3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare (Three Crucial Questions)

Clinton Arnold wrote 3 Crucial Questions About Spiritual Warfare two decades ago. Yet it remains the single best written resource on the topic to place into the hands of Christian believers.Arnold cuts through both overheated rhetoric about ‘spiritual warfare’ and entrenched refusal to contemplate the reality by bearing down on just three questions:√ What is Spiritual Warfare?√ Can a Christian be Demon-Possessed?√ Are We Called to Engage Territorial Spirits?In the process he brings to bear careful exegetical consideration, attention to how the early Christian church engaged similar issues, and a pastoral concern honed by the author’s own experience in cultural contexts where demonic activity seems less alien than in the West. The result is superb.Working from first principles, Arnold demonstrated how Jesus’ engaged the reality of conflict as the normal condition of human life in this age. Consequently, spiritual warfare is not principally a specialized ministry but rather the circumstance and the responsibility of every believer. Yet the well-informed Christian will understand that the conflict is an uneven match. God’s sovereignty over his world is not threatened by the reality of Satanic pushback. Satan’s reign is both territorial and temporal. In the light of Jesus’ vanquishing of Satan’s power, his reign will eventually end here and end altogether.So spiritual warfare is a given in the life of Christian individuals and communities. Why, then, the resistance to the language and the substance of such conflict?Arnold deals patiently and fairly with ’6 common objectives to emphasizing spiritual warfare today’. Since the 1970s, the English-speaking world has become awash with bizarre claims about ministries that do—at the risk of considerable understatement—‘emphasize’ spiritual warfare. Too often, the most high-profile among them are personality driven and theologically impoverished.The author is adept at re-shaping a biblically informed model for spiritual warfare for those who believe that truth matters enough—even amid the urgencies of wartime—to linger long in the understanding and embrace of it.The New Testament (special attention is given to the Apostle Paul’s instruction in the letter to the Ephesians) teaches that Christians are assaulted not by one enemy, but rather by three: the world (the ways of the world), the devil (the ruler of the king of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient), and the flesh (the cravings of our sinful nature).
Together, this triad of unequal adversaries present the Christian with a complex rather than a simple conflict. As we engage it alone and in community, we discover that ‘spiritual warfare is a way of characterizing our common struggle as Christians’. Because parasitic re-positioning of actual truth is one source of defeat, Arnold pays particular attention to ‘common christological heresies’ on his way to sane fleshing out of how individuals and small groups of Christian might do battle with their real rather than their imagined adversaries.At this point in Arnold’s book (as in this early stage of this short review), the reader could be forgiven for imagining that Arnold had metaphorized spiritual warfare down to its vanishing point in run-of-the-mill Christian ethical formation. This is certainly not the case.As he engages the second crucial question (‘Can a Christian be Demon-Possessed?’), the trajectory of Clinton’s argument reaches its most valuable point.When faced with the New Testament’s plethora of demon-encounter narratives and exhortations, the thoughtful Christian usually takes one of three paths:√ S/he dismisses the stories about demons altogether.√ S/he reinterprets the stories about demons.√ S/he accepts the stories as what really happened.Arnold chooses neither of these three paths and attempts to lead his reader through a more subtle consideration and towards a more faithful response.A cautious survey of the language common to the discussion ensues. English Bible translations and, therefore, English-language discussion of biblical texts inexplicably settles into the language of ‘possession’ or ‘ownership’. In consequence, the question becomes whether a Christian can be owned or possessed by a demon. Many Christians will state that this absolutely cannot take place, given the reality of God’s redemption and therefore ownership of the Christian.Arnold allows that ‘I wholeheartedly agree with this conclusion. A Christian cannot be owned and controlled by a demon.’However, this not to speak the language of the biblical texts, which usually uses the more flexible term daimonizomai (δαιμονίζομαι). This word can be understood to mean ‘tormented’, ‘vexed’, or ‘troubled’ by a demon. After engaging the pertinent texts and a number of examples from history, Arnold re-frames the question thus: ‘Can Christians come under a high degree of influence by a demonic spirit?’ … ‘Is it possible for Christians to yield control of their bodies to a demonic spirit in the same way that they yield to the power of sin?’To such questions—which no longer joust with the more absolute concept of demonic possession—Arnold gives his ‘yes’.This conclusion is followed by pastoral examples of how a believer can find himself in such troubled straits, with practical counsel on how to deal with demons, and with instruction on extremes that are to be avoided.From the in-principle considerations of his first two ‘crucial questions’, Arnold then moves on to the contemporary issue raised by tactics that purport to engage ‘territorial spirits’. Though his introduction expresses appreciation for one of the leading advocates of the movement, Arnold is critical of its premises.He endorses the notion that territorial spirits, as generally understood exist.Nevertheless, ‘In spite of the widespread consciousness of the people of God throughout history of the existence of high-ranking hostile angels, we do not find them naming the powers, rebuking them, binding them, or trying to cast them out of a region.’For reasons based in the biblical record and the testimony of the early church, the author is dubious that the tactics of ’Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare’ have the theological and historical pedigree that they claim. However, Arnold credits the practitioners’ concern for the lost and suggests other ways of ministering to a city that do not involve human beings ‘taking authority over’ the purported demonic lords of a region or a city.Clinton Arnold has produced a carefully reasoned, popularly (or semi-popularly) accessible manual to a matter that is intrinsic to the very idea of the Christian life in a contested world. At the same time, he has provided a meeting space for people of good will who will gather thoughtfully around a matter that has provided inexhaustibly divisive among contemporary churches.
Two decades on, 3 Crucial Questions About Spiritual Warfare is still the place for English-language readers to begin.

