"He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" -- Isaiah 2:4 NIV.
It is the dream of all of us--no more war. This classic passage eloquently expresses the great desire to have peace. War, with its blood and killing and desolation, seems incongruent with any good, especially with God's mission among the nations. If God is a missionary God, then what purpose did he have in destroying the peoples of Canaan during the Conquest and then his own chosen people at the fall of Israel and Judah? How does a God judging many peoples in peace, turning warriors into serene farmers, and gathering all the nations, order the genocide of whole cultures, the destruction of the innocent with the guilty? How could a good and loving God kill people?
From the Noahaic Flood to the Great White Throne Judgement, God has revealed himself as "Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war" (Rev. 19:11). He did it at Rephidim in battling the Amalekites. The LORD said: "I will completely erase the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven" (Ex. 17:14). Taking vengeance on the Midianites in war was one of Moses' last assignments before the LORD took him (Num. 31:2). Most westerners do not see that war in Scripture is primarily against a backdrop of spirituality. God does have enemies, and most of them are not of flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12). The Bible pictures a cosmic tumult where an invading King is violently opposed by the usurping powers in control. What occurs in the realm of the seen is affected by the realm of the unseen.(1)
Scripture views war as the fulfillment in the natural realm of conflict in the cosmic realm and the demonstration of the power of God with signs and wonders over the power of his enemies in order to fulfill his purposes, leaving those in the natural realm who align themselves with his enemies defeated and those siding with God's purposes and his righteousness as victors. The missional result is that the observers and participants give glory to God. DeRidder adds: "The mission of God is often the battleground between [Satan and YHWH] and the place where the battle is joined."(2) That battle is in the heavenly places.
At first it seems that the Old Testament is much more vocal about war than the New, but after a more complete reading, the Old Testament sets the ground rules and explains the elementary assumptions with which the New Testament moves. These ground rules are the concern here, where we will see how the engine fits together. In the New Testament we will test drive the model.
JOSHUA AT JERICHO (JOSHUA 5:13-6:27)
The second time around at the Jordan, the Israelites had a new generation of warriors, and a new generalissimo twice the age of all of them. While mentored by a man who spoke as a friend with YHWH, Joshua had had responsibility for all military operations with this two million member horde of Oriental barbarians who believed their God lived with them in a box in his own tent. This Joshua was a professional soldier and knew how to fight, but he submitted to the Lord's direction. The Israelites set up a memorial at Gilgal after crossing over, were all ritually circumcised into their cult, and ate a ceremonial meal commemorating their deliverance from Egypt about forty years earlier.
While
reconnoitering the first target bastion called Jericho, this
experienced military sheik ran into a man(3)
wielding a sword. Joshua saluted him: "Friend or foe?" The answer
startled
the officer: "Neither, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have
now come" (Josh. 5:14). Joshua's salute then changed to a pre-Islamic
bow
to the ground, asking the commander's orders. They were surprising:
"Take
off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy" (5:15).
Joshua willingly
obliged and learned two important ground rules of
waging
war YHWH's way:
1.
God does not
side with anyone.
He creates his own
side and demands
even the most experienced to join his purposes. "This heavenly leader
owed
no allegiance to any people or city. He served the Most High. He
outranked
all skirmishing factions of earth. Joshua had not recruited God. God
had
recruited Joshua."(4) He comes not to
take
sides, but to take over. We, therefore, should rise above war and look
for the purposes of God.
2.
God's wars
are holy wars.
