Good advice. Anyone paying any attention can tell you that the world is full of people who call themselves Christians and even present themselves as mouthpieces of God, so to speak, and then proceed to offer false information about what God thinks. The danger is obvious. A person positioned as a "follower of Christ" and "God's messenger" (for such is a prophet) speaking lies about God puts listeners in jeopardy, lest they believe the premise (Christian/prophet) and, based on that premise, follow the lie.
Take, for instance, the recent news about Rob Bell. Whatever Rob Bell believes is Rob Bell's business, but when it gets documented on Christian news sites like The Christian Post or bigger ones like Christianity Today, it becomes every Christian's business. When it gets picked up by WZZM out of Michigan or broadcast on a well-known, largely anti-Christian site like The Huffington Post, it becomes everyone's business. So now we know that Rob Bell disagrees with Scripture on the issue of Hell (from his book, Love Wins) and now on the issue of marriage. In the Huffington piece Bell argues that the core beliefs that you must be born again, that the Bible is authoritative, that Christ died and rose again for our salvation, and that we need to act on that truth is "a particular subculture that doesn't work." Evangelicalism is not only dying, but that fact is a good thing because they are bad. Instead, he holds, "I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs -- I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are." (I really want to know what he intended when he started "I think the church needs ...") So we are not supposed to call anyone out of darkness (a position consistent with the position of universal salvation), but to "affirm people wherever they are." (Isn't it funny that he is not affirming Evangelicals wherever they are?)
Yes, that was a whole paragraph on Rob Bell, but this is not a post about Rob Bell. It's a post about John's thoughts. So, based on this information, would John classify Rob Bell as a "false prophet"? Based on 1 John 4:1-3, you'd have to say, "No." John says first "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." Bell does indeed confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Thus, not a false prophet. Phew! Dodged that problem!
But if you were to end the thought there, you'd be committing the error of not seeing the entire picture. John didn't stop with that measurement tool. I'd say that a lot of false prophets cling to "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." It is a tool, but not the only tool. Nor is it the only one that John offers. He gives two more methods to decide "false prophet" or not.
First, there is this one.
They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them (1 John 4:5).John suggests that the truth offered by God's true prophets will not generally be listened to by the world. Why? Well, Jesus assured His disciples that the world hated Him and would hate them. Paul assured his readers that the mind set on the flesh was hostile toward God and that the gospel was foolishness to them. He said "Natural Man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14). So Christ and the world stand at cross purposes and will not remain friendly with each other for long. If, then, a person speaking as a spokesman for God is cheerfully embraced by the world, that's a red flag.
Second, John says something that will likely upset a lot of today's more "liberal" Christians let alone the rest of the world.
We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6).In contrast to "They are from the world", John says, "We are from God." Thus, "Whoever knows God listens to us." Really, John? Aren't you conflating your opinion into God's opinion? Aren't you saying that you stand in the place of God? Well, maybe, if you agree with Bell that viewing the Bible as authoritative and reliable is a dead-end, dying ("and good riddance") position. But if you hold that all Scripture is God breathed and that the Spirit leads His own into all truth and we can know the truth, then it stands to reason that following the Word of God as presented in the pages of the Bible is a sure sign of a genuine follower of Christ. It isn't a matter of "conflating your opinion". It's a matter of grasping and agreeing with the text, the context, and the message of Scripture.
Based on these two measurement tools, there is little doubt about Bell or McClaren who applauds Bell or so many others who place themselves in the position of "Christian" and claim to speak for God while denying what He says in His Word. John would necessarily classify them as "false prophets". I would urge you, dear Christian, to keep it in mind not because I suggest it, but because God's Word says it.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment