Charismatics and the Sovereignty of Satan
August 1st, 2007
(By John MacArthur)
The following is taken from a message John delivered several years ago at The Master’s College. It was transcribed by Tony Capoccia at The Bible Bulletin Board. Though certainly not true of all charismatics (lest we be accused of over-generalizing), the problem John points out here is a very real one in some charismatic circles.
I received an interesting letter the other day. It came from some people who came to Grace [Community] Church from a Charismatic church – a very large, prominent Charismatic church.
That’s quite a jump — to leave there and come to Grace Church. The only thing they knew in their church about me was that I didn’t have the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s all they knew — that I didn’t believe [in the continuation of the gifts], so I didn’t have the power of the Holy Spirit.
They didn’t know much else [about our church], but as circumstances indicated they came to Grace, on a visit, and they never left. . . . There are a number of people who were in this group that came, and one of the ladies wrote a really interesting letter to me. It is an amazingly well-written letter. . . [And] in the letter, this is what was laid out. When you think of the [broader] Charismatic movement, you think of speaking in tongues, or healings, or Benny Hinn knocking people down, and things like that. But there are some underlying things in the Charismatic worldview that are really very, very terrifying. And she pointed out this in the letter. She said:
You know we lived all our life in this movement and one thing dominates that movement, and it is that Satan is sovereign. If you get sick, it was the devil. If your child gets sick, it was the devil. The devil made your child sick. And even if your child dies Satan somehow got the victory. If your spouse, your husband or your wife gets cancer, that’s the devil that did that. If you had an accident, the devil did that. If you lost your job, the devil did that. If things didn’t go the way you wanted them to go in your company or your family and you wound up with a loss of job or a divorce — the devil did all of that. The devil has to be bound and so you have got to learn these formulas, because you have got to bind the devil or he is really going to control everything in your life.
The devil dominates everything, and he is assisted by this massive force of demons who also have to be dealt with, and you have got to do everything you can to try to overcome these spiritual powers, and they are invisible and they are fast and they are powerful, and they are really impossible for you to deal with on any permanent basis, so it is an ongoing, incessant struggle with the devil.
And the lady in the letter just basically said, “We lived our whole lives thinking that everything that went wrong in the entire universe was basically because of the devil. The devil is really sovereign in everything and even God, along with us, is really struggling like crazy to overcome the devil.”
She said:
I lived with heart palpitations, panic attacks, anxiety, frightening dreams — waking up in the middle of the night terrified that the devil might be doing something to my child while he’s lying in his bed. Just living in this constant terror of what Satan was doing; that when the wrong guy gets elected — Satan put him there. That when the society goes a certain direction it is all under the control of Satan. Satan is really the sovereign of everything and it is really difficult to get control of him — even God is up there wringing His hands trying to get control of this deal.
I lived with that fear and that terror because I took my church seriously.” And she said, “I came to Grace [Community Church] and one thing just totally shocked me. You said that:
The fact is, God is in control of everything! . . . When you get sick, or when somebody gets cancer, or when something goes wrong in the world, or when you lose your job, that is not outside the tolerances of God, that is not outside the purposes of God, in fact, God works all things together for good.
This was absolutely earth shaking. This was a total change for us, and the difference we found was so powerful that it totally changed the way we think about life.
That is the issue. We do not believe Satan is in charge of history; we believe God is in charge. That changes everything. That takes all the panic out. I can honestly say that I have never had a panic attack. I have never awakened in the night worrying what the devil might be doing, because God has not only conquered Satan, but God has put Satan under our feet it says, and, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” [1 John 4:4]. So we know God controls history. And this might surprise you, the devil is God’s servant. If you want to read a great book, read, Erwin Lutzer’s book on Satan, in which he points that out so capably.
A lot of the Church today believe more in Satan’s power to defeat us, than we do in God’s power to save and bless us.
Jack Hayford made the statement that “everything that happens to us does not come from the hand of God…..
But everything that happens to us passes through the hands of God.”
That is why everything works together for good to those who love the Lord and are called accoording to His purpose.
Great article!
