Evangelicals, Charismatics Prepare for Spiritual Warfare : Demons: Summit in Pasadena discusses strategies for breaking the hold of evil spirits.

Under the militant banner of “spiritual warfare,” growing numbers of evangelical and charismatic Christian leaders are preparing broad assaults on what they call the cosmic powers of darkness.

Fascinated with the notion that Satan commands a hierarchy of territorial demons, some mission agencies and big-church pastors are devising strategies for “breaking the strongholds” of those evil spirits alleged to be controlling cities and countries.

Some proponents in the fledgling movement already maintain that focused prayer meetings have ended the curse of the Bermuda Triangle, led to the 1987 downfall in Oregon of free-love guru Baghwan Shree Rajneesh and, for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, produced a two-week drop in the crime rate, a friendly atmosphere and unclogged freeways.

This is not the cinematic story line for a religious sequel to “Ghostbusters II,” yet the developing scenario does have a fictional influence; interest in spiritual warfare has been heightened by two best-selling novels at Christian bookstores. “This Present Darkness,” by Frank Peretti, describes the religious fight against “territorial spirits mobilized to dominate a small town.” A second novel by Peretti has a similar premise.

Fuller Seminary Prof. C. Peter Wagner, who has written extensively on the subject, led a “summit” meeting on cosmic-level spiritual warfare Monday in Pasadena with two dozen men and women, including a Texas couple heading a group called the “Generals of Intercession” and an Oregon man who conducts “spiritual warfare boot camps.”

In his opening remarks, Wagner said: “The (Holy) Spirit is saying something to churches through these (Peretti) books even though they are fiction. People are reading these books that would never read our books.”

Contrary to segments of Christianity that think of the devil as a biblical-era representation of evil not too credible or useful today, theologically conservative churches virtually assume that Satan is a real, active being in the world. Moreover, in Pentecostal and charismatic churches--where speaking in tongues, healing and other supernatural “gifts of the Holy Spirit” are practiced--some clergy conduct “deliverance ministries” in which they claim to exorcise personal demons.

But clergy exploring high-level spiritual warfare point to the Letter to the Ephesians, among other biblical sources, for their marching orders against “world rulers of this present darkness.” Some say they have discerned the names of the ruling princes.

Nevertheless, caution was expressed at the Pasadena meeting for several reasons.

Ridicule from the outside world and by more moderate churchgoers is one concern. “I don’t want to get so far out that they think I’m L. Ron Hubbard,” said the Rev. Dick Bernal of San Jose, referring to the late science fiction writer and Scientology founder.

“This is exciting,” the pastor added. “But what’s flaky, what’s believable, what’s scriptural?” Bernal’s own literature, however, appears more confident--suggesting that an evil prince over part of the United States “is a religious spirit who keeps people bound up in useless traditions” and giving directions for removing a curse on a neighborhood.

Another cause for caution, said Wagner, is the danger involved: “If you do not know what you are doing, and few . . . have the necessary expertise, Satan will eat you for breakfast.” As a means of protection against the demonic while they met for eight hours Monday at Lake Avenue Congregational Church, organizers arranged for a comparable number of relatives and friends to pray continuously in a nearby room.

A third concern, barely aired at the Pasadena conference, is whether other cultures are defamed with the suggestion that only evangelical Christianity is free of demonic influence.

Demons were also blamed for the growth of New Age beliefs, the spread of illegal drugs, pornography “and the militant force of the Islamic movement” by Tom White of Corvallis, Ore., a conference participant who conducts what he calls spiritual warfare boot camps for local churches.

One disagreement over strategy was apparent. White has questioned whether the Bible or the church today dictates a “holy crusade” seeking out evil presences. “We do not go looking for this level of battle, but we let it find us,” he said. But John Dawson of Los Angeles, Southwest director for Youth With a Mission, recommends the offensive. “We need to overcome the enemy before we employ other methods of ministry among people,” Dawson wrote in his book, “Taking Our Cities for God.”

God, it was suggested at the close of the meeting, endorsed the offensive strategy. Nearly all conferees laced their comments with something “that God told me,” but Dawson’s mother, Bible teacher Joy Dawson of Tujunga, said God had revealed seven principles to her at 4:30 a.m. that same day. The final point was the importance of being on the offense--”not waiting for the enemy to attack,” she said.

The demon-fighting strategists in Pasadena included several who had taken part in a series of spiritual warfare workshops last July in Manila at a major gathering on world evangelization. The Pasadena meeting featured executives Samuel Kamaleson and John Robb of World Vision International in Monrovia as well as representatives of various evangelical mission agencies.

Another conferee, Pastor Jack Hayford of the large Church on the Way in Van Nuys, told participants Monday that he has been interested since 1973 in “confrontation with the demonic.”

Hayford, a low-key Pentecostal preacher widely admired beyond his own Four Square Gospel denomination, is also the originator of the now quarterly “Love L.A.” prayer meetings.

About 1,000 pastors and church workers attended the fourth such prayer session Tuesday at Hollywood First Presbyterian Church.

The stated purposes are merely to pray for each other and for solutions to the city’s problems, but spokesmen acknowledged this week that “spiritual warfare” on behalf of Los Angeles is part of the reason for the three-hour meetings.

Prayers were said Tuesday morning for the homeless, drug addicts and abused children and against abortion, pornography and other societal ills, according the Rev. Scott Bauer, an associate pastor at Church on the Way. “Demons were certainly mentioned,” Bauer said, citing New Testament references.

But Bauer and the host pastor for the prayer meetings, the Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, emphasized in separate interviews that the main purpose was to make an interracial, interdenominational show of mutual support.

“The cliche, ‘We need each other,’ has lost its purely sentimental appeal and becomes a deeper, more profound reality,” said the Rev. Donn Moomaw, pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, in endorsing the prayer marathons.

But the cosmic, darkness-fighting dimension of the meetings was cited by other clergy, including Bishop Charles E. Blake of the Church of God in Christ, Raymundo Diaz Jr. of Angelus Temple and Dennis N. Baker, general director of the Conservative Baptist Assn. of Southern California.