Colossians 2:15
Colossians 2:1515And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
JWs cite this verse as evidence that Christ's death triumphed over hostile spiritual powers. The verse is generally received without controversy. The Watchtower's broader demonology, however, frames Satan as functionally ubiquitous behind doubts and worldly influence — a framing that is in tension with the decisively-defeated picture this verse paints.
Paul's image is forensic and military: at the cross Christ stripped the hostile rulers and authorities, exposed them publicly, and led them in a triumphal procession — like a Roman general displaying conquered enemies. Pair with ("through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil") and ("greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world"). The doorstep insight is the corrective to functional Satan inflation: scripture's posture toward Satan is vigilance plus victory — ("be sober-minded; be watchful") immediately followed by 5:9 ("resist him, firm in your faith") and grounded in this verse's already-accomplished defeat. A creature whose authorities have been "stripped bare" and publicly exhibited is not a near-divine ubiquity behind every doubt; he is a real but bounded enemy whom Christ has already conquered.
NWT renders "He has stripped the governments and the authorities bare and has publicly exhibited them as conquered, leading them in a triumphal procession by means of it". The "stripped bare" rendering reflects one defensible reading of the Greek apekdusamenos but obscures the older and more common rendering "disarmed" (BSB, ESV, NIV) which captures the military-victory image more clearly. The "governments and authorities" rendering for archas kai exousias is also distinctive — most translations preserve "rulers and authorities", which keeps the spiritual-powers referent visible. The doctrinal effect is mild rather than substantive: the verse's victory message is preserved but the imagery is recast in a less standard vocabulary.