Studies through 1 John - Lesson 11
1 John 2:18-23 and 4:1-7
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 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; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
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.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Even though we have previously discussed the passage in 1 John 2, John repeats the concept in more depth in chapter 4 which we are discussing today. I put in italics the word spirit which appears in this passage eight times. Even though one of the main reasons for writing this letter was to warn of false teachers John recognizes that these false prophets are not spewing teaching of their own but are empowered by spirits or demons. As the devil tries to pull people away from the truth of the Gospel, he makes up clever and not so clever distortions of the truth and gives them to susceptible individuals to teach. Because man, Paul says in Romans 1, decided to turn their minds from what they knew to be right and true, God gave them over to a deluded mind that believes these crazy things that we will discuss later.
Paul says in 1 Tim. 4:1 and in Gal. 1:7-9
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Paul recognizes and warns like John that these teachings are on a spirit level. We see this with the formation of three major religions.
Islaam - In the 7th century Muhammed claimed that the angel Gabriel visited him. During these angelic visits which continued for 23 years until his death the angel revealed to him the words of Allah which comprise the Koran. The angel that Muhammed was supposed to have met in the cave brought him the Koran for recitation. When he did not recite, the angel caught him forcefully and pressed him so hard that he could not bear it anymore and this was repeated three times. Gabriel left Muhammed terribly shaken and felt that something may have happened to him. He even contemplated suicide by throwing himself off a mountain
Buddhism - Suddhartha Guatama in 600BC , born to royalty received apparitions of an aged man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic monk. He meditated and a goddess appeared before him who gave him several messages and taught him the path to enlightenment
Mormonism - The angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and taught him the other gospel of Jesus and pointed him to the buried plates and the urim and thummin to translate them through which the Book of Mormon has been written.
Even something like scientology was written when L.Ron Hubbard just opened his mind and wrote down whatever came to mind which when done opens the mind to spiritual/demonic influences.
When you examine the Old Testament, you see that the worship of idols was actually worshipping demons.
the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons 1 Cor. 10:21,22
They abandoned the God who made them
and rejected the Rock their Savior.
16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God Deut. 32:15-17
and rejected the Rock their Savior.
16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods
and angered him with their detestable idols.
17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God Deut. 32:15-17
They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to false gods. Ps 106:36,37
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to false gods. Ps 106:36,37
Because of the spiritual blindness caused by mankind's hearts' hardening, spiritual truths are not rationally discerned, but spiritually. That's why people believe such "crazy" things. Isaiah talks about it in 44:12-20
The blacksmith takes a tool
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
he drinks no water and grows faint.
13 The carpenter measures with a line
and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,
human form in all its glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars,
or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
15 It is used as fuel for burning;
some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.
16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
“Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
“Save me! You are my god!”
18 They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
19 No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
20 Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
“Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
he drinks no water and grows faint.
13 The carpenter measures with a line
and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,
human form in all its glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars,
or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
15 It is used as fuel for burning;
some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.
16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
“Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
“Save me! You are my god!”
18 They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
19 No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
20 Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
“Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
Here are some of the things Mormons believe, who are by no means dummies;
1.If you have dark skin and convert to Mormonism your skin will lighten
2. The Native Americans are Jews which travelled across the seas in ships
3. 3 of these original travelers are still alive and will be until the second coming of Christ
4. The Garden of Eden was in Missouri and all saints are to return to Missouri before Christ returns
5. Temple garments are to be worn under your underwear to protect you from demons
6. God had natural sex with Mary to conceive Jesus
7. You can't get to Heaven without Joseph Smith's permission
8. Dinosaur fossils are to test our faith and likely come from matter left over from past destroyed planets that were recycled to create the Earth.
9. God is a resurrected extra terrestrial exalted human male who lives on a planet near a star called Kolob
10. The Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight so all youth activities should end by then
11. The Earth was once in orbit around Kolob but when Adam sinned was expelled
12. There are people living on the moon
13. If you hold your arm to a square you can divert floods and lava flows.
Scientology believes the following crazy things and is adhered to by many intelligent people.
