But Test the Spirits

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:1-6 ESV)

Let’s define “Prophet” here. A prophet is a person gifted at expositing divine truth; one who speaks forth by the inspiration of God. A prophet is someone inspired by God to forthtell the Word of God – not in predicting the future, but in explaining the present, encouraging and strengthening the church. A prophet declares the mind (message) of God; speaks forth his message for a particular situation. And prophecy is the gift of communicating and enforcing revealed truth. It means “A message from God” in its simplest form. And to prophesy is to proclaim (preach) a message from God (various sources).

*I purposefully did not include the prophet who foretells the future, not for this particular discussion, but some of them do foretell the future.

So, just because someone calls himself (or herself) a prophet of God, or a preacher of God’s Word, that does not mean that the person truly is a messenger of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or that what he is proclaiming is literally biblical truth. And this is why we must test all people who proclaim to be bringing us messages from God, and/or from the Scriptures, to make sure that what they are proclaiming as truth really is the truth of what the Scriptures teach, in full context. 

Now we have to be careful in interpreting Scripture because our translations do not always capture the original meaning of the words intended in the Scriptures. And so this is why we must read Scriptures in their context and then compare Scripture with Scripture because all New Covenant teachings should agree with one another. So, when this says that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, we need to think carefully about that in relationship to other Scriptures.

For in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 we read that false apostles disguise themselves as apostles of Christ and as servants of righteousness. And in Matthew 7:15-23 we read that we are to beware of false prophets, who come to us in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And then we read in 2 Peter 2 about false prophets and teachers who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them. And we read in 1 Timothy 1:3-7 and 1 Timothy 6:3-10 about certain persons who teach a different doctrine in disagreement with the words of Jesus.

[Matt 7:15-23; Matt 24:11-24; Lu 6:26; John 10:1-15; 2 Co 11:13-15; Php 3:2; 1 Tim 1:3-7; 1 Tim 6:3-10; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:3-23] 

So, based upon these Scriptures, and others like them, these particular false prophets and teachers appear to be ones who most likely do publicly confess with their lips that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. They would have to in order to disguise themselves as servants of righteousness and in order to make themselves appear as God’s sheep, and in order to secretly bring in destructive heresies. For they have to first of all appear as the “real deal” and as fellow Christians in order to be able to deceive the people.

So, just saying that many false prophets and preachers and teachers make public confessions that appear to be in line with true biblical doctrine so that they gain the trust of the people. And then they begin slowly to secretly introduce destructive heresies into their teachings to where the naïve and the unsuspecting don’t even pick up on the twists in what they are teaching. So testing the spirits isn’t always easy to do, for much deception that is taking place today is in the form of misimpressions (indirect lies).

A lot of false teachers will have truth in their statements of faith, but in practice and in reality they deter from some of those truths. Or they will, in writing, include a passage of Scripture so that it appears that what they are teaching is biblical but while they never refer to the Scripture but they teach something else. But it gives the impression that they are being biblical. So you can’t always go by what is obvious or on the surface, because that is not where most of the deception lies. For the lies are hidden from plain sight.

So, even if someone proclaims the truth of the gospel, it doesn’t mean that the person is a true follower of Christ or that he really believes and puts into practice what he claims to believe. It just means that he has a pretty good understanding of what the Scriptures actually teach, which false prophets, to be believable, generally speaking, need to have in order to do a good job at twisting the Scriptures in such a way as to be able to deceive many people. Even Satan knows the Scriptures and can quote them accurately.

Now this word “confess” is not just a verbal declaration of something, but it means to be in full agreement with God, to speak to the same conclusion as God, and to be in alignment with God. So this goes beyond just words spoken to words put into practice. So here we have to look beyond just a verbal confession of Christ to all other words spoken in the name of Jesus and in the name of truth and the Scriptures. For so much deception is not on an obvious and surface level, but it is those subliminal messages beneath.

For just like I mentioned earlier, one of their tricks is to insert Scripture verses to make it look as though what they are teaching is from the Scriptures but they may not even refer to the Scriptures, at all, or they may gloss over them and move quickly on to something else, or they may teach them out of context and twist them to say what the Scriptures do not teach if taught in context. And even some highly respected theologians have made it their practice to teach doctrine from passages out of their context.

And then notice with me what it says further into this passage. “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.” And this is really where you can test their words. Are they teaching the forsaking of our sins and holy living and being pleasing to God and walking in obedience to our Lord? Or are they giving the impression that your sins no longer matter to God and so you can keep on in deliberate and habitual sin but it won’t impact your eternal security?

And then pay attention to how they behave and the kinds of things that they talk about when they are not “preaching.” And if you are someone who is teaching what Jesus and his NT apostles taught, do they agree with you or disagree? And I am assuming here that you, Christian, are indeed teaching the Scriptures in their appropriate context in accord with the Scriptures as a whole and that you are not someone who is teaching what is false and what is deceptive and what is leading other people astray. If so, you are rare.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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