Ekklēsia Nikaō, Part II: Sex Scandals, Demons & Bonfires
The Great Western Pulpit Crisis & a Call for Christians to Return to the Way
If you’re a fan of the Marvel Universe, odds are you’re familiar with some of their most famous alien imposters: the Skrulls.
Popping up first in the 2nd issue of Fantastic Four in 1962, these virescent extraterrestrial villains have a unique ability as shapeshifters who mimic the appearance of other lifeforms. Through the decades, Skrulls have lurked in the shadows in several Marvel stories, video games, television and film. Stalking, sneaking, sabotaging behind enemy lines with no one the wiser.
Able to walk among us, because they look and sound just like us.
Think of them as the body snatchers of the comic book world. Nerdy enough for you?
For the past few years, there’s been fallout and scandal galore pouring out of Western pulpits. Ministers are coming out of the woodwork like termites, taking sabbaticals, issuing apologies, or staying silent in lieu of waves of charges. Some have been the subject of podcasts or documentaries. Well-known faith leaders like Robert Morris, Mike Bickle, Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz, Brian Houston, Bill Hybels, Tony Evans, and seemingly countless others have recently faced misconduct allegations or controversy. A litany of abuse claims are coming full bloom on the cultural landscape, framing the modern Church through a muck-filled lens for the masses.
Pastors sexually abusing 12-year-old girls.
Massive misuse of ministry funds for personal luxury.
Adultery and addiction ravaging a church and family.
Rampant celebrityism and self-aggrandizement.
Our Church is in a woeful state with a witness like this. Failed leaders are being exposed left and right, having been able to look and sound just like us for so long — much like the green-skinned Skrull impersonators. Talent, influence and charisma seem to be at an all-time high in the Christian world, but God isn’t looking for better talent, “God is looking for better men.”1
In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul makes his way to Ephesus, a cultural behemoth of intraimperial commerce and extravagant pagan ritual2 — not unlike our current American situation. Chapter 19 unloads a bustling narrative brimming with miracles, botched exorcisms, and expensive bonfires.
11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. 13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. 18 Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. 19 And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
— Acts 19:11-20
(Who ever said church was supposed to be boring?)
Our current series is a survey of the mandate and motif in Scripture and history for the Church to “overcome” in a world hostile to the Gospel and Way of Jesus. If you missed Part I, check it out here. Living victoriously is part and parcel of the call of Jesus’ followers in every era and realm of human history.3 Now, for most of us (especially the men), this sounds awesome. “A triumphant Church that crushes its opposition? Sign me up!”
Remember, however, that Jesus often bids us to counterintuitive and countercultural expressions of allegiance to His Kingdom. Put your sword away, Peter.4
Paul’s experiences in Ephesus outline some key themes for just how the Church is victorious in the middle of a wildly pagan world. Though there are several avenues we could use the roadmap of this passage to traverse, I want to zero in on just a few I think will be helpful for our purposes here. Ekklēsia, make sure you’ve got your helmet strapped on tight and your shield handy…
I think we’re about to get some marching orders.
Acts chapter 19 can tutor us in exposing some important dynamics to understand for living as God’s People in a godless world:
POWER
Yahweh is the God of supernatural, dynamic miracle power. He heals the unhealable and restores hopeless situations when He comes into contact with human brokenness. We see very unique miracles through Paul’s ministry, with people getting healed from diseases and delivered from evil spirits. This is God’s muscle & authority on display vs. false shows of human or rebellious spiritual powers (more on that below). And all He needed was a snot-rag. Wild.
It’s easy for Christians to observe the darkness in society and just bloviate rhetoric and theology. But that’s not what the world is looking for or, more importantly, what it actually needs. The funny thing is it tells us that. Consider the sentiments 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, the influential father of the modern essay, riffed on during the Renaissance:
“Saying is one thing, doing another. We must consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.”5
As moderns (especially Americans), we may be more familiar with this idea packaged as “don’t just tell me; show me.” Lost people separated from their Creator don’t need believers to merely talk about the power of God; they need to see the power of God. Think of Paul’s words to the Corinthians, where he reminds that his ministry was “not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”6 This guy walks the walk. True power, the kind humans desperately need to intervene in their various situations of life, belongs to and flows from God alone and manifests itself in healing and transformation of lives. [He often uses people for this. That means you.]
