Salvation through Spiritual Warfare - A Divine Miracle

By John MacArthur

Not Ashamed of the Gospel Conference - September 21, 1999

2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. {We are} destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and {we are} taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (NAS)

Spiritual Warfare has nothing to do with human strategy. Let me unpack a little passage of scripture for you. It is found in 2 Cor 10:3-5. Paul says that we are engaged in a spiritual war. We talk about spiritual warfare a lot, but the weapons of our warfare (he says) are not fleshly, what he means by that is that they are not human. We are fighting a war and we can't use human weapons. We can't use them. This war is not a time space war, this is not a material war, it isn't fought on an intellectual level. This is a spiritual battle. This is on another dimension, we can't use human ingenuity, human gimmicks, humans tricks, etc, etc. (I love this passage) He says, "but our weapons are (the Greek says) mighty unto God". We got to fight this spiritual war with divine weapons (ok, I understand that you say but what does that mean? What is this divine weapon?) Well then he goes on to say, "For we are destroying fortresses" "Fortresses" is a word (in the Greek) that means "massive fortification". If you have been in the Middle East or you have traveled in Europe and you have seen those great granite, and stone fortresses. It is the same word for "prison" and it is the same word for "tomb".

So here we have this picture, we are engaged in war and the enemy that we are assaulting is a massive granite fortification, it is not something that falls easily, it is not a paper house, it is not a card board box. What are we going to use against this? Well, what is this fortress? The next verse he says, "We are destroying speculations". In verse 4, he says, "we are destroying fortresses". In verse 5, "we are destroying speculations". Therefore fortresses equal speculations. Speculations is the Greek word " logismos" - ideas (ideologies, concepts, philosophies, psychology's, theories, religions), further defined as, "every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God". Spiritual warfare is not chasing demons around and pronouncing formulas on them. Spiritual warfare is fought against ideologies. Any theory, and idea, any viewpoint, any religion, any belief raise up against the knowledge of God. That is to say any anti-biblical idea, any anti-biblical idea.

So the simple question is, What is the one weapon we have against lies? What is the one weapon we have against error? Truth! So we go out to make battle (and I love what it says) with a view to smashing the fortresses of lying viewpoints and ideologies and then it says, and leading everyone in there and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." That is what we do in this world. We smash the fortresses. It is not a matter of chasing demons, it is a matter of smashing ideological fortresses with the power of Biblical Truth, made clear to the mind that is captive and Then you watch the fortress fall and you lead the person out and bring every thought they have captive to Christ. That is having the mind of Christ. That is not mystical, I have the mind of Christ and you have the mind of Christ revealed right here (pointing to the Bible). As you know this, you have His mind. That is what we do. That is the great struggle and the great strategy. If you want to get in the war, you learn how to wield the Sword. That is the only weapon that we really have.