Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad
Review: The value of this book is that it gives a fair amount of information on spiritual warfare in a small package. If you can get the amount you way-overpaid for such a small book and if you don't have the time to read a more in-depth treatment of the subject this is a good book to read on spiritual warfare. I mention the high price because it is one of the new genre of itty bitty books that has hit the shelves ever since the Prayer of Jabez. All of these books are small and are over-priced. However, for those who have limited time some of these books (especially C. J. Mahaney's book on the Cross) are well worth reading. Pricing aside, this book seeks to counter the modern deliverance model of spiritual warfare with the biblical discipleship model of spiritual warfare. To do this, Hanegraaff tells a few stories of some of the well known fakes and frauds in the deliverance industry and then turns his attention to exegeting the spiritual armor of Ephesians 6. As regards the spiritual fakes and frauds he points out that modern deliverance warfare takes its cues from dubious movies and books like the Exorcist and Hostage to the Devil by Malachi Martin. He also addresses the fabrications of people like John Todd, Mike Warnke and Loren Cunningham. Although all three were found to be frauds they got the deliverance train moving with enough momentum that the movement has been able to sustain itself without them. Hanegraaff correctly points out that the clearest passage in the Bible dealing with spiritual warfare - Ephesians 6 - does not follow the deliverance model. In this biblical model one does not address Satan and demons, one addresses God and one's walk with God. He makes the point that the deliverance model of spiritual warfare dovetails nicely with modern irresponsibility. The great thing about the deliverance model is that you are not responsible for your own sin - you can plead the Flip Wilson line - "the devil made me do it." Ephesians 6, on the contrary makes the individual responsible for his actions, not the devil. There are some things I wish he had said in his discussion about the pieces of armor, but with it being such a short book, its hard to fault him for that. You can only say so much in such a short space. Specifically I would have liked to seen the book give greater emphasis to the fact that all of the pieces of armor are things we have in Christ, they are not things we try to achieve. In other words, we rest in Christ's righteousness, we don't try to be righteousness. This is touched on, I just would have liked to seen it emphasized more. Overall, not a bad book for such a short book.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing little book
Review: When I opened the box that "The Covering" was shipped in, my first thought was that from now on I would check the product details for the size of the book and the number of pages it contained before purchasing it. Being an optimist by nature, I hoped I was not prejudging this "Jabez"-sized book by it's cover. Opening it, I found that the book was about "The Full Armor of God" which is a topic that has been beaten to death by nearly every radio preacher in the past year. Optimistically, I hoped Hank would shed new light on the subject. Hank did--I learned that Shaq played basketball poorly when his toe hurt. Actually the same thing happened to Calvin Hill during the hayday of the Dallas Cowboys, but that observation did not need to take up space in such a short book. Reading further, Hank could not resist denegrating other writers' views on scripture. Being an infrequent listener to his radio show, it was not a surprise to me that he would attack other points-of-view in his usual Pharaseic style. It might have been appropriate in a book of literary criticism, but I suspect it was filler for a book that was lacking in substance. Last, Hank encouraged readers to memorize all the biblical passages they could. He even explained some memory tricks for remembering which piece of armor goes with which spiritual trait. I have always viewed memorizing scripture as a way to sound authoritative without having to develop an understanding of the "big picture". In summary, I feel I was [cheated], and the book was a minor disappointment. I would have given it one star, except there will be times where I will want to find a certain biblical passage, and it is much easier to look in this tiny book than in the entire New Testament.
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