Transcript & Slides: Test the Spirits (1 John 4:1-6)

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Test the Spirits (1 John 4:1-6)
By David Feddes

We continue listening to God’s Word in John’s first epistle, and today we’re going to look at 1 John 4:1-6.

There’s a story about John that’s told by Irenaeus, who had learned it from Polycarp. Polycarp had been a disciple of John, so there was a generation or two between when it happened and when the story was told. The story is that John went one day to the public baths to get clean, and when he walked into the building, he saw a man named Cerinthus there. As soon as he saw him, he said, “Let’s fly! Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is in the bathhouse.” That was how much he detested the errors that were leading people astray.

Cerinthus was a man who taught that Jesus was the natural offspring of Mary and Joseph, that there was no virgin birth. Cerinthus claimed that all of this was told to him by an angel. He said Jesus was just the natural offspring of Mary and Joseph, but when Jesus was baptized, then the Christ Spirit came down from heaven and rested on Jesus the man, enabling him to do amazing things. But then the Christ Spirit departed from Jesus before his crucifixion, and Jesus the man was just a man again. That was the teaching Cerinthus was spreading around, and it was a teaching that horrified the apostle John, who had known Jesus personally, walked with him, and had seen the risen Christ. John knew that Jesus and Christ were not two separate things—that Jesus and Christ are one, that the divine Spirit and Christ are one.

Cerinthus was just one example of the kind of teacher and teaching that was being spread around. The gospel of Jesus Christ was such good news and had such a transforming impact for so many people that not long behind that gospel came Satan, the counterfeiter, to try to keep people from the true Christ, from the real Jesus.

When John writes, he gives various tests of whether we belong to Jesus, and we looked at that in a previous message about being born of God. Some of the tests of being born of God are what you believe, whether you love, whether you are obedient to God’s commands, whether you are different from the world, and whether you are overcoming the world’s impact on you. At the very end of chapter 3, John says, “We know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us” (1 John 3:24).

So there are different kinds of tests, but ultimately the Holy Spirit of God himself moves into our lives and our hearts and gives us a conviction of the reality of Jesus and of his life within us. Later, in chapter 4, John says, “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13). The very core of Christianity is to have a new life inside you, to be born again by the Spirit of God, and to have the Holy Spirit of God living in you.

But the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit out there. So right after John says, “We know it by the Spirit he gave us,” the very next thing he says is, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1).

John is echoing the Master, Jesus, when he said, “Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). John tells us that it is important and wonderful that God gives us his Spirit, but we must remember there are other spirits out there. Behind every prophet there is a spirit, and behind every spirit there is either God or the devil. Don’t assume that everything spiritual or supernatural comes from God. There are other supernatural powers at work in the world.

When we hear John’s call to test the spirits, there are a variety of ways we might think to determine whether a spirit is from God. There are, however, a number of tests people may try that aren’t sufficient. One is this: “Am I having a supernatural experience? Did I have a vision? Was I able to speak in tongues or in other languages? Did I see a mighty healing? Was I slain in the Spirit—overcome so much that I toppled over?”

A variety of supernatural experiences can be appealed to as proof that the Spirit of God is at work, and sometimes when the Spirit of God is at work, such things do happen. There is such a thing as visions. There are people who have been led to Christ by a vision of Christ and then by hearing the gospel. There are Christians who have experienced supernatural phenomena where it really was the Spirit of God at work—but not always.

If you are aware of how the spiritual and supernatural realms work, you know there are other people who exhibit similar phenomena in their lives. The Bible itself says that when the final antichrist comes, he will do stupendous miracles that would lead the whole world astray (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10). You could especially see that happening in a highly secularized situation where something undeniably supernatural suddenly occurs—a mighty miracle worker doing astonishing things. Can you imagine how many people would fall for that? But supernatural experiences are not the ultimate way to test the spirits. They can come from God, or they can come from other sources too.

