Mark Misusing Metaphors?

[from a comment to this post at Progression of Faith]

For whatever it's worth, I thought Driscoll's video was quite good, with a couple qualifications:
- his language is somewhat violent (e.g. his use of the word 'retarded' and the denial that Jesus is a 'gay hippie')
- he doesn't qualify the military metaphors the way the apostle Paul does when he uses them

While military metaphors are part and parcel of the Bible's vocabulary, in the New Testament, they almost are always subverted by their context. For example, Paul talks about 'spiritual warfare' because our 'enemies' are emphatically NOT 'flesh and blood'. In Revelation, even the triumphant Jesus's 'sword' is identified as 'the word' (rather than an actual weapon of descruction).
Ultimately, all of the military warfare of Scripture needs to be interpreted Christologically: it is in his death that Jesus disarms the powers, and by his sacrifice that he 'storms the gates of Hades'.
Language issues aside, this is the one qualification I wish Marc would have made in the video (the military graveyard was a little over the top in my view).
He obviously has more conservative views than I do on women in leadership, but his zeal can be admired in spite of its rough edges.