“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
These are times of moral and religious confusion, and it is sometimes hard to distinguish the false from the true. Our faithful Lord has tried to save us from the consequences of our own blindness by repeated warnings and many careful instructions. It will pay us to give close attention to His words.
Toward the end of the age, we are told, there shall be a time of stepped-up religious activity and frenzied expectation, growing out of the turbulent conditions prevailing among nations. The language is familiar to most Christians: ” … wars and rumours of wars … nation shall rise against nation … famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places … Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations … And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matthew 24:6-10).
Concurrent with this state of affairs will be a great increase in religious excitement and supernatural happenings generally. “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5); “And many false prophets shall rise … ” (Matthew 24:11 ); “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23-24).
PRAY FOR DISCERNMENT
Many Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God. They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgment or shut their eyes and accept everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality, but in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit. Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the color of the supernatural. Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be.
” … try the spirits … “ is a command of the Holy Spirit to the church. We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine, and the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love, and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
How can we tell whether or not a man or a religious demonstration is of God? The answer is easy to find, but it will take courage to follow the facts as God reveals them to us.
The tests for spiritual genuineness are: First, the leader must be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost. Christianity is nothing if not moral. No tricks of theology, no demonstrations of supernatural wonders, no evidences of blind devotion on the part of the public can decide whether or not God is in the man or the movement. Every servant of Christ must be pure of heart and holy of life.
While sinless perfection is not likely to be found among even the best of men, still the leader to be trusted is the one who lives as near like Christ as possible and who knows how to repent in sorrow of heart when he sins against his Lord by any act or word. The man God honors will be humble, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, modest, clean living, free from the love of money, eager to promote the honor of God, and just as eager to disclaim any credit or praise on his own part. His financial accounts will bear inspection, his ethical standards will be high, and his personal life above reproach.
THE ACID TEST
But the test of moral goodness is not enough. Every man must submit his work to the scriptural test. It is not enough that he be able to quote from the Bible at great length or that he claim for himself great and startling experiences with God. Go back to the law and to the testimony, if he speak not according to the Word, it is because there isno light in him. We who are invited to follow him have every right, as well as a solemn obligation, to test his work according to the Word of God.
We must demand that every claimant for our confidence present a clean bill of health from the Holy Scriptures; that he do more than weave in a text occasionally, or hold up the Bible dramatically before the eyes of his hearers. His doctrines must be those of the Scriptures. The Bible must dominate his preaching. He must preach according to the Word of God.
The price of following a false guide on the desert may be death. The price of heeding wrong advice in business may be bankruptcy. The price of trusting to a quack doctor may be permanent loss of health. The price of putting confidence in a pseudo-prophet may be moral and spiritual tragedy. Let us take heed that no man deceive us.
By A.W. Tozer
