Power Encounter in Spiritual Warfare

Kraft

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781498241601
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Acceptance of Christianity in Southern Polynesia during the eighteenth century proceeded rapidly without missionary activity. This fact attracted the attention of Alan Tippett, who served for twenty years as an Australian missionary to the Fiji Islands. What he found was that the key to their conversion lay in the fact that, without missionary presence, the south sea islanders responded to demonstrations of what Tippett learned to call "power encounters." These were contests, some staged, some not staged, in which there was a power encounter between the true God and the gods of the islanders in which the traditional gods were defeated. Kraft here discusses the fact that this power principle applies much more widely.

CHAPTER 1

The Concept of Power Encounter

The term “Power Encounter” was coined by Fuller missiologist, the late Alan Tippett to label an event commonly experienced by the peoples of the South Pacific as they converted to Christianity. Tippett noted that people usually had come to Christ in large groupings (“people movements”) soon after a major confrontation that tested the power of their ancestral gods against that of the Christian God resulting in an obvious victory for the latter. These encounters were reminiscent of the scriptural encounters between Moses and Pharaoh (Exod 7–12) and Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al (1 Kgs 18).

South Pacific peoples were (and are) keenly aware of the presence, activity and power of spirits. Their leaders were openly committed to the gods of their islands. They credited these gods with providing protection, food, fertility and all other necessities of life for them. But the people also lived in great fear of the anger and vengeance of their gods. To challenge the ancestral gods was unthinkable for most South Pacific peoples. Nevertheless, in turning to Christ, often after years of weighing the potential consequences of challenging the gods, it was chiefs and priests, those who knew the gods and their power best, who chose to challenge them. In doing so, they wagered that the Christian God had greater power than their gods and cast themselves completely on him for protection from the revenge of the god.

A typical power encounter would involve a priest or chief, speaking on behalf of his people, publicly denouncing their allegiance to their god(s) in the name of Jesus and challenging the god(s) to do something about it. When the god(s) could not respond, the victory belonged to Jesus and large numbers of the people usually converted. As Tippett noted, power-oriented people require power proof, not simply reasoning, if they are to be convinced.

The value and validity of an approach to evangelism that involves power confrontations is widely accepted today in missiological thinking and practice, since it is recognized that most of the peoples of the world are power oriented. Current theorists such as myself, however, have expanded Tippett’s original concept to include healing and deliverance from demons. We see Jesus’ ministry as including numerous such power encounters. These encounters are usually less spectacular than those Tippett described but, it is argued, they qualify as genuine power encounters since they involve the pitting of the power of the true God to bring freedom against the power of Satan designed to keep people in bondage. Furthermore, such “signs and wonders” frequently result in the conversion of families and even larger groups who accept the healing or deliverance as demonstrating the presence and power of God. There is, however, some difference of opinion over whether such encounters should be planned and strategized or simply taken advantage of when they occur.

It is important to note that conversion through power encounter does not assure that the movement will be stable and enduring. Throughout the Scriptures we see that people can observe God’s mightiest demonstrations of power but soon go right back to the gods who were defeated. Thus it was both after Moses defeated Pharaoh and Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal. So it has been in many of the power events in the South Pacific and elsewhere. The crucial dimension, as always in conversion, is what happens after the turning, whether people feed and grow their new relationship or neglect it and let it die.

What Tippett found was that the beginnings of the acceptance of Christ in the Pacific islands usually involved encounters between the gods of the people and Christ. When Jesus won such encounters, then, the South Pacific islanders turned to Christ in culturally appropriate larger or smaller groups that we labeled “People Movements.” They did not come one by one. Nor were they reasoned into conversion. Culturally they were both group and power oriented. Underlying these movements of people to Christ were power encounters, for “in a power-oriented society, change of faith had to be power-demonstrated” (Tippett, People Movements, 81).

Key Point

What we are dealing with is an encounter or confrontation between the false gods and the true God. The power of the true God is demonstrated, the people see that their gods can do nothing against the true God, and the group converts.