In the Old Testament, YHWH revealed himself as a "Man of War" (Ez. 15:3).(5) The Israelites knew they were headed for war when they left Egypt, armed for battle (Ex 13:18; Num 32:6). A whole section of Deuteronomy was composed with instructions on going to war. The priest was to speak to the troops and encourage them to remain courageous: "For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory" (Dt 20:4). John Lilley states that "the idea of 'holy war' is basic to the whole tradition about Jericho."(6) The city was devoted to the Lord. "The Hebrew term [devoted/hrem] refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them" (Lev 27:28f; Mic 4:13).(7) This is holy war. God decides his will and everything standing in his way is destroyed. We evangelical Christians sometimes find it hard to accept this wholesale genocide, but we accept the eschatological destruction of God's enemies easily. For Jericho, this was its eschaton. The result was the spread of God's glory among the nations. Hawthorne says, "The battle was God's--for his glory, against his enemies" (Josh 2:9-11;4:24;6:1,27).(8) Who, then, are his enemies? Innocent children in Jericho? Pregnant women? Old men?
THE QUESTION OF THE CANAANITES
Discussion of war and mission necessarily brings up the question of the Canaanites. Why did God want to destroy them utterly? The first reason has just been mentioned--namely, his glory among the nations. His glory and the fear of him and his people went across Palestine like a whirlwind. The peoples in that place (as in most places still in the world) were interested in power; therefore, God manifested his power, as they saw it, over their gods. Glasser observes that the Israelites were "given the land of promise as a national inheritance. This land was not acquired through their military activity but by means of the irresistible power of Yahweh's hosts who triumphed over the desperate and massive opposition of the Canaanites."(9) Glasser is close but no cigar. He misses the identity of the real enemy.
Bernal helps guide the discussion: "This was far more than human conflict. Jehovah God himself was waging war against Satan and his hosts! The Canaanites were devoted to idolatry, divination, necromancy, witchcraft, charms, and familiar spirits" (Dt 18:9-14; 1 Cor 10:20-21).(10) Joshua's assignment at Jericho and throughout his military career was to follow God's lead as his instrument to destroy the systems of false worship (Dt 12:1-3) and punish the sin of the Canaanites which empowered the systems (Gen 15:16). The goal was to "subdue every enslaving spiritual force at work in the idols . . . [by destroying] the devices of false gods which had held the people captive."(11) Here we have another principle of war and mission:
3. God's enemies are primarily in the spiritual realm, not among the peoples.
Gleason Archer defends the "faith and obedience" of the Israelites "when they carried out his orders concerning the Canaanites[, of whom he adds:] These incorrigible degenerates of the Canaanite civilization were a sinister threat to the spiritual survival of Abraham's race."(12) That kind of racism is unacceptable. We should be careful to avoid any unwise statements of "faceless Canaanites representing evil demonic powers" (Judg 1:7).(13)
While the Israelites viewed the Canaanites as holy war enemies, God viewed them as servants of his enemies. They had refused him and deserved judgement, but the main target was the destruction of his enemies in the heavenly realm. Even the Philistines had great awe for Israel's God, but they never referred to him in a capital-G way. Glasser makes a key statement in understanding reasons behind God's order to destroy:
Though some might argue that we enter upon rather tenuous ground in contending for an interrelation between human culture and the powers, the term culture embraces the totality of the response of any people to their environment [ie., , and the] attitude of autonomy it engenders in fallen human beings. [The powers take advantage of this autonomy, and] as a result a culture's spirit and structure stand in resistance to God and his love. Indeed, no culture has escaped; all are to a greater or lesser degree 'in the power of the evil one.' (1 Jn 5:19).(14)
God plainly instructed the Israelites to "completely destroy them . . . . Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshipping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God" (Dt 20:17-18). The displacement of the Canaanites was not the first time it had happened even in Palestine. The Lord destroyed a race of giants and settled the Ammonites there long before Israel arrived, and Israel was instructed not to provoke them to war because the land belonged to the Ammonites (Dt 2:21). The same situation is mentioned in v.12 where the descendants of Esau drove out the Horites, another giant race. The Lord did not hate the Canaanites. He hated their gods. The Canaanites who came to YHWH were saved including Rahab and her family (Josh 6:25). Another principle of holy war is the fourth principle:
