Testing the Teaching
1st John 4:1
March 26th Devotional
On this day in 1997, authorities entered a mansion near San Diego. What they found that day would forever haunt them. They discovered the bodies of 21 women and 18 men dead. Their ages, education, occupations, and lives were all different, but they were all found that fateful morning wearing matching dark clothing and wearing Nike shoes. Their bags were packed neatly by their beds as if they were going to take a trip. There was no blood, no signs of struggle, or trauma. Many of the victims wrote letters or sent videotapes home explaining what was going to happen. How did nearly 40 people die, all in a similar fashion? They were all members of a cult called “Heaven’s Gate.” The cult was created in 1974 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, also known as Do and Ti. They claimed to be the two prophets in the book of Revelation. Their perverse teaching hinged on UFOs, New Age philosophy, and twisting of Biblical truth. This cult’s teaching revolved around the idea that the human body could be released from its limited bonds and go to the ‘next level of evolution.’ The belief was that the body was merely a container or a vehicle for their soul until they could become a form of extraterrestrial. Applewhite gained a small but dedicated group of followers over the years. The group would nearly become extinct after making multiple false prophecies, that is until the 1990s. In the year 1995, Applewhite became convinced that the comet Hale-Bopp was hiding a spaceship that was meant to transport his followers from this world. His followers were reclusive and were forbidden from having contact with others outside of the cult's compound. They were denied many necessities and some even castrated themselves because they would no longer need their human body. Hale-Bopp reached its closest and the group began a very systematic and orchestrated practice of ritualistic suicide. Members assisted each other in drinking a poison that would take their lives. This lasted for several days until the final two members died. There is only one major common thread among those 39 people who tragically died, they were all deceived by false teaching. False teaching has always been prevalent. It existed when the church was in its infancy and it will continue through the future.
Some false teaching is obviously wrong. It’s easy for most people to look at a UFO cult like Heaven’s Gate and say “how could someone believe that craziness?” But most false teaching isn’t as blatantly out there. Most false teaching is packaged to look Christian and Biblical. The most successful and longest-lasting cults are those that mix a bit of false teaching with the truth. How can a Christian know what is true and what’s not true? How do you know that a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness, or any other group is wrong? What is the basis of right and wrong doctrine and how do we gracefully minister to those that are currently under false teaching? The Apostle John challenges us with these words “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1st John 4:1).” John first tells the believer to not be naïve: don’t believe every spirit. He’s saying that not everyone will be right, if anything many will be wrong. But what is the measuring stick by which we determine if something is believable or not? We test the ‘spirits’ or the teaching. The word test is unique. The word means to try or scrutinize something. It was a word used to test see if a material was real or fake. As Christians, we need to try all teaching based solely on the entire Word of God. Bogus teaching falls apart at the feet of the Scripture. Cherry-picked verses rot when compared to the full authority of God’s Word. John tells us to test all teaching with the Word of God to see if it is true or not. Let’s not run to the newest craze or the hippest new preacher, instead let’s discern the message with the unfailing, unchanging Word of truth. Let us be testers of teaching, not tasters.
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