This week, we are discussing Chapter 9, “Get Behind Me, Satan,” and Chapter 10, “The War of the Lamb,” of Richard Beck’s book Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted. In Chapter 9, Beck discusses how we can prevent the misuse of spiritual warfare.
Westboro Baptist: (pp.87)
Beck begins by addressing the downside of “spiritual warfare.” Throughout our present world and throughout history, the idea of spiritual warfare has often led to hate, intolerance, and violence towards those on the outside. Usually, this idea of spiritual warfare that pits God (and his chosen) against other people comes from a religious fundamentalism where the practitioners see themselves as defending God, and their love of God requires their hatred of others. Beck gives us the modern example of Westboro Baptist Church as a misuse of spiritual warfare. Although Westboro Baptist may be an extreme example, we can all fall into this self-righteous trap.
One Love or Two: (pp. 89-91)
Beck diagnoses the underlying problem that causes a misuse of “spiritual warfare” as to whether there is one great commandment or two. Jesus is asked (by a lawyer, of course) as to which of the 613 commandments of Torah is the greatest. Matt. 22:34-40. Jesus replies, ‘Love God’ (Deut. 6:5) and ‘Love Your Neighbor’ (Lev. 19:18b). The question Back poses is whether these are two separate commandments or one. If they are two separate commandments, then the first commandment to Love God can trump the second commandment of Loving Your Neighbor. In being obedient to God’s laws, we may have to be adverse to those who are not in compliance with our understanding of God’s laws. As Paul puts it, prior to his meeting Jesus on the Road to Damascus, he was zealous for the law, which led him to persecute the church. Phil. 3:5-6.
Beck argues that Jesus does not give two separate commandments but one. Loving Your Neighbor interprets Love God. As he writes, “loving human beings is loving God, and loving God is loving human beings.” p.90. As John writes, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates their brother is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” 1 John 4:20. Or as Paul says, “The whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Gal. 5:14. “Everything about spiritual warfare must flow out of this basic understanding” that loving others is paramount. p.91.
Get Behind Me, Satan (pp. 92-93)
Beck then examines the misuse of spiritual warfare from a cruciform perspective. From this angle, Beck writes, “The image of the demonic can never be used to harm or hurt another being.” p.91. He quotes the conversation between Jesus and Peter in Matthew 16:21-27. This conversation takes place immediately after Peter’s Confession that Jesus is the Christ. Matt. 16:16. This marks the first time that Jesus reveals he must go to Jerusalem and be killed as the Christ. Peter rebukes Jesus’s assertion that he must be crucified, to which Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan.” Jesus continues by stating that anyone who wishes to follow him must deny themselves and take up their own Cross.
In his rebuke, Peter opposed the Cross and the self-emptying, self-sacrificial love it represents. Peter desired a Messiah who would fight against his enemies, not one who called him to love them sacrificially. This is spiritual warfare – the battle between all that the Cross signifies and anything else that tempts us away from taking up our Cross, the struggle between love and everything that opposes it. It is the battle, as Beck puts it, to maintain a cruciform shape in a world that presses a very different pattern upon us. p.92. Love is a Battlefield. p.93
Dinner is at 6. The menu is chicken parmesan. Discussion about 6:45. Hope to see you here!
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. . . . Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8,10