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"By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."
(1 John 4:2)
The Gnostics in the first century were a very inspired and influential group of people. Their inspiration was supernatural but not divine. Their teachings were of Satan, and those teachings and beliefs are still very much embraced by false religions and cultic groups today in 2026.
The first century teachers Cerinthus and Marcion, along with others, taught heretical things in direct opposition to the Apostle John. If you are going to teach something opposite of what the Bible teaches, then you are in error. They did not care. They preached that they as Gnostics were an elite group and held to classical Greek dualism that said matter and anything of the material world is evil; only what is of the spirit world is pure and to be valued. The problem with this teaching is, Jesus had a human body! They went on to teach that the spiritual Christ came upon the human Jesus at His baptism and then departed from Him prior to the cross. Strange, I know, but that teaching is clearly seen in some groups today like the Jehovah Witnesses and Islam.
Here are a few spirits that we need to test because their doctrines (summarized below) do not line up with what the Bible teaches:
- Jehovah Witnesses: Jesus was a created being who went through stages of existence: first, Michael the Archangel, second, Jesus, who became the Messiah at His baptism (which is Gnosticism revisited), and third, after his spiritual resurrection, he became Michael again, but He retains the name Jesus.
- Mormons: "Jesus is the spiritual and physical offspring of God by procreation. He had a preexistence as God's spirit child and brother of Lucifer."
- Scientology: Jesus was a great teacher who realized His divinity. He is one Savior among many.
- Islam: Jesus was a major prophet but not divine. He did not die on the cross, but He ascended back to Allah. Therefore, there is no atoning death and no resurrection of Jesus.
- Hinduism: Jesus was one of many spiritual teachers or gurus. Some Hindus believe Jesus was one of the many avatars or manifestations of Vishnu. They do not believe that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world and arose from the dead.
- Judaism: Jesus is not the Messiah and not divine but was simply a Jewish teacher or rabbi who became a false teacher, committed blasphemy, and "mocked the words of the sages," according to the Talmud, which also states He is boiling in excrement in hell for his sins. (See the Talmudic verse in original Hebrew and English here.)
- Secular Humanism: Jesus was a teacher and not divine.
(The quotes and much of the information listed above is from the SBC Interfaith Comparative Belief Chart.)
These and other religions and cults that teach that Jesus is less than fully God and fully man have their origin in the devil. The spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:3) is at work in them leading them to teach and propagate their heretical, false, and damning doctrines. The response of all Christians should be to make sure they don't believe any of these doctrines, spread the truth, and test every spirit.
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