Neville Chamberlain was known for his policy of appeasement. As the prime minister of Britain before World War II, he knew that the country was still weary from the first World War, and wanted to avoid a European war at all costs. The problem was that at the same time Hitler was planning to overrun Europe, including Britain. Chamberlain did not want Britain to have to confront Hitler and his army, so in September of 1938 he reached an agreement with Hitler that resulted in the Munich Pact. Italy and France joined Britain in agreeing to surrender parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany in return for Hitler’s agreement not to invade any other European countries. Chamberlain confidently came home proclaiming, “Peace in our time.” They really believed that by giving into Hitler’s demands he would stop, or limit, his aggression. And, at that point, America was standing back hoping the whole thing would go away. But Hitler arrogantly ignored the pact, taking most of Czechoslovakia and invading Poland. It became obvious that France and Britain were in his sights as well. The Munich Pact is now a universal symbol of the failure of the policy of appeasement.
What caused Chamberlain and the others to actually believe that appeasement would work? I believe that it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and reality of evil. When we suffer under the illusion that evil can be reasoned with, and agreements made that will be lived up to, then we are at the mercy of evil. When we recognize evil for what it is, then we have begun to disarm it and are prepared to deal with it. We begin to live in the world of reality.
I want to talk today about spiritual warfare, because I believe that we need to take this reality seriously. Unless we understand the nature of evil, and our relationship to it, we will not be able to stand up to it, let alone overcome it. The world is a good and wonderful place, and there is much good in the world. But evil is also present in the world and it is very real. Good and evil exist as parallel kingdoms in the world, and they are in conflict with each other. This is no surprise if you read the Bible and accept its truth. The Bible says, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). This has enormous implications in how we understand the world and how we approach life.
And so, the first point I would like to make today is: To win the battle, you must understand the reality of evil. The world is not an evil place, but there is evil in the world, and we need to understand that and deal with it. None of us really like to think about the world having evil in it. It is not pleasant. But when we deny its existence, pretend it does not exist, or ignore it, we become vulnerable to it. Think of it in terms of a terrorist attack. Are we more vulnerable when we recognize the threat of terrorism as real, or when we deny that it is a threat? Obviously, we cannot ignore the threat of terrorism, because we know that if we do, we are vulnerable to it.
I have heard many people wondering how anything so evil such as the terrorist attacks could happen. In fact, when two other pastors and I were interviewed this week on radio about the 9/11 service we had planned, the radio personality asked us that very question. He wanted to know how something like this could happen. And each of us pastors were trying to push the microphone toward the other guy. Part of it was because it is a very difficult question, and part of it is because it has a difficult answer to hear. In spite of the fact that history is full of illustrations about just how evil the human race is capable of being, we still seem reluctant to accept the existence of evil in the world — or in the human heart.
This was illustrated in one of the parables of Jesus. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn” (Matthew 13:24-30).
In the parable the owner of the field represents God. We are the servants. The servants want to know how weeds, that is, evil, got into his field. They questioned his competency as the owner of the field. They accused him of sowing bad seed in his own field. At best, they thought he should have been able to prevent the bad seed from being sown. They couldn’t understand it. We do the same. We question God when we see evil in God’s world. We even blame him for the evil. But listen to the owner’s response: “An enemy has done this.” The world has an enemy. You have an enemy. Listen as the Bible tells us about him: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus called the devil a thief and said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” That is his battle plan. He is a dangerous enemy. He wants to steal the pleasure and joy of life. He wants to kill people. And he wants to destroy us spiritually. He loves nothing better than to alienate people from the God who loves them. But Jesus ended his statement with this good news: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
But when we do not have a proper understanding of evil, we cannot understand life, much less accept it. Frontline is a PBS program which recently produced a special entitled, “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero.” The things that happened on 9/11 left some people questioning the goodness of God, and even his existence. The widow of one of the firemen who was lost in the attack said that she could no longer talk to God. She could not understand how the God who created so much beauty could turn her husband into ashes. A security guard told of cursing God and losing respect for him. The question is, “If God is all powerful how can he allow something like this to happen?” It is the same question the servants of the owner of the field had: “Didn’t you sow good seed? If so, then where did these weeds come from?” If God is good and made a good world, how did this evil get into the world? Jesus’ answer to the servants is his answer to us: “An enemy has done this.”
Once we accept the fact of evil in the world, how do we deal with it? The second point is: To win the battle you must be prepared for battle. As we read in the Scripture today, we are to prepare for battle and put on the panoply, the full armor, of God. The reason is that you cannot appease evil. It wants all of you. It will take you in pieces if it must, but ultimately it will not rest until it has all of you. You dare not think that you can give it a little and it will be satisfied and stop. It will come after you, and unless you are prepared to battle it, you will fall. You will need the helmet of salvation — a right relationship with God. You will have to have the shield of faith, because the devil is going to throw the fiery darts of doubt, despair and desire at you. You will need to be protected by the belt of truth — because the devil lives in lies. You are going to have to be protected by a breastplate of obedience and righteousness. You are going to have to have a knowledge of God’s Word, which is your only offensive piece of equipment.
If you do not even realize there is a battle going on, you are going to be taken off guard. Don’t be surprised and upset that you are in a spiritual battle, expect it. If you are not prepared for battle, you will be defeated. The film Gladiator is a violent film, but it does lift up the important values of courage, strength, loyalty and honor. In the beginning of the film, Maximus, a Roman general, is faced with a Barbarian hoard. They are on the battlefield, and their lives as well as future of Rome are in their hands. Maximus rides up to his men and encourages them to think of protecting their families and not fear death. He pauses for a moment and says to them: “What we do in life will echo in eternity.” His message was that loyalty, strength and courage were virtues more important than life itself. If they lost their courage, and did not prove loyal to their country and loved ones, their lives would mean nothing. But if they lost their lives and did it for the sake of courageous love and loyalty, their lives would live on in eternity. He was right. What we do here does matter in eternity. Our lives can have eternal significance, but only if we are courageous and faithful.
