Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson
3. Distinguishing the Spirits According to John (John 5:41-44; 8:38-45; 1 John 2:18-25; 4:1-4)
The young apostle John mentions in his gospel from the teachings of Jesus about anti-Christ a sentence which was judged by the fathers of the early Christendom to be a hint that the proud son of Satan will come from the children of Jacob (John 5:43). Jesus said in the context of this passage:
JOHN 5:41-44
41 I don’t receive glory from men. 42 But I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in yourselves. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
The Semitic peoples have difficulties to utter and accept the name of God the Father; they rather prefer a mighty dictator, who will come in his own name, to a gracious father and his gentle Lamb. In chapter eight of the gospel of John it is reported what Jesus said about this subject:
JOHN 8:38-45
38 “I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.” 39 They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this. 41 You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.” 42 Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came out and have come from God. For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why don’t you understand my speech? Because you can’t hear my word. 44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father. 45 But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.
With these words Jesus reveals the root of every anti-Christian opposition!
After John as patriarch of the churches in Asia Minor in his pastoral work had suffered from the conflict with the Hellenistic zeitgeist and the embitterment of Jewish refugees, he testified in his first epistle out of his own experience the eternally valid criterion for discerning godly and satanic spirits:
1 JOHN 2:18-25
18 Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour. 19 They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us. 20 You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son, the same doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father. 25 This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
This exhortation of the experienced pastor John defines an unequivocal standard for spiritual judging of all religions and philosophies, church doctrines and sects. The Holy Spirit inspired John so as to discern who may be bound to an anti-Christian spirit. We have to turn away from the unbiblical standard of the humanism and of the Enlightenment so as to discover the truths of the Bible anew.
Likewise in his first epistle John deepens his statements further:
1 JOHN 4:1-4
1 Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Whoever denies God Father and Jesus Christ, his Son, he has strayed from the faith of the New Testament and does not speak in the power of the gospel. The incarnation of Christ in Jesus, Son of Maria, is the crucial point of the true faith. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, fights against the true Christ.
PRAYER: We worship and magnify You, Heavenly Father, because You are the faithful, merciful Father of the followers of Your Christ, who teaches us why some of our friends cannot understand the blessed gospel. Help us, so that we can hold fast to Your spiritual fatherhood of Christ and of us, and testify prudently to the sonship of Mary's Son with You that we may not fall prey to Anti-Christ.
QUESTIONS:
- What are the decisive proofs that the teachings of some speakers and the contents of some books are from the spirit of antichrist?
- Learn by heart and understand what John, the apostle, wrote in his first epistle (Chapter 2:22-23)!