Another test people might use is emotional: “I know I have the Spirit of God because I am filled with excitement. I’ve been deeply moved in my feelings and emotions. I’m really sincere about this.” Of course, where the Spirit of God is at work, there will be excitement about the Lord Jesus Christ, deep feelings of sorrow over sin, and joy in the Holy Spirit. You will be sincere and genuine. But that doesn’t mean that everybody who is excited, whose emotions are stirred, and who feels very sincere about what they believe is actually filled with the Spirit of God. That kind of emotion can accompany the Holy Spirit—but also other spirits.

Some folks have supernatural experiences where they feel a sense of oneness with the universe or an enormous tranquility and inner peace. The Spirit of God can indeed give a sense of oneness with God’s people, a sense of connection with the wonderful world God has made, and a great sense of peace. But there are counterfeit spirits that give similar experiences.

Sometimes people say, “I’ve had a spiritual transformation. I can now control urges I used to be unable to control. When I try to influence others, I’m more persuasive than I used to be. The goals I set, I can now achieve. It must be the Spirit of God.” Where the Spirit of God is at work, there is self-control, inner transformation, and empowerment to do things you couldn’t do before—but that alone doesn’t prove the power is from God. Other spirits can give you power, self-control, and even help you get what you want.

I knew a man who prayed to God for a job and didn’t get it. He decided to try a different route—he prayed to Satan and had a job within a week. It worked. Not every spirit that gives you what you want is from God. He had problems after that and eventually came to the Lord again and was freed from that. But that story shows that not every spirit that produces results is from God.

There are also people with high goals and lofty ideals. Sometimes they form secret societies or lodges with oaths and rituals, and they have a sense of commitment to noble causes. Of course, Christians filled with the Spirit of God ought to have high ideals and goals—but that again is not, in itself, a sufficient test of whether it’s the Spirit of God at work.

A final inadequate test is whether nice things are said about Jesus. Most people say nice things about Jesus—just not nice enough. They fall far short of who Jesus really is. They don’t say he’s a fake or a phony or a loser—though some have—but they might say, “Jesus was a great man. He had wonderful insights. I really like the impact he had on history.” That’s not proof that the spirit behind those words is from God.

So those are some of the tests we often use to judge the genuineness of our own faith or someone else’s faith. As I’ve said, all these things could be characteristics of the real work of the Spirit of God, but they are not the decisive marks of the Spirit’s work. So what does John say?

¹ Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. (1 John 4:1-6)

So how do we recognize God’s Spirit? How do we know that a spirit is really from God? John says the core test is belief in Jesus. As you read this text and the rest of 1 John, you see that God’s Spirit reveals Jesus as the true God who became human to be our sacrifice and our Savior. Any spirit that says Jesus is the true and living God, that he became human and took on flesh and blood, that he did so to be the sacrifice for our sins, that he rose again to give us eternal life and to be our Savior—that spirit is from God. Any spirit that says different things about Jesus is not from God.

Another mark of recognizing God’s Spirit is apostolic fellowship. John says, “Whoever knows God listens to us,” and by that he means the apostles. He is saying that God’s Spirit leads us to the book he inspired—the writings of the apostles—and to the body he indwells, which is the church: the apostolic church and the apostolic book. Those who reject the book—the New Testament written by the apostles, as well as the Old Testament Scriptures—are showing that they are not listening to the book that God’s Spirit inspired. “Those who have God’s Spirit listen to us,” says John. Who is “us”? He began his letter by saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:1–2).

John is saying, “I was there. I heard Jesus. I saw him. I touched him. I know who he is. I know what he did. And so do my fellow apostles.” Those who really know this Jesus and who have the Spirit of God listen to the apostles. Those who worship a different Jesus and present a different Jesus do not have the Spirit of God. John says, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us” (1 John 2:19). People who have the Spirit of God would have kept listening to the apostles’ gospel about who Jesus is and would have stayed in fellowship with the church of the apostles.

So belief in Jesus and apostolic fellowship are the two great signs of the Spirit in these verses (1 John 4:1–6). You must believe that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and believe that the apostles are the ones authorized by God to tell us who Jesus really is. Not every made-up version of Jesus is the one we ought to believe. The Bible speaks again and again of “another Christ” or “a different Christ” that is preached (2 Corinthians 11:4). Along with that go other signs seen throughout 1 John—that God’s Spirit produces a godly life, love, obedience, and difference from the world—but in these verses, the prime test of the spirits is what is believed about Jesus.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bring glory to him by taking from what belongs to Jesus and making it known to others (John 16:14). The central work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus and lead people to faith in the real Jesus.

