Don't Believe Every Spirit

The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Beloved, 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. (1 John 3:24 – 4:1)

Last time I dwelt on the phrase here test the spirits. There are many important places in this passage where I see things that fill in just what is involved in doing this most important work and I want to explore them much more thoroughly. But first I want to revisit this verse and the phrase that caught my attention this morning, do not believe every spirit.

Lately there seems to be an amping up of the spirit of fault-finding and accusing in many quarters of the church. That this is happening increasingly in politics is to be expected though it is becoming very wearing. But within the body of churches who claim to be followers of the teachings and example of Jesus this is very disconcerting.

Recently I wanted to tap into resources that would provide ongoing news and information about some of the divisive issues swirling around in our church. I have spent some time in discussion groups on the internet and have at times engaged in various discussions as well as reading articles that have helped to give me broader perspectives. Many of the things I have read have helped to give me better understanding and some of them have been very inspirational and useful. But at the same time I have also been alarmed at the high number of people on both sides of these issues who seem to have little regard for the words of Jesus about the spirit that should be reflected by His disciples while they strongly assert that they are following biblical truth and have plenty of proof texts to support their rigid, inflexible beliefs.

Some of these people are ready to deride others who do not see things the way they do and apparently want to consign others to be lost based on which side of certain topics they choose to endorse. Yet the tone of their own comments is so strident at times that it makes me alarmed. But what concerns me even more is how easy I find it to respond in a similar fashion and make my own strong statements in reply to them. I find that I have to constantly pray for a more humble spirit all the time I am composing a statement to post in these discussions lest I discredit the very truths about God that are changing my own life and perspectives and freeing me from the very prejudices that I see in others.

What I am seeing – and this is certainly nothing new – are people assuming that if they just assert their own conclusions strongly enough that maybe someone else will be intimidated to change their opinions from the other side of some issue and join them. They seem to believe that truth apparently has to have more force behind it so that others will be convinced that it is true. Yet when I have pointed out that when often the real problem is faulty assumptions about the meanings of words or much deeper issues than the topics under discussion that are far more important and concern our fundamental attitudes and views of how God wants us to see things, almost without exception no one even notices.

I am not suggesting that I am feeling miffed because my comments are not appreciated. What I am saying is that I am baffled at times when people desire to argue endlessly using illogical reasoning or worse yet, depending on traditions passed down from unbiblical sources without any willingness to examine their own assumptions. I often see that many are relying on singular references to prop up their insecure positions on some subject while remaining unwilling to honestly consider the validity of their opponents line of thinking.

John here warns us about the danger of believing every spirit. But that is a curious way of putting it that we don't normally discuss. Our methods of testing almost without fail come down on the side of testing assertions based on the accuracy of how they fit our interpretations of key texts that we rely on to prop of our agendas. But I have seen very little attention paid, either from the people writing articles and especially among those engaged in vigorous debate after the articles, who are giving any weight to this instruction to test every spirit. I wonder if that is because we are so far removed from an intelligent awareness of what is going on in our own spirit that it is just easier to ignore this teaching. This results too often in freeing us from divine inhibitions so we treat others any way we feel like when they see things differently than us.

As I read these words this morning that I need to beware of what spirits I believe, I am reminded of the vital importance that our spirit has to our salvation. I am coming to realize that the devil has a very easy time keeping people distracted with intellectual sparring over issues that we feel are vital for the unity of the church while not noticing that the spirit motivating our own hearts is very often the real cause of disunity. It matters far less that we can successfully prove our positions on some topic than the spirit that we allow to control us while discussing them. What I am observing is that on the part of many there is little reluctance to accuse others harshly while insisting that everyone has to agree with their particular interpretations and think there is nothing amiss in their own spirit. Yet to me it seems rather evident that this attitude is more in line with the one that the Bible calls 'the accuser of the brethren'.

I am coming to see more and more that a far better method for measuring what is valid or safe for us to consider is the atmosphere surrounding the person in regards to their spirit. Deception is very easy to disseminate when it comes to facts, proof-texts, quotations and arguments. In addition, because there is such a wide diversity of meanings behind our words it is impossible to communicate with others without some level of misunderstanding. But too often our statements move beyond misunderstanding to intentional deception whether that happens consciously or without our conscious awareness.

To combat error, we can try to spend enormous amounts of time and energy trying to decipher what is factually true, untrue, provable or disprovable. But we will usually only accomplish taking ourselves and others into even greater confusion and deeper prejudices. We are surrounded with people eager to get us to believe their version of what they are certain is gospel truth. But what I have been learning is that much of what is being promoted as truth has very little if any real 'good news' within it. And many of these interactions contain large doses of intimidation, fear and threats that if we do not accept some particular position that we are endangering our souls for eternity.

My own father was caught up in this vortex of intensity and became very bitter and combative for a number of years. He, like many I encounter today, was sure that his salvation depended on the accuracy of his beliefs while largely ignoring the condition of his own spirit. He believed like many do that truth is solely in the arena facts, doctrines and cognitive beliefs and that the spirit is just a topic somewhere down the list to be considered as another item to study.

