Do Not Believe

Every Spirit

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. 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. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heart that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.

1 John 4:1-3

Do not believe everything you read. One current book, The Da Vinci Code leads people to wrong impressions about the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ. The book gives the impression that they even had children together. The book is written about alleged “lost” books of the Bible. The books were found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. They deny the biblical Jesus, they promote goddess worship, self-deity, and secret knowledge. The books were excluded from the Bible because they did not meet the criteria for authentic Scripture, which involved several central questions. Was the writer someone Jesus had chosen as an apostle? Did the book have widespread acceptance among church leaders? Did God’s Spirit speak through the book? The “lost” books did not pass these tests. All of the books in the New Testament did pass these tests.

When people question the trustworthiness of the Scriptures, we need to give them a respectful and informed answer. The truth might make them want to know more about our Bible, and our God.

To the wise,

God’s Word is sufficient.

Our Daily Bread – July 7, 2005