Are ghosts real? – Ephesians 6:10-13, Part 1

Are ghosts real?  If ghosts are real, aren’t they just manifestations of demons?  Are demons real?  And what about spiritual warfare? 

In our scientifically-minded culture we can lean heavily toward believing that ghosts, the spirit world and therefore spiritual warfare is not real.  Some people go so far as to say that  the descriptions of demonic possession in the Bible are actually psychotic episodes that the ancients didn’t know how to understand.  Those same skeptics say that we, however, with our centuries of scientific, medical and mental health research and understanding now know that there is no such thing as spiritual warfare, but instead it’s all in our minds and bodies. 

Clearly, there are plenty of people who believe that.  It’s just science, they say.  But are they right?

If we are reading the New Testament, it seems the naysayers are wrong.  Satan is mentioned frequently.  Jesus and the disciples take it for granted that Satan is real and that he and his demons manifest themselves on a regular basis. 

If we keep reading beyond the life of Jesus, what we see is that the apostles and the early church also have numerous encounters that could be described as literal spiritual warfare.

What is spiritual warfare? 

In many places around the world today, there are evidently power encounters between the real forces of Satan and angels and humans.  A friend of mine from India sent me a video of an exorcism that looks like it is straight out of a feature film. 

Here in North America we can think that Satan, if he is real, doesn’t care about us, because we have maybe deceived ourselves with consumerism, materialism, and consumed with entertainment, comfort, and ease. There is a point there, but we also have our power encounters.  There is witchcraft and sorcery.  But for most of us, I suspect that we will go throughout most, if not all, of our lives, never having a spiritual power encounter like that. 

Does that mean spiritual warfare exists in other places, but doesn’t affect us at all?  Maybe Satan has decided not to bother with us.  I highly doubt it. 

But what about us?  We need to be careful.  We can blame things on Satan that almost certainly have nothing to do with Satan.  We can trip, fall and break a bone, and say that the enemy was at work.  Maybe, but I doubt it.  We were just clumsy.  We can have a persistent cough for a month, and say that Satan just wouldn’t let up.  Again, I highly doubt it.  A job loss, a broken relationship, a car accident, or having to park really far away from Costco.  Likely none of it is Satan. 

The editor of Christianity Today, Russell Moore recently wrote an article I found very helpful, and the title was that the culture war is not spiritual warfare.  Moore writes, “There’s no absence of spiritual warfare talk from Christians these days. But listen closely to it and you’ll notice something: Rarely is this language of warfare directed toward evil spirits. Instead, it’s usually employed to describe ideological opposition toward fellow human beings. “This is spiritual warfare!” we hear as the lead-in to a call to arms about some political or social stance. But this way of thinking about spiritual warfare reveals a significant disenchantment with the world of the Bible.”[1]

Finally, we Americans sometimes claim that foreign policy is spiritual warfare.  What do I mean?  Have you ever heard international politics described as good versus evil.  That perspective is very American. Former President Ronald Reagan, for example, called the USSR “the evil empire.”  We typically say our enemies are Satanic, and we, America, are good, fighting a holy fight.  We also said this about the war on terror.  Is foreign policy the same as spiritual warfare?  If none of that is spiritual warfare, what is spiritual warfare? We’ll talk about that in the next post.

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[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/october/culture-war-spiritual-warfare-devil-russell-moore.html

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