But over the years God has been convicting me that my spirit and my attitudes are the main issue, not a peripheral side note. This truth can frighten many who are highly dependent on carefully crafted arguments to support their dogmatic positions and they usually reject such suggestions out of hand. But the more I open myself up to receiving insights from God's Spirit in the context of His Word, the more I cannot avoid that God seems to be primarily concerned with this area of my life while all the other facts and proofs and discussions are mainly supplementary for conditioning my spirit in preparation for integration into a society of holy, joyful beings.

Satan's greatest decoy is not to confuse us on the accuracy of what day is the Sabbath, what happens to people when they die or who we should ordain. Satan's most effective weapon to keep us in deception is to get us to obsessively study facts about doctrines in order to attack others in an accusing spirit. Just because I may gain a broad grasp of factual and doctrinal truth in no way is assurance that I am experiencing a saving, transformational relationship with God. If Jesus tried to teach anything it was this point. The Jews in His day were similar to many of us today who are confident that we know the truth from our study of the Scriptures while oblivious to the condition of own own spirit.

It takes special watchfulness to keep the affections alive and our hearts in a condition where we shall be sensible of the good that exists in the hearts of others. If we do not watch on this point, Satan will put his jealousy into our souls; he will put his glasses before our eyes, that we may see the actions of our brethren in a distorted light. Instead of looking critically upon our brethren we should turn our eyes within, and be ready to discover the objectionable traits of our own character. As we have a proper realization of our own mistakes and failures, the mistakes of others will sink into insignificance.

Satan is an accuser of the brethren. He is on the watch for every error, no matter how small, that he may have something on which to found an accusation. Keep off from Satan's side. {TMK 181}

When I hear comments that are forceful and have a sharp thrust to them, I realize that the intensity of the writer is intended to push others to agree with them and come to believe that what they have to say is the truth. But John here is saying that truth is not necessarily found by intellectual investigation but will be discerned by first paying attention to the kind of spirit that is present in the medium of delivery.

This of course indicts me along with everyone else. I am keenly aware of how often my own spirit becomes defensive, combative and at times even accusing. I am far from consistently reflecting the spirit of humility that I am beginning to see marks the character of God. It still seems like an oxymoron to view God as being extremely humble, especially God the Father. Yet I have to stick with that conclusion because Jesus and the Father are exactly alike and Jesus clearly was the perfect example of humility. Thus it only follows that the most likely sources of God's kind of truth will be those who most closely reflect the spirit of Jesus rather than the spirit of the accuser.

So what happens when a person might have 'truth', factual, biblical, verifiable doctrines, and yet delivers these ideas utilizing methods and attitudes more reflective of the accuser? Am I to attempt to separate the information away from the person, or will that only cause me to become infected with the highly contagious virus of criticism by interacting with them at all? Do I have to embrace factual truth from people who are unwilling to be molded by the gentle spirit of Jesus, or might I be better off drawing back a bit from them and waiting for God to send someone more in tune with His ways to share with me where I might be doctrinally misinformed?

I am not taking a hard position here but am wrestling with real questions that remain partially unanswered in my own mind. Given my own track record of discouraging others by coming on too strong with 'truth' at times, I wonder how people should relate to me when I am on the delivery end of this issue. Either way, it seems that clearly there is a serious and pervasive problem in the body of Christ of ignoring the state of our spirit while putting far too much weight on winning arguments and trying to force our beliefs on those around us. I find myself having to turn away from some of the debates in order to quiet and rejuvenate my own spirit by dwelling on the beauties and attractiveness of God in His presence in order to regain my own perspective and peace. And I long to be completely free of the aggressive edge that too often creeps into my own interactions with others when I seek to share with them what I have been learning about God.

So I come back to the clear instruction of John that I must learn how to test every spirit. I am reminded that this includes testing the right spirits as well as the wrong ones. God's Spirit along with all those who reflect His Spirit in their own lives, are never afraid of being tested, for their value does not come from what others think of them but from God alone. On the other hand, every false spirit will be afraid of being challenged because there are always elements within them that might be exposed as fraudulent when increased light is brought to bear.

The light that I must learn to use to examine every spirit must be light received from the only reliable Source of truth. That means I must maintain daily a close connection in my own spirit with the Spirit of truth in order to have enough light in me to discern whether a spirit is of God or whether it is otherwise no matter how factually accurate someone may be. I am learning that the more important part for me is to make the choice that Mary did when she broke all the rules and chose to sit with men at Jesus' feet instead of remaining in the role that everyone expected her to play. Marinating in the presence of Jesus is the only way I know to absorb more of His spirit and mindset so as to be better prepared when I encounter a need to test another spirit.