That letter is dead on. I was completely caught up in the charismatic movement. The whole time I was being convicted by the Holy Spirit with questions about what they said or wanted me to believe. The scary thing about that devil they bind or run from is it all ends up relating to the person. Not only do they say the devil made your child sick, it was your lack of faith that let it happen. If you didn’t cast out demons, bind satan, live in faith to their God (not the one of the Bible, He is sovereign) and constantly use misquoted scripture to “tell” God what he was supposed to do, then whatever bad happened was you fault. If you were sick, lack of faith, if your child was sick you weren’t speaking right to satan or God, if anything bad happened and you prayed about it and it didn’t work – it wasa lack of faithful prayer commanding God to abide by His scripture and binding Satan… It is very disconcerting and extremely anxious to worry about whether you commanded God that morning and bound satan enough to not lose a family member… Praise the Lord for it was transcripts from Grace to You I found searching on the internet that started me to challenging these principles. I praise the Lord for men like John MacArthur and wonderful sites like Grace to You and Pulpit!
So in light of this article, we must always get our understanding from the Word Of God.
I ditto Dave B., “praise the Lord for men like John MacArthur and wonderful sites like Grace to You and Pulpit!” that encourage us to keep our faces in the pages of Scripture.
Our joy comes from what we know to be true about our God.
Eph 6:11-12
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Eph 4:25-27
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil.
2 Co 2:5-11
5 But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe. 6 This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, 7 so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. 8 Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him. 9 For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. 10 Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Thank you for posting this! Sadly, this view of Satan and his “sovereignty” dominates the charismatic movement and charismatic churches. It is also the view I and many dear friends held for years–resulting in a life of bondage and fear, rather than the life of freedom and joy described in Scripture for believers! By God’s grace I now understand and whole-heartedly embrace His complete sovereign control over ALL!
This is a good article on the extremes within charismatic circles. I think charismatics especially within the TBN crowd can be vulnerable to this kind of thinking and view on life. But on the other side we need to becareful of presenting a christianity that is more faithful to the underlying american or western worldview than it is to what God’s word says. As a biblical charismatic this kind of emphasis on satan within some charismatic circles does discourage me. But it does seem like people from both the bible believing evangelical world as well as the charismatic world are coming together. Thank God for people like sam storms, wayne grudem, jp moreland, terry virgo, cj mahaney and such…
is this true can satan have strongholds in a believer’s life——-is there anyone who can answer this and maybe a verse or 2 ———–the women of our church are studying this — i thought beth moore was wrong???
(from Bible Bulletin Board)
In her (BETH MOORE)
book titled Breaking Free she teaches that Satan has “strongholds” in a believer’s life, and she calls that “generational bondage” (Chapter 13). She teaches that we should retrace our family lineage to be set free in the present. Basically, she teaches that sins are passed on from one generation to another and we need to break that bondage.
Grace Regnier,
I think Ezekiel 18:1-20 would be a good place to start.
2 Corinthians 5:9-11 is another one.
Thanks,
Kelvin
Grace,
While these links may not be directly on target with what you’re asking, I think you’ll find them helpful.
Here
Here
And here
Hope they help,
NB
Grace,
You need to break free from Beth Moore.
Morris
Grace,
I would highly recommend you Sam Storm’s ministry http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com. He has alot of good article’s on some sensititve and controversial topics.
That whole thing finds it apex in the works of singer/songwriter Carman. Though he has written beautful worship songs, stuff like “Satan, Bite the Dust” and “Radically Saved” fill young believers full of ideas about “beating up” the devil using “kingdom authority”. There’s even a website I read which says,
”
Here is a sample prayer on how to Plead the Blood of Jesus on your body, soul and spirit:
“Father,
in the name of Jesus, I plead the Blood of Jesus on my entire physical body, on my entire soul and on my entire spirit. I plead the Blood of Jesus against any demons that may try and come against me. I Plead the Blood of Jesus against any humans that may try and come against me.
I plead the Blood of Jesus against any natural accidents or catastrophe’s that may come against me. I plead the Blood of Jesus against any diseases, illnesses or sicknesses that could possibly come against me.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I have full faith and belief that the Blood of Jesus will now protect me against all of the things that I have just Pled His Blood on.