In John’s time, antichrists such as Cerinthus were already arising, talking about a different Jesus. I’m going to give examples from throughout church history of various antichrists who arose. When you hear the word “antichrist,” you might immediately think of that final, terrible persecutor, but John says there are many antichrists already in the world (1 John 2:18). And not every antichrist is a big government bully hunting down Christians. The Greek word anti can mean “against,” but it can also mean “in place of” or “instead of.” So not all antichrists look like enemies of Christ; some look like substitute or “new and improved” Christs—different Christs.

One version was Docetism, from the word meaning “to seem” or “to appear.” According to this teaching, Jesus wasn’t really human at all—he only seemed human. He didn’t have a real body; it just looked like one. They believed bodies were bad. It may seem strange that one of the earliest heresies was not that Jesus is not divine but that he wasn’t human. You don’t know the real Jesus if you think he was only divine, as if he were merely God coming down to live among us and seeming to be human. The Christian teaching is that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14)—that God took on human nature and lived among us as the man Christ Jesus, uniting his divine nature with a human nature. The earliest heresy of Docetism said he wasn’t really human, just appearing to be, and that was one of the false teachings John was fighting. That’s why he says, “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2–3).

Another version that arose, and early forms of it were already appearing—Cerinthus may have been one of these—was Gnosticism. The word comes from the Greek gnosis, meaning “knowledge.” Gnostics claimed to have secret knowledge: “All that stuff the apostles say in public—that’s for ordinary folks. We’ve got the real goods, the hidden message, the insights between the lines. We have the knowledge not accessible to normal mortals, but we’re willing to share it with you.”

One of their teachings was that the Christ Spirit came on the human Jesus at his baptism and left him before he died. That was Cerinthus’s version of Gnosticism. There was always this division in Gnosticism between spirit and body—they believed that bodies and the physical world were bad, ideas borrowed from Greek philosophy and the mystery religions. In their view, the physical world was not made by the great supreme Creator but by a lesser being, sometimes even an evil one, and salvation was about escaping your body and this physical world.

Some versions of Gnosticism turned reality completely upside down. In some Gnostic writings, Judas is the good guy. There’s even a so-called “Gospel of Judas,” where Judas is the only disciple who really understood Jesus. Jesus supposedly told Judas, “Bodies are bad,” and Judas did Jesus a favor by helping him get rid of his body. In those writings, Judas is the hero.

Along with that was a strand of Gnosticism calling themselves the Cainites—followers of Cain. You remember Cain, who murdered Abel? In their twisted teaching, Cain and Judas were the good guys, and the apostles were the bad guys. That’s how completely things got flipped in later Gnosticism. And you still find people today reading and promoting those later Gnostic documents—or even living out their false ideas.

A number of years ago there was a gathering of people claiming to be Christians, funded by some of the major Christian denominations. One of the things they did was rejoice in what they called the great moment when humanity decided to think for itself. They reenacted, sacramentally, the taking of the fruit with Eve and biting into it in that “glorious” moment when Eve declared her independence. In their minds, the original sin was good, Cain was good, Judas was good—and that, they said, was real Christianity.

That kind of thing appeared long ago and still gets resurrected today when people don’t like that old Bible and that old Jesus they’ve heard about, and they want a new and improved version. The biggest religious bestseller of recent decades—aside from Harry Potter—was probably The Da Vinci Code. I remember seeing a survey saying that 33 percent of people believed what The Da Vinci Code said about Jesus. According to Dan Brown, that great “theological expert” who actually teaches English, Jesus’ followers saw him as a prophet, not as divine. Jesus got married and had children with Mary Magdalene, and their descendants became the royalty of France. Church leaders, Brown said, made up the idea that Jesus was divine—the claim that he was God was supposedly invented at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. Before that, he claimed, very few people thought of Jesus as God.

