Growing up in church, I heard about spiritual warfare frequently. The idea that angels and demons are battling it out until the final days of judgement when all Hell will be cast into the Lake of Fire by Jesus Christ, the Son of God— an idea that sounds like it comes from a fairytale. In our postmodern world, such an idea seems irrational, even to many regular churchgoers. But here is the truth: spiritual warfare is real. And America is war torn.
How can a rational mind be convinced that spiritual warfare is as real as the mathematical reality that two marbles in one hand plus two marbles in the other means you are holding four marbles? The answer is a culmination of questioning why the world works the way it does, why there is so much evil, so much deception, so much suffering.
The existence of evil cannot be rationally ignored, and one does not have to get political to recognize it. The existence of murderers, rapists, and sex traffickers is enough to understand the reality of evil. The reality of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust is a well-known and well-documented example of the extent of human evil.
Unfortunately, modern Americans are losing sight of that reality. There is a strange and growing movement to deny the Holocaust, to turn it into a hoax, and refuse to wrestle with the reality of the evil perpetrated on the Jews and those who helped the Jews. The Holocaust denial movement has become such an issue, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. has multiple pages on its website dedicated to refuting Holocaust denial and distortion and defending the reality of the Holocaust.
G.K. Chesterton talks about the modern tendency to deny the reality of sin in his book Orthodoxy: “Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin— a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing.”
Although the reality of spiritual warfare can be seen clearly without touching on politics, it is also true that the political arena is rife with spiritual warfare.
Politics is not simply a matter of logic and law. It is far more appropriate to say the “art of Politics” than “political science” because politics is not a series of observations, deductions, and cause and effect reactions. Politics is a manifestation of human will. It is, in a way, art in motion, but instead of expressing our humanity on canvas or on a stage, we are expressing it in reality. We are often not very good at it.
Human will is chaotic. It can be beautiful. It can be ugly. It is anything but straightforward. Each person’s will is uniquely shaped by worldview, experience, and desire. How the will of the people is shaped directly impacts the policies that govern our society.
George Washington said in his Farewell Address: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports… It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”
He also acknowledges that education is equally as vital as morality. “Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened,” said Washington.
Today, we have a largely immoral and undereducated citizenry. Ignorance is easy to manipulate. We know that and so does the devil.
In his 1894 speech “Blessings of Liberty and Education,” Frederick Douglass said, “Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.” Douglass educated himself, broke free of slavery, and became one of the most famous abolitionists in American history. This is not a fairytale. This is a real world example of the principle that evil takes advantage of ignorance but knowledge leads to freedom.
The history of human slavery in America is a profound example of evil and both the physical and spiritual warfare necessary to put an end to it. Not only did the South own slaves, but many attempted to justify slavery with false spiritual teachings that twisted Scriptures. In a time when self-proclaimed Christians preached slavery as a moral good and others denounced it as evil, there was no remaining neutral. Either slavery is evil or slavery is good. It cannot be both.
Slavery is evil. No amount of twisted false teaching spewed from pulpits could change that truth. The subsequent Civil War proved America at the time was willing to fight for a moral principle not only with words but with guns. To not simply risk being publicly shamed, but to risk their very lives for truth and justice.
Thank God for the people who sacrificed and fought to end slavery in America. The Americans living in the 1860s had a duty to defend freedom, which relies on moral clarity. Few in the North would have gone to war without an absolute moral conviction that slavery is evil. That kind of moral clarity— not moral inclusivity or relativity— corrected one of America’s greatest faults and brought her in line with her dearest principle that “all men are created equal.” We have the same duty to defend moral clarity today.
When people divorce politics from the reality of spiritual warfare, they are denying the foundational principle that a free society requires a moral and educated society. We cannot simply seek an educated society, for knowledge divorced from morality turns into either foolishness or cruelty. We also cannot divorce morality from education. The knowledge and discussion of history, science, logic, rhetoric, art, philosophy all strengthen our grasp of truth. Similar to an analogy by St. Clement of Alexandria, truth is the water flowing from God to nourish all the earth. All truth flows from God who is the Truth.
We will continue to see less and less freedom, prosperity, and virtue in our country unless we return to sound biblical teaching. Search the Scriptures and seek the wisdom of God. Read real books. Read history. Reason and think for yourself! Why? Because education is the key to freedom and ignorance will be manipulated by those who seek to do evil.
Christ calls each believer to take part in the spiritual war between good and evil. Ephesians 6:12 says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
How do we fight this battle? We must go first to the Scriptures. Ephesians continues: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Scriptures are the defenses we have against Hell. To gird yourself with Truth, you must know what is true. To armor yourself in righteousness, you must know what is right. To fit your feet with peace, you must know real peace (not just conflict avoidance). God lists truth first and foremost and places faith fourth in the list. This indicates that faith flows from Truth, just as salvation flows from faith. The Scriptures reveal God’s Truth to us and so it is the sword of the Spirit that cuts down lies, destroys evil, and wins the final battle.
When we take spiritual warfare seriously, we get Hell’s attention. The devil will pull out all the stops to pull us away from truth, as he has been doing in this country since its founding 250 years ago. Expect it and be ready.
