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The week before the 9/11 tragedy over two years ago, the Global
Leadership Team of YWAM was meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. On the very
full agenda was an item concerning the 2004 Olympic Games, to be
held in Athens, Greece. We expected to spend maybe 15 minutes
appointing an outreach director and committee and move on to other
pressing business. So we thought.
Suddenly, we somehow found
ourselves - forty or so leaders from all around the world - being
dragged into an intense and emotional three-hour season of prayer
for Greece and her role among the nations throughout history. A
strong sense prevailed that we were in some way confronting a
deeply-entrenched spiritual power - was this the Prince of Greece
mentioned in Daniel 10:20? Whatever it was, our prayers expressed an
unfolding understanding of Greece's pivotal role not only in the
spiritual history of the ancient Mediterranean world and of our
western world, but that Greek thought revived through the
Enlightenment continued to shape contemporary education and
philosophy.
What power was at work to split Europe for a
whole millennium along the spiritual fault line we contemplated last
week? While the Greek language had been the chosen vehicle for the
New Testament, and Greek had been the first foreign culture into
which the church was transplanted, Greek thinking had continued to
bring non-biblical distortions to theology and ecclesiology in all
sorts of church traditions.
Several prayers referred to the
encounter with Greek authorities when leaders from YWAM's first
ship, the Anastasis, were charged with proselytism back in 1986.
What kind of unfinished business remained for us back in that land?
Despite the literal thousands of YWAMers who had travelled through
Greece on outreach, the numbers of Greeks who had attended a DTS, or
who had joined staff, we could probably count on two
hands!
What would these Olympics stir up in the spirit world?
If we could conclude anything from this unplanned prayer marathon,
it was that some serious prayer preparation was needed. We agreed to
hold a prayer summit in Greece prior to the Games to seek our God
for further understanding and preparation of mind and heart. This we
held in October in the ancient spiritual centre of Delphi, the seat
of the famous Delphi oracle (see WW, 23 June 2003: NAVEL-GAZING
IN GREECE ). High on the hillsides overlooking a magnificent
valley spilling out towards the Corinthian Gulf, Delphi was
considered the pagan centre of the world. Here the temple of Apollo,
the god of light and music, (also known as Phevos), was home for the
oracle. A short distance down the hillside are the remaining ruins
of the temple of Athena, goddess of wisdom and later the patron of
the city of Athens. Is it coincidence that the official ATHENS 2004
mascots are none other than these two Olympian deities, Phevos and
Athena? "Their creation was inspired by an ancient Greek doll and
their names are linked to Ancient Greece, yet the two siblings are
children of modern times," reads the official olympic website -
http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/athens/index_uk.asp. "Phevos and
Athena represent the link between Greek history and the modern
Olympic Games. "
FIRST FRUITS
John Dawson, our new
YWAM International president, and well-known prophetess Cindy
Jacobs, joined outreach director Matt Nocus and myself, along with
50 others from 20 nations in the European Cultural Centre in Delphi
for three days of prayer and teaching. A giant contorted sculpture
entitled "Idolatry" greeted us each day outside the centre, where no
Christian event had ever been held before.
We prayed over
all the islands and the five Olympic centres where outreach teams
will be active next summer. Cindy spoke out very encouraging
prophecies about the new things God would do in Greece, changing the
spiritual environment, and reaching into the spheres of government.
As a sort of first fruits of this word, an influential member of the
Delphi civic community became a believer through the witness of the
participants during the summit. John drew parallels with the
situation facing Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, when his worship
choir led the way into battle.
But what deeply impacted me
from this event, as I shared some historical background to Greek
contributions to world history, is how all-pervasive this influence
has been - throughout the centuries from the Patristic and Byzantine
eras, to the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, up to our Modern
and Post-modern times; and throughout the various life-spheres of
government, education, medicine, culture, language, philosophy and
ethics.
Like a cameleon, this Greek spirit has been hugely
influential in each of the major worldview categories, including
polytheism (mythology), atheism (rationalistic philosophy), theism
(dualistic theology and ecclesiology, influencing Orthodox,
Catholic, Protestant and even evangelical traditions), and pantheism
(gnosticism).
What is it in the Greek spirit that has
enabled it to survive and adapt so powerfully to new seasons of
church history, disguising itself as a new orthodoxy and turning
dynamic movement into entrenched institution? What is it that we
will encounter this coming summer? What was it that the Spirit of
God was drawing us into prayer for in Nairobi and Delphi?
This is not a battle we looked for. But neither is it a
confrontation we can take lightly - nor easily retreat
from.
Let's explore this more next week.
Till
then,
Jeff Fountain
YWAM
Europe
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