{"id":21825,"date":"2015-06-05T13:06:10","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T13:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/craig-keener-paul-and-spiritual-warfare\/"},"modified":"2015-06-05T13:06:10","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T13:06:10","slug":"craig-keener-paul-and-spiritual-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/craig-keener-paul-and-spiritual-warfare\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Keener: Paul and Spiritual Warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Craig S. Keener, \u201cPaul and Spiritual Warfare\u201d in Paul\u2019s Missionary Methods: In His Time and Ours <\/em><\/a>(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), pages 107-123.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spiritual warfare is a topic that has attracted a good deal of attention in recent years; this is perhaps especially true within the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Whole books have been written on this subject. \u201cPaul and Spiritual Warfare\u201d is a chapter that New Testament scholar, Dr. Craig Keener<\/a>, contributed to the book Paul\u2019s Missionary Methods: In His Time and Ours<\/a><\/em>. This book was published one hundred years after Roland Allen\u2019s classic missions book Missionary Methods: Saint Paul\u2019s or Ours?<\/em><\/a> Keener points out that Allen \u201c\u2026 recognized the essential role of God\u2019s divine intervention in the advance of the gospel\u201d (pg. 107). The subject of spiritual warfare is included in the newer volume because \u201cMany have linked spiritual warfare with missions\u201d (page 107). One can certainly understand this connection because salvation involves bringing a person out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of God\u2019s Son (Col. 1:13). This transfer from darkness to light is not one that the powers of darkness will stand idly by and watch.<\/p>\n

In this chapter, Keener focuses on spiritual warfare by looking at Paul\u2019s images for it in his letters: Romans, 2 Corinthians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy. However, he focuses primarily on Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians. The author also examines the apostle\u2019s \u201cpower encounters\u201d with the spiritual forces of darkness in the book of Acts. These encounters are his interactions with Elymas, the sorcerer, in Acts 13, the demonized slave girl in Acts 16, and the people of Ephesus in Acts 19. Keener thus employs both Paul\u2019s teaching in his letters and the narrative, experiential history of Paul\u2019s ministry preserved for us in the book of Acts as he deals with this subject. When writing about the \u201carmor of God\u201d in Ephesians 6 the author calls the reader\u2019s attention to background information regarding the city of Ephesus and the larger context of the book of Ephesians.<\/p>\n

Keener offers some very helpful insights in this chapter. I will mention four of them here. First, spiritual warfare includes, but is not restricted to, our conflict with evil spirits; it also involves battles with our own sinful nature (page 108). Second, spiritual warfare is more practical than we might think, Keener writes, \u201cwe are protected by our right relationship with God and one another\u201d (page 110). Third, and this is very important, there is a corporate aspect to spiritual warfare. Keener says \u201c. . . we dare not break ranks. We must march together protecting one another\u201d(page 112). Fourth, that the practice of directly addressing Satan and casting down heavenly spiritual powers\/princes lacks biblical support (page 117).<\/p>\n

Spiritual warfare is real and as Christians we are engaged in it. This being the case we need to know how to do battle in such a way that we can be victorious. There is much material available on this subject; however, finding a sound biblical treatment of the topic can be a challenge. This chapter by a highly respected Charismatic New Testament scholar is a good resource.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by John Lathrop<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further Reading:<\/em><\/p>\n

Read Craig Keener\u2019s chapter, \u201cPaul and Spiritual Warfare<\/a>\u201d online [available at the time of publication].<\/p>\n

Preview the entire book, Paul’s Missionary Methods: In His Time and Ours<\/em>: https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=6oOVdZUPLGQC<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more from Craig S. Keener on his Pneuma Review Author page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig S. Keener, \u201cPaul and Spiritual Warfare\u201d in Paul\u2019s Missionary Methods: In His Time and Ours (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), pages 107-123. Spiritual warfare is a topic that has attracted a good deal of attention in recent years; this is perhaps especially true within the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Whole books have been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2840,"featured_media":21826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2733],"tags":[3755,2793,2707,2794],"ppma_author":[4605],"class_list":["post-21825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-studies","category-spring-2015","tag-craig-s-keener","tag-paul","tag-spiritual","tag-warfare","author-john"],"authors":[{"term_id":4605,"user_id":2840,"is_guest":0,"slug":"john","display_name":"John Lathrop","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/JohnLAthrop20140510-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/JohnLAthrop20140510-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21825"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=21825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}