“But Test the Spirits, Whether They Are of God.”

“But Test the Spirits, Whether They Are of God.”

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is now already in the world.”

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.” 2 John 7-8.

We can see that in these days the entire religious world has been deceived by the spirit of the Antichrist. Only very few want to hear that according to the flesh Jesus was born of the seed of David. Rom. 1:3-4. We see that this is a part of the gospel, and those who do not want to accept that part, but only want to hear about Jesus’ resurrection, they have no gospel. Those who do not want to hear that God condemned sin in Jesus’ flesh also do not believe that the requirement of the law is to be fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:3-4. Neither do they have any use for the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill the requirement of the law. Many people speak much about the baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit, but then they think about good feelings and signs and wonders.

They have also not heard that Jesus partook of flesh and blood as the children, and that He, through death, destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and that Jesus was tempted when He suffered and can thereby aid those who are tempted. The spirit of the Antichrist explains all these things away, which is understandable for us, because this is how he maintains his power, and the people do not get to hear the gospel. Heb. 2:14-18.

When Jesus says, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27), they do not believe that Jesus went before and bore His cross. When they hear about Jesus’ cross, they only think about Calvary whereby we—through His death—can receive the forgiveness of sins. All the preachers who have the spirit of the Antichrist speak like that. Therefore you will not find “the word of the cross” in their preaching, which is to us the power of God to salvation. 1 Cor. 1:18, 23.

Therefore, those who hear the preaching of the Antichrist will never come to the redemption and the life of which Paul testifies in his own life: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20.

There is strife, division, and sin among these religious groups because they do not hear the gospel. They walk in the flesh; therefore they are not Christ’s. However, they do hear about being perfect in Him, because God sees us through Jesus’ blood, and they invite people to the foot of the cross and sing “Under the blood, under the blood!”

They say “bondage” to the exhortation to work out your salvation with fear and trembling; therefore they do not come to “That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Phil. 2:12-15.

John had led them into this salvation and this work, but he was afraid that this deception of the Antichrist—that Jesus had not come in the flesh—would cause them to lose what they had gained by their work. 2 John 6-9.