How Do You Know If Someone is Speaking for God?

Discerning False Prophets

4 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet[a] acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 

I am sure you are not able to count how many times you have heard someone use the words, "The Lord told me to say ...". First of all it is very presumptive to assume one is speaking on behalf God. John gives us these important precautions in the reading today. Most importantly he says don't assume just because someone claims they are speaking for God that they are. 

Then, John gives the believers a way to test whether someone who claims to be speaking for God can be trusted. The question is are they a "true prophet" or a "false prophet". They can't be both. If one word of prophecy does not come true, it is false prophesy. This is why it is so precarious to say, "I am speaking for God." 

Then, John gives a very specfic test to determine if someone is a false or true prophet. His test is whether they acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh as a human being. To understand this statement you need to know the primary "heresy" which had infiltrated the church. The teaching was that Jesus only looked like man, but really was only a spirit being, albeit a special messenger from God. This heresy is called "Gnosticism", which comes from the Greek word "Gnosis", which means, "to know". The Gnostics claimed they had "gnosis", which was secret knowledge about God. 

The problem with the belief that Jesus wasn't truly human is then that Jesus DID NOT really die on the cross. If Jesus DID NOT really die on the cross, we are still dead in our sins. This is why John is so quick to point out that a person who teaches this has the spirit of the "antichrist". Of course, if the evil one wanted to corrupt the church, he would do something to deny the reality of who Jesus was and what he did for us! 

And guess what? This is the message of Christmas. Jesus came as a baby boy in a manger. He was born of a virgin teenage girl. He was truly human and truly God. He grew up and showed the world what God was like and most importantly how God loves every person the same. Jesus proved how much God loved us, when he willingly died on the cross to forgive us of our sins! 

Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is the greatest fulfillment of prophecy. In these words there is no lie. It is the truth. If anyone denies these words, they are not from God and you should not listen or associate with them. 

Pray for the church that we would continue to protect the doctrine of the nature of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! He was fully human and fully divine  This is why we always need to be testing everything that is taught using God's Word, especially as it relates to Jesus' true nature. 

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