Thank you Father.
Thank you Jesus.”
This prayer is short, sweet, simple and straight to the point. You can add whatever else you want to in that prayer that will fit your own personal set of circumstances.
You will have to Plead the Blood on each of the above six items to get God’s full protection on it. You have to be very specific on the things that you want covered and protected under His Blood. That is why each of you will have to make up your own personal list….” end quote…
You have to be specific!!??? God doesn’t know? Where is any of that in the Bible?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word they have no light of dawn!!
AMEN! Excellent post!
Leading on from this error, do you think God’s curse may be upon those that minister, and handle the Word of God this way?
“We do not believe Satan is in charge of history … So we know God controls history”.
If that’s so then why do you preach an eschatology of fatalism whereby the church seems to wind up defeated and Christ must come back to rescue us from the overwhealming powers of darkness?
Having grown up in charismatic circles and now going to a baptist church, I have to say this is not accurate for many, many charismatic churches.
Surely there are the vineyard types where this is accurate, but there are many assemblies of God, etc that do not believe such things.
“If that’s so then why do you preach an eschatology of fatalism whereby the church seems to wind up defeated and Christ must come back to rescue us from the overwhealming powers of darkness?”
The fact is, the scriptures say that “the whole world lies in the power of the wicked one” and that Satan is “the god of this world system”. But that only goes as far as God allows. The church is victorious and militant in this present age, therefore, MacArthur does not preach an “eschatology of fatalism”, but face slapping truth. If you cannot find the balance in this, who’s fault is it?
For anyone who would doubt this view in the charismatice movement I challenge you to read a book by one of it’s most prominent leaders. Kenneth Hagin wrote a book called “The Triumphant Churh” in which he states (paraphrase) that “God is not in control, Satan is… that’s why there is so much suffering in the world”. The sad fact is, this is fatalism, creating a fear in the heart of every Christian. A fear that causes people to wonder whether or not God will ever help them, wondering when the next attack from Satan will come from. To be totally honest I find the idea that Satan is in control of everything absolutely horrendous and close to heretical.
Thanks for this article, I think this should be brought to the light more often. God bless you guys.
I feel so sorry for pentecostal/charsmatics because they operate almost totally in the realm of the flesh (feelings, emotions,and self), while they do not want or desire to study doctrine (teachings of the Scriptures). In fact, one told me that he did not need to read the Bible, since the Holy Spirit told him all he needed to know.
I was in that type church for 10 years, and studied all I could find on it, and it still is in limbo as to how anyone can justify the teachings they espouse.
So it is not a suprise that behind every tree, bush, or clump of grass, the devil lurks to them, and is ready to pounch on an unsupecting Christian, to waylay him/her, unaware that Christ is totally in charge and no one gets past His Hand without His Approval. As long as they operate in the fleshly realm, defeat is certain, because no one in the flesh can please God. So it will please satan to keep them there, and he is fostering their leaders to keep his subjects in submission, by TV, Radio, Cable, slick tabloid magazines, and crusades or conventions, all the while the leaders are living it up in huge mansions, driving BMW’s/Lexuses/Volvos, and having a ball with their tremendous salaries. Religion pays them well to keep the flock fleeced.
Scripture says “avoid all such as that live after the flesh, for the flesh profited nothing.” “Those that live after the flesh will die.”
Any focus on the Blessed Spirit, that leaves Jesus out or forgotten, is not directed by the Holy Spirit, for His total focus is to see what Jesus/Father wants and desires is accomplished. After all Jesus sent Him to us to do the will of the Father in our lives, and if He is in control our full desire will be to honor the Son and the Father through the Blessed Spirit.
God Bless,
Bill
I appreciate this article and agree that Satan answers to the one true God, but I believe that we need to consider one point. There are too many churches that discount spiritual warfare flat out. Growing up in a church that was completely enamored with the soveriegnty of God (as we should be) and the fact that Charismatics are “misled” to a large degree, I was taught to be very skeptical of these “fantastic” things. This is simply unbiblical; there are too many refrences to demonic possession, pleas for believers to take a stand against the devil’s schemes, real interactions with both angels and demons in Scripture for us to dismiss the topic both theologically and practically.