Test Every Spirit

The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Beloved, 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 3:24 – 4:3)

These verses contain one of my father's favorite proof texts that he abused to support his favorite doctrine about the nature of Christ. Subsequently I developed for many years an aversion to this verse. But not long ago as I was reading this again it struck me what the true meaning of this text really is and I found myself getting really excited about it instead of avoiding it. This has happened with me in regards to a number of proof texts he used that were seriously distorted to often imply nearly the very opposite of what they actually were intended to convey when taken in proper context.

The world around me which includes my church seems to be intensifying in conflict. Attitudes are sharpening, people are polarizing over singular issues and proponents from both sides are employing similar tactics to demand that their opinions are right and everyone else is not just wrong but downright dangerous. Too often deception is also employed to attempt to cover up evidence that may discredit their position while emphasizing verses and quotations that make their position look favorable. All this is creating battle lines behind which all neutral parties are demanded to choose sides and give support.

This greatly concerns me, for most of the time I find myself in disagreement with the hard-line positions on both sides of these issues. What I am observing is that people who approach their search for truth in this manner often don't want other people to really study and pray and contemplate the issues for themselves but simply want others to take their opinions as the truth. The mindset of simply accepting what other 'experts' have researched is promoted over wrestling with issues individually with an open mind and a humble heart. Today there is more and more emphasis on facts and knowledge and proving who is right and wrong and less attention to the condition of the heart and the spirit.

Yet the more that I immerse myself in these teachings of Jesus, particularly in the writings of John, I find myself wondering why both sides on these issues get so worked up and even angry at times as they attack each other openly in a spirit that is anything but like what I am finding in my reflections on the life of Jesus. It seems that any attempts on the part of some to move toward an experiential relationship with God is viewed with great suspicion by those eager to control other people's minds and dictate to them what they should believe. It almost appears that such people are afraid to trust the Holy Spirit to bring unity to the body of Christ and they feel that unless they can control the direction of investigation and dictate how everything should be interpreted that disaster is sure to result.

This brings me back to what came to my attention this morning as I read this passage again. John says here that many prophets have gone out into the world. That means that these prophets came from the group of Christ-followers, the church as we would now call it. But he did not necessarily imply that they intended to leave the church; he simply said that they went out into the world.

It occurred to me that many today who claim to speak for God in our church go out into the world to warn the world, to scold the world, to condemn those in the world believing that somehow these tactics will somehow intimidate or frighten people into wanting to join our church. At the same time people are lining up on the other side of the same issues from inside the church accusing those who are claiming to speak for God as being false prophets. Both sides say that anyone who is on the opposite side of any issue is wrong and is trying to split the church with their resistance to truth. But in reality it appears to me that both sides are participating in a very similar spirit, the spirit of fault-finding, criticism, slander, condemnation and even at times deception in order to vindicate their own positions.

There are at least two definitions for what a prophet is that comes to my attention. One is that a prophet is someone who supposedly speaks on God's behalf to others who do not have such a connection with God. Another definition, and one that is more common in the world is that a prophet is someone who can foretell the future accurately. But does not this include people who predict dire consequences to come upon the church if the church does not align itself with their views and opinions about the hot topic of the day? Are not our attempts to intimidate others by predicting terrible results if people don't agree with us a form of prophesying? Or such prophets may enjoy assaulting the outside world with predictions of vengeance from an offended God if they do not 'repent' and align their beliefs with those of the church. But what spirit is behind all of these dire predictions, these stern prophecies of warning?

What I find compelling in these words of John is that his focus is not on the accuracy of the facts or doctrines that one side or the other may be promoting but rather is instructing us to test every spirit. Now, if your theology has not yet taken into account that each person has a spirit you may find yourself casting about or confused as to what might be implied here. But having accepted that truth some years ago, I now firmly believe that the real issue that is vital to understand and that affects each person's salvation is the condition of our own spirit in alignment to God's Spirit. There are many spirits in this world, both supernatural spirits of demons and heavenly messengers, but also there are as many spirits besides those as there are living people on the earth today.

Each spirit of each person has the means of communicating in some way with other spirits in ways we don't understand very well. But this communication takes place between us whether we are even aware of it or not. What has long been understood is that spoken or written words are only a very small segment of the real communication that takes place between us. Much more is communicated through the means of body language, voice tone and even things like scents and touch. But beyond all of those things there is the reality of how our spirits communicate attitudes and information that is beyond our conscious awareness but that may in fact be even more efficient that we ever dared to consider.

This concept is very intimidating to those who want to believe in a religion based solely on cognitive facts alone. It means that they cannot control information nearly as much as they would like to believe and as a reaction many move toward denying these realities about the spirit realm. They do not want to believe that there are channels of communicating that may be conveying things they cannot control, so they simply deny that it is happening. But that does not change the fact that it is still taking place. It only means that such ones are choosing to remain in ignorance about a whole segment of activity that is having an enormous impact on everyone's lives whether they are aware of it or not.

