Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ
There are further tests contained in 1 John 4. Read v 6 and 20-21 https://www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/1jo/4/1/s_1163001
v 6 includes "he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." So anyone not listening to the apostles' preaching (what is recorded in the Bible) is not from God.
V 21 includes "If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar |
v 6 is not really a "further test" it is part of 1 John 4:2-6. It surely refers to that already mentioned in 1 John 4:2-3. If we reject the apostle's first-hand testimony of 1 John 4:2-3 about Christ's having a human body then we have the spirit of error.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ
Evangelical seems to be alone in forcing us to use only three verses for discernment of what one says and is foolhardy to exclude the Bible and the old testament in particular! Dangerous! That's what got a lot of us into trouble in TLR. Run from such talk.
I'm done arguing this point any further.
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Using the OT for discernment of the New Testament Spirit of Christ is a bad idea and might lead one to works-based salvation and works-based discernment (the Pharisees evaluated Christ's and the disciple's works against the Old Testament to discern that He was not the Messiah). If the Old Testament was to be used in this case then John and Paul would have referred us to the OT in 1 John 4:2-3, 1 Cor 12:3, 1 John 4:15. They didn't.
Using the Old Testament for spiritual discernment will lead one down the path of Judaism, not Christianity.
Using "the Bible for discernment" is a cover for meaning we pick and choose whatever criteria we like from the New or Old Testaments, and use that to evaluate a person's spirit or ministry. This is none other than a self-driven method of discernment which is quite different to the simple tests proposed by the apostle Paul and John, which served them well in the problems with the gnostics and Judaizers in the early church.