Testing the Spirits Bible Study: Doctrines of Devils

Test the Spirits

Seduction from the True Faith
Evangelist Derek Prince made this bold statement, “I suppose for every one person the devil deceives by atheism, there must be thousands persons in hell whom he deceived by religion. False religion has deceived humanity down through the ages, century by century, in untold numbers. And this situation has not changed today.” The Bible warns us very clearly that deceptions of religion are going to increase in a remarkable measure. And those that believe are going to be subjected to every kind of pressure to seduce them from their true faith. He deals with two main forms of deception in this teaching:
1) Departures from Christianity - that is deceptions which claim to have their origin to being Christians, and often lay claim to the title of Christian.
2) Those type of religion or spiritual activity which lay no claim to being Christian. With reference to departures from Christianity, (I Tim 4:1:5), “You cannot depart from the faith unless you have been “in the faith”. This activity is traced directly to evil spirits or demons. They are called seducing spirits and the teachings they bring forth are called doctrines of demonism. The ultimate goal of these seducing spirits is to win people away from the Lord, Jesus Christ.
(II Pet 2:1-3), “False teachers in the church, privily bring in heresy that being damnation.”
Heresy is not rejecting Scripture totally it is choosing how much of the Scriptures you will believe.
No heresy that rejected all Scripture would deceive the Christian. What are deceptive are those presentations that present Scripture but reject certain portions of it. The heresies this Scripture refers to bring damnation; they cost presentations that present Scripture but reject certain portion of it. The heresies that Scripture refers to bring damnation, they cost those who believe them the salvation of their souls. The devil does not begin with denial of the truth; he begins by calling them in question. For example: The serpent did not start with saying “You won’t die.” He did not immediately present the lie. He began by adding the question, “Yea, hath God said?” In other words, is it really necessary to believe? When Eve entertained his question, then he followed up with a direct denial of what God had said.
The seduction of Christianity is often very subtle and various Christian principles are targeted. The devil has already succeeded to infiltrate evangelical and charismatic Christendom through seduction to follow after a counterfeit revival. He has also steered the Catholic and Protestant Churches away from the gospel of Jesus and the Bible. He follows the well-proved methods against which Paul warned Christians in the first century:
"For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him" (II Cor. 11:2-4).
Judging Doctrines of Christian Ministers
Jesus judged and warned us to be aware of false prophets and why would we not warn the sheep? Paul said to test the spirits to see if they be of God. Their souls are in danger plus the people they are ministering to remember Jim Jones; 900 people who sat at his feet and listened to him preach that Jesus’ cross and blood sacrifice had nothing to do with their salvation; when Jones commanded them, they killed their children and committed suicide.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” (I Jn. 4:1).