I have noticed over the years that many people have taken this verse and immediately twisted it to mean nearly the opposite of what it actually says. Rather than admitting that there is such a thing as our spirit and that it does communicate a great deal whether we consciously perceive it or not, they use this text to insist that we must test every doctrine, every belief, every fact by how it aligns with the Bible. Of course what happens next is that they insist on personally determining how each passage must be interpreted in the Bible to prove what they already want to believe. But all of this misses the main point of what John is talking about here. He is not telling us that we should test every cognitive doctrine we come across to see if it is factually provable or not; he is talking about something completely different here – the condition of a person's spirit. But if we have ignored or denied the whole reality of the spirit world and how we constantly interact with it through our own spirit, this verse makes little sense.

One reason that many do not want to take this instruction at face value may be because if their own spirit were to come under examination it might be exposed to be very unlike the spirit that was seen in the Jesus they claim to represent. Yet it is our spirit and the condition of our spirit that has the most effect on our influence for good or for evil. It is the condition of our spirit that determines whether we are safe to live and interact in the presence of holy angels or whether we would be abjectly miserable in an atmosphere of pure unselfishness. And it is our spirit that betrays whether we are really speaking on behalf of God or whether we are promoting our own agenda.

Jesus made it abundantly clear that there will be those who show up on judgment day – the day when the secrets of every heart will be publicly exposed – fully expecting to be ushered into paradise only to discover that the condition of their spirit has disqualified them to live in the presence of the Lamb. They will be very confused and will engage in arguing with the Judge, claiming they they had the truth all down pat and have done everything they felt God had required of them to be saved. But all of this is completely ignored as the Judge responds that He simply does not know them. This is not because they did not have their arguments about factual truth figured out enough, but rather because they had indulged in a spirit throughout their lifetime that was foreign to the spirit of heaven.

I take this warning by John very seriously. Testing every spirit is not just a suggestion but is something that may determine my eternal destiny in the light of what I just noted above. I have come to realize that the condition of my spirit has far, far more to do with my fitness for heaven than any amount of good deeds or correctness of doctrine may ever accomplish. I am not inferring that false doctrines make no difference. Rather I am saying that a dependence on a cerebral religion that ignores or minimizes the state of our inner being and the spirit that we cherish is a counterfeit religion that will result in eternal death. It is a fraud no matter how succinctly we may be able to proof-text our beliefs. Only by having our spirit synchronized with the Spirit of God can we become fitted to live in the company of holy angels and in the presence of God. And this must begin with the choices we make right now that affect our spirit, not something that will magically happen to us sometime off in the future.

The surrounding passage of this verse gives important clues as to how to test every spirit. I don't want to miss these clues or to misinterpret them. My own father for years made this very mistake by trying to lift this verse out of context to insist that salvation pivoted on whether one believed that Jesus had sinful flesh or not. But in doing so his spirit became so embittered and vindictive that in trying to push what he strongly believed was 'the truth' on everyone around him, he actually alienated everyone and became sour, depressed and even hateful. Not until he was allowed to suffer a series of strokes which removed him from the rabid sources of reading that fed his addition to critical attitudes could he respond to the spirit of love which is what his heart needed the most.

This demonstration of the effects of a wrong spirit has been a severe warning to me ever since that time. I too am in great danger of succumbing to the spirit of rightness, the spirit of criticism, the spirit of condemnation that has been in my family for generations. But God has been convicting me for years of my need to allow the mind of Christ to take shape in me as I learn to abide in Him and let Him abide in me. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

But it is not just enough to claim that we have the spirit of God in us. Many claim to have the spirit of God while attacking others who disagree with them. This is why John immediately says that we must test every spirit, not just people's words. People who have a divisive spirit often go to great lengths to prove that their facts and doctrines must be believed because they can prove that truth is on their side. But no amount of proving or investigation or arguing will ever settle many matters under dispute. Rather, if we take the words of John seriously and learn how to check a spirit using the means that John lays out in this little book, we will discover that it is not nearly so difficult to detect who is really speaking on God's behalf and who is simply using God's name as a means of gaining access to our attention.

I wanted to get into the clues that I find all through this passage as to just how to go about testing spirits. But this post has already gotten so long that I feel I should explore that more thoroughly another time. But it is vital for anyone serious about wanting to come into alignment with God's Spirit and to not be deceived by spirits claiming to speak for God to spend time meditating on this passage. To really grasp the truths embedded here it is also very important to ask God's Holy Spirit to guide our minds, open our hearts and help us to lay aside every preconception so as to be open and humble and teachable enough to receive the truth as revealed in the life and death of Jesus.

Father, I ask that you test my spirit and transform my spirit to be in closer harmony with You through the work of renewing my mind and the presence of Your Spirit within me. Give me Your wisdom and Your humility and allow my heart to be warmed with Your passion of love. I am filled with so many misconceptions and distorted notions about You that confuse me. In addition I am bombarded with ideas and spirits of people insisting that they are speaking on your behalf. But often the spirit that I sense in them seems foreign to the gentle, loving Spirit that I have come to love about You. But worst of all I all too often detect that same spirit of harshness emanating from my own being as I passionately seek to share exciting truths I am discovering about You with people resistant to change. Please heal my spirit and cleanse me of everything that is not like Your Spirit. For ultimately it is Your reputation that is on the line most of all. Thank-you Jesus.

