God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict

I was asked to recommend the two most spiritually challenging and life changing books I’ve ever read. Difficult request because I’ve literally read thousands of books, but I would definitely recommend God at War to any serious lover of God.God at War is one of the most spiritually important and challenging books I’ve ever read. I first read it shortly after it was published over 20 years ago, and I still continue to pull it down and read it from time to time. If it were within my power, I’d make this required reading for every serious Christian.

G. Boyd clearly/cleverly articulates a point of view of Spiritual Warefare that has been going on since the origin of humanity between God and satan.I am merely a Believer who saw Rev. Boyd in some of Darren Wilson's videos on what is currently occurring to and through Believers of Christ throughout the World. I had lots of questions as I read the book. Boyd answers those. I read more Scripture, as I read each reference, than I read text. Boyd's writing will challenge and answer your thinking in more ways than you know. I read this text after reading Boyd's Is God to Blame. I too read the other reviews and was intrigued in both the pro and con reviews. Fortunately, I have evidence that Rev. Boyd is not just "on-to-something" but has revealed for those who listen what the Lord wants to reveal to and through us. I purchased several of these books for some of my friends. Like me they have been infected by truths of the Kingdom that can change, not just lives, but the cosmos. If you read the whole book and do not realize that because of your choice and position with Christ, you are a Regent of God, re-read it.I will re-read it again after I have finished his next volume on Satan and the Problem of Evil.Q-Will this book change your life and thinking? A-Yours and others around you.I am a simple man. Spend the 20 some dollars and see what the Word of God will do when it is explained in terms that all can consider.Boyd's detail is like David Halberstam's in The Reckoning, except, this is detail about God and His desire that ALL are in fellowship with Him.A neat aspect of God at War is your flavor (denomination) does not have any bearing on this read. However, for those who hang on to determinism and Calvinist thinking, this may just be the best book for you. Read it entirely. Try to believe in a God that really wants every person born since, well, Creation to be part of His Kingdom. Boyd will explain it for you.Quit procrastinating! Get the book-even if you have to borrow it. Take your time reading it. You will probably be way smarter and quicker than I and not need to re-read it. Blessings on your journey.

