panoplia
Definition
Panoplia (Greek: πανοπλία, “full suit of armor”) is the New Testament term for a soldier’s complete battle equipment. The word appears twice in the New Testament in Ephesians 6 — verse 11 (panoplian tou theou, “the full armor of God”) and verse 13 — in the context of spiritual warfare. In this corpus George Warnock is the only author who develops panoplia as a technical term, with a significant theological argument: there are in the New Testament two full sets of armor — Satan’s (with which he governed the Adamic race) and God’s (with which the church wages its battle). At the cross Satan was stripped of his panoplia.
Use
George Warnock
Warnock’s key discovery is that panoplia in the New Testament refers to two parties. In Luke 11:21-22, Jesus describes how “one stronger than he” comes and takes away the panoplia of the fully armed strong man — a reference to the dismantling of Satan’s complete armor by Christ at the cross:
“When one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away his full armor (panoplia) in which he had trusted and distributes his plunder (Luke 11:22). Christ is the stronger one. Satan had a panoplia — a full set of armor with which he governed the Adamic race. That armor was taken from him at the cross.”
(Who Are You?, Chapter 5)
Col. 2:15 is for Warnock confirmation of this dismantling: Christ stripped the principalities and powers of their armor and displayed them openly:
“Christ disarmed (apekdusamenos) the principalities and powers — stripping them of their panoplia — and made a public display of them, triumphing over them (Col. 2:15). What Satan now possesses is only darkness and deception. The real power has been taken from him.”
(Who Are You?, Chapter 5)
The church in turn receives the panoplia tou theou — God’s full armor (Eph. 6:11,13) — as the equipment for its heavenly warfare:
“God has given His people a panoplia — His own full armor — so that they may stand against the schemes of the devil (Eph. 6:11). It is a complete exchange: Satan’s armor has been taken; God’s armor has been given. The battle continues, but the power dynamics have been definitively reversed.”
(Who Are You?, Chapter 6)