Fear and Punishment

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 4:18)

Over the past few years my understanding of the real truth about God, about how He deals with sinners and about rewards and punishments have radically changed from what I was taught growing up and what mainstream Christianity still teaches. I have come to discover in the Bible and through promptings from the Holy Spirit in my own study that God is very little like what He has been represented to be by those claiming to teach about Him. Rather He is exactly like what Jesus taught and demonstrated in His life while here on earth. I have come to realize the powerful implications of this truth and how much it indicts most of what we have assumed is truth.

Part of what I have learned has to do with how God plans to overcome the problem of evil and the lies of Satan about Him. Satan has done everything possible to deceive us in regards as to what God is like and unfortunately he has largely succeeded, especially among those professing religion. Far from helping to improve God's reputation and seeking to vindicate Him, much of what we believe about God is still reinforcing many false assertions about Him originated in the mind the the great deceiver. Yet through it all God patiently works to bring about a final resolution that will forever settle the issues without ever resorting to employing the tactics and methods of His enemy.

Fear is possibly the primary tool that Satan relies on to keep us in darkness about God. Of course deception is also the main instrument he uses to keep us afraid of God. Through the use of these two elements he has managed to prolong his tyranny for thousands of years even though the results have been tragic and painful. God will never change His tactics for meeting the charges against Him or resort to using force, intimidation and fear to overcome evil. Satan's methods are counterfeits of God's true ways and using them even for a moment would vindicate Satan's claims that they are necessary to keep order in the universe.

However, because all of humanity is deceived in regards to these things we have believed that God indeed does resort to using at least some of Satan's methods for control when things become too difficult for love to handle. But in believing such things about God all we have accomplished is to 'create' a God – a distortion of God at best – in our own image rather than believe the glorious truth about Him that Jesus revealed. God is not the kind of person we have always thought Him to be: arbitrary, harsh, waiting to punish those who reject His love or even One handing out rewards for good behavior. All of this has come as a surprising revelation to me over recent years as I have come to discover the real truth about the amazing character of our heavenly Father.

As I contemplated this verse this morning I was reminded of this and how much my fear of God has subsided over the years. When I was growing up I was so afraid of God's punishment that I came to hate Him secretly. Yet I was so intimidated by His assumed wrath that I was fearful to even admit to anyone or even to myself that I felt that way. I lived under a constant and increasing load of fear, guilt and condemnation trying desperately to somehow appease this angry God who seemed bent on finding any excuse to keep me from entering paradise.

In recent years I have come to realize that not only was my heart and mind filled with myriads of lies about God derived from religion, but that fear itself was my greatest enemy and that it was actually fear itself that was tormenting me ruthlessly. I still have residual pockets of this twisted thinking in my brain that tortures me at various times, for my healing from these many lies is far from complete. But the peace and the ability to even begin to love God spontaneously that I have begun to experience in recent years is in stark contrast to the heaviness of the fear that suffocated my heart for much of my life.

Out of curiosity I compiled a list of translations of the phrase from this verse that gives a broader perspective of the truth embedded here.

fear implies [that we are afraid of] punishment (2001)

where fear is, there is pain (BBE)

The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid (CVE)

fear has torment (Darby, KJV, Webster, MKJV)

fear involves punishment (EMTV, FAA, GW, ISV, NASB95, TSV)

fear has to do with punishment (ESV, GNB, NET, NIV, NRSV)

fear worries about punishment (FBV)

feare hath painefulnesse (Geneva)

fear suggests punishment (GSNT)

fear has punishment (LITV, NHEBYSE, RV, YLT)

fear has always torment (MNT)

fear implies punishment (TCNT)

fear involves pain (WNT)

What began to become obvious to me today is the truth that fear itself is the origin of the punishment and pain that we suffer while making us assume that it is God who is punishing us. Most Christians believe that God is in the punishing and rewarding business, but recently I have begun to realize that the whole system of rewards and punishments is a counterfeit of God's system of life-giving love alone. This truth can be seen from the very beginning of the Bible but has been largely overlooked. The two systems of operation or models for relationships was represented by two distinctly different trees in the Garden of Eden. This truth has long been little investigated but recently was brought to my attention in a book I am just finishing called The Demonization of God Unmasked by Oswald Grant.

In this book which is a very detailed examination of the enormous implications embedded in the wrong tree in particular, it is becoming clear to me that much of what we have long assumed was good and righteous and as emanating from God in our world can actually be traced back to the counterfeit system designed to keep us occupied pursuing the wrong version of 'good'. All of our lives we have assumed that all good comes from God, but clearly as seen in the very name of this tree, the tree that introduced sin and all its consequences into our world, there is a good that masks the fact that it ends up in death.