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For being a very small book, it is a helpful criticism of many of the deliverance ministry tactics that are being employed today. One of the most recognized practical features of this book is Arnold's summary of contemporary literature in the field of demonology. What is impressive about Arnold's brief history of this literature is that he shows how other scholars have responded to issues which have arisen when discussing demon possession. Beginning with Merril Unger's public reversal of his former stance against the possibility that Christians can be demon possessed, Arnold outlines how this public admission send shockwaves throughout the community. The outline of responses that various counselor's and theologian's have written with regard to problems in demonology is not only worth reading in its own right, but also has the advantage of pointing the interested reader toward scholars or leaders whose focus is consistent with their own. Toward this end, Arnold helpfully provides a brief list of recommended books at the end of each chapter, and states the basic position of the authors (on both sides of the issues) that he is recommending, so that readers could continue to pursue authors with whom they have commonalities.

Dr. Arnold has developed an amazing written work on three important aspects of Spiritual Warfare. He addresses the issues of defining spiritual warfare, can a Christian be demon-possessed, and should we engage in warfare with territorial spirits. In this book, Dr. Arnold doesn't just explain his own personal opinion. He develops the theology behind the practices of others, provides Scripture references, and then concludes with what his study suggests is the truth regarding this issue.Dr. Arnold gives good presentation for the view points that are not in harmony with his own personal convictions and he presents the material so that the reader can independantly develop their own interpretation. I appreciate his exhaustive study on these issues and this book explained so many things regarding spiritual warfare.The information Arnold presents should be explained to and understood by every believer. Understanding the material presented does not require a background in SW but will require that the reader have a hunger to learn about these issues. That said, this book would be great reading for experienced Christians as well as new Christians.

The best book on spiritual warfare! It’s biblical and balanced. Every spiritual warrior needs to read this great book! It corrects some wrong ideas & practices about spiritual warfare.

This book is by far the most biblically balanced approach to this biblical issue. In a Christian climate that is usually torn between two extremes... this book has been a much needed breath of fresh air. Most of the material currently in circulation on this topic is riddled in new age fanaticism rather than sound scriptural exhortation. This is a must read for anyone who wants honest and Biblical answers for their questions related to the issue of Spiritual Warfare. Thank you brother Arnold for your timely contribution! I believe it will prove to be a classic among serious proponents of the Bible for many generations to come.

The author was very well read on the topic and interacts with the differing opinions of others in a fair and irenic spirit. One of the things that I most enjoyed in the book was the author's survey of what the early church fathers taught on the subject. The author also gives a broad overview of what the Scriptures teach on spiritual warfare. Great book!

I have come to expect a lot from Arnold, and I was not disappointed by this brief treatment of this potentially tricky subject. A good introduction to his fuller works on spiritual warfare. A must for those who want a genuinely scriptural exposition f this subject

This book is good and opens up your thinking regarding spiritual warfare. It has a lot of information on each of the questions. The only downside is that I feel it never directly answered the questions. It gave a lot of info regarding what other people do and how they do it. It's definatly worth reading, its a book with ino that is invaluable.

When you read this book get ready to have your theology mind blown. It certainly brings out some very difficult questions and discusses them quite academically. I liked the content and the layout. I feel like it left a few things unexplained, or left me with more questions, but I suppose that was the nature of the book. It answered three questions, I will need to do further follow up now that I am thinking in a slightly different way concerning spiritual warfare.

This is a great book to read for anyone seeking a better understanding on spiritual warfare. It is simple God read, informative and biblically based.