I was recently in a class where my professor oftheology linked demonic possession primarily with physical problems, and although this certainly happens, he taught us that every spiritual occurence has a natural explanation. This came from a man who completely affirms the validity of Old/New Testament miracles, yet he was very quick to deny and downplay the miraculous in today’s world. I don’t know exactly where this line of thinking comes from (other than the rise of naturalism in science), but we need to be careful not to push the reality of spiritual warfare to the side. Perhaps this is what our enemy wants!
For a part of my testimony to spiritual warfare, check out http://masters.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=2381621546.
I hope you don’t see this as too off topic =)
Oops. That link doesn’t work unless you have a facebook account. It’s a little too long to post here, but it is pretty sweet.
In His Grip,
Soul Fire
There is a lot of doctrinal error and spiritual abuse in the charismatic movement, but no more so than in other Christian movements and denominations. It is a classic device to use the worst example of something in order to discredit the whole so as to avoid dealing with the issue. The fact is that the Bible speaks a great deal on spiritual warfare. The epistles not so much because they were dealing with more practical issues concerning fellowship, Christian living, and church governance, but the gospels and the apocalyptic passages are saturated with them. Jesus Christ said that through His Name we have the power to tread on serpents and scorpions. Why not use it? A better question: are we derelict for NOT using it? This to me goes back to the whole argument over cessationism: people insist that tongues, faith healing, and other charismatic gifts were for the apostolic age only, and that Christians who engage in such behavior in modern times are either strongly deluded or worshipping the devil. But is there any scriptural evidence to support cessationism? Please email me at bringjesusback@yahoo.com if you know of any, because I have not found any. By the same token, there is no scriptural evidence that Christians should no longer be casting out demons. It would be one thing if only those who were with Jesus Christ were doing such things, but Paul did so with the psychic girl in Acts. Christians that refuse to deal directly with the issue and reality of evil spirits … what is the motivation? Disbelief in the truth, inerrancy, and final authority of scripture in this area? Well I am sorry, you are either sola scriptura or you are not. Or is it a desire not to be seen as an unsophisticated uneducated crackpot by not only the world, but respectable middle and upperclass college educated Christians? If that is the case, then my question to such Christians is the same that Paul said to the church at Galatia: “WHO HAS BEWITCHED YOU?” (And yes, the Galatians were regenerated baptized believers in Christ just like you are when Paul asked this of them.) http://healtheland.wordpress.com
I’m thankful for this article it definitely opens up our eyes to false doctrine in the charismatic world. I think we should also be careful with associating this with being the norm of charismatic churches. I am a very Reformed and well-grounded lover of Jesus but I am also charismatic in my worship and dependency on the Holy Spirit. False doctrine should ALWAYS be exposed but labeling charismatic belief as involving the sovereignty of Satan is like saying cessationists believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Bible. Both statements are unfair to both parties.
I am what you would call a Charismatic, I speak in tongues, I prophesy, I dream dreams etc. I most definitely do not believe that Satan is in charge of history. He is not in more than one place at one time, he is limited in his power and his primary influence is through our thoughts and beliefs. He is the god of this world and it shows! The enemy has affected the thinking and belief of Christians by causing them to think that he is more powerful than he is (they get scared of him) that they are powerless when the scripture says that they are seated with Christ in the heavenlies and that authority is given to them and that Jesus will do anything we ask in his name etc. The influence of and the strongholds set up by the enemy can be seen both within the charismatic/pentecostal movement and within the cessationist movement. Let the truth of the word be supreme not our superstitions or denominational leanings. Come on Christians, break free and believe the scriptures!
Grace,
“Generational Sins/bondage teaching is a complete mis-interpretation of Exedous 20 (I think that is the chapter. It is erroneous! Period! Don’t fall for it. I had been invoved in a “Deliverence” ministry for almost 10 years. I saw the light and the Lord showed me the truth. It is all based on mis-interpretation of nmany scriptures taken out of context.
