Credo
16 Feb 2026

God or gods? When confronted with passages such as Exodus 20.3 (You shall have no other gods before me.) or Psalm 95.3 (For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.), how do we typically understand the concept of gods? We often consider them to be imaginary or nonexistent, or merely a statue made by human hands, but this is a modern assumption, and not the worldview of the Ancient Near East. These pagan deities were very much real, in that they exist in the overlap between the spiritual and physical realms.

This does not mean that they are in the same class of being as Yahweh the God of Israel, (not that Yahweh is just a being, since God is Being itself). Rather, these gods are rulers or spiritual beings, some of whom were obedient, and some of whom were rebellious. The rebellious ones are the gods of the nations (Psalm 96.5), and they are also known as false gods because they were usurpers or pretenders; they are weak, and are not actually in charge.

Some of the more prominent pagan deities include Baal, literally meaning lord or owner, who was worshipped by the Canaanites, Marduk, patron deity of Babylon, and Asherah, goddess consort of El or Baal, but which could also refer to a ritual pole that was used as an idolatrous object. Skimming through the Old Testament, we can see that these gods featured heavily in the nations surrounding Israel, but they were also frequently found in Israel. The worship of and communion with them turned humans away from the light and love of the true God, thus posing a real threat to God’s people, and angering our jealous God.

This clash between the true God and these false gods forms the background for what we term spiritual warfare.

Spiritual warfare is understood as God judging and opposing these demonic enemies, both to wage war against them, and also to restore order out of the chaos and destruction that they have wrought. Spiritual warfare is thus a dethroning of the powers and rescuing humankind from their malevolent, corrupting influence. Of course, Jesus’ victory is sure, as he has already destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3.8), but he has also called us, his followers, to participate in this warfare.

How are we to wrestle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6.12)?

It begins by recognising that deliverance from the evil one is more than a dramatic showdown or a specific prayer done by a specially trained priest or pastor, but it is fundamentally a life lived in faithfulness to Christ. Our every act of obedience to God drives out what is evil, and draws us into deeper union with all that is Good. Obeying God through prayer and fasting, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the infirmed, humbling ourselves and forgiving each other: these simple acts of faith available to everyone transform us into Christlikeness, and invite into us the Holy Spirit.

Conversely, choosing sin and disobedience puts us in union with destructive spiritual forces. This is what St. Paul warns us of in 1 Corinthians 10.20-21: participating in the sacrifices to the pagan gods transforms us to become more like these gods, or demons, as St. Paul rightly calls them. We therefore must live out the commandments of God with creative acts of beauty, justice and love that turn us away from the works of darkness and communion with demands, and towards works of light and deeper communion with the loving God who created us. By cultivating our love for God and others, we become profoundly compassionate toward our fellow humans, helping us to see the image of God in our fellow humans, behind self-imposed masks, or behind the deceptive acts of evil spirits. In this way, obedience to God is exorcistic, “driving out the demons, making us less like the evil ones and more like the Holy One.” (Andrew Damick, The Lord of Spirits, 207)

This causes us also to reconsider existing metaphors for spiritual warfare. Certainly, the idea of warfare can be found explicitly in Scripture, with God being described as a divine warrior who conquers primordial chaos in the Old Testament, and Jesus’ exorcisms can also be viewed as accomplishing and demonstrating victory over Satan. There is also the cosmic battle that breaks out in Revelation 12.7-9. But as with any metaphor, the metaphor of warfare is only a partial representation of the complex reality, and thus cannot remain the primary metaphor by which we describe the unseen realm. Failure to have a more holistic view can lead to a “might is right” or a triumphalistic view of Christianity, which is antithetical to the truth that Jesus willingly laid his life down, and was like a lamb led to slaughter, and that the Holy Spirit is only ever portrayed as being as gentle as wind or a dove.

For these reasons, E. Janet Warren proposes a few new metaphors that, when taken together, better reflect the fullness of biblical teaching.

First, taking our cue from Levitical purification laws, evil is an impurity or a stain that must be washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ – this is what leads to healing and wholeness.

Second, echoing the creation story, the chaos of evil is to be restrained and limited through the restoration of order, and what is good is to be cultivated as in a garden.

Third, since the divine authority of Christ has already been given to all disciples, as in Matthew 28.18, exercising and recognising this authority requires no military might on our part, but a steadfast and fruitful abiding in the True Vine.

These metaphors broaden our vision for the Good Life, and help us to move away from a worldview where there are agents of only either good or evil, which leads to the minimising of personal responsibility for sin, and a neglect of the painstaking process of discipleship towards holiness, over the quick-fix of expelling demons.

Being fixated on only the “spiritual” also leaves the church little room to consider and address other larger systemic issues of evil, injustice and violence, that lead to the exploitation of people through degrading and dangerous work, and the sowing of discord through tribalism or nationalism, and the environmental destruction through pollutive extraction.

True spiritual warfare cannot be separated from justice and ethics. Practical obedience to Christ guards us against distorted views of spiritual conflict and opens our eyes to the larger social dimensions of evil. When we respond with our whole lives to the truth, love and justice of God, and become more like the Holy One, that is participation in genuine and lasting spiritual warfare.

Kjelti Koh is a second year Master of Theology (Church History) student with the Global Institute of Theology at Yonsei University (South Korea). She previously served as a ministry staff in Singapore for five years. Her key research area is church-state relations, with other interests in architecture and cults.