“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” -1st John 4:1
The Bible warns us that there will always be tares among the wheat, that the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent will exist side by side, sometimes even in the same tribes and households, and they will lead many to ruin before they are ultimately uprooted.
Liars go to the same lake of fire as do murderers. Lies lead to death. Jesus called Satan the father of lies as well as a murderer (John 8:44).
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” -2nd Peter 2:1
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” – Galatians 1:8
Fortunately for us the New Testament provides the clearest tests to identify these false teachers.
“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” -1st John 4:2-3
“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God hareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” - 1st John 4:6
So the apostle John is telling us that we can know a false teacher immediately by how they perceive Christ. If they say Christ was just a man, not truly God in the flesh, or that he was only a Spirit that appeared to be human as was common among Gnostics of John’s day…they are false prophets. We can also know a false teacher by their refusal to adhere to clear scriptural teaching transmitted by the prophets and apostles.
With that said in a future message I want to go into a more specific example of the nefariousness of false prophets and why we become susceptible to them.
Selah.
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