False Teaching
1 John 4:1 My dear friends, many false prophets are in the world now. So don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
Here’s a crazy statistic: there are over twenty thousand Christian denominations in the world today. Twenty thousand! That’s nuts. So, with all those different perspectives, how are you and I supposed to discover the truth?
If you’d asked me, I’d have said that there were maybe one or two hundred denominations out there, three hundred at the outside, but nowhere near twenty thousand. Okay, there are different cultures, different contexts, different perspectives. Diversity’s a good thing, right? Until it’s not.
Because whilst many (hopefully, most) of those denominations and the churches they represent teach the truth of the good news of Jesus, many don’t. But there’s nothing new in that. John the Apostle back in the first century AD put it like this:
1 John 4:1 My dear friends, many false prophets are in the world now. So don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
And so, many are being deceived – by the false prosperity gospel, by self-appointed prophets, apostles and evangelists who are out to drain their pockets. So many are being deceived! So, what’s the answer? How do you and I make sure that we’re not suckered in like that?
Well, the only way not to be swept away by false teaching is to know the Scriptures for yourself! Open your Bible every day, and let the Holy Spirit lift His words off the page and write them on your heart.
That’s the best test of all – the infallible and inerrant Word of God, taught to you direct by the Holy Spirit. That’s your test. That’s the truth because remember my dear friend, there are many false prophets out there in the world.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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