DEMONS WERE IN FASHION
THAT YEAR!

In YWAM in the mid 1980's Demonology was
all the rage. I had innocently signed up to do
a "DTS" residential course with the charismatic
missionary organisation "Youth with a
Mission". YWAM, pronounced 'why-wham', was
founded in the 1960's by an American called
Loren Cunningham in order to mobilise young
people into short term missionary work.

By way of preamble: If you feel that this article
is unduly critical of YWAM please bear in mind
that I will be posting another blog in Septem-
ber which will be more positive.

YWAM operates a course called a "Discipleship
Training School" which is the portal through
which people enter its work. DTSs have been
established all over the world and in 1985, aged
27 years, I went to the one at Holmsted Manor
in West Sussex in the UK. At the time I consid-
ered myself a Charismatic Christian. I had an
inflated view of my own importance and
wanted to develop my own "ministry" - a not
uncommon conceit among young men like
myself - and the DTS seemed like a good idea at
the time. And in God's providence it was a very
useful four months though not in the way I had
expected.

The church - or so it seems to me - goes
through phases; and various fads and fashions
sweep through from time to time and capture
the imagination.

Demonology was very much in fashion that
year in YWAM and no end of people's personal
difficulties were attributed to malevolent
spirits. Some individuals took to these sorts of
teachings with an unhealthy enthusiasm. The
biblical basis for much of their practice was at
best tenuous and usually what I would call
"derivative theology", that is founded upon
'extrapolations' based on their 'interpretation'
of their 'supposed' experiences in dealing with
troubled individuals together with some
wishful thinking.

I recall two of my contemporaries intently
discussing where "cat spirits" fall in the grand
scheme of things. (Apparently they are among
the most vindictive of demons - or so I was
reliably informed).

I am not denying the reality of malevolent
spirits in this blog, what I am denying is the
basis upon which they were given such
prominence. I believe there is a truly Biblical
spiritual warfare described in 1 Corinthians
10 that I am prepared to defend against
this "derivative" teaching which I believe
is 'dualistic' theology and barely (if that)
recognisable as 'Christian': the DTS implied
that the evil forces were, in effect, perfectly
balanced by the good and only we could tip
that balance! The effect on one such
officially recognised, "intercessor" was to
make her quite bitter about all those who
did not support her ministry fulsomely
enough; in her eyes only her constant,
possibly "obsessive", prayers were holding
back the demon hordes; (the "only I am left"
syndrome!)..... and she made it perfectly clear
that she thought that I was one of the
freeloaders. I don't believe she had singled
me out particularly for her ire, I think she
was merely doing the rounds. There was a
stark contrast between the image she projected
on the public platform to the one I experienced
in privacy!

The reality was that this poor woman was
being 'run ragged' by a theology which had
little room for Christ's victory at The Cross....
I am grateful that Satan has far more to fear
from those who are in Christ than we ever
have to fear from him! For her though it was
all about self effort and so it is no surprise that
that made her hard. The fact remains there
wasn't much 'grace' in evidence that year,
either doctrinally or relationally! And that
was the real spiritual battle that everyone
seemed oblivious to.

Demonology, aka "spiritual warfare", required
the identification of the controlling spirit in
order to directly confront it. A spirit may
control a geographical area, or a profession,
or a church, or an individual or a trait of an
individual. Some rather fanciful "research"
would be be done to this end, eg the city of
Coventry in England, was said to be a centre
of evil because of its connection with a witch's
coven - in reality the origin of the city's name
has an utterly innocent genesis. Anyway once
the demon could be named it could be defeated
by being ranted at or by endless singing, some-
times for hours into the night. But as those
who did the discerning also did the exorcism,
there was no objective way of knowing what
was actually being accomplished by the
exercise: "The spirit of unbelief has lifted
from China!" one intercessor declared.

Hmmm... My old dad used to say 'Don't ask a
barber if you need a haircut!'

The most troubling enthusiast was a mother
who was convinced her three year old
daughter's behavioural problems were due
to demonisation. I made it quite clear that I
thought this was nonsense. The fact is this
young child had been brought to a strange
country to live in this abnormal community
among people who spoke a strange language.
She needed to feel loved and secure I said.
I think most people took that to heart. But
some marked me down as not being one of
the cognoscenti.

On one occasion I was teamed up with a
young woman in order to approach likely
converts in Leicester Square in London to
tell them the Gospel. I think I made a reason-
able Gospel presentation about God creating
the world, how that we all have rejected
God's rule as something evil and made
gods of ourselves; God will not endure
this lie to stand forever but before He
judges the world he has set up a rescue
plan; God Himself came as a man and
graciously paid the penalty on The Cross
for all those who put their trust in Him -
and that man was Jesus. I made a call for
them to turn to Christ, which effectively
means turning around their lives and
living for God instead.

But the lady I was teamed up with
understood the Gospel to be about how
(and I quote) "everyone has demons which
mess up our lives and Jesus came to free us
from them". In her view everyone was a victim
and no-one was ultimately responsible for
their own actions - my jaw hit the floor!

Unsurprisingly she scored more "responses"
than I ever dreamed of! Until this point in
time I had naively assumed that all Christians
had the same view on sin, faith and redempt-
ion by Jesus. I had just discovered just how
naive I was. The worrying thing was how many
of these enthusiasts were keen to make a
"ministry" out of this and sought financial
support from their home churches to this end.
The reality was they had found a niche for
themselves and a "sprituality" which could
only ever exist in a greenhouse of a likeminded
community. The young woman I mentioned
"went on staff" permanently after our DTS.

