Engaging the Enemy by Peter C. Wagner

This book has a number of contributing authors many of them well known for their television evangelism. The main theme of the book is that Satan and demons are real, they can be identified and these demons have the power to control localities. The demons can be controlled by aggressive prayers to take back the localities for God by ‘strategic level spiritual intercession’ and ‘power evangelism’. The book urges Christians to use the power of prayer to take over the control of localities from the evil forces.

In their enthusiasm the authors, however feel justified to distort the actual message of the Bible. The Bible does not instruct us to create the spiritual warfare ministries. Some of the Television Evangelist who coauthor this book are well known for calling up ‘prayer warriors’ in full page advertisement where the evangelist appear in full combat fatigue ready to “bind” Satan in spiritual warfare. The authors write enthusiastically, preach powerfully and in their desire to influence people to their cause, have little respect for the accuracy of the message they attribute to the Bible.

Most of the chapters appear to be unbalanced by the enthusiasm of the writers with the soul purpose of convincing the uninformed. The only chapter with considered arguments and balanced approach appears to be Chapter 18 contributed by Prof. Michael Green. The evangelism preached in the book and by power evangelists is a mixture of mysticism and anti-intellectualism that is closer to the Eastern world view. List strengths of book The power evangelism does leave one with a feeling of enthusiasm for religion

List weaknesses of book The main weakness of the book is that in the authors’ enthusiasm to identify and overcome some of the evil spirit the authors appear to be willing to distort the Bible and attribute to the Book what it does not say. The schemes and propositions are presented as Biblical doctrines when they are not and “Bible verses are pulled out of context and forced into a preconceived framework”. Quote sentence or paragraph that best reflects the author’s thesis

“Pentecostal theologians have made the helpful suggestion of distinguishing the logos word of God from the rhema word of God…. The rhema is regarded as a more immediate word from God which we do not find in the 66 books of the Bible” (pp. 15-16) The Reason I chose the above quotation? The quote reflects the theme of the book where the authors feel entitled to twist the message of the Book or even invent their own theology. Bibliography Wagner, C. Peter, Engaging the Enemy, Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1991, 206 pages.