Of course, The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, but the parts that claim not to be fiction are works of fiction too. Unfortunately, Brown claims that all this comes from ancient documents—and that’s true in a way. It’s found in ancient documents, but those are the Gnostic documents—the writings of those who rejected the faith of the apostles and came up with their own version of Jesus.

The claim that nobody believed Jesus was God for 300 years is absurd. The Gospel of Mark begins, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). The Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1), and near the end Thomas says, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The Bible speaks of “Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior” (Titus 2:13), and John says at the end of 1 John, “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

All the biblical documents were written within a few decades of Jesus’ resurrection, not hundreds of years later. The Council of Nicaea did not invent the claim that Jesus is our great God and Savior—it simply defended it against heresy.

Still, false versions of Jesus sell well, and people who don’t like the real Jesus are ripe for imitation versions. Let’s continue with some examples to show how ignoring John’s tests of the Spirit leaves people in error.

Arius was one such man. He said nice things about Jesus—he was the first creature, the first thing God made, and the greatest—but he was not God the Creator. Arius was the one whose teachings prompted the Council of Nicaea, where the church insisted that Christ is not a creature, that the Son of God has forever existed with God the Father within the Holy Trinity.

A modern version of Arianism is found among Jehovah’s Witnesses, or the Watchtower Society. They too say Jesus is the first creature and elaborate that he is the archangel Michael—the greatest of all angelic beings. He was never God; he became a man (Michael did), and after he died, he rose again, not as a man but as an archangel, returning to his status as Michael. That’s who they say Jesus is.

Now, isn’t that “complimentary”? They say a man was really the greatest of all archangels and the first thing God ever made. If someone said that about me, you’d say, “Wow, that’s really something.” But to say that about Jesus is actually a demotion. The gap between the great archangel Michael and the Son of God is far greater than the gap between a mosquito and the archangel Michael. There is God, and there is everything else. The archangel Michael may be the greatest of everything else, but he is not God—and Jesus is not Michael.

The Bible teaches again and again that Christ is one with God. Another version of Arianism is Unitarianism. Like Arius, Unitarians say Jesus isn’t God and didn’t rise from the dead. Most Unitarians don’t even go as high as Arius or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many are simply rationalists: Jesus was another man with some great ideas; he didn’t rise from the dead, but his life is an inspiring example for us.

Islam also follows in Arius’s footsteps in denying that Jesus is God the Son. The Qur’an says, “Say not ‘Trinity’; God has no son.” So in Islam, Jesus is a prophet—indeed, the third greatest prophet, which sounds like a compliment. But he’s not God’s Son, and he didn’t die. According to Muslim tradition, someone else—probably Judas—was crucified and got what he deserved, while the prophet Isa (Jesus) escaped and went straight to heaven.

In some ways, Islam is better than modern secular versions of Jesus. It acknowledges that he was born of a virgin, that he was a great prophet, and that he did mighty miracles. Islam recognizes some facts of Jesus’ life. But it denies that he died and that he saves sinners. That’s a telltale sign of false prophets and false spirits at work: they don’t want you to know who the Savior is or how he saves. In Islam, you’re saved by obeying the law, by being a good boy or girl and doing what you’re told—not by God’s grace and forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That has been one of the most successful substitute Christs. Islam is the second-largest religion in the world today. It’s not really a totally different religion; it might be more accurately called a Christian heresy. It started in the 600s, and again, a telltale sign appears—messages from angels. Muhammad claimed to receive messages from the angel Gabriel, who told him that what the apostles said had been corrupted, and that though the earlier books contained many truths, a new book was needed to straighten everything out. So, six hundred years after Jesus lived, Muhammad claimed to straighten out the teachings of those who had seen, heard, and touched Jesus himself.

What does John say? He says Jesus is the life: “The life appeared” (1 John 1:2). Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One. He is the Son of God. He is without sin. He came in the flesh, and he came to suffer the penalty for our sins. By the way, the very words “he came” mean that he existed before Jesus was in the world. He existed as God before he came in the flesh. But he did come in the flesh, and he came to suffer the punishment and penalty for our sins—to take away our sins, not only to remove the punishment, but also to free us from the power of sin over us so that we could become different people and to destroy the devil’s work so we no longer act as the devil wants us to.

