). Christ authorized the church to "make disciples," not take control over the heavenlies.
Many spiritual warfare teachers twist the scriptures to make it appear that we are to rule the earth and the heavenlies. They quote the following passage: "And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Ephesians 1:22,23). The assumption is that he gave the church as head over all things that as His body we are to exercise authority over "all things." However, the passage does not state that He gave "headship over all things to the church," but that He gave "Him as head over all things to the church"! There is a huge difference. We have received Christ, not headship. Christ rules and Satan still has to ask permission as in Peter's situation. Our security is in Christ and His benevolent rule over His own creation, not in our supposed rule in His stead.
Dominion spiritual warfare teachers think God is at the mercy of the church. They teach a "vulnerable" God, severely limited in His oversight of His own creation. For example, Silvoso teaches that the church has the power to turn the earth and the heavenly places over to Satan. He writes: "Satan's only option is to try to deceive the Church, God's agent on earth, into yielding to him what has been entrusted to her care by God, much like what he did to Eve, and then to Adam, in the garden."11 He consistently repeats the theme that the church is in the position to give jurisdiction over the heavenlies and thereby the destiny of the cities of the earth to Satan. God could supposedly be back in the same sorry state that these teachers claim He was in the Old Testament.
We ought not to consider God vulnerable and limited even in the context of our God-given responsibility to preach the Gospel. Yet Silvoso writes, "[P]rayer operates in the realm of God's self-imposed limitations. These are areas where God, for reasons unknown to us, chose to limit His options and, consequently, His freedom of action."12 Another spiritual warfare author says, "How vulnerable God has made Himself to us!" Christ will build His church. God chooses people out of the mass of perdition and sends them forth with His saving message. Never does God call us to be cosmic rulers or masters of a universe from which He has backed off and left us or else the devil to take charge.
To show that I am not over-stating their claims, consider this statement by Francis Frangipane who claims to have sold hundreds of thousands of spiritual warfare books:
The church that successfully wars against Jezebel will be a church that inherits the glorious "morning star," which will be visible outward glory, a symbol of hidden, inward purity. It will be a church that exercises "authority over the nations," uniquely because it has conquered the Jezebel spirit which sought to strip God's servants of authority.14
He supposes that the Jezebel in Revelation 2:20 is a spirit being that is currently controlling much of society and the church. Jezebel's principle enemies are modern prophets who are "Elijah" coming in spirit before the coming of the Lord. He states, "Seeing Jezebel so blatantly manifest herself only confirms that the spirit of Elijah is also here bringing repentance and raising up warring prophets throughout our land!"15 In keeping with common dominionist spiritual warfare claims, this assumes that the church throughout history allowed itself and the rest of society to be ruled by Satan's agents, but that now new prophets with new revelations are going to bring us into world dominion.