4. Power Ministry is prominent in God's holy wars.
War in Scripture is seen against a backdrop of spirituality. We often interpret the wars of Conquest as symbols of spiritual warfare, while rarely thinking of these wars as just that--power ministry. God himself endorses power ministry: "Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you?" (Dt 4:34). Here in Jericho we see this ground rule laid down heavy, along with some previously impenetrable city walls. More evidence is the sign of an angel appearing to Joshua. The presence of the ark of the covenant at the head of the procession with an armed guard shows in the natural the outright invasion God had made into the enemy's stronghold at Jericho. The commander of the army of the Lord was leading his troops, some of whom were human. All the unseen military activity went on while the well-experienced General Joshua paraded his army around the town. When the walls fell, the spiritual battle was over as the subsequent events in the natural realm showed.
These principles are reinforced and amended in subsequent events of Israel's history. Following are examples.
GIDEON, POWER MINISTRY, AND WAR (JUDGES 6-7)
Gideon was an unlikely candidate for leading Israel in war against their oppressors. He was hiding out in fear, trying to scrape up a little grain in order to make bread, but the LORD chose him in response to the intercession of the Israelites for help in dealing with the rampaging bedouin Midianites (Judg 6:6). A prophet had come forward to remind them of God's power ministry for them long ago: "I snatched you from the power of Egypt" (6:9) and gave them the land of their oppressors, but they served the gods of the Amorites instead of the LORD (v.10). The prophetic indictment "functions in the Gideon account as a reminder that the real problem, soon to be introduced in the narrative, was religious syncretism, not Midianite camels."(15)
The angel meets Gideon and tells him, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior" (v.12), and "Go in the strength you have and save Israel"; "Am I not sending you?" (v. 14). Notice the similarities with Matthew 28:18-20, and Gideon's request for the wonders that led Israel out of Egypt, and then see the signs and wonders and power ministry:
--Angel consumes the food sacrifice (6:21)
--Power Encounter: destroys the Baal and Ashtoreth altars (6:25-27)
--The name Jerub-Baal--a taunt at the god's inability to fight back (6:31-32)
--Spirit of Lord comes upon Gideon, and he boldly calls for war (6:34)
--The wool fleece wonders (6:36-40)
--A 300-man army (7:8)
--The Midianite's dream of defeat which Gideon overheard (7:13)
--The confusion and slaughter in the Midianite camp (7:21)
Here Baal was exposed in order to purify Israel prior to the military action against Midian and to raise up Gideon as a bold leader. This defeat led to Baal's loss of control over the Israelites and their subsequent freedom from Midian. The real power in Gideon's life was "the charismatic enduement of Yahweh's spirit" (v.34) which came upon him (literally "clothed itself about" cf. 1 Ch 12:8; 2 Ch 24:20, signifying complete possession or identification).(16) While the battle is important, God's obvious goal is to liberate his people from Baal's influence. Quite ironic is the altar Gideon built in commitment to YHWH called, "The LORD is Peace" (6:24). Armerding states that a better translation of shalom here would be victory, and Glasser reminds that "shalom never means 'absence of war;' it means 'victory in war.'" Gideon's victory is short-lived while "the spiritual battle continued long after the Midianite hosts . . . had departed."(17) Gideon's family was ensnared from the spoils of the very victory that God had given (8:27). The principle here emerges:
5. The real battle is spiritual. The ministry of signs and wonders may gain liberation and victory, but any gain must be defended against counter attack.
