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Satan and the Corruption of Nature: Seven Arguments
Category: Essays
Tags: Apologetics, Essay, Problem of Evil, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Creation Care, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict, The Problem of Evil
Man…trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law – Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shrek’d against his creed” —Tennyson, In Memoriam Tennyson nailed it. We trust that God is…
Did Jesus Believe in Satan?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Demons, Jesus, Satan, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Jesus’ teaching, his exorcisms, his healings and other miracles, as well as his work on the cross, all remain somewhat incoherent and unrelated to one another until we interpret them as acts of war. As…
6 Things the Church Fathers Can Teach Us about Spiritual Warfare
Category: General
Tags: Evil, Natural Evil, Problem of Evil, Satan, Sin, Spiritual Warfare, Theodicy
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Image by Christina Saint Marche via Flickr Unlike our thinking today about the source of good and evil in the world, the early church fathers, including Irenaus, Athenagorus, Origen, and others before Augustine, possessed a warfare…
What does the Bible mean when it says God “sent an evil spirit” on certain people?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Bible, Demons, Old Testament, Q&A, Responding to Calvinism, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Verse: 1 Samuel 16, 1 Samuel 18, Judges 9
Question: In Judges 9:23, I Samuel 16:15ff and 18:10 it is said that God sends evil spirits on people. Doesn’t this support the idea that everything Satan and demons do is under God’s sovereign control?…
Where is Human Free Will in the Bible?
Category: General
Tags: Evil, Free Will, God's Will, Love, Problem of Evil, Theodicy
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The Bible is emphatic on its teaching that humans possess free will and are capable of originating evil. Notice, for example, that in the very first chapter of the Bible God commands humans to be…
The “Christus Victor” View of the Atonement
Category: Essays
Tags: Atonement, Church, Essay, Jesus, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Christus Victor view of Atonement, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
God accomplished many things by having his Son become incarnate and die on Calvary. Through Christ God revealed the definitive truth about himself (Rom 5:8, cf. Jn 14:7-10); reconciled all things, including humans, to himself…
Podcast: Did the Devil Make Me Do It?
Category: ReKnew Podcast
Tags: Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Greg peeks into the complexity of our spiritual world and offers wisdom for discerning spiritual activity. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0299.mp3
Podcast: Did Jesus Really Engage in Spiritual Warfare, or Was He Simply Playing Along with the Cultural Narratives of His Time?
Category: ReKnew Podcast
Tags: Angels, Demons, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Greg considers whether Jesus genuinely engaged in spiritual warfare, or if he was simply playing along with the beliefs of those around him. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0289.mp3
What We’re Up Against
Category: General
Tags: Evil, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of this World, Satan, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Though Jesus dealt a final blow to Satan’s kingdom through the cross and resurrection, the New Testament makes it clear that Satan is still viewed as the “god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4), “the…
The Cosmic Scope of Spiritual Warfare
Category: General
Tags: Angels, Demons, Evil, Kingdom Living, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Yesterday’s post briefly introduced the reality that we live in the midst of spiritual warfare. This is the reality of being a part of creation where Satan prowls like a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8-9)….
Vacationing in a War Zone
Category: General
Tags: Kingdom Living, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Suppose a family decided to go on vacation to a nice cabin on a beautiful shore in a distant country. This vacationing family naturally wanted to tune out the problems of the world, indulge themselves,…
Why is the World Still So Messed Up?
Category: General
Tags: Eschatology, Evil, Kingdom of God, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Through the Incarnation, Jesus made a way for our union with God. In addition, Jesus’ death and resurrection defeated the powers of evil. This should then lead us to ask: Why do we have to continue…
God’s Kind of Holy War
Category: General
Tags: Book of Revelation, Jesus, Lamb of God, Self-Sacrificial Love, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
This is part three of a series on Revelation. You can find part one here and part two here. While there will come a day when the sacrificial victory of the Lamb and of his…
6 Ways Satan Hinders the Church
Category: General
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Though Satan is in principle defeated, we still need to be rescued “from the present evil age” (Gal 1:4) and to “struggle … against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this…
The Cross and Cosmic Warfare
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Christus Victor, Salvation, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Since the time of Anselm in the 11th century, Western theology has focused almost all of its attention on the anthropological dimension of the atonement. In the most popular understanding, the chief thing that God…
The Universal Experience of the “Spiritual”
Category: General
Tags: Angels, Demons, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Humans have from prehistoric times generally assumed the reality of spirits who transcend our physical existence. Outside of post-Enlightenment western intellectual culture the belief in spirits is almost universal. Whether conceptualized as spirits of nature…
Angels and Spirits in a Secular World
Category: General
Tags: Angels, Demons, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
This week, we’ve been thinking about why we should believe in a spiritual realm in a world shaped by secular thought. One argument that supports the belief that spirits are real is the oldest, most…
Jesus and the Reality of Spiritual Warfare
Category: General
Tags: Demons, Jesus, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
In yesterday’s post, we discussed how challenging it can be to believe in the reality of a spiritual realm in the modern world. Today, let’s look at how Jesus’ ministry relates to this spiritual reality….
4 Reasons to Believe in a Spiritual Realm
Category: General
Tags: Angels, Demons, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
For the last century, a large number of theologians and church leaders have claimed that the biblical view of spiritual warfare—where there is an actual realm where angels and demons exist—is no longer believable. The…
Warfare Worldview: A Basic Definition
Category: General
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, Evil, Open Theism, Satan, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The warfare worldview is based on the conviction that our world is engaged in a cosmic war between a myriad of agents, both human and angelic, that have aligned themselves with either God or Satan….