Many vices in the history of the Church are downstream of the big three: love of money, sex, and power. Earth-folk tend to horde power, stow it away, stack it up, clutch it in their decaying, vice-like fingers with gnashed teeth like a wild animal in a corner. Sadly, this is sometimes true of those who are supposed to be shepherds and leaders in the Church. Conversely, Jesus, the “ruler of the kings of the earth,”7 seeks to freely share part of His glory and power to rule the New Creation with redeemed humans as His royal-priest co-regents.8 The Cosmic King models that the purpose of power isn’t for it to be used to be dominant over people, but to be used for people so humans can thrive in God’s perfect design.
[NOTE: The dynamics of power as it relates to the Church is a dense topic; it may require its own entry. Stay tuned.]
SPIRITUAL WAR
Demons and intelligent evil spirits are real. This shouldn’t surprise anyone subscribing to a supernatural worldview — as in Christians. Yet it’s fascinating that in the modern Church, many often assent to supernaturalism loosely while living as materialists in their day-to-day. “Yeah, Moses split the sea, Daniel was saved in the lion’s den, but people’s problems have natural explanations because the world just doesn’t work like that.” For people who believe the omnipotent God became a man, healed sickness, calmed storms, raised the dead, and Himself was resurrected and ascended to Heaven, having reservations about spiritual realities is, to say the least, a weird flex.9
Biblical authors don’t express a separation of the material and spiritual. Father Stephen de Young elaborates on the supernatural aspect of reality according to common thought in the ancient world:
“As with all ancient religion, there was no distinction between the ‘natural’ and the ‘supernatural’ realms. Visible and invisible realities overlay each other. Physical locations in the world overlap and bleed through with locations within the spiritual world and its geography.”10
The People of God are supernatural people. We must accept and lean into this part of our identity. What that brings us to is the reality of demonic opposition. While we don’t have space here to tackle everything that means, suffice it to take a few notes from the story in Acts 19. The supernatural activity was pervasive and problematic in ancient Rome as is seen by the demonization and occult involvement of many.11 Are we so sure that the dark forces of the spiritual realm are less active today?
Quickly demonstrated is the seriousness of demonization in Ephesus and the juxtaposition of the power of God through the apostles against the false human power of the sons of Sceva. These poser exorcists could only parrot what they’d heard Paul doing — and as a result, got their backends handed to them. Trying to deal with supernatural evil outside of a direct connection to the Power of Christ Himself will just expose and humiliate you. Much like the Skrulls, Sceva’s sons knew the language to use, but were ultimately imposters. Do you see anything similar happening in the leadership of the Church now?
Instead of taking advantage of people, putting on a show or strutting our supposed spiritual strength like false teachers do, the overcoming Church is to be made up of those truth-loving, humble and faithful followers who are willing to step into the trenches of supernatural conflict and be redemptive agents in their given societies. Darkness is real. Pray and seek God’s face. Drink the Word deeply. Go to those in bondage. Don’t be afraid. The battle is His.
FEAR & CONFESSION
Just a few years ago, upon hearing the egregious stories of misconduct perpetrated by a theological hero of mine, I was crushed. How could someone so philosophically eloquent, a Biblical powerhouse, someone so influential to the spiritual lives of so many, be guilty of such twisted behavior? The response it drew out from deep within me at the time was one of fear. Not terror or dread or anxiety, but a healthy fear of God.12 I believe it did the same in many others as well.
The proceedings in Acts 19 elicit the same response from the people of Ephesus: the fear of the Lord. I would argue we know it’s this kind of holy fear due to the context immediately following in verse 17: “the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.” Real, breathing, awestruck, eyes-wide fear of the Lord is what our world needs coursing through its veins, and the travesty is seeing that is the very ingredient missing in so many Western churches. I love Tozer’s sentiments on this kind of fear: “The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid–that is the paradox of faith.”13 Our world needs to see lovers of God who possess a bottomless, weighty and unyielding reverence for the utter uniqueness and holiness of their Creator.
