How Does Satan Attack Churches?

Question 08100

The way the enemy attacks churches tells you a great deal about what he fears, and it is rarely what we expect. In my experience he is far less interested in dramatic assault than in the slow, respectable erosion that nobody notices until a congregation looks round and wonders where the life went.

Paul told the Corinthians that we are not ignorant of Satan’s designs, which implies that his methods are recognisable to anyone who reads the New Testament attentively. So let us look at what the apostles actually warned about, rather than at what the warfare manuals tell us to expect.

He Attacks Churches Through Doctrine First

Every list of dangers in the epistles begins with truth. Paul warns the Ephesian elders that after his departure fierce wolves will come in, not sparing the flock, and that from among their own number men will arise speaking twisted things to draw away disciples after them. Note where the threat comes from. Some of it walks in from outside; some of it stands up in the pulpit.

Paul tells Timothy that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. That is a striking phrase. Doctrinal error is not treated as a purely intellectual failure; there is a spiritual engine behind it.

Which means that a congregation’s first defence is not a prayer meeting about spiritual warfare but faithful, patient, unfashionable teaching of the Bible. When the enemy attacks churches he goes for what they believe, because everything else follows from that.

Then Through Relationships

The second front is the one most of us have actually witnessed. Paul urges the Corinthians to forgive and comfort a repentant man, “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). The scheme he names there is unforgiveness inside the church.

Think about how ordinary that is. No manifestations, no strange phenomena, just two believers who will not speak to each other and a congregation that quietly organises itself around the awkwardness. Multiply that by twenty years and you have a church that cannot do anything, and nobody can say precisely why. Visitors feel it within a fortnight even if they could not name it, and they do not come back.

James is blunter still. He asks where quarrels come from, traces them to passions at war within us, and calls the wisdom behind such things earthly, unspiritual and demonic. That is not a word he uses lightly. The enemy attacks churches through the ordinary bitterness of ordinary people, and it works.

A Case Study in Acts

Luke gives us one episode that shows the whole pattern in miniature, and it happens at the moment the church is at its most generous. Barnabas sells a field and lays the money at the apostles’ feet. Then Ananias and Sapphira sell a property, keep back part of the proceeds, and present the rest as though it were everything.

Peter’s question goes straight past the money: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” The sin was not the withholding, as Peter immediately makes clear. The property was theirs and the proceeds were theirs. The sin was the performance, the appearance of a devotion that was not real.

Notice what the enemy went after. Not the preaching, not the miracles, not the opposition from the authorities, all of which were already in full flow. He went after the integrity of the congregation’s inner life, at the precise point where it was most attractive. That is how he attacks churches, and it is why Luke records that great fear came upon the whole church afterwards. They had seen how serious it was.

Through Leaders and Pride

Paul tells Timothy that an overseer must not be a recent convert, “or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.” The assumption behind that sentence is that pride was the devil’s own downfall, and that a proud leader is walking the same road.

I have watched this happen and it is a wretched thing to see. Gifted men are particularly vulnerable, because the gift produces results, the results produce admiration, and the admiration does the rest. A congregation that builds itself around a personality has already handed the enemy a lever.

Peter’s remedy is worth quoting to every man in ministry, myself included. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples. Then, two verses later, be sober minded and watchful, because your adversary the devil prowls around. The warning about the enemy comes immediately after the warning about domineering leadership, and I do not think that order is accidental.

Through Distraction and Drift

The letters to the seven churches in Revelation show a range of failures, and only some involve open sin. Ephesus had endured patiently, tested false apostles and not grown weary, and the charge against them was that they had abandoned the love they had at first. Everything looked healthy. Something at the centre had gone.

Laodicea thought itself rich and in need of nothing. Sardis had a reputation for being alive and was dead. Neither congregation was under obvious assault. Both had drifted into a comfortable condition that suited the enemy perfectly well without any effort on his part.

This is worth pondering, because when we ask how the enemy attacks churches we usually picture opposition, and opposition has historically made churches stronger. Comfort has done far more damage than persecution ever managed. The enemy attacks churches in Britain today far more effectively through a full diary and a comfortable pew than he ever did through the magistrate, and a congregation that is waiting for open hostility before it takes the danger seriously may be waiting a long time while the real damage is done.

Through Counterfeit Spirituality

Paul says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and that his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. He says it in the context of teachers who had impressed the Corinthians with their credentials and their confidence.

That is why I am wary of movements built on spectacular claims, apostolic titles, and revelation that goes beyond Scripture. The most effective counterfeit does not look like darkness at all. It looks like more spiritual power than the plain preaching of the word, and it draws sincere people who genuinely want more of God. See also my answer on whether Satan can appear as an angel of light.

John’s instruction stands: test the spirits to see whether they are from God. The test is doctrinal and it is applied to teaching, not to atmosphere. I have written about the wider problem in my answer on deliverance ministry.

What Actually Defends a Congregation

The defences are the same ones the New Testament always names, and they are unspectacular. Sound teaching, week after week, whether or not it is fashionable. Members who deal with offences quickly rather than nursing them. Leaders who are accountable to other people and can be told they are wrong.

Prayer belongs here too, and I mean prayer directed to God rather than declarations aimed at the darkness. Paul asked for prayer that he would open his mouth boldly to proclaim the gospel. That is the shape of it. When the enemy attacks churches, the counter measure is a congregation that keeps praying and keeps preaching Christ.

And ordinary love, which is more powerful than we credit. Jesus said the world would know his disciples by their love for one another. A congregation where that is visibly true is remarkably hard to damage from outside, whatever comes at it. It is also the one apologetic that requires no training course and no budget.

So, now what?

Ask yourself what you are contributing to your own congregation’s defences. Are you the person who takes an offence straight to the individual, or the person who mentions it to three others first? Are you praying for your leaders or assessing them? Those are not small questions. The enemy attacks churches at exactly that seam, and every member either strengthens it or weakens it.

Most churches are not brought down by the devil doing something extraordinary. They are worn away by good people doing very ordinary things badly for a long time. The enemy attacks churches at the level of everyday relationships, and that is exactly where he can be resisted.

Is there someone in your church you have not spoken properly to for months, and what would it take to change that on Sunday? It may be the most strategic thing you do all year, and nobody will notice it but the two of you.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Acts 20:28 (ESV)