“Spiritual warfare” is the biggest problem facing the Presbyterian Church (USA) today, lifelong Presbyterian John Kaddis says.
John Kaddis
On both levels, nationally and locally, this is “a different weapon that the enemy is using to take over the church,” he said. “I do think that this is a big danger that is facing the denomination today.”
“The tactics that the enemy is using in this battle are taking the focus away from the Bible and trying to discredit the Bible as the absolute authority” for Presbyterians living in today’s society.
Kaddis, elected to the board of directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee in 2002, is well acquainted with spiritual warfare. The son of a Presbyterian pastor who ministered in Upper Egypt for 55 years, he said he “experienced the struggles, lived the struggles, the church is facing firsthand in an Islamic society.”
‘Second-class citizens’
“As a child in school, we definitely felt like we were second-class citizens,” Kaddis said. “However, the Lord helped my parents instill in me that even though we Christians are different, may be looked upon as such, we definitely have the experience of being in covenant, of being children of the Lord.”
His father ministered in Nag Hammadi for 30 years and, when John was 12, the family moved to another church in Kous, 80 miles south, where his father ministered for another 25 years.
It was during this time, when he was in his late teens, Kaddis said, that “I came to a saving faith in the Lord.”
Immigrated to U.S.
In 1972, Kaddis began his medical studies at Assiut Medical School, where he received his M.D. degree in 1980. In 1983, he immigrated to the United States to escape the persecution in Egypt.
“My older brother, who also was persecuted, earlier had immigrated to the United States. He started talking to us to come here. We prayed, and the Lord just opened the door.”
Kaddis, who also completed postgraduate studies in preventive medicine at California State University in 1985, is a physician with the Child Lead Poison Protection Program for the Los Angeles County Department of Health. He and his wife Jenneke have three children: Andrew, 12; Liza, 9; and Stephen, 3. They live in Downey, Calif., where they are members of Downey Presbyterian Church.
He has been an ordained elder since 1990, a Sunday school teacher and has been involved in Bible study and the Mission Committee, including short-term mission activities. He also is a member of the board of the Samaritan Medical Foundation, which is seeking to build a clinic in southern Egypt.
Spiritual warfare
Kaddis sees “a big difference” between the spiritual warfare in the PCUSA and what he experienced in Egypt. “The challenges in Egypt for Christians were to just face the persecution from the Muslims,” he said. In the church, the challenge is to “actually face the liberal theology and those who would like to take the church all the way to the left.”
“It’s really a tough challenge for us as individuals,” Kaddis said. “Sometimes we need to just face the enemy and this kind of tactic by protecting the church from the heresies and doing what we are supposed to do, as the Lord calls us to work in the fields.
“We really have a responsibility of putting that issue in our prayers on a daily basis,” he said, asking “for the Lord to protect us from the heresies and the foreign teachings.”
That is one of the reasons he joined the board of directors of the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Kaddis said, because the ministry “is a tool that is being used by the Lord to inform the people who otherwise are not informed about what’s going on. It encourages them to pray and to participate in whatever they can to bring back the truth to the church.”
Kaddis is no longer a member of the Presbyterian Lay Committee's board of directors.