If anything, the current shaking and drawing out of the wolves among the sheep should bring us all to a place of healthy fear of God. In so doing, the Church will lift up the Name of Jesus. The Old Testament authors of the Ketuvim (writings that include Psalms and Proverbs) were right to remind us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”14
One of the most beautiful things a healthy perspective of God results in is confession. In Acts, the souls of the people are moved to expose their sin for spiritual cleansing. The art of confession is intrinsic to God’s redemptive story in each of us and is the gateway to our true freedom in Christ. Bonhoeffer frames it this way:
“A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person.”15
A repentant church is a healthy church. The Christian infrastructure and many of its leaders would be wise to confess and repent of their own accord before being exposed. There’s two cents.
Too spicy? Take another swig of your iced coffee. We’re almost done.
THE BURNING
Spiritual renewal at its finest moments inspires people to respond in radical obedience to Jesus. For the Ephesians, many of them made a tangible break with the demonic and occult ties of the enemy by heaping their magical books (or scrolls) onto a large bonfire. And not just any chic s’more-station; we’re talking about enough books to stack up to a modern day value of at least $1,000,000.00. Personal magic items and witchcraft of various kinds were prevalent in the ancient world: household idols, amulets, incantation scrolls, potions and more. Humans have always sought shortcuts to power, but the Gospel breaks the allure of darkness and the false promises it brings. Toss your book on the pile. Get that junk scorched.
Bonfire moments are milestones in our journey as Christ-followers. Lighting the match and parting with our old ways is often a difficult decision. Jesus said “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). A few verses earlier, He paints faithfulness to Him as looking like hating your family and own life by comparison.16 The Ephesians held nothing back; no price for true discipleship was too high.
If I make decisions that my friends don’t understand, will I feel too alienated to continue making these choices the Holy Spirit is leading me to make? The truth is that Christ has free reign to convict, teach, correct, rebuke, and adjust me in any way He wants. Reality check: coming under the dominion and rule of Jesus will likely change your Spotify playlist, the language you use, your Instagram feed (if not deleting the app altogether), books you read, clothes you wear (underrated one here), where you spend your money, how you employ your time. What am I willing to give up in my devotion to Him? What is my price?
Bonfire moments tell the whole world and the forces of darkness that we’ve made our decision. A line is in the sand. The message has been sent to the evil one. Like Joker says in The Dark Knight: “It’s not about money… it’s about sending a message.”
Surrendering your life to Jesus means, as far as your old ways, value systems and mechanisms to grab for power, everything burns.
What do we do?
It is increasingly apparent that we have to shift what we value in spiritual leadership if we seek to become the overcoming Church of the book of Revelation. Throughout the Biblical narrative, keen-eyed readers will see exactly what the two primary evils humans fall prey to are: idolatry and immorality. The second chapter of John’s apocalypse echoes this as well:
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality…
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
— Revelation 2:14, 20
How interesting that in the world of spiritual superstardom, idolatry and immorality seem to be the chief problems responsible for unraveling churches, families and Western pulpits.
So, here we are. We’ve seen how the scriptures point us to a divine worldview relating to God’s power, the seriousness of spiritual conflict, the importance of holy fear of the Lord, confession of sin, and a willingness to burn ties with our old life. Yet, our leadership in the Western Church needs to be addressed.
What do we actually do?
While I don’t have all the answers, my soul is stirred in the following areas. Excuse me for punches un-pulled:
All this fake-honor mafia culture where leaders are unchecked and unquestioned that’s so prevalent in several evangelical circles needs to be done. Coercion is demonic.Godly, biblical leaders will naturally elicit honor from those they lead, but not holding people accountable when they’re clearly acting in rebellion to the Scriptures just because they’re “gifted” is actually what dishonors God. [NOTE: it’s important for us as leaders to model honor before we ask or presume to be honored]
I fear we push people too quickly into ministry before their personal discipleship, Biblical education and character have time to catch up to their calling. We must stop promoting and elevating people based merely on gravitas or “anointing” or talent, and make a shift in emphasis to proven character, unwavering allegiance to Christ and the Word, and a deeply resonant holiness in everyday life.
