Spiritual warfare is a real part of the human experience, and the Bible explicitly details how events in the spiritual realm affect people.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms,” Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) reads, with verse 13 continuing: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
The question isn’t if people will experience spiritual warfare; it’s when. A new survey from the American Bible Society (ABS) explores what Americans believe about spiritual warfare, specifically measuring how many people believe they have faced such attacks (watch CBN’s documentary “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons” today).
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Dr. John Plake, editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible series and chief innovation officer at ABS, told CBN News that around 1-in-4 Americans report facing spiritual warfare.
“We saw real difference here across levels of faith participation,” he said. “About a fourth — 26% — of American adults say they’ve had that experience.”
He continued, “[Fifty-eight percent] of practicing Christians would agree with that statement, casual Christians, 28%, nominal Christians, 24%, and then non-Christians, 10%.”
The topic itself is quite fascinating, as Plake said it’s sometimes hard to quantify what a spiritual attack denotes. And since there’s not “a lot of deep data” there’s not qualitative information to help understand what respondents believe a spiritual attack looked like or entailed.
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Reprinted with permission from faithwire.com. Copyright © 2026 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
