A belief held by many Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians and promoted by Kingdom Now theology, Territorial Spirits are thought to be demons who rule over certain geographical areas in the world. Adherents believe that any Christian activity (such as evangelism or Church planting) requires the direct work of prayer in order to engage these spirits in spiritual warfare. Until these demons are defeated, God's work in the area cannot continue.

This belief has been promoted by the popularity of the Christian novel This Present Darkness, as well as by the ministry of C Peter Wagner.

Many Christians, including those from within the Charismatic and Pentecostal movement, argue that such a belief is a pagan concept and is unbiblical. Nevertheless, it is an increasingly popular belief.

Theological rationale

Most of the proponents of Territorial Spirits argue that the belief is backed up implicitly in the Christian Bible, and explicitly in their experience. While no theology of demonic territoriality can be clearly identified in the Bible, proponents will point out that their experience of the phenomenon is not rejected outright either (see Daniel 10:13).

At the heart of this idea is that the experience of the Christian must somehow be fused together with Biblical theology. The argument is that Christians who stand solely upon the Bible as their basis of authority are, firstly, guilty of arrogance because they refuse to acknowledge the clear evidence of territorial demonic behaviour and, secondly, because the Bible itself would see such an attitude as being deficient.

Opponents to this belief will argue, however, that since the Scriptures contain enough information for the Christian "to be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17), then any information that God does not reveal in the Bible is therefore knowledge that Christians do not need in order to live an effective Christian life. While Satan and demons are mentioned in the Bible, their exact work and relationship to the spiritual world is never clearly spelt out. The belief in Territorial Spirits is not a belief that is explicitly mentioned in the Bible, so therefore many Christians who hold to this basis of authority would reject this teaching as being, at best, unhelpful and, at worst, heterodoxy.

Opponents to this belief would also argue that churches and individuals that hold to this teaching are more likely to be influenced by "false teaching" in other areas of the Christian faith, and that any qualitative research into the official teachings of these churches would confirm that a link exists between the adherence to a belief in Territorial Spirits and adherence to other teachings that are considered explicitly unbiblical.

External links

• Apologetics Index (Contra) (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s00.html#spirits)