While reading God at War, one gets the distinct feeling that this is not the book Gregory Boyd wanted to write. He wanted to write a book presenting a fresh perspective on the problem of evil (which is, I assume, the next book he did write). This perspective is built on two foundational ideas: (1) angels and (especially) demons exist and (2) their choices and actions have a genuine effect on our world. The difficulty is that it would be hard to find a set of ideas that the majority of modern scholarship finds less plausible. Boyd is keenly aware that his basic premises have been (and largely still are) viewed with outright disdain and ridicule. Unfortunately, Boyd is not content to merely present a case for the intellectual viability of these ideas. Rather, he seems (consciously or not) insistent on turning that disdain and ridicule on his would-be detractors. This leads to a tone that is not always scholarly in nature. Reason gives way to rhetoric in ways that a scholar of this caliber should be able to recognize and avoid.Boyd's primary target in this book is what one could call a "meticulous control" worldview--a view that God is, in some way, behind everything that happens, and that every event is simply the unfolding of His greater plan. To dispute this worldview, Boyd takes us on a step-by-step tour through Scripture showing that the entire narrative is shot through with the idea that hostile forces bring about events that God does not desire. They are not necessary, and God would have preferred that they didn't happen at all. Why this is the case is a question left for a later book, but he makes a convincing argument that it is the case. Scripture paints a picture, not of a meticulously controlling God, but of a God at war.Since I happen to agree with Boyd's foundational ideas, the persuasive power of the book may have been lost on me. However, I particularly appreciated his material on the Old Testament. His discussion of ancient near-eastern worldview, and how it should inform our understanding of the Old Testament was wonderfully deep. He even got me to reconsider views I had previously decided against--such as some form of gap theory for Gen. 1:2, the relevance of the Watcher tradition for Gen. 6, and the nature of the "heavenly council." The scholarship is evident here, and the points are well-reasoned.That's why I was so disappointed in his discussion of the cross. Here, his primary concern is to show that the cross had truly cosmic consequences. However, to safeguard this conclusion, he feels the need to insist that the effects of the cross were first and foremost on the universe as a whole. The cross was Christ's cosmic victory over Satan. It redeemed the universe, and human salvation is simply a subsequent result of this victory. The main problem with this view (which Boyd seems completely unaware of) is that there is no discernable reason why Jesus dying on a cross constitutes a cosmic victory over evil. What is the connection? What is the mechanism whereby "death on cross" = "cosmic defeat of evil"?Boyd is afraid that, if the cross affects humankind, first and foremost, then its cosmic significance is lost. That is why he must argue "cross--universe--humankind." I do not believe this is the case. The creation mandate in Gen. 3 (that people "rule the earth and subdue it") can easily imply that humankind has an extremely significant role to play (something Boyd himself makes a big deal of in his Old Testament section). Now, let's say Satan's goal is to stop them from fulfilling this role. To do this, he accuses, tempts, etc. He leads them into guilt and then lays claim to them. In this instance the mechanism whereby the cross defeats Satan is clear. Jesus fulfills the requirements of the law. Anyone who personally appropriates his death on the cross is freed from Satan by the simple fact that they are not guilty. They owe nothing because the debt has been paid. Now, if humanity itself has a cosmic role to play, then the redemption of humanity can somehow relate to the subsequent redemption of all creation (which Rom. 8:19 seems, rather strongly, to imply). In other words "cross--humankind--universe" gives BOTH a cosmic significance to the cross and a rational mechanism whereby "cross = defeat of Satan." Boyd's discussion to the contrary makes this section of his book a rather unsatisfying culmination to an otherwise insightful work.At the risk of being too harsh on Boyd, I have to mention two burdens under which he labors in this book (and, I fear, his next one). First, he labors under the belief that his view would be more conducive to right decisions, attitudes, and actions than the opposing view. First of all, it is unwise to assume that, simply because you would act badly if you held certain views, that everyone who holds these views would. Maybe you are just a reprobate. Maybe if a person's beliefs do not provide motivation for right action, he or she will find motivation elsewhere. Specifically, a common concern is that folks who hold the meticulous control worldview have no reason to go out and try to make the world a better place. Everything is the way God wants it to be.I'll grant that this could be a problem for the meticulous control worldview. But the second problem Boyd has here is in assuming that the warfare worldview does not imply its own set of inappropriate decisions, attitudes, and actions. Sure, the meticulous control worldview could cause people to accept circumstances that need to be fought. However, the warfare worldview may lead people to fight circumstances that need to be accepted. Sometimes suffering IS God working in mysterious ways. Sometimes it is constructive. In fact, the warfare worldview seems to provide little motivation for finding the good in an otherwise bad situation. Which is better--a passive optimist or an active pessimist? Seems like a coin toss to me.Finally, Boyd labors under a burden shared by nearly all who write on the problem of evil. They want to say something to make it all better. And who doesn't? Who hasn't sat next to a grieving person and wanted to find the right words that could ease that person's pain? It's an understandable impulse.The problem of evil needs to be engaged on an intellectual level. It needs to be discussed and wrestled with, but we should have no illusions about the application of any conclusions we come to. When it comes to actual suffering, there is no theodicy that makes the hurt go away. There are no right words to say. A propositional answer is never an adequate response to a personal, emotional state. The only adequate response to suffering is the grief process itself. Anything else is academic.

It is a reminder to us where the real battle is and the importance of prayer. This isn’t just to relay the question of evil in the world, but it’s influential pull in everyone’s life. When I think of the failure of Peter by denying Jesus, Jesus prayed for him. Reminding me he did that a lot. A lost spiritual discipline to say the least. The importance of it cannot be overstated. Our battle is constant and we need to be showered in prayer for our protection and to see the power of change occur.