Near the very end, John says, “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Is there anything foggy about that? He is the true God and eternal life—and he’s human and came in the flesh. John was with him in the boat. He saw Jesus tired and hungry—he knew he was human. He also saw Jesus say to the wind and the waves, “Be quiet!” (Mark 4:39)—he knew he was divine. John saw Jesus firsthand and saw these two amazing realities, human and divine, brought together in one person.

The Athanasian Creed draws on all the Bible says about Christ and defines it again in the face of heresies that claimed Jesus was not fully human or not fully divine. The Creed says: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and human equally. He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time—that is, begotten from eternity without beginning. He is human from the essence of his mother, born in time, completely God, completely human.” That is the creedal definition that follows the apostle John and the rest of Scripture.

So you test the spirits. One of the central tests is whether those spirits—or that spirit—believe in Christ as the God-man who died for his people and rose to give eternal life. You will see attacks on all those fronts: that Jesus isn’t fully God, that he isn’t fully man, that he didn’t really die (as Islam and others claim), or that he didn’t really rise. Those cardinal truths about Jesus are what counterfeit spirits always deny.

And there’s no end to the tall tales about Jesus. I’ll give you a few examples. One claim is that Jesus is buried in Kashmir. The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, a kind of spin-off from Islam, says that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross—he only swooned or fainted. Then he was taken down from the cross and placed in the cool tomb, where he revived. Some ointment was applied, he healed up, and he got better. Because people didn’t like him very much, he supposedly left for India, lived in Kashmir to a ripe old age, and then died and was buried there. They even say his name was Yuza Asaf, and after his burial, a shrine was built there where they accept donations.

But not everyone believes Jesus is buried in Kashmir. Some say he’s buried in Shingo, near beautiful Lake Towada in Japan. According to this story, Jesus left Israel when he was a young man and spent twelve years in Japan. Having been there, he truly understood what the kingdom of God was, and when he returned to Israel and proclaimed that the kingdom of God was Japan, people didn’t take very kindly to it. So Jesus left, and his thoughtful brother Isakiri was crucified in his place. Jesus escaped, returned to Japan, had a wife and children, and worked as a farmer until he died at the age of 106. He was buried in Shingo, where you can still buy souvenirs today.

But not everyone believes Jesus is buried in Kashmir or in Shingo. Others say that after his resurrection, Jesus came to the Americas and showed himself to the Nephites, proclaiming his resurrection. For a long time, of course, others outside North America didn’t know about that, but in the 1800s God supposedly made it known again through an angel—the angel Moroni—who came to Joseph Smith. The angel Moroni gave Joseph Smith golden plates written in ancient Egyptian, which Smith translated into English that sounded remarkably like the King James Version. He claimed to have received a revelation from God: the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon says that Jesus is the son of Mary and of Elohim, the Father—and that the Father, by the way, has a body. The Father produced Jesus from Mary. The Father himself once lived and died, then was glorified as a god. Then Jesus lived, died, and was glorified as a god. And here’s the good news, according to Mormonism: if you are a good Mormon, you too will be glorified as a god, reaching where Jesus once was and following in his steps to deification. Again, it’s a revelation from an angel that tells of a different Father, a different Jesus, and a different way of salvation.

And the list goes on. Pantheism says, “Jesus is a god—of course he’s God! So are you. Isn’t everyone? The whole universe is divine; it’s all God, and God is it.” Pantheism will agree that Jesus is God—but so are we all, in one great divine organism. Some Eastern religions build on that pantheistic foundation but develop it in different ways.

For example, in Hinduism, many people who’ve heard of Jesus will say, “Yes, I think Jesus was good. I think Jesus was a god—aren’t there millions of them?” They’ll add a statue of Jesus to their household shrine alongside other gods. He’s an avatar, one of millions of Hindu deities. Again, that’s saying something nice about Jesus, but not recognizing him as the unique, one true God with the Father.

Buddhism takes a similar path. The Dalai Lama, for instance, will say that Jesus was like the Buddha—he became enlightened, and his message was that you too can be enlightened. If you follow Buddha’s path, you can enter enlightenment and eventually nirvana, losing all sense of self and merging into the Oneness—or the Nothingness, depending on how you describe it. Again, it’s a version of pantheism, with Jesus reduced to one more enlightened figure, perhaps a high-level bodhisattva.