The trouble is that in a charismatic hot house
like this what is wacky is by that very reason
presumed to be "spiritual"; the stranger the
better. During that time at Holmsted Manor
we had a preview of the "Toronto Blessing":
the phenomena made famous in the mid 1990s
by The Vineyard Church in Canada. The same
things happened on my DTS - "slaying in the
spirit", uncontrollable laughter, people
acting oddly like animals etc.

Too much was uncritically accepted as
originating with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes
people would have these seemingly remark-
able experiences and yet remain utterly
unchanged by them. I remember two guys in
our dorm having a stand up argument (and I
mean they were really having a go at each
other) about which of them had "the best"
testimony of how they got saved: each in turn
trumping the sins of the other in a catalogue
of misdemeanours. I didn't know whether to
laugh or cry!

The other fad that year was John Wimber's
book "Power Evangelism".The big idea was
that a dramatic healing will take a non-
believer from unbelief to faith in one fell
swoop without all that tedious evangelism
business. So naturally a number of my fellow
DTSers enthused about this short cut to faith
which dispensed with the need for any other
discussion. The thing is, even then, I knew
enough Bible to know that this was wrong
headed because of what Jesus himself said
in Luke 16 v31. What Jesus said is very stark
- the real miracle is that anyone comes to
faith at all!

I vividly recall one of the small group leaders
challenging me - he couldn't see how I
could reconcile being a Christian and being
a health care worker. I responded by saying
that "I am on the side of health!" To him
anything to do with healthcare was bound up
in unbelief! (In fairness I should add that
YWAM operate a couple of hospital ships, so
this leader was certainly talking out the back
of his head!)

Yet this whole 'super-spiritual' way of thinking
was being given way too much prominence -
I could see that, why couldn't anyone else?
And that was the problem; the flimsiest
"biblical" justification would be proffered for
these sorts of teachings. These fads offered
quick fix solutions - and they never worked....
not long term once the wishful thinking
faltered and reality kicked in again.

The thing I learnt most forcibly during
those months was how disastrous it is to
cut loose from the anchor of God's Word.
I sincerely hope that those people I met
that year have come to a better mind on
all these issues.

In case someone says I am merely being
cynical about these things; in my defence I
will respond that I did not quit my job and
leave my flat and take four months out of
my life and pay good money with the
sole intention of merely scoffing at it all
twenty years later! The fact is, at the time
I wanted to be part of what was going on.

It seemed to me that everyone else was
getting "blessed" but me. Others would
be crashing to the floor around me as some
ranter would lay hands on them - but the
ranters always passed me by. "They could
sense that the spirit had not come to rest
on me" one said. At the time I felt crushed
and rejected by God but now I'm glad it
passed me by. Whatever was going on that
time it was nothing to do with God -
Jesus is not capricious!

The reality is this; all Christians struggle
with the drawing power of the world, the flesh
and the devil and yet we feel that such a
struggle should be alien to anyone born again
of the Holy Spirit. Different churches and
groups will couch their ideal of 'the normal
christian life' in different ways and
(presumably) whichever suits the fad of the
time.

The most crass fad being the "gospel" of
'health and wealth'. But other groups will
stress the 'victory' of the believer in other
more subtle ways; the victory over all known
sin for example which spawned 'the holiness
movement'. Others stress the charismatic
gifts and "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit"
or even "The Baptism of the Shekinah Glory"
(don't ask). What they all have in common is
the unreality of the 'quick fix' - it is all
fantasyland "christianity". The Bible faithfully
describes the believers actual experience - one
of struggle to live out the life of the world to
come in this present age. There are no quick
fixes!

Check out the bookstall of any given church...
are the books self-help guides to a holier,
healthier, wealthier, spirit-filled, more
glorious, sanctified and fulfilled life?
The proliferation of these sorts of books is
testimony to their failure to deliver. These
books are selling a dream which the authors
callously know chimes with the desires of
believers to live a glorified life. The trouble
is that is not where we are at in "The Bible
Timeline" -we are in the fourth act of a five
part play and the reality of the fourth act is
struggle not ease. The glory we desire lies in
the future when Jesus finally comes to rescue
His people - only He can ultimately cleanse
us and restore us. We need to treat the
panacea merchants as shrewd students of
human nature and who know how to tell us
what we want to hear...and know how to
market it!

The true preacher tells us as it is - no fantasy
land - he tells us what we need to hear whether
we want it or not....and invariably it is an
unflattering message. God's function in life
is not to soothe our precious egos rather our
function in life is to rejoice in the sheer grace
of our Saviour God who rescues us from our
own self destructive hubris.The Christian life
starts by waking up to reality not by living in
fantasy.

After my stint on the DTS I returned home to
Yorkshire, but in 1987 I did revisit YWAM
to do another course - the "School of Biblical
Studies" (SBS) at The King's Lodge in
Warwickshire, England, and that experience
was of a totally different order as I will explain
in a few weeks time. I'll conclude for now by
saying that for a few months back then in the
Summer of 1985 I lived in the "church at
Corinth".

No, that's not fair, it would be better to say that
I realised how "Corinthian" we all are!