Spiritual warfare is a real part of the human experience, and the Bible explicitly details how events in the spiritual realm affect people.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,” Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) reads, with verse 13 continuing: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
The question isn’t if people will experience spiritual warfare; it’s when. A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) explores what Americans believe about spiritual warfare, specifically measuring how many people believe they have faced such attacks (watch CBN’s documentary “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons” today).
Dr. John Plake, editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series and chief innovation officer at ABS, told CBN News that around 1-in-4 Americans report facing spiritual warfare.
“We saw real difference here across levels of faith participation,” he said. “About a fourth — 26% — of American adults say they’ve had that experience.”
He continued, “[Fifty-eight percent] of practicing Christians would agree with that statement, casual Christians, 28%, nominal Christians, 24%, and then non-Christians, 10%.”
The topic itself is quite fascinating, as Plake said it’s sometimes hard to quantify what a spiritual attack denotes. And since there’s not “a lot of deep data” there’s not qualitative information to help understand what respondents believe a spiritual attack looked like or entailed.
“I’m sure these people do have stories that they can tell about times when they felt like the negative experiences that they were having couldn’t be attributed just to natural causes, that there was some form of spiritual opposition that was going on,” Plake said. “And to see that incidence be that high, I was pretty fascinated by it.”
Another factor ABS was able to screen for was people’s reaction to a perceived spiritual attack — and those statistics were equally interesting.
“So 74% of people who [said they faced attack] said that the way they respond to spiritual attack is that they pray,” Plake said. “I think that makes a lot of sense, right? When spiritual attacks come, you may not be in a particular context where it’s easy to do much else, but you can always pray.”
The second-highest percentage was 36%, who said they declare Christ’s authority.
“There is this kind of sense that … they’re aware they’re in a spiritual battle, that their opposition isn’t … the person who may be opposing them at the moment,” Plake said. “But actually, there’s a spiritual thing going on here, and so they declare Christ’s authority.”
Next came the 24% who said they listen to praise and worship music, but then there’s the smallest — and most concerning — percentage: the 15% who said that they meditate on or quote Scripture.
“I would have hoped that would be a little bit higher,” Plake said. “And I think it also presents an opportunity for pastors and church leaders to recognize, ‘Hey, there are a lot of people, particularly in the church, who are having these experiences, and how can we equip them biblically to respond when they’re facing these kinds of spiritual attacks or moments of opposition, or even when there’s a need for a miraculous healing?'”
For more on this topic, watch “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons.”
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