Religion

What happens when spiritual ideas are used in harmful ways? Throughout history, religious beliefs have inspired acts of compassion, courage, sacrifice, service, and personal transformation. At the same time, religious beliefs have often been used to manipulate, control, intimidate, shame, exploit, isolate, or harm others.

How can a person know what is true? Throughout Christian history, believers have claimed to receive guidance from God. Others have claimed prophetic insight, visions, miracles, spiritual gifts, divine revelation, or special knowledge. Christians have also encountered deception, false teachings, corrupt leaders, counterfeit spirituality, and competing interpretations of Scripture.

Christianity often describes life as a spiritual battle. When many people hear the phrase spiritual warfare, they immediately think of demons, exorcisms, curses, possession, and supernatural conflict. While these subjects appear in some Christian traditions, the New Testament frequently presents spiritual warfare in a much broader sense.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly encounters people described as being afflicted by demons, unclean spirits, and evil spirits. In these accounts, Jesus restores people to health, frees individuals from affliction, and demonstrates authority over forces that distort, corrupt, and destroy human life.

In the previous section, we examined some of the common modern misconceptions of Satan and how the Bible instead portrays him as the adversary, accuser, tempter, and deceiver.

Satan is one of the most recognizable figures in Christianity. Yet many Christians are surprised to discover that the Bible does not present a single, detailed biography of Satan from beginning to end.

The New Testament uses several related expressions, including demons (or devils), unclean spirits, evil spirits, and deceiving spirits. Although these terms are not always used in exactly the same way, most Christians understand them to refer to the same or closely related spiritual realities.

Angels appear throughout both the Old and New Testaments and play an important role in Christian theology. They announce God’s plans, protect His people, deliver messages, execute judgment, and worship God.

If spiritual gifts describe what a person is capable of doing, the fruits of the Spirit describe who a person is becoming. Throughout Christianity, the fruits of the Spirit have traditionally been viewed as evidence of spiritual maturity and transformation. While Christians often disagree about miracles, prophecy, tongues, and other supernatural experiences, there is much broader agreement regarding the importance of spiritual fruit.

Christians generally agree that spiritual gifts exist, but they disagree about what the gifts are, how they operate, and whether all of them are still active today. In the New Testament, spiritual gifts are described as abilities given by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of others and the building up of the Church.