Low-hanging fruit, but the celebrity culture stuff’s gotta go. It just has to. This is Digital Babylon17 — it’s tough to evangelize the culture without utilizing social media. But we need to make sure we are not building singular personalities in parallel with building God’s Kingdom. Distinguishing the difference can be a quagmire. The pull of ambition and stardom is strong, but celebrity spaces breed iniquity (just look at the world). Leaders should ditch being obsessed with becoming social media influencers and focus on disciple-making.
The Church has always morphed over the centuries; sometimes according to the Holy Spirit’s leading. HARD QUESTION: Could we be headed toward a shift in the model of liturgical structure for churches in the West? Are there other ways God may lead us to grow His Kingdom in our cities that looks different from the way we’ve always done it? I don’t know, but it’s something to keep a pulse on (NOTE: To be transparent, this is personally a hard one for me as someone working in “full-time ministry” as a livelihood). Focusing on one personality is a potential obstacle for any organization’s stability, and perhaps in the future our churches will embody a more communal and intentionally discipleship-focused model of living. Protestant monasteries, anyone?
Another practice we must master in our role as ambassadors of the Way of Jesus is in regard to gossip. Surrendering our will to God’s ways means we must not merely minimize gossip or punish it; we have to hate it. Discipleship is embodied by a life that loves everything God finds good, true and beautiful, and equally, by contrast, despising everything he finds evil, false and repulsive. Our ears need to lose the flavor for a juicy story if we’re to faithfully follow Christ. Consider what Jerome said about gossip:
No one loves to tell of scandal except to him who loves to hear it. Learn, then, to rebuke and check the detracting tongue by showing that you do not listen to it with pleasure.
— St. Jerome
Gossip is condemned in both Testaments,18 plus it’s just really gross.
Current events and recent revelations don’t make our job as disciples look any easier. Take heart.
We are ‘Ekklēsia Nikaō’ — the Church that overcomes.
Together, we are apprentices learning the art of the Great Overcomer.
This transitional age of the Church doesn’t need charlatans or snake-oil salesmen, but faithful shepherds and prophetic voices willing to speak uncomfortable truths and protect the flock. Like Skrulls, it’s creepily easy for imposters to slide in unnoticed and steer our affections away from Christ.19 Don’t allow that to happen. Stay true to the Way of Jesus; He is the prime Personality worthy of our acclaim, exaltation and devotion.
Leaders may let us down. The Savior never will. Let’s keep walking, Church.
There’s much more for us to overcome.
Bounds, E. M. (2016). Power through prayer. Devoted Publishing, Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. p. 5.
The temple of Artemis in Ephesus was one of the wonders of the ancient world, thought to be one of the largest structures on earth.
See 2 Corinthians 2:14.
Jesus’ sentiments in John 18:11. (Chill out, gun owners. I’m one of you guys.)
De Montaigne, M. (1965). The complete essays of Montaigne. Stanford University Press. p. 541.
See 1 Corinthians 2:4.
See Revelation 1:5.
See 2 Timothy 2:12. The New Testament offers a theological recapitulation of the concept of ruling as God’s representatives as initiated in Genesis 1:26-30.
Dr. Michael Heiser proves helpful here: “…many Christians claim to believe in the supernatural but think (and live) like skeptics. We find talk of the supernatural world uncomfortable… if our theology really derives from the biblical text, we must reconsider our selective supernaturalism and recover a biblical theology of the unseen world.” Heiser, M. S. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Lexham Press. p.17-18.
De Young, S. (2020, July 13). Through the sea of reeds - the whole counsel blog. The Whole Counsel Blog. https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/wholecounsel/2020/04/16/through-the-sea-of-reeds/
Pliny the Elder went so far as to say “there is no one who does not fear to be spell-bound by curse tablets” in reference to the prevailing hold of magic and cult ritual on the cultures of the 1st century Mediterranean world. (Pliny, Natural History 28.5.19.)
Fear of God in the biblical lexicon has to do with sacred honor, awe and reverence for God above all else. William Penn describes it this way: “Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.” William Penn (1793). “Fruits of a Father's Love: being the Advice of William Penn to his children, relating to their civil and religious conduct, etc. With a preface, signed J. R., i.e. Sir John Rodes”, p.4.