This tree, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as the Bible calls it, is representative of the whole counterfeit system of living as promoted by the archenemy of God. This enemy is so smart – the smartest being in the universe other than God, at least at one time – that there is no hope of figuring out his deceptions ourselves. Only through revelations from God Himself can we ever hope to escape the massive labyrinth of lies that we find ourselves in as sinners. Only by choosing to believe that God is right and is the only source of both life and truth can we ever find salvation from the deep darkness and resulting death of sin.

For years I pondered the name of this tree and saw that one of the significant parts of its name was the word 'knowledge'. I could see how many are deceived, particularly through religion into thinking that what can save us is more knowledge. Thus we find ourselves obsessed with gaining more and more knowledge – information that is – and thinking that if we could just know enough accurate information that we could extricate ourselves with God's help from the deceptions of Satan's lies. But this is yet another decoy built into the labyrinth to keep us wandering around in circles caught in the darkness of deception. We do indeed need a knowledge to enter into true salvation, but the kind of knowledge that we must have is a very different kind of knowledge than that proposed in the name of this tree.

Jesus repeatedly told us that we do need a 'knowledge' to escape the trap of sin. But the kind of knowledge that will save us is not so much informational knowledge but is rather a heart-based, relational, experiential knowledge of coming to really know God personally and intimately. Only in knowing God and being empowered to respond positively to His agape love at the heart level can we ever hope to be salvaged and experience restoration from the damage that Satan's lies have caused in our psyche and our perceptions of reality. And while good information is certainly helpful in coming to know God, it can never a substitute for humbling ourselves to embrace the reality of the transforming power of grace and the real truth about God's character of pure love.

This is where Satan has set up his greatest deceptions to keep us from entering into this saving relationship with God. Satan has filled our hearts and the whole world with lies about God designed to make us afraid of Him in every way possible in order to prevent us from allowing Him to speak His truth into our souls that can heal our minds and hearts. As long as we believe false assertions about God we will remain infected and inhibited by fears that are unfounded but that tend to block us from allowing God to heal us and save us. Thus we can begin to see that fear itself is one of the most diabolical tools of the enemy of our souls that keeps us from entering into the salvation that God wants for us to experience.

Notice how closely fear is linked with the idea of punishment in this verse. Because we have believed that God is in the punishing business and we too often refuse to challenge that assumption, we block our own way to perceiving and appreciating many things about God that would unlock access to a far deeper intimacy with Him that would heal our minds and hearts. Fear is always involved in perpetuating lies about both God and punishment. When we insist on embracing Satan's assertions that God is waiting to punish all those who resist His love, we in turn experience the natural consequences of pain and actually create a false reality within our own thinking where we interpret the suffering we experience as being imposed on us by an offended God.

The human mind has the amazing ability to construct false realities and then interpret everything that happens in such a way as to reinforce the assumptions within that counterfeit reality. For an example, consider the terrified cries of the lost in Revelation 6:16 where they fully believe that Jesus is a lamb full of wrath. Such absurdity can only be understood when one begins to grasp the powerful effect that believing such lies about God has on the human heart. When we insist on believing in and promoting a God who is supposedly both agape love while at the same time engaged in using violence, force and fear like His archenemy claims is necessary, our perceptions of reality remain so warped that total nonsense becomes the standard by which we perceive and experience life.

What really got my attention this morning however, was the insight that the torture that we assume is punishment from God is actually inherent in the very fears about God that we choose to cling to in our false assumptions about Him. Fear itself contains all the seeds of pain and suffering that results in the torments of the lost and even in much of the suffering we now experience. The lies about God that are believed so pervert the perception of reality that we too often are completely convinced that it is God who is the source of torture, not realizing that the torment is all coming from the inside.

Paul alludes to this truth in Romans. But, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up to thyself wrath, in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. (Romans 2:5 Darby) What I have come to realize is that the wrath anyone will experience, either on the final day of judgment when the real truth about God is finally revealed, and even much of the suffering we experience now that we attribute to God's punishing us, all comes from false ideas about God that we cling to inside of us. As we interpret life through the filters of these lies that God is intending to use violence against us at some point, the very seeds of that pain of torture are being stored away inside our hearts and minds that will spring up to bear the fruit of self torture. But that torture is all based on what is inside of us and in no way comes from the God of agape love.

When we experience torture or pain or discomfort in the presence of God's holiness, it is never because God desires for us to suffer that pain. The problem is always that whenever sin – lies about God and the resulting distrust that it produces in the heart – encounters increased revelations about God's true character of love and goodness, otherwise known as His righteousness, the dissonance created between our perceptions of Him and the real truth about Him results in resistance. And any electronics person will tell you that when a resistor experiences too much power that it results in overheating and eventual self-destruction. The very same is true of our resistance to the truth about God's agape love. That is why Paul says in this last verse that wrath is experienced when God's righteous judgment is revealed.

Again, I must remind us that judgment is yet another word that has largely been distorted and misunderstood. The way God uses the word has nothing to do with condemnation, for John 3:17 makes it explicitly clear that God is not in the condemning business. Rather, condemnation is a reaction of the human mind to dissonance when two opposing ideas cannot be reconciled inside our heads. Thus when we insist on clinging to lies about God's love and then come face to face with the truth of God's love, the dissonance between these two opposing forces creates immense pain and suffering and in the end will be the cause of eternal death for all those who are lost.