Almost everyone has something nice to say about Jesus and some explanation for who he is. In our time and culture, where many people are less spiritually inclined but want to affirm religious diversity, one popular approach is pluralism: “All paths lead to God. Jesus is a path that works well for some people; other paths work well for others. So pick your path—it doesn’t matter too much. They all get you there.”

Liberalism—not just in politics but in theology—was a view that the Bible mixes truth with error. Many theological liberals based their ideas on Enlightenment scholarship and decided that large portions of the Bible needed to be discounted. Still, they said, one thing we can know for sure: Jesus leads the fight for political change and social justice. He’s about changing unfair structures and systems of governance.

There’s an element of truth in that. We read Psalm 72, where Jesus reigns and brings blessing and justice. God indeed hates injustice. But if you reduce Jesus to a social justice warrior whose only impact is to inspire us to be “progressive,” you miss who he truly is.

On the other hand, a different version of antichrist doesn’t necessarily change doctrine but turns Jesus into a symbol for someone’s political ideology. For some, Jesus wears an American flag and represents their brand of politics. Jesus becomes the champion of whatever a political convention promotes. Whatever the case, beware of the spirit of antichrist. Remember, anti doesn’t always mean “against”; it can also mean “instead of.” It gives you a Jesus instead of the real Jesus.

So how do you recognize God’s Spirit? God’s Spirit reveals Jesus as the true God who became human to be our sacrifice and Savior. The Spirit leads us to the book he inspired—the Bible—and to the body he indwells—the church. When people belittle Scripture or claim to offer new revelations the Bible doesn’t cover, beware.

Joseph Smith had a visit from an angel, so the Book of Mormon had to be added to the Bible. Muhammad had a visit from an angel, so the Qur’an had to be added—and effectively replaced the Bible. The original Cerinthus claimed that an angel told him Jesus was not born of a virgin and that the Christ Spirit merely came upon him for a time and left again. “The angels are telling them all this good stuff,” they said—and then they wrote new books.

The apostle Paul warned about this very thing: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:8). He knew not every false teaching is just a human invention.

Maybe you’ve heard of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard once said, “The best way to get rich is to start a religion.” And so he did—and people fell for it. If someone openly says, “This is a good way to make money,” then starts a religion, you’d think nobody would give him money—but many do, including Hollywood celebrities. Yet not everyone who founds a false religion does it for money. Some truly have spiritual experiences—real visits from a spirit or an angel appearing as an angel of light.

The Bible warns that “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). So don’t assume all these people were crooks making things up. Some were genuinely deceived by real spirits—but not the Holy Spirit. Scripture told us long ago what was coming: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1).

These are the tests of the Spirit: faith in Jesus—the real Jesus as the apostles testified to him—and fidelity to the book those apostles wrote for us, and to the body, the apostolic church. The true church is found wherever the apostles’ teaching is followed and believed. It’s not merely those who claim to honor some apostle’s name, but those who hold to the truth taught by the apostles—that is the mark of God’s Spirit.

And, of course, a godly life, as John says again and again—one that is loving, obedient, and different from the world.

We’ve seen these “spiritual DNA tests” already, and the one most emphasized today is the belief test: everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; the love test: everyone who loves has been born of God; the obedience test: everyone who does what is right has been born of God; and the victory test: everyone born of God overcomes the world.

There’s a lot about tests in John—because he wants us to believe the truth. But that means you can’t simply write off every spiritual claim as nonsense. That’s the temptation: with so many conflicting voices about Jesus and God, people say, “Who knows what to believe? I’m chucking all of it—it’s just a bunch of rot.” Rather than test and sift the truth, they throw everything away and become skeptics.

The opposite error is superstition—believing everything is true. But it can’t all be true, because these claims contradict one another. So rather than be skeptical or superstitious, you must test the spirits and discern whether they are from God.