Tozer, A. (2022). The Knowledge of the Holy. Sea Harp Press. p. 84.
See Proverbs 9:10; also Prov. 1:7, 4:7 and Psalm 111:10.
Bonhoeffer, D. (1954). Life together. Harper and Row. p. 20.
See Luke 14:25-33 for context. As a genius 1st century orator, Jesus knew how to make excellent use of hyperbole (rhetorical device of exaggeration). He also uses the Greek term miséō here which, while it can mean actual hatred, is often comparative in use; thereby being thought of more appropriately as “love less” or “denounce” based on the context. See Strong’s Greek: 3404. μισέω (miseó) -- to hate. (n.d.). https://biblehub.com/greek/3404.htm
Kinnaman, D., Matlock, M., & Hawkins, A. (2019). Faith for exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon. Baker Books. p. 19-21.
See Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 18:8, 20:19; Romans 1:29; 1 Timothy 3:11, 5:13; 2 Timothy 3:3.
See Jude 1:4.
Awesomely well-put-together writing, brother.
Loved this: “Are we so sure that the dark forces of the spiritual realm are less active today?”
Jesus literally reached into the abyss of “the deep things of Satan” several years ago and found me and my wife wholesale committed to witchcraft, s*x magic, and everything that goes along with that world (astrology, tarot, yoga, meditation, enneagram, and worse).
At the “height” of my pride (shortly followed by a great and life changing fall), I was able to be on an “energy healing” zoom call with someone on the literal opposite side of the world, and physically affect them through the spirit realm with dark power.
That’s not “theory” or “theology.” That’s “actuality.” And a personal encounter with the Lord actually changed all of that.
That part in Acts of “book burning” is something we did before we even knew it existed in the Bible. Everything got scorched — books, clothes, objects, “art,” etc.
…And there were literal screams and hissing coming out of the flames as all of it burned. Winds “happened” to picked up and tried to burn other things down. Police “happened” to show up on another occasion and fine me for open fires in the middle of winter and 12” of snow…
We have been astounded (to put it mildly) that a “church” who professes to have an actual, personal, Eternal communion with the Omnipotent Sovereign Lord of all Reality… is mostly ignorant, in denial, or simply just experientially-unengaged in the actual, substantial nature of the spiritual and supernatural reality of all things.
Witchcraft isn’t just a play-pretend, ugly thing of fairytales. Halloween isn’t a cute “holiday.” God didn’t give Israel commandments about things that “aren’t real.” Why would He bother to say “you won’t suffer a witch to live?”
It is very real, takes many forms, and sadly it is used by many many many many “pastors” from the pulpit and behind the scenes to manipulate their congregations. We have seen it first hand, again, and again, and again.
The Word of God is literally the most powerful, indomitable, Reality-defining authority in all of time and eternity. And He LOVES US?! And we have HIS SPIRIT living IN US?! And we can “abide in Him and Him in us?!” And we can “ask Him any thing in His name and He will do it? … anything according to the will of God and we KNOW we have the requests we have asked of Him?!”
THEN DEAR GOD LET US PRAY WITH YOU THE PRAYERS OF *YOUR* HEART THAT BURN WITH HOLY JEALOUS ALL-CONSUMING FIRE FOR THIS DAY AND HOUR!
I’m slowly working my way through this series and enjoying every moment. It’s like reading into the world we look for as true disciples of Jesus. I thought it was especially interesting that you highlighted gossip—we in America too often undervalue what words do to us (both the speaker and listener). James obviously tells us more about this, but information and story through language is so so so powerful.
The other thing I thought was interesting were your two “I”s (idolatry and immorality). Similar but maybe slightly different I’ve heard it described as idolatry and injustice. Maybe all sin can be lumped somewhere in those three categories. Point is, I think it’s spot on, and we need to continually be aware of how we are engaging with the Holy Spirit, how we are submitting to him, and the temptations we face toward injustice, immorality, or idolatry. We need others—true disciples—to push us toward Him in that way too.
I’m sure I’ll see you at part 3. :) Good work, Kaleb. Grateful to learn from and be sharpened by you!