I hope that everyone has had a good week. It's been so dry where I live that we've been moved up to exceptional draught status. This weekend we're supposed to finally get some substantial rain. We need the rain, I just hope we don't get any severe weather.
I talked about unanswered prayer last week as we finished our examination of I John chapter 3. As I said last week, it's often difficult to understand why our prayers go unanswered. It's just something we have to accept and still believe and trust in the goodness of God. It's important to remember that God is working out all things for our good. God is working out all things for the fulfillment of His ultimate plane for the universe.
We now move into chapter 4 and the Apostle John's discussion about testing the spirits to see if they are from God.
John begins in verse 1 by stating, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
I believe that what John is speaking about here is the spirit of truth versus the spirit of error. John is warning his readers not to simply believe someone because he says that he has a word or prophecy from the Lord. Not everyone who claims to be speaking for the Lord is really doing that. As John points out, there are many false doctrines. That was certainly true in John's day. In John's time, some were teaching that Jesus had not come in the flesh. Others taught a type of antinomianism that said that since Christians were under grace they could sin freely knowing they were forgiven. Still others taught that believers were still obligated to follow the Old Testament ritual law in order to be accepted by God. Paul dealt with this problem extensively in the epistle to the Galatians.
Of course, as history progressed, more and more false teaching arose. Arianism was one of the greatest threats to the doctrinal integrity of the church. Also, the church faced heretical movements such as Donatism, Docetism and Apollinarianism.
False teachings are among us to a great extent right down to our present day. One of the main features of false teachers is that they use the same theological terms as orthodox Christians, but they place different meanings into the term. They pour there false beliefs into familiar terminology.
For instance, the Jehovah's Witnesses will speak about Jesus, but in their belief, Jesus is not equal with the Father. They have an erroneous belief concerning the deity of Christ. In fact, there beliefs about Jesus are similar to the ancient Arian heresy.
John talks about testing whether or not a person or group is really speaking the true doctrine. There are two things I've found that are almost always present in teachings that are in error.
First of all, most false teachers want to add to the Bible. For instance, false teachers may accept the Bible as authoritative, but they then want to add something else. The Bible isn't sufficient. Many times, another book is added to the Bible such as the Book of Mormon.
Many of my ancestors were members of the Swedenborgian Church. This church accepts the Bible. However, you can't really understand the Bible, they believe, without the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Bible is not sufficient.
Others will say that additional revelations through prophecy or words of wisdom are a continuing revelation equal with Scripture.
The biggest mark of a cult or false teaching is what they do with Jesus. John focuses on the false doctrine that was present in his day. John says that anyone who teaches that Jesus did not come in the flesh is teaching false doctrine.
Most cults and false teachers in some way diminish the person and work of Jesus Christ. Some will say that Jesus is the Son of God, but He is not equal with God. Many will claim that Jesus was just a man who was adopted by God at the time of baptism.
Probably the greatest false teaching diminishes what Jesus did on the cross. The Bible is clear that Jesus died for our sins. Jesus paid it all. He accomplished all that is is necessary for our salvation by His death and resurrection.
False teachers will teach Jesus plus. They will say you need Jesus plus good works, or Jesus plus some other ritual. In their opinion, Jesus isn't sufficient.
When judging the truth of a particular teaching, the most important thing that we can do is to test how a teaching measures up with what is revealed in Scripture.
If we are student's of God's Word, we will become so familiar with the truth that we will be able with the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to determine truth from error.
We need to be like the Bereans. When they heard the teachings of Paul, they searched the Scriptures diligently in order to see if the things that Paul taught were true.
If you don't have a regular practice of reading and studying the Bible, I urge you to begin today. Studying church history is also very helpful. Many of the same doctrinal errors the church faces today have occurred at various times throughout the history of the church.
May God bless you this week. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment