SUMMARY OF THE HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE
As the writings and experiences of the early church fathers show, spiritual warfare has consistently revealed itself in history in both evangelism and discipleship. In surveying the history of the church, it is clear that certain aspects of spiritual warfare seem to not be emphasized. There are no apparent references to territorial spirits or strategic level spiritual warfare. Rituals or formulaic prayers are seldom described or encouraged and amulets are clearly discouraged. Ancestral spirits are only referenced in relation to a condemned heretical cult. Dialoguing, naming, and human techniques are rarely discussed.
The armor of God analogy as a spiritual warfare metaphor and concept is consistently reinforced through the teachings and writings of the church fathers. Power in spiritual warfare is found through humility, prayer, the name of Christ, a truthful understanding of God, and the Word of God. Satan’s attacks are seen on an individual level through deception, temptation, heresies, idol worship, false religions, sickness, and mental attacks. The devil also attacks the church corporately through heresy, division, and complacency.
Exorcism is mentioned and described in church history, leaving no room for doubt that “numerous accounts of demonization and exorcism as well as descriptions of the deceptive work of demons in pagan religions fill the writings of the church fathers.”[1] Despite the attention given to exorcism, believers are consistently referenced as not being possessed. When described, exorcism appears to happen at the point of conversion, when there is found “clear accounts of initiatory rituals directed against evil spirits.”[2] Demonic manifestations and apparitions are referenced, but caution is given in regard to since deceptions can occur in spiritual warfare. Repentance, renunciation and “confession of all their previous sins” were also seen as an important connection with baptism either as an exorcistic or apotropaic practice.[3]
Early Christian references to the demonic can be found in the writings of Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Origen, Athanasius and many other early church fathers. Not only is spiritual warfare documented constantly “through the whole time period of the ancient church,” but spiritual warfare is also seen during the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and the early post-Reformation.[4] Exorcism practices seem “to diminish in the Middle Ages,” but are still referenced among the Germanic tribes, Norwegians, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Martin Luther, the Catholic Church’s 1614 Rituale Romanum (exorcism guidelines), and other sources.[5] The existence and activity of the devil and demons are widely evidenced and commonly believed across the history of the church until the post-Enlightenment era.
This survey of the historical writings, characters, and confessions of the Christian Church reinforces the importance of having an historical understanding of spiritual warfare. Power encounters through exorcism are mentioned throughout this church history. The greatest emphasis of early church writings is not on the power and responsibility of the priest or church leader, but on the power of Christ and the responsibility of the believer. Regardless of the frequency and consistency of spiritual warfare accounts in history, these experiences, teachings, and theologies must always be examined in light of Scripture.
[1]Arnold, Three Crucial Questions, 25.
[2]“They are described or alluded to in the writings of Tertullian in Carthage and in the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus in Rome.” Kelly, The Devil at Baptism, 81.
[3]“The devil was associated with the rule of the world both by Theodotus and by Christian and Jewish tradition, so that, if orthodox Christians began to renounce both the world and the world ruler Satan in imitation of the gnostic precedent, they could do so with no suggestion of heterodoxy. Even before the time of Theodotus, in fact, Justin Martyr said that Christians had renounced (apotassesthai) the things that were in the world (kosmos); and as I noted earlier, he also spoke of their renunciation of idols, which he regarded, so to speak, as machinae ex diablo. The so called Second Letter of Clement to the Corinthians also mentions a renunciation of the world, using the word, aiōn, meaning ‘age.’ Tertullian, Augustine, and Rufinus (the later as translator of Origen) use the corresponding Latin word saeculum (rather than mundus, the equivalent of kosmos) when speaking of renunciation of the world, which they linked to baptism” (Kelly, The Devil at Baptism, 96). Kelly goes on, “Tertullian, however, regarded it not as exorcistic but rather as apotropaic, that is, as directed against lapses into sin in the future. He advises candidates to devote themselves before baptism to much prayer, fasting, kneeling, and watching, and to confess all their previous sins, so that the past might be atoned for and defenses acquired for resisting future temptations.” (ibid., 106). Apotropaic practice is to prevent future attacks or to diminish their power.
[4]Oscar Skarsaune, “Possession and Exorcism in the Literature of the Ancient Church and the New Testament,” in Deliver Us from Evil Consultation (Nairobi: Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization 2000), accessed January 4, 2014, http://www.lausanne.org/all-documents/historical-overview-1.html.
[5]Tormod Engelsviken, “Historical Overview 3,” in Deliver Us from Evil Consulation (Nairobi: Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, 2000), accessed January 4, 2014, http://www.lausanne.org/all-documents/historical-overview-3.html.