9. Spiritual Deception

The holy Bible is the only thing that we can know for sure is TRUTH.

Therefore, the Bible must be our source for HOW we are going to determine what is true.

The apostle John wrote the book of 1 John so that we would KNOW if we are truly saved. In the book, the Holy Spirit inspired him to write a warning about false teaching and error that is in the world.

1 John 4:1 Beloved,

believe not every spirit,

but try the spirits whether they are of God:

because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

By “believe not” in this verse, God is commanding us to NOT TRUST every voice in the world.

By “every” in this verse, God is commanding us to not ASSUME that one source of knowledge is true just because it comes from a “trusted advisor” or a “dependable” source of knowledge in your life – past or present.

By “spirit” in this verse, God is teaching us that there is something or someone BEHIND the source of knowledge from which we are getting our information.

He went on to say that there are “spirits” SPEAKING in our world for and against God’s truth.

1 John 4:6 We are of God:

he that knoweth God heareth us;

he that is not of God heareth not us. hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error,

The difficult thing to consider is WHERE the error or misinformation may be coming from.

For example, suppose that you correctly assume the Bible contains truth. There is no doubt the Bible says God’s word IS TRUTH! So, when people quote from a Bible, you may assume they must be speaking truth. However, there are some potential problems with this thinking...

Which Bible?

Which people?

Which religion?

Which context?

Which spirit?

There are over 300 English Bibles.

The Bible is written to 3 people groups – Jew, Gentile, Church. All false religions QUOTE a Bible.

All false cults take Bible verses OUT of context.

The Bible says there are spirits of truth and ERROR.