Don’t Get Fooled – Make Sure Your Following Of God Is…Following God
Word-of-the-Day: ‘(1) 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. (4) 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 4:1-4)
Iran’s Islamic government is of their denomination of Shia, which is somewhat of an orthodoxic, hardline form of Islam where the Muslims (the followers of Islam) await the 12th Imam, or their version of a messiah to usher in a 12th Levant, or a global Islamic rule subjugating the world. It is the opposite of Christianity, as our Messiah, Jesus, who has already come to provide Himself as our Ultimate Sacrifice, will return again to defeat evil, imprison Satan, and provide a global rule of God’s love over the world, not under subjugation but under grace.
Unfortunately, though the Shia denomination of Islam is a minority, roughly ten percent of Islam is Shia as opposed to the ninety percent of Sunni, it attracts many people due to this orthodoxy and propensity to undertake violence to achieve its goals, to usher in the 12th Imam and his rule. Recently we saw two young men from eastern Pennsylvania, imitating terrorist techniques used by ISIS, a group that had tried, and fortunately failed, to set up a Levant nation in the Middle East; attempting to use homemade grenades to kill and injure members of an anti-Islam protest in front of Gracie Mansion, the home of the New York City mayor.
The grenades failed to explode, and the young men where arrested. Their parents’ homes in Pennsylvania, large mansions, were searched along with storage units, where more explosives and devices were found. Their parents were not radical, according to reports, but were Afghan immigrants who came over 20 years ago to pursue the American dream, wanting peace and security. The boys, however, fell to the lies of the false message, to commit crimes against others to achieve a false reward, promised but one that could never be fulfilled. They were snared into the trap of extremism which exhorts that what is advertised as ‘good’ can only be pursued through evil and destructive actions.
The Apostle John in his first letter to primarily Gentile Believers (considered to be written as such as it is without Jewish phrases or references), writes more in an emphatic style of imploration than Paul, who provides his letters as instructive in explanatory terms. John implores us in the beginning of 1 John 4 to be cautious and not fall into the trap of false promises made in the name of God, such as what happened to these two young men. It is obvious they were following a false religion raised by a false prophet that was not of Christ, so it is clear that they would never, unless told of Christ, understood or been able to acknowledge that their allegiance was not Godly.
This is common sense to see those who are not Believers and Followers of Christ but of another religious sect to be ignorant of God’s ways and thus be at the whims of evil, ungodly spirits. It is more difficult for those who believe they are Christian, and think they are following the Lord, but are not. A progressive church and the people who follow a progressive doctrine often fall for the false belief that God changes with the whims of society. The current social whims associated with shifting morals on gender and sexuality are among many issues that draw people away from foundational Biblical principles.
Progressivism in the church can draw people away from bedrock principles of God. Similar to progressive politics drawing away citizens from the bedrock principles of the US Constitution, progressivism often uses what people believe is preferred over what is necessary to maintain foundational principles, whether it be the church or the nation. In both cases, the Bible and the Constitution don’t change in what it says, but the interpretation of what they say and mean changes through progressive propaganda, to change the meaning through how people feel it should mean in interpretation.
The spirit of the antichrist uses feelings, tapped by progressive thought, to have a budding Christian interpret God’s principles of abhorring homosexuality or the harming of children into more of an accepted practice of allowing such activities. These falsehoods, and many more led by false prophets proclaiming to be Godly when in fact they are not. This leads to sin being proclaimed as good or righteous, when God’s principles and his definition of those acts are still sinful and abhorrent.
It is the following of the Holy Spirit, and understanding and accepting that God and His principles never change, that overcome the spirit of the antichrist. The Believer in Faith, who stays in tune with the Holy Spirit and overcomes the desire to use feelings by obedience to God’s Word, overcomes the spirit of the antichrist, by testing such feelings against the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The more one is tuned in to Jesus, through the study of His Word, prayer, and in Fellowship with other Believers, will be better equipped to quickly discover what is Righteous in Christ and what is unrighteous in the spirit of the antichrist.
John’s exhortation to follow the Spirit is not only for us to remain steadfast in the foundational principles of the Lord, but to overcome the spirit of the antichrist in the fabric of our progressive society. The two young men who committed terrorism in the name of Islam, had they been introduced to the Gospel of Christ, may have decided not to act out in the manner that they did. Their actions were not of following Christ, but of a false god of a false religion based on a false doctrine. It is very important not only for us to follow God’s Word, but to provide the Gospel to other and teach them His ways so that they may gain the foundation we have to build upon.