DAGON VS. YHWH: POWER ENCOUNTER AND WAR (1 SAMUEL 4-6)
Samuel by this time is emerging as the last judge and the first prophet. The Philistines own all the metal-working technology for security reasons, and war continues for Israel. At the battle of Aphek the Israelites remember to bring the ark to the camp (which they trust instead of the LORD) to help them win the battle (1 Sam 4:3). The practice was revived since "their idolatrous neighbors . . . in order to . . . ensure victory, carried the statuettes of their gods in shrines, or their sacred symbols to their wars, believing that the power of those divinities" was invested in the objects.(18) Here at Aphek are two armies--some of them human--who do battle. Satan's forces strike first in a horrible defeat of Israel (probably because the Israelite faith was in the box--not the God in the box). Thirty thousand casualties occur including Eli's sons, and the Philistines capture the ark and set it up in their temple to Dagon, a half-man, half-fish god, the Giver of all earthly good(19) (4:10-11; 5:2). Meanwhile, Israel is shocked; Eli handles the death of his sons well, but news of the loss of the ark kills him (4:18). Satan's goal seems accomplished: God's glory is taken from him and his people, even causing children to be named "No glory" (4:21-22).(20) Here another principle emerges.
6.
When
spiritual battle is enjoined, it usually takes the form of
a power encounter, resulting in mission.
Next morning at the temple in Ashdod, Dagon was face down "on the ground before the ark of the Lord!" (5:3). Dagon's position suggests an attitude of respect and submission.(21) The Philistines replaced Dagon, but the next morning he had fallen again, and this time his head and hands were broken off (5:4). Imagine the high level warfare going on in the heavens. Then the Lord sent tumors among them. The plague was probably a bubonic-type disease which was rodent borne, swelled membranes like the lymph nodes and caused hemorrhoids (5:6). "The heathen generally regarded diseases affecting the secret parts of the body as punishments from the gods for trespasses committed against themselves."(22) God contextualized the disease to their culture to give them the missional message! Some do not agree with this missionary nature of YHWH, however:
This chapter, with the following, strikingly illustrates the non-missionary character of the old dispensation. For centuries the Israelites were near neighbours of the Philistines, and had some acquaintance with their political and religious institutions. Yet the Philistines had at this time only a garbled and distorted account (ch iv.8) of the history of the Israelites, derived probably from tradition, and seemingly no particular knowledge of their religion, nor did the Israelites ever attempt, though they were in the times of Samson and David in close connection with Philistia, to carry thither a knowledge of what they yet believed to the only true religion.(23)
On the contrary, here there is mission: (1) The Philistine priests knew well the stories of Israel (6:6) even though the two peoples were near-neighbor enemies--nearly impossible evangelism, according to missiologists. (2) The Philistines offer guilt offerings to YHWH to "pay honor to Israel's god" (6:6). With these guilt offerings is an insight into the way the Philistines viewed the world, and the missionary God who accepts what is not exactly kosher:
The offering of the Philistines was . . . a talisman or charm. From the ancient writers of Arabia we learn how a talisman, or charm of this kind, was composed. They held that all earthly things are but shadows of heavenly things, and that the celestial forms have an overruling influence on all earthly forms of life. . . . Ancient literature is full of marvelous stories of the power of these talismans. It is this talismanic method that is alluded to in this passage, for, instead of reading "Ye shall make images," etc., we ought to read, "Ye shall make talismans" (1 Sam 6:3).(24)
In order to test the origin of the plague, they took two cows with calves and hitched them to the wagon. The cows, "lowing all the way" (6:12) for their calves, went straight up into Israelite territory, as if driven there by unseen forces. The Philistines priests and diviners knew well about the Egyptian debacle in hanging onto the Israelites (6:6). The Dagon priests themselves warn that "the matter is urgent, or theirs will be the fate of Pharaoh and of Egypt who hardened their hearts against Israel."(25)
Beside the signs and wonders of the Dagon encounter, the disease, and the calf-less cows going straight up to the Israelite border, there is the power that killed the seventy Israelites who looked into the ark (6:19). In the latter, the Israelites were re-evangelized: "Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God?" (6:20).
