Did the Promised Land Protect Israel from Demons?
Why do the Gospels record so little demonic activity in Judea proper? And what do we make of Psalm 91, a psalm with a long history of use as a protective text, even an exorcistic one, whose threats are described with the vocabulary of foreign gods? Was the promised land a sacred space that warded off hostile spirits? And if so, why would Israel need a protective psalm at all?
The Unseen Battle: Spiritual Warfare, the Three Rebellions, and Christ’s Victory Over Dark Powers (by Joel Muddamalle)
In his book, The Unseen Battle, Joel Muddamalle develops the concept of spiritual warfare through the Bible’s supernatural worldview. The book explains why the world looks spiritually fractured, politically chaotic, and morally contested. The book is a biblical-theological work, solidly grounded in Scripture and the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) context. Muddamalle organizes the story of spiritual warfare around a supernatural framework of God’s supernatural and human families. He further explores how the relationship between these two households informs the narrative of conflict, rebellion, and redemption in the biblical text. The goal of The Unseen Battle is to bring understanding of the powers at work in the world and to highlight the order brought through Christ’s victory over all things.