This truth is not only radical but is sadly rejected outright by the vast majority of people, both Christian or otherwise. But it still remains truth even if only a small minority choose to embrace it. It is a life-transformational truth that will alter the way we perceive reality and has the potential to open up our own hearts to experience God at much deeper levels than was possible previously. The more we choose to embrace the truth about God's singular character of agape love, the more we come into alignment with Him and are healed and saved by the revelation of that love to our hearts, particularly in contemplating the life and death of His Son Jesus Christ.

As John so clearly stated in the surrounding verses to the one we started with, God is love. He also stated categorically that the core message of the gospel – the good news about God – is the truth about what God is really like.

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

The implications of this verse is still opening up my perceptions in more and more areas of my own beliefs about God. As I come to see that many things that I still assume about God must be challenged in the light of emerging revelations about Him from His Word, the more my heart is beginning to open up to experience His presence and healing in my own soul. I am coming to realize that much of what I still believe about God has been derived from the wrong source – the tree that our first parents ate from and that perverted their whole perception of reality and what God was like. Ever since then we have lived under the delusions of Satan's lies about God, and only through the direct intervention of the Son of God can we come to be restored into the life-receiving relationship that we must have in order to live in the eternal life that He wants for us to enjoy in Him.

Years ago I began to realize through personal intense experience that my greatest enemy was fear itself. I wasted much of my life fighting against the things, the people or the situations that made me afraid until I began to realize that it was my own fear itself that was torturing and sucking the life out of me, not the things or people that made me afraid. Becoming aware of this I began to turn my attention toward focusing on God and the real truth about His character during the times when I was most tormented by fear and I found to my amazement that the fear could not remain in the presence of such power. I had begun to tap into the real power of agape love, a love that is unconditional and cannot be diluted in the slightest by anything we do. That was the whole point of what happened at the cross. Jesus demonstrated that nothing humans or demons could do to hurt Him could dampen His love and forgiveness even for a moment. And this truth will in the last days be the liberating revelation that will enlighten the whole world with the glory of God before the end finally comes. (see Revelation 18:1)

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him. By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world. (1 John 4:16-17 NET)

Propitiation

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

One of the words that has become a real problem for those wanting to understand the truth about God's justice and character shows up in these verses. In fact, these two verses are the only place this word shows up in the Bible unless you include the Greek Old Testament where it is translated 'atonement'.

The problem with the way this word is currently used commonly by most theologians and teachers is that it strongly implies that God is, or at least was, in desperate need of appeasement for the offense that our sins caused inside of Him. This appeasement model of salvation is pervasive throughout most of Christianity and also shows up in nearly every other major world religion. However, as I have been learning over recent years this contradicts the clear teachings of Jesus Himself who said unequivocally that there is no difference between Him and the Father.

This clear statement of Jesus presents a powerful argument against the appeasement model which raises all sorts of questions about the real meaning and purpose of the cross of Christ along with how to explain this word propitiation that John uses here. John, more than any of the other disciples, seemed to grasp the true mission and spirit of Jesus and sought to convey that more clearly than any other Bible writer. That is why it seems so incongruent for John to suddenly insert into a letter filled with some of the clearest statements about the purity of God's agape love such a word that many would imply reinforces something different than pure love, unless one is willing to compromise the purity of the definition of agape love.

It is extremely important to approach this study with an open mind and heart and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern the truth about Jesus in light of what He Himself taught about God rather than relying on our preconceived notions tainted by centuries of dark assumptions about God. What does this word actually mean and what did John have in mind when He made these statements about Jesus? It is important that this confusion be cleared in our thinking if we are to have confidence in the day of judgment as John asserts we need in 1 John 4:17.

As usual, I start with Strong's definition of the Greek word behind the term used and find this:

hilasmos - atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator: –propitiation (Strong's)

Atonement is another word that carries quite a bit of baggage with it similar to propitiation. However there is actually more clarity in this word if its roots are carefully unpacked. This word comes from two English words one of which is very old and obsolete. The obsolete word was 'one' which back in those days was used as a verb. A usage of this word could have been, “I am going to go over to my neighbor and one them with me.” This word 'one' literally meant to resolve differences, to reconcile, to restore peace and harmony between two individuals who had tension or offenses between them. Thus, the current word atonement literally means to bring into harmony two parties that were not in harmony before. This is exactly what Paul spoke of when he talked about our need to reconcile with God.

I looked up the word expiate from Strong's definition on the internet and found this definition:

expiate - to atone for; make amends or reparation for: to expiate one's crimes. (Dictionary.com)

This reflects the common usage of these terms which is no surprise, for that is exactly what dictionaries claim to do, to explain the most common meanings that currently are assumed for words that we use today. But just because the majority of people assume a word means something in no way should be taken to mean that our current understanding of a word is what God intended it to mean thousands of years ago in a different language. I always have to question the real meaning of any word that interferes with the singular truth about what God is like that Jesus came to reveal to the universe.

