One of the things that struck me first
about this book was the irenic way Powlison handles those he
disagrees with. The doctrine of spiritual warfare has a wide variety
of self-styled experts vying for the attention of Christians. Many of
these “experts” appear to draw their doctrine of demonology and
spiritual warfare more from the writings of novelist Frank Peretti
than from Scripture.
Practitioners and writers on spiritual
warfare typically concentrate on what Powlison terms the Ekballistic
Ministry Mode (EMM). The Greek derivation of ekballistic means
“to cast out.” The idea of identifying, naming, and then casting
out demons is the central feature of EMM. Sin, rather than being
sourced from our old nature, is largely seen as the product of demons
of lust, greed, etc.
Powlison challenges the entire EMM
schema. He does so without using any cheap shots (which would be
frankly easy to do, given some of the ideas of EMM practitioners).
Rather, he makes his points with careful, contextual, exegetical
precision, dismantling the careless interpretations of the scripture
texts normally cited in support of an EMM-style ministry. In fact, I
would say the skillful exegesis Powlison employs is the defining
characteristic of this little book.
Another treasure of Power Encounters
is the wise manner in which Powlison distinguishes between moral
evil and situational evil. His point is that the distinction
between the two different kinds of evil calls for a different
response to each, a matter that EMM completely overlooks.
Powlison’s answer to EMM is what he
calls “classic mode” ministry: helping Christians deal with
troublesome sin in their lives, as well as demonic oppression, by
taking them straight to the cross. The gospel is the most powerful
weapon. It is the only weapon needed to completely defeat the forces
of darkness.
The worst part of Power Encounters
is that it has gone out of print. That should never have been allowed
to happen to a resource this valuable. Every pastor and biblical
counselor should have a copy of this little book. Used bookstores are
charging three figures for old copies. I purchased mine from
biblicalcounselingbooks@gmail.com
and more are available from them. They have secured permission to
make reprints. For a slender book weighing in at 160 pages, $30 was a
fairly steep price. It was worth every penny. Five stars,
highly recommended.
