First, the Bible does indeed teach that there are spiritual powers at work in our world, affecting organisations and cultures as well as individuals. Second, as citizens of heaven we must exercise great discernment so that we can stand against these powers. ‘What you are up against, in being saved’, says the eminent theologian Stanley Hauerwas, ‘is not simply your personal faults and foibles, your petty temptations and peccadilloes:
