GET REAL
Part 8
Chapter 10
“Testing the Spirits”
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.—1 John 4:1
“Believe not” in Greek means to “forbid the continuation of something already going on.” Literally, this verse reads, “stop believing every spirit.” You will remember that the reason John wrote this letter was that some of the believers in the churches were being carried away by the errors of the Gnostics, who taught that all matter and every material thing was evil and that only the spirit was good. By this reasoning, God could never have become flesh.
“Spirit” here is the Greek word pneuma, used to refer to “one in whom a spirit is manifest or embodied, hence one actuated (made to act or behave in a specific way) by a spirit, whether divine or demonic.” The first revelation we must see in John’s warning is that people can come under the influence of a demon and become that demon’s vessel, in this case, for the purpose of teaching false doctrine.
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”—1 Timothy 4:1-2
Notice that the doctrines of demons are transmitted by human beings who yield themselves to deceiving spirits [pneuma] and speak the demon’s lies to others. So, false teachers can be and often are actuated by demon spirits.
We must realize that some things that approach us in the form of flesh and blood may have a demonic spirit behind them. The Bible talks about seducing spirits, deceiving and lying spirits, false christs, and false prophets. Anything that offers to plug you into the supernatural world by any means other than the real Jesus is demonic in origin; it is a deception.
Virtually every time we encounter demonic activity in scripture, it is in the context of deception. Jesus called Satan the “Father of lies.”
“He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”—John 8:44, NIV
In writing to the church at Ephesus, Paul warned:
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”—Ephesians 6:12
And according to Jesus, more than anything else, these beings hate being disembodied or without a host:
“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes, and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”—Matthew 12:43-45, NASB
The Bible is also clear on what is not rooted in a demonic spirit, but rather in the flesh.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”—Galatians 5:19-21
If you’re dealing with any of these issues of the flesh, admit it and quit it! Repent of it and get your flesh under the control of the Holy Spirit.
When dealing in the arena of potential deception, John tells us to try the spirits. The Greek translated “try” here is “to put to the test for the purpose of approving, and finding whether the person put to the test meets the specifications laid down; to put one’s approval upon him.”
John is encouraging us to put teachers to the test to see whether the doctrines they espouse are sound, because many false prophets had already 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, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”—1 John 4:2-3
This is one of the tests John says will prove whether the Holy Spirit is actuating a teacher. It would for sure reveal whether or not they were dealing with a gnostic. If that teacher confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that is a proof of the fact that he is at least not a gnostic teacher.
Remember that the word “confess” is from a Greek word that means “to speak the same thing as another” or “to agree with another.”
Every teacher who agrees with the testimony of Scripture concerning Christ is not espousing gnosticism. However, that does not mean that everything they teach is accurate, but at least you know you are not dealing with a gnostic, antichrist spirit.
False teachers today will readily tell you Jesus is Lord and that He came in the flesh, yet still continue with false teaching of all kinds.
Conversely, says John, any teacher (New Age, Mormon, JW, Islam, Hindu, etc) who denies the truth that Christ has come in the flesh is not from God but is being actuated by the spirit of antichrist who is opposed to all that the Bible teaches regarding the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
For instance, the Mormons teach that the Son of God was the product of divine procreation—the firstborn of many spirit children made by heavenly parents.
They claim that there was a time when the Son was not, which steals away his Godness.
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The Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed John 1:1 to read very differently from the original Greek text.
Our Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
But the JW New World translation says,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”
In other words, the Word was one of many gods, not unique, not THE only begotten Son of God!
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Islam teaches that Jesus is neither God nor the Son of God. The Quran reads, “They (the Jews) did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but another was made to resemble him to them.”
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The New Age religion teaches that Jesus was spiritual teacher, a wise man, or even a mystical figure who had a deep connection with the divine. But certainly not the Savior of the world!
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Hindus don’t call the day Christ was crucified Good Friday because they believe his death probably led to another reincarnation.
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So doctrines of demons are abundantly available today, and each one of them destroys the redemptive truth of Christ Jesus and will carry you straight into hell.
“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”—1 John 4:4, NASB
John is commending the saints to whom he is writing because they have overcome these false teachers. The verb “overcome” is in the perfect tense, so we know this is speaking not only of a past completed victory, but also of the present state of being conquerors.
These believers were not taken in by the heresies of the false teachers but were abiding in a settled state of victory over them, their eyes wide open to the error of heresy and to its demonic source.
“They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.”—1 John 4:5
These false teachers have their source in the evil world system. In the Greek, this verse literally reads, “out of the world as a source, they speak.”
The demons of Satan are part of this world system and the source of all heresy, so the world of sinners accepts their teaching, for it recognizes its own language.
“We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”—1 John 4:6
The word translated “know” in this verse differs from earlier verses. Ginosko is used here, meaning progressive, experiential knowledge. John is referring to the saint who is growing in the knowledge of God.
A major theme throughout John’s letter is that men’s attitude toward the message of the incarnate Savior coming to earth in the flesh either ranks them on God’s side of truth or the world’s.
One commentator. writes, “John had felt the cold, indifferent, and hostile stare of the worldling as he preached Jesus.”
But it is entirely different when one preaches Christ to believers. There is a distinct recognition of truth and an “amen” that rises up out of a saved person. The lost person hears with the ear, but not with the understanding.