Why test the spirits? Why test your own spirit through these spiritual DNA tests John gives us? Because when the Holy Spirit seals himself in you, you’ll also want to have objective assurance that it truly is the Holy Spirit. And when you realize, “Yes, I do believe in Jesus as he truly is—and though I’m not perfect, I’m growing in love, obedience, and distinctness from the world,” then you can be assured that you are a child of God, even when your heart trembles or feels unsure.

John says one of the reasons he writes this book is, “I write these things to you who believe in the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). He’s not writing these tests so that you can look down your nose at others and think how rotten they are. Pray for them. Love them. When people believe in different “christs,” you don’t have to hate them or attack them in every way. But when they’re trying to fool you or lead you away from the true Christ, then you must resist them. Otherwise, pray for them—but for yourself, strengthen your assurance.

He wrote these things so that you would know, so you could be confident in Christ. If you look at those tests and test yourself and say, “I just don’t see much sign of real faith or spiritual life in me,” that’s actually a good discovery—better now than later. Discover your need for new birth, and then pray. Ask the Lord Jesus to be your Savior. Ask the Holy Spirit to come and live in your heart.

So, if you pass the test—great! It strengthens your assurance. If you don’t pass the test, that’s still good in a way, because at least now you know. It’s better than going through life thinking you were alive when you weren’t spiritually alive. You can be born again right now by the Holy Spirit of God through faith in Jesus.

Why test other spirits? We’ve gone through a list of those who have deviated from Christ-centered, biblical Christianity. But that’s not the only reason to test the spirits. Sometimes when you test the spirits, you may find out that, yes, there are differences—disagreements on fine points of doctrine or areas of thought—but you also see that they believe in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They believe Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human. They believe he died for our sins, rose again, and that the Bible is the Word of God. You see evidence that God is at work in them—in love and obedience. Then you realize, “We differ in some things, but these people belong to Christ.”

And if they belong to Christ and you belong to Christ, then there isn’t much room to push them away or judge them. One purpose of testing the spirits is to discern your unity with people you might otherwise dismiss. You might not share their tastes or certain secondary beliefs, but those things are puny—nothing compared to the unity you share through faith in Christ. So start treating them that way. Jesus prayed that all who know him would be one.

Of course, there is also the reason to resist the false prophets, the fakes, the antichrists—to avoid being taken in by them. Jesus said there’s a time coming when the final antichrist will arise, worse and more deceitful than all before him, performing great miracles. He said that if it weren’t for God’s intervention, even the elect could be deceived (Matthew 24:24). We don’t know how close we are to that day, but we do know that there are many antichrists already in the world, and we must be prepared to deal with those now.

If you’re not ready for the deceivers who are already here, what will you do when the “big one” comes? Unless you’re grounded in the truth, not taken in by every miracle or smooth talker, not intimidated by every threat or pressure against God’s people, you won’t suddenly develop strength overnight. You don’t wake up one morning, after years of spiritual weakness and ignorance, and suddenly have the power to resist the antichrist. You must be growing now—growing in faith, knowledge, and understanding—so you’re not a sucker for every deception or a pushover under pressure.

So don’t believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 John 4:1).

Prayer

We pray, Father, that you will give us your wisdom and a profound love for our Lord Jesus Christ. May Jesus always be central in our thoughts and worship, leading us, Father, into fellowship with you. Fill us ever more fully with your Spirit, that we may delight in Christ, and out of that delight, love others.

Lord, help us not to misread these things. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against those hidden powers that seek to mislead and destroy lives. Help us to be ambassadors of your truth and love—to behave with kindness toward others, to invite those who don’t yet know you, and to remember that there are many you are still seeking to win to Christ. Make us bold, courageous, tender, and loving as we keep serving the real Christ and leading others to him—for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Test the Spirits (1 John 4:1-6)
By David Feddes
Slide Contents

Cerinthus

Cerinthus claimed to receive knowledge from an angel. Cerinthus denied that the supreme God made the physical world. He divided the man Jesus from the divine Christ spirit. He denied the supernatural virgin birth of Jesus, making him the biological son of Joseph and Mary, and taught that the Christ descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler at baptism and left him at his crucifixion—never to embody the flesh. He taught salvation by keeping the law of Moses. John’s disciple Polycarp told the story that John the Apostle rushed out of a bathhouse at Ephesus without bathing when he found out Cerinthus was inside, exclaiming, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside!”