This encounter takes place at two levels: the human level and the spirit level. At the spirit level the most powerful God wins and protects the one, the family or the larger group who have defected from the revenge of the weaker god/spirit. At the human level, then, there is defection where a representative of the false god defects either as representing a group or as an individual, desecrating the symbol (e.g., animal, fish, wooden carving) that represents the god, thereby challenging the false god to retaliate in the name and power of Jesus Christ. If there is no retaliation, the true God has won.

A Wider Use of the Concept

Tippett’s concern was a historical one. His interest was primarily in the place this concept had in the introduction of Christianity in the South Pacific. Those of us concerned with spiritual warfare in the present, however, have found the concept worthy of wider application. So we have begun using the term with a much broader meaning than Tippett originally envisioned. He saw no problem, though, in our using the concept in this broader way.

We who use the term today use it to label healings, deliverances, or any other visible, practical demonstration that Jesus Christ is more powerful than the spirits, powers, or false gods worshiped or feared by the members of a given people group. The concept of “taking territory” from the enemy for God’s kingdom is seen as basic to such encounters and a major method of winning power-oriented people to Christ.

The power encounters in Scripture are between the true God and the gods the Israelites encountered as they took over the promised land. The people of Canaan were classic animists following a plethora of deities attached to trees, bodies of water, land and various other items and places. Usually, though, there was a single deity (often known as Baal) governing the lesser ones. It was that deity who was to be challenged in a power encounter.

There are specific encounters in Scripture in both Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament we have God against Pharaoh in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, David against Goliath, Elijah against the prophets of Baal and the success of the Israelite armies when, in faithfulness to God, they went into battle against his spirit enemies. When Israel was unfaithful they usually lost, except when God was avenging himself against the army of Aram in the events recorded in 1 Kgs 20:13–30. In this event, the army of Aram had insulted God by claiming he was a god of the mountains only. So even though the Israelite king was the wicked Ahab, God avenged himself by allowing Israel a victory.

In the New Testament, then, we see Jesus engaging in power encounters by delivering people from evil spirits (Mark 5:1ff.; 9:14ff.; Luke 4:33; 9:37; Matt 8:16; 17:14; etc.), and Jesus’ followers doing the same in Acts 4:7–10; 5:16; 8:7; 16:18; etc. In one particularly impressive power encounter, the result was that the converts burned their magical books (Acts 19:19)—books with an incredible monetary value.

Even temptation can be considered a power encounter. Throughout the Old Testament we see Israel facing the constant strong temptation to turn to the animistic gods away from the true God. Prominent examples include Gideon who, after he had won a great victory for Yahweh, retired and returned to the pagan gods of his father. Or Solomon who allowed pagan wives to lead him to follow their gods.

The history of the kings of Israel and Judah, then, is an account of which god or gods the Israelites would follow. And each of the kings has a “report card,” evaluating his reign. This report card had but a single entry on it. That entry states whether the king followed Yahweh and was, therefore, a “good” king or whether that king followed the animistic god, and was, therefore, an “evil” king who “sinned against the Lord” (see, e.g., 1 Kgs 16:25–26, 31–33; 2 Kgs 8:18, 27; 10:29–31; etc.). And notice that all of the northern kingdom kings followed animistic gods and several of the kings of the southern kingdom (Judah) fell into the “evil” category as well. And were so labeled according to this single criterion. I conclude that the animism / true God distinction is important to God.

These contests between the true God and counterfeit gods involve encounters in which the superior power of the true God is demonstrated. Thus, Jesus’ entire ministry is seen as a massive series of power confrontations between God and the enemy. The continuing ministry of the apostles and their disciples is then seen as the continuance of the exercise of the “authority and power over all demons and all diseases” given by Jesus to his followers (Luke 9:1). And the further taking up of God’s power today, encountering demons and defeating them is the fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction in John 14:12 that we would do his works and more. We, too, are to proclaim Jesus in power encounters.

We are expected today to use Jesus’ approach to witness by participating in these events that we are calling power encounters. The use of power encounters was a prominent means of attracting people to God in Jesus’ day. And we have been given the ability to work in Jesus’ name as Jesus did—in love and power.

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