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Test The Spirits


          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. 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, 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. 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. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 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. (I John 4:1-5)


          If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5)


          Face it, whenever a group has a perceived level of influence, there are going to be those who will either want to get some of that power, or who will want to discredit that group in order to gain power. There are those who claim to be Christians, indeed, who have worked themselves into some level of leadership within the Christian community, but who are not Christians. Some of them are even famous. There are experts who discuss the Bible who build their whole career around reducing the Bible to a book full of lies and amusing stories. In today’s passage, John advises us to test the spirits. He’s not telling us anything new. The same instructions were given in the days of Moses.
           If someone comes, claiming to be from God, and claiming that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh, and therefore did not die and was not raised, that person is not from God. In Moses’ day, the rule was simple, and I believe that at it is still valuable. If someone comes, claiming to be from God and saying (for example) “Christ is going to return on Friday, June 8th, 2018 at 12:45 pm,” and Christ doesn’t return, that prophet is not a prophet and should be dealt with accordingly. If someone comes along telling you it’s OK for a Christian to (for example) be an active pedophile, or that racism (including reverse racism) or any form of immorality is OK, that person is not a prophet and should be dealt with accordingly. 
         I’ll grant, those things are no longer legally considered capital offenses, but at the very least, those who teach things contrary to Scripture should be publicly excluded from the Church. They’re free to believe as they wish, but not to claim to be one of us.

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