God’s Spirit in us

This is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (3:24)

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (4:13)

Misleading tests

• Supernatural experiences
• Excitement, emotion, sincerity
• Sense of oneness and tranquility
• Inner control, outer impact
• Lofty principles and ideals
• Nice words about Jesus

¹ Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Recognize God’s Spirit

• Belief in Jesus: God’s Spirit reveals Jesus as the true God who became human to be our sacrifice and Savior.
• Apostolic fellowship: God’s Spirit leads us to the Book he inspired (Bible) and the Body he indwells (church).
• Godly life: loving, obedient, different

Antichrists

• Docetism: Jesus was not really human; he only seemed human. He had no body. Bodies are bad.
• Gnosticism: Christ-spirit came on human Jesus at his baptism and left him before he died.
• Da Vinci Code
• Jesus’ followers saw him as a prophet, not divine.
• Jesus married, had kids with Mary Magdalene.
• Church leaders invented Jesus’ deity in 325 at the Council of Nicaea.
• Arius: Christ is the first creature; 
he is not God the Creator.
• Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jesus is the first creature, the archangel Michael. He was never God. He became man, died, and rose again as archangel.
• Unitarianism: Jesus is not God. He did not rise from the dead. His life is an inspiring example for us.
• Islam: Jesus was a prophet, not God’s Son. He did not die or save sinners. Obeying saves Muslims.

Man, God, Savior

Jesus is the Life (1:2), the Christ (5:1), the Son of God (4:15), without sin (3:5). He came in the flesh (1:1, 4:2) to suffer the penalty for our sins (2:2, 4:10), to take away our sins (3:5), and to destroy the devil’s work (3:8). He is the true God and eternal life (5:20).

God-Man

Our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and human, equally. He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time; completely God, completely human. (Athanasian Creed)

Jesus buried in Kashmir?

• The Ahmadiyya sect of Islam says Jesus was crucified but did not die. He only swooned.
• Jesus revived in the cool tomb and was cured of his wounds by a special ointment.
• Jesus fled Palestine and journeyed toward India, to what is today Kashmir. He later died naturally of old age and was buried there.
• Jesus was also named Youza Asouph, and you can leave donations at his burial place.
• About 20 million people follow this view.

Jesus buried in Japan?

• It is said that after Jesus grew up in Galilee, he came to Japan. He returned to Galilee at age 33 and began preaching a heavenly kingdom: namely, Japan.
• When opposition arose, Jesus left Galilee and returned to the town of Shingo, near beautiful Lake Towada. Jesus’ brother, Isukiri, was crucified instead of Jesus.
• Jesus became a rice farmer, married, and raised a family. He died at age 106 and was buried there. Souvenirs are for sale.

Antichrists

• Mormonism: Jesus is the son of Mary and Elohim the Father, who has a body. The Father lived, died, and was glorified as god. Jesus also lived, died, and is a god. Good Mormons will also become gods.
• Pantheism: Of course Jesus is God! So are you. Everything is God.
• Hinduism: Jesus is an avatar or one of the millions of Hindu gods.
• Buddhism: Jesus, like Buddha, became enlightened and shares it.
• Pluralism: All paths lead to God. Jesus works well for some people. Other paths work for other people.
• Liberalism: The Bible mixes truth and error. Jesus leads the fight for political change and social justice.

Recognize God’s Spirit

• Belief in Jesus: God’s Spirit reveals Jesus as the true God who became human to be our sacrifice and Savior.
• Apostolic fellowship: God’s Spirit leads us to the Book he inspired (Bible) and the Body he indwells (church).
• Godly life: loving, obedient, different

Spiritual DNA Tests

1. Belief: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (5:1)
2. Love: Everyone who loves has been born of God. (4:7)
3. Obedience: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (2:29)
4. Victory: Everyone born of God overcomes the world. (5:4)

Why test spirits?

• Why test your own spirit?
• Strengthen assurance or
• Discover need for new birth
• Why test other spirits?
• Bond with real Christians or
• Resist fakes and antichrists