In June, 1973, Jessie Penn-Lewis published the Pentecostal book, “War on the Saints”[3], and Kurt Koch published "Occult ABC"[4], which contain elements of the concept of spiritual warfare, if not explicitly using the expression. In 1991, Wagner published "Confronting the Powers: How the New Testament Church Experienced the Power of Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare” and edited "Territorial Spirits".[5][6] In 1992, Dr. Ed Murphy wrote a modern 600 page book on the subject, “The Handbook of Spiritual Warfare“, from the point of view of deliverance ministry.[7] Other notable expositions on spiritual warfare were written by Mark Bubeck and Neil Anderson.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, “C. Peter Wagner, head of Global Harvest Ministries in Colorado Springs, Colo., is in the vanguard of the [spiritual warfare] movement.”[8] Others might disagree.[citation needed] In the version of spiritual warfare of Wagner and his associates and followers, “spiritual mapping", or “Mapping” involves research and prayer to locate specific individuals who are then accused of witchcraft, or individuals, groups, or locations that are thought to be victims of witchcraft or possessed by demons, against which spiritual warfare is then waged.[9]. Peter Wagner claims that this type of spiritual warfare was "virtually unknown to the majority of Christians before the 1990s”.[10] According to Wagner, the basic methodology is to use “spiritual mapping”[11] to locate areas[12], demon-possessed persons, occult practitioners such as witches and FreeMasons, or occult idol objects like statues of Catholic saints[13], which are then named and fought, using methods ranging from intensive prayer to burning with fire, “they must burn the idols… the kinds of material things that might be bringing honor to the spirits of darkness: pictures, statues, Catholic saints, Books of Mormon… and what have you…. the witches and warlocks had surrounded the area … When the flames shot up, a woman right behind Doris [Wagner's wife] screamed and manifested a demon, which Doris immediately cast out!” [14]
Christian practices of spiritual warfare range from an internal conflict with one's self, to versions involving taking some physical action against other persons, places, or objects, with the physical actions ranging from use of words, such as public accusations of witchcraft, to violence such as burning objects of others or harming women accused of witchcraft.[8][15][16] The Catholic faith has a different perspective on spiritual warfare from Wagner, which in no way considers statues of its own saints as objects which "honor to the spirits of darkness", to be burned in spiritual warfare.[17] Pope John Paul II stated, “ ‘Spiritual combat’… is a secret and interior art, an invisible struggle in which monks engage every day against the temptations”[18], very different from the quote of Wagner cited above. At the other extreme is the historic Catholic Inquisition with its use of torture and slow execution of those accused of witchcraft. As in the Islamic community, elements of the Christian community differ about spiritual warfare, with extremes of opinions ranging from a view that it should be restricted to an internal war inside oneself as just cited, to calls for the death of homosexuals in Uganda for being possessed by demons, and outright hunting of women then accused of witchcraft and harmed, as in some other parts of Africa. Controversies have developed over interpretations of spiritual warfare methods (and purposes) by some Christian groups, which are used to persecute others, from other Christian groups (e.g. Catholics by some Pentecostals, or Protestants by Catholics over history), to other religions (e.g. Buddhists), other groups (e.g. practitioners of transcendental meditation or Freemasons), women who are accused of witchcraft, persons with other beliefs (such as in astrology), and owners of objects (e.g. native American art, Oija boards, tarot cards).
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