But imagine those men on the battlefield, each with a picnic basket and a book of poetry. Yet this is how some Christians are when it comes to being on the spiritual battlefield in life. We are unprepared and disillusioned when faced with spiritual conflict. It did not matter whether or not those soldiers facing the Barbarians liked to fight — they had no choice. Somehow we think the Christian life should be a picnic, and so we are unprepared for the realities of spiritual warfare. It doesn’t matter whether you have no taste for violence if you are in the middle of a battle. If you are not prepared for battle you will die. We do have a spiritual enemy. He has come to kill and destroy. The battle has come to us whether we wanted it or not. The good news is that we can win the battle if we have put on our spiritual armor and go in the strength of the Lord. But it will still be a battle. If you get your feelings hurt, or you are shocked that you have been wounded, then you have not taken this seriously. Imagine those soldiers running to the general crying because someone called them a bad name, or said something mean to them. Imagine them saying they wanted to quit the army because they didn’t get their way on something. They would not fit the description of a soldier. We need spiritual soldiers. We need people who can stand in the heat of battle.
Another part of the problem is that we think the battle is only “out there” in the world. We are one of the few countries in the world who has not fought a war on our home soil. That is one of the things that made 9/11 so frightening — it appeared that our enemy had brought the war to us, and we would be fighting a war on our home turf. We need to understand that sometimes our spiritual enemy brings the battle to our home soil — the church. Some people are caught off guard when religious leaders fall morally, when there is conflict in the church, or when someone in the church wounds them. Did we really think that we would only fight the enemy “out there” somewhere and that he would never enter this place? We need to understand that he loves to attack us on our home soil. If I were the devil I would join a church and encourage my followers to do the same. I would stir up as much trouble as possible. I would arouse the worst in normally good people. I would attack the marriages and families of believers. This is the reality of what we are up against. We have to be able to see behind the scenes.
How do we handle this? Well, again, we understand the reality of evil. We understand that if we are going to be Christians we are going to be engaged in spiritual battle. We put on our spiritual armor. But there is another step. The third point is: To win the battle you must be strengthened by prayer. This is source from which our power and strength come. Prayer is the act of filling ourselves with the presence and power of God. Without prayer we will be defeated, because we will be fighting in our own strength. We need to be “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
So the spiritual battle we are talking about is not one where we literally get entangled in fights. We do not strap on a 45 and look for some evil that we can confront. No, our battle is won and lost on the field of prayer. We cannot advance, let alone win the spiritual battle, if we are not empowered with prayer. We need to pray for each other. We need to pray for protection from the evil one. We need to pray that God would guard our moral lives and protect our people from moral failure. We need to pray for the strengthening of families in our church. We need to pray for love and unity within the church. We need to pray for wisdom to discern false teaching. We need to pray and not give up.
When you have unreasonable fears, when you have irrational guilt, when things are happening in your life that do not make sense, you are under spiritual attack. Not because of an evil spirit inside you, that is impossible for a child of God, but there is an attack from the outside. When you are feeling an overwhelming temptation, understand its source. When thing after thing goes wrong, and there is seemingly no explanation for it, realize that the enemy of your soul is attacking you. It is not because you are a bad person, or that God is punishing you for something. This is a normal part of being in a spiritual battle. This is why prayer is so important. You need to spend time praying about what is going wrong in your life. You need the prayer support of other people. The devil comes to discourage, disable and defeat the people of God in any way he can. He will hit you on the blind side. He will pull a surprise maneuver. He will come when you are least expecting him. So you must expect him. You must be prepared for battle. And you must pray for strength. William Gurnall said, “It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons.” Don’t pray to be taken out of the battle; pray for strength, courage and wisdom to fight the battle.
For years William Wilberforce had pushed Britain’s Parliament for the elimination of slavery in their country. But after such a long battle he was discouraged and was about to give up. John Wesley was his good friend, and even though Wesley was suffering with the illness that would soon take his life, he gathered his strength and with trembling hand wrote to Wilberforce. Here are his words: “Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be won out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh be not weary of well-doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery shall vanish away before it.” Wesley died six days later, but Wilberforce never forgot his words. He fought for 45 more years and in 1833, three days before his own death, slavery was abolished by the British Parliament.
Even when you feel defeated and think the battle is lost, it is not over. God is on your side. If God is for you, who can be against you? Follow the example of Paul who wrote near the end of his life: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Rodney J. Buchanan
September 15, 2002
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Spiritual Battle -- Questions for discussion:
1. How have the events of 9/11 affected the way your view the world?
2. Why is it so hard for some to accept the reality of evil in the world?
3. Why do people get mad at God when evil happens? Who, or what else, might be to blame?
4. Why does the policy of appeasement not work when dealing with evil?
5. Read Matthew 13:24-30. What does this parable have to say about people react to the presence of evil in the world? What explanation does the parable offer?
6. Read 1 Peter 5:8. Who is our enemy? How does this affect your understanding of life?
7. Read John 10:10. What is the devil’s mission?
8. How can we be prepared according to Ephesians 6:10-18? What happens if we are not prepared in this way?
9. According to John 10:10, what is Jesus’ mission?
10. Besides suiting ourselves with spiritual armor, what other measures must we take to be prepared for spiritual battle?
