4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. (NIV)
“DON’T BELIEVE” is probably not the first thing we’d expect to hear from one of Jesus’ own disciples. In fact, it’s probably the last thing we’d expect to hear from Jesus, too—but in Mark 13 our Lord says exactly that. Talking about the last days of the world, Jesus warns: “At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect…’” (Mark 13:22).
Every spirit—we could just say “everyone”—that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. In other words, when we’re looking for spiritual guidance, does it make any sense to go to a non-Christian for that guidance? Take a simple axiom about travel and knowledge: One person, a person from a Western (in fact, European) culture said, Travel broadens the mind. Another person, a person from an Eastern (in fact, Indian) culture said, The farther one travels, the less one knows. These statements completely contradict one another, and in fact they don’t add any truth to our understanding of true knowledge. What’s important is not whether or not you travel a lot. What’s important is knowing Jesus.
When anyone doesn’t acknowledge Jesus, that’s the spirit of the antichrist. Notice that John doesn’t say that that is the antichrist—it’s the spirit of the antichrist. What’s the difference? The Antichrist’s spirit is his party platform. And just as members of a political party can reflect the party’s leader or that party’s candidate, that doesn’t mean that they’re all the party leader or candidate. And so it is with the antichrist.
The antichrist, to sum up what the Bible says, (I) exalts himself to be equal with God. (II) He would eventually do his work openly as an opponent of God. (III) He will bring about the “rebellion” (Greek apostasy, a great falling away of many believers because of his lies). (IV) His followers will deny the truth of salvation. (V) God will harden his followers into thinking that they are on the true path to salvation. (VI) His spirit was already at work when John wrote these words, although he wasn’t openly working yet. And finally (VII) he would come from within the church itself—not from outside. There are other points, especially about his downfall, but these are the marks with which we identify him.
From time to time, a church leader will say something informally that will come dangerously close to one of these marks, but that places him for a moment in line with the spirit, as John says, of the antichrist. It doesn’t make him the antichrist. There are even times when a leader in a church will say something formally, as a part of his office, which comes frighteningly close to matching the marks of the antichrist exactly. For example, about two months ago, Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America said this about a doctrine of the ELCA. I have substituted the teaching itself for the words “this doctrine” so that you can more easily see the problem:
The understanding we have of ‘this doctrine’ today does not seem to be reflected at all in the context of the biblical writers. Therefore Lutherans should consider more modern views on ‘this doctrine’... God is still speaking to us. (Emphasis added).
In other words, Bishop Hanson is saying (1) That when the Bible (which he euphemizes as “biblical writers”) doesn’t say what we want it to, we should feel free to believe what we want to, and (2) The Bible isn’t finished being written. By changing what the Bible says and by telling his people to follow him rather than Scripture, he is matching marks (I), (II), (V) and (VII) above. This places him more and more within the spirit of the antichrist. But it does not make him, or his office, the antichrist. There are others who match all of the marks. But he is showing himself to be following that spirit more and more. We can be thankful that God has not permitted Bishop Hanson’s sinful attitude to destroy the faith of many or most of the Christians who sit in the pews of that church. But it is time for that church to reconsider his leadership.
Nearly everybody has doubts about his or her faith at some time. How can I be sure that my doubt won’t be used by the antichrist? How can I be sure that I haven’t been deceived? John answers that question in the very next words of his epistle. We’ll meditate on them next time, but let’s hear them right now:
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
Quote from Bishop Hanson taken from Associated Press article published at fcasa.wordpress.com, December 7th, 2009.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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