SPOTLIGHT on Ministry Conference,
9/10 October 2012,
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Dr. John W. Kleinig — Adelaide, Australia
1. Introduction to Spiritual Warfare in Lutheran Perspective
John Kleinig opens a 24-hour DOXOLOGY intensive on spiritual warfare by arguing that the ministry of deliverance belongs to the core of Christ’s mission, not the fringes of church life. He frames the entire domain around three Lutheran commitments: authority derives from Christ alone, knowledge and power are given only on a need-to-minister basis, and the primary battleground is the conscience. Satan’s chief tactic, Kleinig contends, is to destroy the good conscience given in baptism, and Luther’s treatise against the enthusiasts supplies the controlling insight: the devil is the enemy of God’s order.
Eight lectures by Dr. John Kleinig. Watch each with its full transcript:
1. Introduction to Spiritual Warfare in Lutheran Perspective
John Kleinig opens a 24-hour DOXOLOGY intensive on spiritual warfare by arguing that the ministry of deliverance belongs to the core of Christ’s mission, not the fringes of church life. He frames the entire domain around three Lutheran commitments: authority derives from Christ alone, knowledge and power are given only on a need-to-minister basis, and the primary battleground is the conscience. Satan’s chief tactic, Kleinig contends, is to destroy the good conscience given in baptism, and Luther’s treatise against the enthusiasts supplies the controlling insight: the devil is the enemy of God’s order. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
2. The Hidden Spiritual Battle
Kleinig opens with six pastoral cases, including haunted dwellings, post-baptism demonic harassment, ritual sexual abuse, and pornography addiction among clergy, then traces the sociological conditions (the sexual revolution, mass apostasy, and the arrival of non-Christian religions in Australia) that have breached Luther’s three protective orders of society. He reads Revelation 12 as a cosmic map of the battle, with Christ’s ascension evicting Satan to earth and leaving the faithful as his primary target, and reads Mark 1:21-28 as the congregational paradigm in which Christ’s authoritative word exposes and dislodges unclean spirits. Kleinig concludes that the divine service, from Invocation through Benediction, is the ordinary and sufficient form of deliverance ministry, not an optional extra. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
3. The Spiritual Authority of Pastors
John Kleinig argues from Luke 10:17-20 and Mark 1 that pastoral authority in deliverance ministry is delegated power received from Christ, not personal power, and that preaching, healing, and casting out demons are three aspects of a single ministry. The Lutheran Office of the Keys, including baptism, absolution, preaching, and Table admission, is the proper framework for binding and loosing demonic power. The session closes with practical guidance on vocation as the assigned sphere of spiritual warfare, the danger of seeking spiritual glory, and the two-by-two pattern for household blessings. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
4. The Strategies of the Devil
John Kleinig presents a structured account of how Satan operates against Christians and their pastors, drawing from Scripture and Luther rather than experience. The lecture examines Satan’s biblical titles (prosecutor, slanderer, murderer, tempter) as diagnostic tools, then identifies three levels of attack: temptation to sin, accusation of believers through guilt and through anger that destroys congregational love, and assault on pastoral vocation through failure and discouragement. Kleinig closes with Luther’s claim that demonic attack signals God’s approval, a discussion of oppression, obsession, and possession as stages of bondage, and a Q&A on addiction and the limits of pastoral competence. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
5. The Ministry of Deliverance
John Kleinig argues that demonic attack follows impurity, and that the Ten Commandments function as a diagnostic tool for locating spiritual vulnerability, distinguishing sins committed and sins suffered. He rejects the evangelical doctrine of intergenerational soul ties as a distortion of original sin and Lutheran order, then grounds deliverance in Colossians 1:13-14 and Hebrews 2:14-15. The session closes with a case study on Holy Communion as the primary means of cleansing from sexual abuse. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
6. God-given Weapons for the Ministry of Deliverance
John Kleinig works through 2 Corinthians 10 and Ephesians 6 to identify the four God-given resources pastors carry into the ministry of deliverance: the holy name of Jesus, the word of God, intercessory prayer (centered on the Lord’s Prayer), and the blood of Christ received in Holy Communion. He argues that ordinary preaching, baptism, and the divine service are where deliverance ministry actually happens, and he closes with six practical rules for pastoral work in this area. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
7. New Testament Teaching on Deliverance from Demons
John Kleinig surveys New Testament demonology and the five accounts of Jesus casting out demons, examining why Lutheran pastors avoid these texts and what the church loses when they do. He argues that casting out demons and preaching the gospel are two sides of the same ministry of the Word, grounded in the inseparability of Word and Spirit. The session works through Greek terminology (epiteimao, epitasso), the liturgical and pagan settings of the exorcism accounts, the role of prayer, and the eschatological significance of each act of deliverance as a sign that the kingdom of God has arrived. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →
8. Lutheran Teaching and Practice of Deliverance from Demons
John Kleinig surveys Lutheran deliverance practice from Luther and Bugenhagen’s documented exorcism cases (1530-1546) through contemporary Australian Lutheran rites, arguing that the rite centers on corporate pastoral prayer, contempt for the devil rather than ceremony, and the laying on of hands with creed and Lord’s Prayer. He grounds deliverance ministry in baptism and original sin, defends the baptismal rebuke and renunciation against Calvinist objections (tracing Paul Gerhardt’s dismissal over this), and presents the two-category distinction between spiritual possession (every unbaptized person) and physical possession. Luther’s Large Catechism is named a lay handbook for spiritual warfare. Watch the lecture and read the transcript →