“The whole life of the Christian is nothing else but a continual warfare.”

– Origen

Since having moved to Europe around a year and a half ago, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many new people. Many Germans and Europeans of course, but not exclusively. I have also met a good number of people from across the world. Compared to where I am from, the Southwestern United States, it seems as if Germany is a lot more international. Although that may just have more to do with much of the American frontier still being fairly empty. At any rate, I have gotten to learn about different peoples and cultures not from a textbook, but from real world experience. On the surface, this has been an enlightening experience and good for the sake of knowledge. Under the surface however, there are some other aspects to this that have reminded me of a very stark truth that many people have forgotten.

Recently I was talking to an individual and the conversation was fairly standard. Pleasant, but nothing ground breaking. That was until I learned an important fact about this person. They were a Muslim, and not just a nominal Muslim, or a cultural Muslim. But rather this person was a practicing Muslim and they explained to me that they actually pray five times a day. For whatever reason, this fact hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt a huge knot in my stomach and was completely taken back. I’ve read quite a bit about Islam and I have met Muslims before, but this was one of the first times I met a practising Muslim. Or it was at least one of the first times I really took it to heart that the person opposite me was a practising Muslim. I wanted to ask more questions, but the situation did not allow for that, and so I did not get to learn much more. The pit in my stomach still lingered and I couldn’t explain why that was, but after some reflection, I think I know why this conversation has continued to intrigue me; we live in the midst of a spiritual war.

The difficulty that I was having to wrap my head around is facing the very real fact that this very pleasant individual is on the opposite side of a very real spiritual war that is going on all around us. In this postmodern age we live in, it is easy to pay no matter to spiritual matters. Even for Bible believing Christians, we often don’t take the spiritual side of our faith seriously. When the ancients, church fathers, or medieval Christians talk about demons, angels, heaven, hell, curses, and blessings, we find it quaint and cute. It’s so sweet that they used to believe these things, but we are not enlightened and we know that there is only the rational and the real in this world. If only this were true. Not even the sacraments get the benefit of the doubt. The average American Protestant likely believes that Holy Communion is just a symbol and ceremony for the sake of remembering. No presence of the Holy Spirit being necessary. However, the Bible paints a different picture, the Apostle Paul himself made known the seriousness of the spiritual.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (ESV)

We might live and experience the world in a material sense, but there is still this everpresent warfare with evil that we are waging. Whether we’d like it to be true or not, there are demonic forces who have power over people and over the world. How exactly should this war be visualized? I can’t say for sure, but I do know that if the Apostle Paul says something, it is best to pay attention and to take heed. There are times to be nuanced, and there are times not to be nuanced.

Growing up in the Southwest, I think I had a very privileged experience with other religions. Pretty much everyone is at least a nominal Christian. Not everyone believes in Jesus, but there are a lot of overtures to Him. Nearly everyone has been to church at least once, if not with their parents or grandparents, then definitely for vacation bible school. The strangest religions I knew growing up was either Mormonism or the idol-heavy Latin American Catholic Church. Both have very important problems and are false in their own ways, but at least the average Mormon and Hispanic Catholic fancies themself a Christian. While it may not be true, they probably don’t see themselves as enemies to Christendom as a whole. Atheists tend to be the most fanatical Protestants, they tend to believe Christian values the most intently, so intently that they threw the religious part out and just kept the values. Again, while false and problematic, there is still some kernel of truth there. When it comes to other religions, the gap couldn’t be wider.

For some strange reason, Western universities seem to have enrolled large numbers of students with a Hindu background. Hinduism of course not having really anything in common with Christianity at all. Its history developed completely separate from what we know. Then there’s Islam. Europe broadly has recently imported many millions upon millions of Muslims. They might claim to have a connection to us via Abraham, and it is indeed fashionable to lump Judaism, Islam, and Christianity into one group called the Abrahamic religions. Though in my view this only takes into account the most surface level similarities. Make no mistake, there is very little of substance that all three of these religions have in common.

The reality is that we are on completely different sides of a very real and important spiritual war. Other individuals are not our main enemy, and as Christians we are called to show love to all creation. We are called to share the Gospel and to proclaim the name of Jesus to all corners of the Earth. However, we shouldn’t be naive to the fact that there are billions on this planet who hate Jesus Christ. Our enemy is Satan, demons, and all seen and unseen forces of evil. Followers of other religions may not even know it, but they are in fact enemy combatants, in this spiritual war. Christians and Muslim do not serve the same God. At best, Muslims serve a non-existent God who isn’t real, at worst they are following and serving a demon, maybe even Satan himself. This is true of anyone who does not have the Holy Spirit in them and anyone who hasn’t been saved by Jesus Christ. Hindus at best serve nothing and are just wasting their time, at worst they are serving the powers and forces of hell.

In all my travels, I have never actually been somewhere that wasn’t at least nominally Christian. I have never been to a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist country. From those who I have met who have been to these countries, they have all described it in one way: spiritually dark. When a vast majority of a country believes in a false religion, everything tied up with spiritually is dark, oppressive, and bleak. It becomes all about work and lacks any of the hope, love, and joy that has been given to us by the Son of God. This is something I have experienced in a small part. Everytime I have driven past a mosque, a synagogue, or a temple it feels suffocating. It is incredibly sad to think about how many people devote their lives to something that is not only false, but evil. A mosque is not just a regular building, but a building with an incredible amount of dark power and dark energy. Its very foundations are rotten and serve to destroy beauty, truth, and goodness. The good news is that a healthy Bible believing church can act as the opposite. A good church is a beacon of light, hope, and safety. A church is a lot more than a building.

Back to the practicing Muslim. The knot in my heart wasn’t there out of anger or disgust. Rather it was out of sadness. It was so heartbreaking to think about how much time this person had spent devoting themself to something that is false. It isn’t right to focus our hate or anger on Muslims or Hindus, the reality that they are serving at the behest of hell should sadden us and cause us to burn for the Gospel even more. We cannot give up on the mission that Jesus gave the disciples in Matthew 28. We have to go out and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Here is my question to myself, to the church, and to you, the reader; do you understand this? Do you realize that those who aren’t in Christ are going to be damned for all of eternity? The nice atheist friend of yours hates Jesus Christ. Your muslim classmate hates Jesus Christ. Your Hindu nurse hates Jesus Christ. Every single person you know who does not love Christ is actively working against Him. There is no neutral party, there can be no neutral party. Every religious building that doesn’t serve God, serves His enemies. Every prayer that isn’t directed to God is a prayer strengthening the powers of hell. Every Quran verse, Jewish sermon, and Hindu chant is giving power to Satan. There is no middle ground, not now, not ever.

“There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952)

Fortunately, by the grace of God, Jesus Christ has already won and will win forever. However, things are not yet completed. We don’t know when Christ is coming back and that means that until then we have to keep fighting. Not with earthly weapons, not with violence, but with love. We need to speak the truth firmly and assertively. There may be billions of people who are actively working against Jesus, but fortunately His power outweighs theirs by an unmeasurable magnitude. It has been sobering to count how many friends and classmates of mine are on the other side of this spiritual war, but it does mean that there are incredible opportunities right now. It is always the right time and a good time to let Christ work in us and through us to complete His work. The gates of hell will not prevail.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” – Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)