Territorial spirits are national angels, or demons who rule over certain geographical areas in the world, a concept accepted within the Charismatic movement,

Pentecostalism Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

, and Dominionist Kingdom Now theology. This belief has been popularized by the novel '' This Present Darkness'' by Frank E. Peretti as well as by the ministry of C. Peter Wagner and the related New Apostolic Reformation. The existence of territorial spirits is viewed as significant in spiritual warfare within these Christian groups. Related is the belief in

spiritual mapping Spiritual mapping refers to the belief among some Christians that specific Demons in Christianity, demons, known as Territorial spirit, territorial spirits, are associated with specific locations and can be conquered through strategic spiritual war ...

in order to locate these demonically controlled regions.

Biblical context

Deuteronomy 32:8-9

In both the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

and the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

32:8-9 refers to a time when God divided the nations of the earth among the " sons of God" (Israel is excepted as the special possession of God Himself.) Given the meaning of this phrase in the

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

, it is suggested that this is a reference to the origin of territorial spirits who were, at one time, angels administering the earth on God's behalf. Wagner appeals to

F. F. Bruce Frederick Fyvie Bruce (12 October 1910 – 11 September 1990) was a Scottish Evangelicalism, evangelical scholar, author and educator who was Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester from 1959 until 1 ...

, who points out that the Septuagint reading "implies that the administration of various nations has been parceled out among a corresponding number of angelic powers." The question remains, however, as to whether these spirits are malevolent.

Psalm 82

Psalm 82 speaks of "

elohim ''Elohim'' ( ) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural in form, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the Go ...

" who are "sons of the most High" and are assigned to judge mankind until dying like men or "falling like one of the princes". Psalm 58 covers similar ground.

Daniel 10

Daniel 10 concerns the visitation of a man "His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude" to the prophet Daniel. This man explains to Daniel that he was delayed by the "Prince of Persia" (10:13), but was helped by "Michael, one of the chief princes" (a reference to the Michael the Archangel, who was recognized in Jewish literature to be a chief angel guarding over Israel). Later in the chapter, the man warns Daniel that soon the "Prince of Greece" (10:20) will join his Persian counterpart to make war upon them. Wagner regards this chapter as a key passage supporting the existence of territorial spirits, and appeals to Keil and Delitzsch, who suggest that the "prince of Persia" is the "guardian spirit of the kingdom." George Otis, coiner of the term ''

'', says that Daniel 10 is "a well-defined case of an evil spiritual being ruling over an area with explicitly defined boundaries." David E. Stevens notes that many scholars take the Prince of Persia to be an earthly political authority, such as

Cambyses II Cambyses II () was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning 530 to 522 BCE. He was the son of and successor to Cyrus the Great (); his mother was Cassandane. His relatively brief reign was marked by his conquests in North Afric ...

. Stevens personally accepts the angelic interpretation, but argues that the "influence exerted by these angelic princes is personal and sociopolitical in nature and not territorial." Stevens notes that in Daniel 12:1, Michael the Archangel, is described as "the great prince who protects your people" ( NIV), which "emphasizes the protective role of Michael in relation to the people of God rather than with respect to a given territory. Michael remained the guardian angel of the people of God, whether Israel was in the Promised Land or was dispersed in exile among the nations."

Usage

Territorial spirits are a part of strategic-level spiritual warfare (SLSW) as promoted by New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) leader C. Peter Wagner and others in the movement, which involves the practice of mapping the spiritual and social history of an area in order for prophets to learn the

names A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

and assignments of demonic spirits as the first step to effective spiritual warfare. Named demons include

Jezebel Jezebel ()"Jezebel"
(US) and

Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...

, and

Leviathan Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is of ...

. The American ReAwaken America Tour was originally a COVID-19 protest, which later became "a rolling

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...

-style celebration of the spiritual side of Trumpism" sponsored by Charismatic organizations and featuring NAR speakers. The events took on a spiritual warfare tone including references to territorial spirits; in 2022 pastor Mark Burns spoke of "demonic territory that's over the land" and

Roger Stone Roger Jason Stone (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American Political consulting, political consultant and lobbyist. He is Donald Trump's longest-serving political adviser, best known for the Mueller special counsel investi ...

mentioned a "Satanic portal ppearingabove the White House" after President Joe Biden took office, stating that it "must be closed. And it will be closed by prayer."

Criticism

Melvin Tinker argues that the literary use of ''territorial'' ''spirits'' is a

misnomer A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the nam ...

, since spirits referred to in various Biblical passages "are to be more associated with political and religious power and ideologies." Opponents of the theological construct of strategic-level spiritual warfare and associated beliefs point out that while the Bible may describe some form of demonic control over geography, it does not prescribe many of the behaviors and teachings that proponents advocate in response. Scholars such as Robert Priest, Paul Hiebert and A. Scott Moreau, as well as missionary and anthropologist Charles H. Kraft detect animist ideas in the arguments of supporters of the theory of territorial spirits. Robert Guelich of Fuller Theological Seminary does not find the concept of territorial spirits within the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s, and has analyzed this problem in a critical review of Frank E. Peretti's novel '' This Present Darkness''. Peretti's second novel, '' Piercing the Darkness'', also features these themes.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

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External links

Spiritual Warfare - Discipleship ModelDeuteronomy 32:8-9 and the sons of God
{{Book of Daniel Spiritual warfare Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity Demons in Christianity Tutelary deities