Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out of the world. - 1 John 4:1
I have a lot of fears, and slowly God is working to address those fears. A couple of my fears are asking questions - because I think I already know the answer or have to know the answer - and learning more - because I think it will be too much for me to handle or it will prove what I know false.
But as I read A Skeptic's Search for God by Ralph O. Muncaster this weekend, I learned how Muncaster not only asked all the questions and sought out all the answers, these questions and answers convinced him of the necessity of a God and that God was the God of the Bible.
Muncaster did this in a few steps over the years. He began with studying what it would take to make the simplest cell, even the hypothetically simplistic cell an evolutionist believed would have been the first cell to come into being by chance. Muncaster discovered the chances of such a cell occurring by chance was impossible “without divine intervention” - a.k.a. God.
Muncaster then studied the prophecies of the Bible verifying that only God could have fulfilled these prophecies and that the prophecies had indeed been fulfilled 100% just as God said they would come to be. This proved that not only was the Old Testament legitimate, but also that Jesus was indeed God.
Lastly Muncaster verified the authenticity of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, from archeological findings, other historical documents, and the oldest copies of the biblical scrolls we still possess today that have been preserved over the years, just as the Jews still live among us today.
As a result, Muncaster went from being an atheist - a person who believes there is no God - who had grown up in church and disbelieved the Bible to being a Christian.
While his motivation was originally to disprove what others said about there being a God and the Bible, he eventually took up God's offer in 1 Thessalonians 5:21a to “Test all things” (NKJV).
I'm learning to start asking questions and how to find the answers. Will you join me in taking up this challenge to test all things and every spirit? Because as John warns in his first letter, “many false prophets have gone out of the world” (1 John 4:1).
John goes on to encourage us on how to discern if what is being taught is from the Spirit of God: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2).
Is there a subject or belief that feels like it will be disproved if it gets dug into? Anything that feels too fragile? Something that feels safer knowing less rather than more?
May I challenge you to join me as I too start to ask questions and dig deeper. May our hearts humbly accept when our beliefs were misplaced, and may our faith be strengthened as we better understand the truths we have been holding onto and as we discover new truths to cling to.