We Need a Demon-Fighting Christianity

Not a Feel-Good Christianity

Suppose, for a moment, that you live in an ancient walled city. Over the horizon you see a band of raiders on the march, headed directly for your gates. It’s a nerve-wracking situation, to be sure.

There are only two possible ways to be comforted in the face of such a threat:

You can rely on the thought that your defenders are well-drilled and have never lost a battle.
Or, if you don’t have that, you can go about your day pretending you didn’t see the enemies, and talking about how great everything is going.

Modern Christianity has opted for the latter.

Because we were born enjoying the hard-fought successes of our predecessors, we’ve come to believe that ease is man’s natural state, and that things will continue on as they always have regardless of our effort levels. So, when we come face to face with real demons as we are now, it seems all we can do is pretend we’re not seeing the threat that stands right in front of us.

If you think I’m exaggerating when I say we’re facing demons, you aren’t paying attention.

Demonic, pagan rituals feature child sacrifice—we call that abortion. Demonic, pagan rituals feature sexual perversion—we call that fornication, pornography, and homosexuality. Demonic, pagan rituals feature self-mutilation—we call that transgenderism.

I mean, the country saw a well-known commentator be killed in broad daylight by a man who was addicted to porn and in a homosexual relationship with a wannabe woman. Call it what it is: demonic.

And that’s not even to mention the growth of Islam and Hinduism, two barbarous, demonic religions that are rapidly making inroads in the West.

At every turn, we are bombarded with the propaganda of the evil one. The enemy is at the gate, and we must acknowledge their presence.

Putting our heads in the sand doesn’t eliminate the threat.

While the enemy marches forward, much of modern Christianity preaches a feel-good, self-help message while ignoring the spiritual warfare that we’re all seeing on our newsfeeds every day. They don’t preach a fight between good and evil, but rather a struggle between you and a better form of you.

Verbal gymnastics have been perfected to help people believe they can pretty much believe, think, act, and talk almost however they want and still be in good standing with God. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism results, in which Christianity is reduced to “be a good person, and God will comfort you on your bad days.”

They fail to articulate that even our attempts to “be a good person” are spiritual warfare. The deceptions of our own hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) coupled with the external temptations and influences on us coming from all sides make it that much easier to fall into grave sin. When we don’t recognize the realities of the battle we’re in, God is brought low, man is elevated, and the enemy operates without any real pushback from us.

But not only is the focus on a feel-good Gospel—there is also a concerted effort to avoid even acknowledging the enemies at the gate. To many of these churches, culture war issues are looked at as icky, or low-status. Preaching on “the issues” is seen as a distraction from the Gospel.

Of those that do acknowledge the threat, many have already conceded defeat.

They have found ways to tell their people that rolling over is righteous. “Maybe if we’re nice enough, people will think Christianity is neat and come our way.” If, for example, your children have to grow up in fear of Muslim rape gangs like our European friends are, well then that’s just The Way of the Cross™.

They will quote that “our war is not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12) while never realizing that these issues form the battlefield on which we war against the spiritual forces of darkness. Beautiful loserdom sounds pious, until you realize that it means your kids and grandkids will have to fight the battle that you’re willfully forfeiting.

Others see an enemy, but probably not the one they should be focused on.

In the churches of Christ, many have their weapons trained on our neighboring cities that resemble us but differ in important ways. They will insist that denominationalism is our biggest threat.

Though we disagree with the denominations, they too are under attack by the demonic hordes. You may disagree with a Baptist on the piano in his church, but if he’ll protest abortion with you, or help you pressure your school board into keeping boys out of girls locker rooms, he’s not your biggest threat. Let’s handle the most pressing concerns so we can retain the room to have our doctrinal debates.

We have to rebuild a Christianity that says God is holy, righteous, and just, hell is real, good is good, evil is evil, every day is a battle, and we have victory in Christ.

The irony in all of this is that feel-good Christianity’s good feelings won’t last very long.

It’s as comforting as whistling your way through the city market while the enemy prepares to begin their siege. On the other hand, there is great comfort to be found in knowing that though our opposition is fierce, our God does not lose. That’s far more comforting than lying to ourselves that things are fine when they clearly are not.

As it’s been said, the church is a battleship and not a cruise ship. But a battleship that steers clear of all possible engagements is nothing more than a cruise ship, whether it looks like one or not.

Christianity was built to fight demons and their influence. Christ has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and we’ve been sent out to tear down strongholds in His name (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Demon-fighting Christianity prays, studies to know God and what He loves and hates, and lives in such a way to defeat demonic influence in our hearts, then our homes, then our churches, then our culture.

It’s time to leave behind the comfortable, feel-good, head-in-the-sand Christianity we’ve slipped into in our prosperity, and get back to fighting the good fight.

Notes

With 2026 rapidly approaching, I have some weekends open and would love to come speak to your church! Click the image to email me with your proposed dates and which topic you’d like to hear, and we’ll see what we can set up.