I fast forward to the time of Jesus, even though the Old testament has more examples of God worshiper and false-god worshiper encounters. Jesus is the paradigm unmatched when it comes to battling the unseen forces of darkness. In the gospels Jesus amazingly spends a good deal of his time healing sicknesses and casting demons out of people. I think it’s amazing because the people were mostly Jews. It should also be noted that Jesus was born supernaturally and was without sin in contrast to a show like Charmed where there is no requirement of holiness for the witches to fight and vanquish demons. They can sleep around, curse, do whatever. That is a fantasy especially given that witchcraft is of the kingdom of Satan. In the book of Matthew 12:22, Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was both blind and mute. When the Pharisees heard about it they claimed he did it by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. To reveal how asinine their assertion Jesus stated “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?” Thus, witchcraft cannot drive out any demonic spirits. Jesus then performs the ultimate act which defeats the principalities and powers of the air—he submits to death on the cross. It is amazing that Jesus did not defeat the powers by zapping them with supernatural power that he no doubt possessed or at least had access to via his relationship with God in contrast to what is depicted on T.V. shows, but by the denial of himself even unto death. Thus, God used a method that was considered shameful, the cross, to disarm the powers and authorities, make a public spectacle of them and triumph over them (Colossians 2:15).

The question then becomes “Why is it, besides the world being the world, that film makers and book authors portray the church as an irrelevant, anemic spiritual entity? Could it be that we are depicted as such because they haven’t seen in the modern day church, a church that turned the world upside down. Do they depict us as powerless because we in essence act powerless. Could it be that we who proclaim the title Christian look too much like the world? Obviously, bigger and better church buildings don’t impress them much, nor does much of any thing that we’re doing, at least here in America. One day I was trying to figure out why I thought America was a paradox as a nation that many have termed Christian. Its not that I doubted the touted faith of the founders, I was just confused by their touted faith in and no doubt belief in God and certain behavior toward African slaves and native Americans. It wasn’t that I thought these were wholly innocent people groups, it was just that the people professing Christianity, most certainly Catholics as well were like a spring bringing forth bitter and sweet water. They were sanctioning slavery in the name of converting them to Christianity, but via an inherently cruel means. It was message/ behavior inconsistency. And then I thought there always seems to be two churches in existence on issues of right and wrong. There is never a unified front against obvious evil because one church participates in it with the world or ignores it to not be discomfited and the other tries to do something about it and amazingly enough both groups will profess a belief in and love for God. Some Christians agitated against slavery and tried to get it abolished and others could go to church every time the doors opened and would either do nothing or take a worldly viewpoint on it.

It was repeated again with Civil Rights for Black Americans. Some Christians stood with the movement and put their lives on the line and others either didn’t care because it wasn’t germane to their lives or they thought as the world did Sunday in and Sunday out. Today its repeated again with the abortion issue. You have some Christians who agitate against it and others in the church who either don’t know about it, don’t care about it or who have been a participant in it. Is it that God impresses certain issues on some people’s heart and not others? If one pastor can see an atrocity and be moved why not all of them. Don’t we all supposedly serve the same God. Therefore, if the church confuses me no wonder it confuses the world. When we act like the world from the biggest to the smallest matter we are in effect powerless, because it was Jesus acting opposite the world that defeated the principalities and powers. I recently ran across a book long after I begin writing this article which beautifully elucidates this subject and more titled Apostolic Foundations: the challenge of living an authentic Christian life by Arthur Katz. In it he writes “The demonic statement in Acts, “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you? Is a haunting indictment that reverberates to this very day…We will know how successful we are as the church to the degree that the powers of the air recognize our authenticity….If the church itself lives by the wisdom of the world, then it has no effectual opposition to those powers.”

Moses, Daniel, Elijah, Jesus and Paul to name a few obviously had a character of life that distinguished them not only to the world of men, but to the principalities and powers of the air as well. There was nothing confusing about them. They knew who their God was and they didn’t send mixed messages to the world by professing to be one thing, but living another. It wasn’t that they were without sin (except Jesus), but their character and their message was unified. God would do extraordinary miracles through a Paul because of the man he had become and the man he was no longer. Alas, to have a church of Paul type character is a challenge in itself because it would require a sacrifice of self that most people probably don’t want to make and I myself don’t know if I can make it but its likely the only thing that would make a demon say, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Katz writes, “They (referring to the powers of the previous statement) are required to recognize apostolic authenticity only, that is to say, they need to see the reality of heaven and the wisdom of God as being the effectual foundation of God’s people.”

The television shows and Hollywood fantasy movies have it wrong about true spiritual matters. The God who is Alpha and Omega has a plan for this world that will end with his kingdom being established and that of darkness being dispelled. He is never out of control and wondering how things will work out. He is in all things Sovereign.