While I agree with John in that Satan is not sovereign and God aloen is, I disagree with his view of the charismatic church. He should have qualified his statements by saying, “A charismatic church” and not try to make it the entire charismatic movement. I by no means am an apologist for the charismatic movement but I do attend a charismatic church and know many godly charismatics. Not one charismatic leader that I know would ever agree with any of what John has said about this lady’s experience in the charismatic movement. While there are those in the charismatic church who would be guilty of the above, most would not.
Roy,
Thanks for your comment. Please note that the intro to the article does stress that this lady’s experience is not necessarily true of all charismatic churches.
- Nate B.
CBX
Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Rodney Howard Browne, Jesse duPlantis, Benny Hinn, Createaflow A’ Dollars… sorry, Creflo A. Dollar, Rhema Cauly/ Ray MaCauly… All are sold out to the World. Rhema even went so far as to attend the 1999 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Cape Town, RSA.
No Spirit of God, shall join forces with the World and satan. For those who do not know: the PWR is meant to find the “good points” in all religions and combine them eventually, to become the foundations of their “One-World Religion”. And God’s servants are not invited, for they have this annoying superiority complex, which keeps them from accepting the “truth” in the lies called the World’s religions.
I have attended one charismatic church that taught that there was a demon behind every door and another one that was much more biblically grounded so every church is very different.
I am grateful to God for leading me to read Dr. John MacArthur’s book “Charismatic Chaos”. My eyes were opened to many of the traditions of “man” that were taught in the charismatic churches that had questionable scriptural backing. I am free from most of these man-made traditions and I have a stronger passion for God’s Word and for God’s sovereignty. I have also left behind reading books by Christians that have no more formal training in theology than I have, like Beth Moore or Joyce Meyer. I can research concordances, dictionaries, and commentaries as well as they can. However I still need teaching from good Christian scholars like Dr. MacArthur who have been trained to do in-depth studies of the original language, customs , history, hermeneutics etc.
Ya know, satan traffics in extremes.
All error can be based on some part of the scripture, but error cannot hold up under the scutiny of the entire Word of God.
It seems like cessationists act like the only one who can do supernatual works is the devil, and those who practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit can’t be operating in God, because He doesn’t do these things anymore. (?!)
So who is making satan sovereign?
Warfare is real, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and rulers in high places.
If we do not heed this instruction, we’re gonna be knocked sideways,
oh, we’ll make it to heaven, limping and crawling, who needs that?
Let’s be balanced people.
Thank you for such a great article. As a Penticostal who is a firm believer in the continuation of spiritual gifts, I am very dissapointed in the direction that the Charismatic movement has taken. The evangelical movement is full of extremes though. From some denominations eliminating the use of musical instruments, to fundamentalists who allign themselves with white supremecists and anti semites. The thing to remember is that the people who do these things are sincere, and we need to pray for them.
The thing that scares me about so many of the ideas stated in the article is that in no way can you legitamately look at scripture in its entirety to justify these theological ideas. Id like to know what happened to believers actually studying and thinking thru things, rather than just following the lead of the leader of some megachurch or televangelist. We must pray that the church becomes a body that is more in balance with the leading of the Holy Spirit, and of course with the authority of the word of God.
Waring groups can score points by exodus. But accusing each other on siminal points can not hold truth. As a Non-cessationist I want to ask those who hold to cessationism When you speak about a true mark of the true church is Faithful preaching, Faithful celebration of scaraments and Faithfull church discipline why satan is called to exercise power over a disciplined person 2 Cor 5:4 and 1 Tim 1:20? Does that happens today? Kenneth Hagan or John MacArthur is not the deciding point to look after. Does the 21st Century Church had the Power/Authority to bring satan in the scence to execute God’s Judgement upon its own people of Whom Jesus Christ has promised that He will Build His Church by using Satan. The issue is not about Sovereignty of Satan or of God its all about human pride James 4:1 that had taken a higher place in christian circle without giving a fair hearing of both sides. I want to ask that group and that sister who left that charismatic church and joined Grace Community,Does all Charismatics believes satan is Sovereign?
Philip Lazar From India.