This is what John has to say in his first letter:

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (1 John 1:5; 4:8, 18)

From John's perspective, light and love are synonymous. Because of this there can be nothing in God that in any way resembles or employs the dark ways of His accuser. God does not participate in violence; He does not take offense, for offenses themselves are sin and in God is no sin. Therefore, God has no need to let go of any offense over sin because He has never taken offense to start with.

Most of the problems we have with legal-sounding terms in the New Testament is because many of those words were not actually translated from Greek but were borrowed from Latin versions of the Bible. And Latin is literally the language of law, so it is no surprise that using Latin to convey ideas that did not originate in that language is going to skew our perceptions of what the original author may have been trying to say. Let me go a bit farther in my search for the true meaning of this word propitiation to discover significant clues as to what John was really trying to say here. Following is a definition I found online that exposes the earlier meaning of this Latin word.

propitiation

late 14c., from L.L. propitiationem (nom. propitiatio) "an atonement," from L. propitiare "render favorable," from propitius "favorable, gracious, kind," from pro- "forward" + petere "go to" (see petition). Earliest recorded form of the word is propitiatorium "the mercy

seat, place of atonement" (c.1200), translating Gk. hilasterion.

propitiation. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/propitiation (accessed: August 21, 2012).

When this definition, the mercy seat, is applied to explain the word propitiation, a whole new door is opened up to understand what John was really trying to say about the mission and purpose of Jesus' death. A good understanding of the Old Testament sanctuary and its services is very helpful to know what this is talking about, for the symbols embedded in that system reveal enormous truths about the whole plan of salvation that are often misunderstood. But even more important is that we examine the sanctuary system from the perspective of first immersing ourselves in the teachings and life of Jesus and what He said about His Father so that the symbols and protocol carried out in the sanctuary services that were shadows of Jesus and His ministry for us with God can be more clearly perceived.

Without going into great detail at this point, the Mercy Seat was the central place on the most sacred piece of furniture in the whole sanctuary, located in the Most Holy Place where the most intense revelation of God's presence was manifested. It was on top of the Ark of the Covenant which had underneath its lid (the Mercy Seat) the (1) 10 Commandment Law on the tables of stone, (2) the Rod of Aaron that had budded miraculously and (3) a jar of Manna preserved from the time when God had provided food every day for the Children of Israel when they were wandering around in the desert for forty years.

Once a year on the most important and solemn day in the whole Jewish calendar called the Day of Atonement, the high priest after going through a routine of thorough ritual and physical cleansing took blood from a sacrifice representing the sins of all the people from the whole year into the Most Holy place. There in the intense presence of the Almighty God the priest sprinkled this blood of Atonement on the Mercy Seat to represent the cleansing of the sins of all God's people who had likewise gone through a number of days of ritual cleansing and heart searching to putting away of all sin and ill feelings from their own hearts. This was to bring about at-one-ment between God and His people.

This whole process was representative of humanity's desperate need to be restored back into trust and harmony with the Holy God from which we have been estranged so that we can be reconnected fully to the Source of life from which we have been largely alienated since Adam sinned in Eden. This Mercy Seat demonstration in the sanctuary service was to reveal to us one of the most important elements of Jesus' ministry for humanity. But unless we understand Jesus' relationship to the Father and believe Jesus' own words that the Father feels no different about us than Jesus does, we will be susceptible to false insinuations about God that will confuse us at best and will generate fear in our hearts instead of the necessary trust and love that John speaks so urgently about in his letters.

If we substitute the phrase mercy seat in place of the word propitiation in these verses, it starts to become easier to see what John was trying to say about the purpose and motives that prompted Jesus to lay down His life on the cross. In no way was Jesus seeking to appease an angry, offended Deity in heaven like the pagans believed about their gods. Rather, Jesus was seeking to appease an angry, offended humanity that was filled with resentment, bitterness and hostility toward a God they had been led to believe had threatened to use violence against them and whom they blamed for all the pain and suffering taking place in this world.

The blood of an atonement offering sprinkled on the Mercy Seat represented the blood of Jesus splattered over the ground and all over the cross and even over the streets of Jerusalem when angry sinners had finally gotten their hands on the God they hated so deeply as they vented their rage against Him in every way they could to intensify His suffering. Yet to the amazement of all who were thinking at all by the time it was over, it was noticed that throughout all of that ordeal they had never been able to entice or induce even one hint of resentment, bitterness or desire for revenge on the part of Jesus. (see 1 Peter 2:21-24)

The cross of Christ is the clearest demonstration of the non-violence of God. The cross of Christ reveals that nothing we can ever do to hurt God can in any way diminish His passionate love for us in the slightest. The cross of Christ and the spirit He demonstrated toward all of His enemies clearly reveals that God never takes offense but rather has always viewed all of us with nothing but pure compassion, love and forgiveness even while we were His enemies.