YHWH: WAGING HOLY WAR AGAINST HIS OWN (ZEPHANIAH 1)
Would God declare war on his own people whom he has chosen? Apparently, he intends something like war in bring the destruction to Israel and Judah. Zephaniah probably wrote just before Josiah's reform about the causes of the war God fought against his beloved. He railed against the legacy of the Manasseh-vassalship of "the erection of altars to Assyrian deities in the Jerusalem Temple, permission of pagan cults and practices, sacred prostitution, divination and magic, and the practice of human sacrifice. The spiritual conditions which Zephaniah addressed were of outright apostasy and religious syncretism before any real effect of the Josianic reformation" (2 Kg 21:1-16;23:4-7).(26) Here we encounter another principle:
7.
God fights
against his spiritual enemies wherever they are, even
if his chosen people side against him.
Sin always brings cosmic consequences in the Bible. Zephaniah prophesies against Judah for religious syncretism (v. 4f), national religious disloyalty (v. 8), indifference to YHWH (v.12), worship of Baal (v. 4), Assyrian deities (v. 5), syncretism with Ammonite religion (v.5), apathy toward YHWH (v. 6), worship of Molech (v. 8), adoption of pagan cultic robes (v. 8), sacrilege of the Holy of Holies (v. 9), pagan worship in the Temple (v. 9), and materialistic skepticism among the people (v. 10-13). God was not fighting his people; he was fighting to destroy the enemies' stranglehold on his people. Loewen argues:
Western Christians read the Bible and see only this all-embracing God. Their own world view has blinded them to the fact that the Bible records the tremendous struggle which God waged with the Hebrew people, first of all, truly to become the only God of that tribe, and then to have them catch at least a few glimpses of the fact that he was really also the God of all mankind.(27)
Mission for God included the evangelization of his own chosen people. It also included making known his glory among the nations in powerful displays of his might, sometimes as part of a holy war. The Old Testament laid down basic ground rules for waging war the Kingdom way. The New Testament parallels these rules, but takes them as assumptions and sees them work out more in the spiritual realm. This transfer from natural to spiritual is discussed by Glasser as a transition to the New Age:
From the time the land was secured forward, three major emphases dominate the confessionals of the people of God: their election via the call of Abraham; their deliverance from Egypt through Moses' instrumentality; and the gift of the land (Dt 26:5-11). These elements obviously parallel the New Testament gospel with its spiritual triad: the election of a people to belong to God; their deliverance from the guilt and consequence of sin through the Cross, and the divine gift of the Holy Spirit providing eternal linkage with Jesus Christ the Lord.(28)
HOLY WAR IN FULL SWING (ACTS 1-8)
With the coming of Jesus, the commander of the army of the Lord had arrived. He did not bother with the skirmishes of a petty Rome. He came to conquer his enemies in the spiritual realm. Jesus matter-of-factly states his authority (Lk 10:22;Mt 11:27;28:18). "Furthermore, he will exercise this rule until the thralldom of Satan, sin, and death are not only challenged but brought to a complete end" (Mk 9:1;13:26;14:62;Lk 11:20-22).(29)(30) and announced that the kingdom is here and now.(31) Our job now is not to destroy idols, but to convert idolators. "Following Paul's strategy, if we can help move people to turn to God from their idolatry, they will burn their idols without our help" (1 Th 1:9;Acts 19:17-20:1).(32) Jesus' statement: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt 10:7) was a declaration of war
Here we see the playing out of the Old Testament's rules of war, most notably, the dual idea of the "rulers of this age" (1 Cor 2:8), which Oscar Cullman explains as both the invisible (principalities and powers) and visible officials (Pilate, Herod). "In 1 Corinthians 2:8 as well as Romans 13:1 the expressions are purposely so chosen that they make clear the combined meaning that is typical of the conception we have indicated."(33)
In Acts 1:8 are new marching orders given in one of the greatest councils of war ever held:You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
These orders are foundational to the expansion of the church, for war and mission. "The new age was to be that of the Holy Spirit who alone could empower the witness and complement the historic work of the Son."(34) Wagner comments: "Very simply, two themes in this statement contain the last recorded words of Jesus spoken on earth: power ministries and missiology."(35) The form of the war would come in these two weapons, not unlike the Old Testament principles. Signs and wonders abound after the Holy Spirit's entrance:
--speaking in languages never learned (2:4)
--miraculous signs done by the apostles (2:43)
--healing of the crippled beggar (3:1-10)
--amazement by the Jewish authorities at miracles (4:1-21)
--shaking houses (4:31)
--Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11)
--Signs and wonders and healings (5:12,16)
--Angel breaks the apostles out of prison (5:19)
--Stephen's signs and wonders (6:8)
--Philip's signs and wonders (8:6-7,39)
There were obvious signs of war also.