Of course most people today would probably say they don't adhere to a religion, they just try to be a good person and do what's right. Unfortunately that is just as blinded as the blatantly crazy beliefs. First of all, everyone is religious. Religion is defined as "a set of beliefs that explain what life is all about, who we are, and the most important things that humans should spend their life doing." Any time you say, "You ought to do this" or "You shouldn't do this", those are religious statements. To say you have no religion is a statement of non belief in a number of things such as there is no personal God, no judgment, no absolute rights and wrongs, etc. Along with claiming to have no religion, many people claim there is no absolute truth - truth is relative, everyone defines their own truths. This once again is a deluded statement because if there is no such thing as absolute truth, then your statement cannot be true and therefore is unbelievable and contradicts your very premise. C.S. Lewis says that to see through everything is to see nothing at all.
Many intelligent people will tell you they believe that all religions are true and just different ways to get to the same God. The problem with that is that Christianity says there is only one way to get to God and Hinduism for example says there are many ways. How can they both be true? Some people say all religions are partially true and give the illustration of the blind men and the elephant. They all come upon an elephant and touch different parts - the leg, the tail, the ear, the trunk - and describe it differently because they are all just aware of a portion of the truth implication being that religions are all true just no one sees the whole picture. The problem with this is that the person who uses that illustration is claiming to see the whole elephant thus it's a claim to see the whole picture which violates the illustration.
Many people say it is OK to have your own beliefs but you should keep them to yourself and never bring them into the public place nor force them on others. To state this in public and want people to adhere to this is violating the principle or religious belief that they just stated. Some say to say that one religion is superior to others is the utmost pride and arrogance and should discredit that religion. So I guess the Waco cult, Jim Jones cult, or the Heaven's Gate Cult where 39 people committed suicide to join a spacecraft in the comet's tail are all equally valid and good? You see, all the arguments that seemingly intelligent people make to discredit Christianity are all flawed and nonsensical but are adhered to because mankind is spiritually deluded and can't reason in these areas.
So then, how do we witness to people who Satan has blinded and they can't rationally see the truth? I think the answer is two fold. First, Prayer. How much time do we spend praying for people by name. Here is how I think we should pray - "Lord, open the eyes and ears of so and so's heart. Help them to see the condition of their heart and be receptive to the truth of the gospel. Give me or someone an opportunity to speak the Gospel to them during that time of receptiveness." We should pray this continually and ask others to intercede too. The illustration I use is that the unsaved person is living inside a completely dark and dirty cabin but don't know it is dark or dirty because the curtains are closed. What the Holy Spirit does is open the curtain and shine the light in. At this point the inhabitant can choose to close the curtain or be repulsed by the dirt and do something about it, enjoying and embracing the light. I believe our prayers are the power that cause the Holy Spirit to open the curtain.
Second is to love people as we see in 4:7. When mankind sinned it caused 4 types of alienation. Picture a stone being thrown in the water and 4 concentric circles emenating from the center; or if you want a target with 4 circles around the center. The stone or center of the target is sin. The first circle is spiritual alienation. Adam and Eve hid from God and mankind is in a state of spiritual death ever since. This leads to a feeling of no purpose in life or just making oneself God of their own life. The second circle is psychological alienation - they were afraid and they were naked. Not only did they not know who God was but they didn't know who they were and now we have depression, anxiety, suicide, etc. due to the fallout from sin. The third ripple is social alienation - they hid from each other. They were afraid to let others see them as they really are. This is why we have divorce, crime, racism, war today. Lastly there was physical alienation - pain, disease, death. Nature is no longer our friend. The inner two circles are usually imperceived or hard to point out to people because these are the areas they are blinded in. The outer two are perceived by people , i.e. they know if they are having marriage problems or physical illnesses, hunger, etc. As we minister to the outer ones in love, they see it and rationally grasp it. I believe that softens them, with the Spirit's help to get into the inner core - the spiritual. This is what Jesus did throughout His ministry with His miracles - He not only taught them about their need for repentance but healed their psychological problems such as the demoniac Legion. He healed their social alienation as with lepers brought back into society. And He healed their physical illnesses and even raised the dead to heal physical alienation. In the Church, God gives inner need ministry such as gifts of teaching, preaching, evangelism but gives external gifts of helps, service, mercy. He gives internal fruit of love, joy, peace but also gives external of gentleness, kindness, longsuffering. He gives offices of elders for preaching and teaching and offices of deacons for meeting external needs.
God gives us a two pronged approach to breaking through hard hearts and it is word and deed but overarching both of these is spiritual warfare being fought through our intercessory prayer for the souls of unbelievers.
