TOV writes: “Jericho Marches are being conducted by Catholics in order to influence the outcomes of certain situations. The marches are not New Age, but are they Biblical because a God-ordered march was conducted by the Israelites around the walls of Jericho? Do they have any precedent in the Church? Or are they of Protestant origin?”
For those who never heard of them, a Jericho March is a kind of Christian prayer walk that is modeled – sometimes quite literally – upon the biblical account in Joshua 6 when Israel marched around Jericho once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day, in order to make the walls fall. In modern versions, people are walking around buildings, neighborhoods, abortion clinics, government buildings, etc. while praying that some type of moral, social, or spiritual “stronghold” will fall.
Catholics do participate in Jericho Marches, mostly pro-life groups that march around abortion clinics or state capitols while praying for an end to abortion. This would be a perfectly acceptable type of Jericho March to participate in.
However, other forms of these marches are based in theologies that are not acceptable.
For example, keeping in mind that Joshua 6 describes a unique command given by God to Joshua, there is nowhere in Scripture where we are asked to walk around a building for seven days in order to obtain God’s intervention. This is an important point because some charismatic/Pentecostal spiritual warfare ministries teach the Jericho March as a kind of spiritual technique to be used to break stubborn spiritual strongholds when ordinary prayer and fasting have failed. They speak of “march instructions” modeled on Joshua, and refer to spiritual manuals that explicitly describe the march as a method of “tearing down demonic strongholds.”
This view comes perilously close to superstition. As we read in No. 2111 of the Catechism, “To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance…is to fall into superstition.”
In other words, there is nothing wrong with walking while praying, saying seven rosaries, or even meditating on the fall of Jericho as a biblical image of God’s power. But to believe that the performance of walking around a place seven times in imitation of the Israelites in the book of Joshua will result in the same miraculous outcome is to venture into the realm of superstition. And, in a sense, would be tempting God by taking it a step further and “putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed” (CCC 2119). It would be like saying, “We have performed the biblical action; now God should demonstrate His power by producing the result we expect.”
Christians have received no general command from Christ or the apostles to reproduce Joshua’s seven circuits to overcome spiritual strongholds – or anything else for that matter.
Another danger in a misguided Jericho march concerns the use of “spiritual mapping” which posits that particular demons or “principalities” control cities, neighborhoods, institutions, etc. and that Christians can conduct prayer operations to identify and overthrow these spirits. While there are diabolical inhabitants in these places, Catholics are urged to act within the confines of established spiritual authority over demons. The authority to exorcise public places belongs to the Church and can only be performed by an authorized priest. Acting outside of this authorization can be spiritually and even physically dangerous. Instead, one can always employ an ordinary precatory prayer such as, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on this community. Protect those who live here, convert hearts, deliver them from the grips of evil, and bring an end to the sins committed in this place.”
Catholics should not participate in any Jericho March where the organizers intend to: 1) circle something or some place seven times in order to release some kind of spiritual power; 2) claim to have received a new revelation instructing Christians to reproduce Joshua’s battle plan; 3) engage in spiritual mapping; 4) command territorial spirits; 5) or treat the march as a spiritual technique guaranteed to produce a particular result.
Instead, they should feel free to walk and pray or participate in any number of ancient Catholic prayer walk traditions, such as processing through cities and towns with the Blessed Sacrament; Rogation processions where participants pray for God’s protection from disasters and blessing upon fields; and the public recitation of the Rosary – all of which have over 2,000 years of proven success!
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