Sunday, November 06, 2011

Justin of Rome: 4 areas of spiritual warfare





Re: the Wolfgang Simson/Justin of Rome quote below..
What if we actually saw these four areas as spiritual warfare?
We have done well with labeling the first two as "demonic" (especially with the first category, we have been far too fundagelical, and obsexxed), but dare we tackle the idolatry/warfare of the other two?

Regarding the last of the 4th, Eugene Peterson, in an amazing section of "Christ Plays in ten Thousand Places," ties Jesus temple tantrum (which of course is about racism/xenophobia, see "temple tantrum" labels at bottom of this post).

Thanks, St. Wolf:
Catechist Justin of Rome, writing about 150, described how Christians helped other people almost systematically to renounce demons and see them being liberated from spiritual oppression mainly in four key areas:

  • unlawful sex,
  • the secret and magic arts,
  • escalating private wealth,
  • and violent xenophobia, the hate of foreigners.

The early Christians would have seen
  • people practicing illicit sex outside of marriage;
  • somebody involved in occultism,
  • someone accumulating material wealth just for his personal gain;
  • and those being rough and violent to foreigners and strangers

as demonically bound, persons who needs the help of Jesus to be released from those overpowering spiritual forces beyond any known human control. As the church stopped focusing on these ministries in later centuries, they left a gaping vacuum, which might need to be filled again by the only organism on earth called and gifted to do so, the church.
-Wolfgang Simson, Houses That Change the World,
p. 50

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Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!