Amazing book! Explains very well about a warfare worldview and the spirit realm! Exactly what we need in the Body of Christ today to develop strength in spiritual warfare!

Great

With customary thoroughness and readability Greg provides a way for us to understAnd and challenge darkness and evil in our world.

Overall this book is a huge eye opener to the demonic powers that have a free will to exercise evil in the world. The author, Gregory Boyd, teaches us the reality of the demonic world and what we as Christians should do about it.The book, God at War, is in 2 parts. Part 1 is about the supernatural beings in the Old Testament, and Part 2 is about the demonic reality in the New Testament.Part 1 deals with angelic beings, both good and evil. It discusses how the Watchers in Genesis chapter 6 had intercourse with women and created the Nephilim, the giants of the Old Testament. Once the Nephilim died their spirits looked for human bodies to live in. These spirits are the same demons and evil spirits that plague people today.This book debunks the sugar-coated myth that the devil doesn’t exist. There is a devil whose mission it is to cause havoc on the earth and to try and destroy the faith of Christians. What this book doesn’t deal with is why God allows demons to have a free will to exercise evil on the earth. This book also doesn’t explain why God allows human beings to do evil on the earth. (The author says his second book, Satan and the Problem of Evil will deal with those questions. I haven’t read it yet but am about to.)Boyd talks about the demons in the Old Testament. The sea monster yam; the demonic sea monster leviathan, who has many heads; Rahab another demonic foe of God. All these demonic beings are present in the Old Testament and the author Boyd provides the Scriptures to prove it.I found the section on other cultures who have myths about good and evil long and boring.You can basically sum of the first half of the book by saying that the Old Testament teaches that demonic powers exist in the Old Testament; that the devil is a real agent in the Old Testament. Boyd teaches and proves that a good angel did rebel against God and his name is Satan. Satan is a free agent who can exercise his will to do evil within the limits provided by God.Part 2 of the book deals with the New Testament. Boyd talks much more intensely and thoroughly about our warfare against demonic powers as Christians. He talks about the many conflicts Jesus had with demonic powers; about Jesus’ fight against the devil. And how Jesus overcame the devil and destroyed the power and the works of the devil through His death and resurrection. The New Testament part of Boyd’s book is really eye-opening and teaches us that we are in a battle with demonic forces. It is mesmerizing.The author argues that every sickness is demonic in nature and is caused by the devil. This, in my opinion, Boyd does not prove conclusively. But it very well may be true that all sicknesses could be the results of demonic powers.Boyd discusses and describes in great detail the organizational structure of the demonic, supernatural government of the world. It is very interesting and eye-opening.We as Christians have the power to muzzle demons and to keep them quiet. Boyd argues that we have the power through the name of Jesus Christ to cast out demons, to pray for the sick and to them heal people. We have to see evil as a force from the Devil and that we as Christians are the heroes and the ones who can come in and cast out the devil.Boyd argues that if we don’t believe that evil exists we won’t fight against it. Boyd states that we’re supposed to battle against evil forces. If we think we’re just supposed to accept the evil things that happen to us as from a Sovereign God, and rollover and play dead, we are not living out our faith and we are living in a fantasy world.Boyd argues successfully that the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection was much more than giving us eternal life. It was the destroying of the power of the devil. And remember, Boyd says, that Revelation says that the lake of fire was created for the devil and his demons. Hell wasn’t created for humans who disobey God; originally the lake of fire was created for the devil and his demons. But those humans who do not accept Christ will end up there as well.Part 1 about the Old Testament is 140 pages long. Part 2 about the New Testament is 100 pages long. And the footnotes section is another 100 pages long with many references to other books for further reading if you are into it.I totally recommend this book for an eye opening, explosive read. It opens your eyes to the reality that the bad things that happen to us aren’t some kind of God ordained teaching lesson, these bad things are attacks from evil demonic forces that have to be prayed against and rebuked.

This textbook is very well written and easy to read (although over 400 pages) but brings a clear understanding of the unseen world around us, including a thorough look at the problem of evil. Well worth the read.