--Jesus coming back to take control (1:11)
--Connection between signs and wonders and war (2:19)
--Jesus' enemies put under his feet (2:35)
--The Sanhedrin's inquiry: "By what power?" (4:7)
--Gamaliel's caution of fighting God (5:39)
--Stephen's reference to principalities and spiritual issues (7:43)
--Stephen's observation of God's driving out the nations (7:45)
--The war of persecution which spread the fire (8:1)
Stephen's "great wonders and miraculous signs" and outspoken preaching brought him into open confrontation with the authorities.(36) With the stoning of Stephen and the scattering persecution, the whole church began to prosecute the war (Eph 3:10), and the battlefields spread everywhere. "Eschatology [had] invaded history."(37)
WAR IN HEAVEN (REVELATION 12:10-11)
Second Kings 6:13-17 speaks of Elisha's prayer and his servants eyes opening to see the hills surrounded with an army and chariots of God protecting God's own who follow his purposes. In Revelation 12:10-11, the reader gets a similar experience. "There was war in heaven" (12:7) followed by defeat of the enemy. Then a shout reminiscent of Jericho announces power ministry and intercession of the saints as the weapons which cast the accuser out. The two verses could be translated thus: "Now have come the deliverance and miraculous acts and the kingdom of our God, and the military authority of his Anointed One. For the one who accuses our brothers and sisters before our God day and night has been cast out. They militarily overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the statement of their martyrdom--they did not love their lives more than death" (Rev 12:10-11 my translation).
The principles carry through to the apocalyptic end.
A concise look at the principles developed is appropriate here.
1. God does not side with anyone.
2. God's wars are holy wars.
3. God's enemies are primarily in the spiritual realm, not among the peoples.
4. Power Ministry is prominent in God's holy wars.
5. The real battle is spiritual. The ministry of signs and wonders may gain liberation and victory, but any gain must be defended against counter attack.
6. When spiritual battle is enjoined, it usually takes the form of a power encounter, resulting in mission.
7. God fights against his spiritual enemies wherever they are, even if his chosen people side against him.
When I started this paper, I did not know where I would come out of the woods, but notice the increasing spiritual nature of the progressive revelation. God moved from basic instruction in his purposes to more advanced training and instruction. Bottom line for peoples like the Canaanites is never to align oneself against YHWH. It's big trouble. In our mission we should seek to listen to the Lord's directions, a principle all throughout the narratives in focus, and be obedient, running after righteousness and his purposes. Then we will be victors with Christ in the heavenly places. In Ephesians 6:10-18, the soldier is not enjoined to run into battle and engage the enemy, but rather simply to stand--stand and see the glory of God as he destroys his enemies and puts them under his feet. Rescuing the Rahabs is our job. Dealing with effects of judgement of those who refuse grace is God's department. We are not called to critique God like the seventy who looked into the Ark in 1 Samuel 6 and paid a heavy price for it. We are called to get beyond the petty to discover God's purposes and align ourselves with them, purposes "to prosper you and not to harm you" (Jer 29:11).
The
main
principle drawn from this study is this one:
Mission is War.This study has also settled the issue of the viability of the tool of power ministry. Running as a theme throughout the tapestry right alongside war is power ministries and the effect is always some form of missiology. This study will help me make ministry decisions in the future in how to work with God to prosecute the war against his enemies as we move toward the grand hope of Isaiah 2 of a day of peace under his care.
