This article is not a commentary on the merits and demerits of a certain type of test for pupils in a classroom, but it is intended to point out a need for the testing of spirits. 1 John 4:1 states our theme in a very impressive way. “Beloved, believe not every Spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

The aged apostle knew the two greatest commandments, and he emphasized them much in his life and in his teachings. He was not in love with worldliness, heresy, or with the hypocrisy that characterized some “false prophets.” He could sincerely call humble and faithful brethren, “beloved,” but his term for those who brought in damnable heresies was “false prophets.” This is an often repeated expression in our New Testament.

John asked the disciples in his day to “believe not every Spirit.” Has there ever been a day when the devil did not have counterfeit prophets working among the faithful? Peter was looking backward over the centuries before him when he said, “There were false prophets also among the people.” (2 Peter 2:1-3). He immediately pointed toward our day and even beyond, no doubt, when he added, “There shall be false teachers among you.”

It is impossible to agree with all the doctrines taught by the religious world around us. These doctrines are often contradictory. It is sad but true that it is impossible to agree with all who call themselves gospel preachers. Twenty years ago the churches were confused over the theory of Premillennialism. The theory was right or it was wrong. It could not be both. Truth could free congregations of this disturbance if plainly taught and humbly accepted. The same could be said of the problems of the instrument in worship, the missionary society, and other problems that have disturbed the church in America.

There is a correct answer for every disturbing problem. Please believe this. (2 Tim. 8:16-17). Our grandchildren may see the answers to our problems better than we. We see the fruits of the digressive movement, but it is too late for the great minds of seventy-five or a hundred years ago to see the fruit of their big mistakes. Division came, truth suffered, and souls were lost because they did not see their errors then and correct them.

We cannot agree with every preacher now any more than one could honestly be on both side of the questions concerning the missionary societies, instruments of music, and Premillennialism. There is a correct answer to each disturbing question now as there was then. Seek the truth (buy it and sell it not) rather than halt between two very contradictory doctrines. The church may do its work through church supported hospitals, schools, camps, benevolent societies, and “sponsoring elders,” or it may not. To take both sides sincerely is an impossibility. The liberals and conservatives now are as far apart as the liberals and conservatives were seventy-five years ago. Can any informed person deny this?

Our text suggests that we “try the spirits whether they are of God.” We cannot believe them all, but we can try them all. How are we to try them? One good answer comes through the centuries from another troubled age. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” (Jer. 6:16). This just means that one should get off the fence of indifference and find the narrow way of truth and holiness. One must seek to find. One must knock if he would find an open door. Only those who study can “handle aright the word of truth.”

The old paths are much older than some practice of twenty-five or forty years. We are to look in the scriptures for commandment, example, or necessary inference since the Lord’s ways are as far above our ways as the heavens are above the earth. We are to “walk by the same rule.” (Phil. 3:16). We are to “speak as the oracles of God.” (1 Pet. 4:11).

The Bible was written for you if you are willing to obey. (John 7:17). Christ preached his sermons to the common people who could understand. The “doctors of the law” had closed their ears so they could not understand. Are you distressed? You are if you love the church. You are if you are aware of the powerful divisive forces abroad in the land. You surely “have great heaviness and continual sorrow’‘ in your heart as you see the Israel of God scattered as sheep having no shepherd. (Rom. 9:1-3). Are you confused and uncertain whom you should follow? Then remember the Lord’s invitation to follow him. No man goes to the Father except by him. Are you pinned to the coat tail of some “scholar” among us? No human ties should hinder your pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul called others “false prophets.” (2 Cor. 11:13). Evidently he had been accused of being a false apostle himself. The last few chapters of 2 Corinthians defend his apostleship. Christ was here to oppose Beelzebub, but some said he was Beelzebub. True prophets were called false prophets and were bitterly persecuted. Do you know an exception? That was Stephen’s question in Acts 7:52. Paul, in defending his apostleship for their sake, said, “Not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.”

Your senses must be “exercised to discern both good and evil.” Your decisions in the coming months will effect the church in your community, your children’s spiritual welfare, and your eternal destiny. If you rely on a man to point out the true servants and the true doctrine he may point to false teachers and damnable heresies. The man may be heretic himself. You could not tell by his power of oratory, his scholarship, or his personality. Let us turn to the law of Christ and to the testimony of our God. Let each of us study for himself and examine himself as we strive to “try the spirits”.

(Preceptor, Volume 8, 1959)