Archer, Gleason. Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982.
Bright, John. The Kingdom of God. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1981.
Bruce, F.F., gen. ed. The International Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986.
DeRidder, Richard R. Discipling the Nations. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1971.
Glasser, Arthur F. Kingdom and Mission. Pasadena: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1989.
Harris, W. "First and Second Books of Samuel." The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible. Vol. 7. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, n.d.
Hawthorne, Steve, and Kendrick, Graham. Prayerwalking: Praying On-Site with Insight. Orlando, FL: Creation House, 1993.
Holy Bible, The. New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1978.
Ladd, George Eldon. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959.
Newbigin, Lesslie. The Open Secret. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1978.
Wagner, C. Peter, ed. Engaging the Enemy. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1991.
Wagner, C. Peter, Spreading the Fire: Acts 1-8. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1994.
1. No intention is made here to project some proto-Platonism on the Biblical text, but I do intend to call attention to the Excluded Middle in most westerners' world view.
2. Richard R. DeRidder, Discipling the Nations, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1971), p. 142.
3. John Lilley, "Joshua," in F.F. Bruce, gen. ed. The International Bible Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986), p. 288: "The commander of the army of the LORD appears simply as a man; once his person is established (5:15), his directions are taken as from the LORD (6:2)."
4. Steve Hawthorne, and Graham Kendrick, Prayerwalking: Praying On-Site with Insight, (Orlando, FL: Creation House, 1993), p. 66. He adds: "The first word of reply must have rung like a bell in Joshua's mind for years: 'No'."
5. Arthur F. Glasser, Kingdom and Mission, (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1989), p. 244.
6. Lilley, "Joshua," in F.F. Bruce, IBC, p. 289.
10. Dick Bernal, "Jericho: Key to Conquest," C. Peter Wagner, ed., Engaging the Enemy, (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1991), p. 102.
12. Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982), p. 157-159.
15. Carl Edwin Armerding, "Judges," F.F. Bruce, IBC, pp. 323.
16. Armerding in Bruce, IBC, p. 324.
17. Armerding in Bruce, IBC, pp. 322-323, 325, and Glasser, p. 99.
18. W. Harris, "First and Second Books of Samuel," The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Vol. 7, (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, n.d.), p. 67. The author disparages the "ignorance and superstitious fear" of these "heathenish ideas."
19. Homiletic Commentary, p. 78.
20. "The word translated 'departed' is an ominous word in Hebrew and expresses 'is gone into exile'" (v. 19-22). Laurence E. Porter, "1 and 2 Samuel," Bruce, IBC, p. 356.
21. Porter, in Bruce, IBC, p. 357.
22. Jamieson quoted in Homiletic Commentary, p. 78.
23. American translation from Lange's Commentary quoted in the Homiletic Commentary, p. 79.
24. S.Cox in Homiletic Commentary, p. 84.
25. Porter in Bruce, IBC, p. 357. Wordsworth is quoted in the Homiletic Commentary, p. 85: "Another testimony from the heathen to the truth of the Pentateuch and a proof of God's judgements on Egypt were not without salutary effects on idolators."
26. Victor A.S. Reid, "Zephaniah," in Bruce, IBC, p. 951.
27. Jacob Loewen, "Which God do Missionaries Preach?" in Wagner, Engaging the Enemy, p. 167.
30. C. Peter Wagner, Spreading the Fire: Acts 1-8, (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1994), p. 21.
31. See George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959).
33. Oscar Cullman, "The Subjection of the Invisible Powers," in Wagner, ed., Engaging the Enemy, p. 197.
34. E.H. Trenchard, "Acts," in Bruce, IBC, p. 1271.
36. Glasser, p. 247. Cullman would suggest that the authorities had a dual personality--spiritual and natural.
37. Glasser, 196.