Josh (click HERE for video)12/2/18
It was raining, dark and cold by the time I had some free
time to initiate a gospel outreach conversation. I wanted to find someone who might have some
time to talk, and for some reason, God’s leading I would hope, I felt I needed
to pass by the usual coffeeshops and went instead into a local laundromat.
There I found Josh, who would describe himself as a
spiritual seeker of late, and he was amazed at the timing of my questions about
eternity. So amazed, in fact, that I’m
pretty sure he would conclude our conversation was a God-ordained appointment.
As a Christian, I don’t think any of our outreach for the
Gospel is simply coincidence. But I
wonder, what if I had been a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness, or any one of a
number of other religious or cult groups out there that might have reached out
to him in my place. Would Josh still
have been equally impressed by the possibly divine coincidence of our conversation?
I wonder this because later in the conversation Josh told me
that part of his spiritual seeking consists of opening himself up to spiritual
influence in a sort of dream state in the early morning hours. This was very similar to a description of
spiritual seeking by Youzi, a Hindu believer whom I have most recently written
about.
As a Christian, the problem I see with these approaches, of
just being open to any sort of religious or spiritual influence in general, is
that not all spirits or religions are of God.
Paul described the enemy in 2 Corinthians 11: “…false apostles, deceitful workers,
masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself
masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants
also masquerade as servants of righteousness.”
A healthy amount of skepticism and discernment is in order,
because we are in the fog of spiritual war.
John warned of this in his first letter: “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 into the world.”
(1 John 4)
He went on to advise us how we might recognize true from
false teaching: “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, but every spirit that does not acknowledge
Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have
heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
I believe the presence of false spirits and teachers has
increased in number and sophistication since the days of Paul and John. Like John warned about, usually the basic
difference between heretical and cult groups and biblical Christianity centers
on the identity and work of Jesus Christ.
The deceit of the enemy usually involves a revisionist interpretation of
the Jesus of the Bible, and it takes the spiritual discernment of wise and mature
believers to recognize a counterfeit.
I’m glad for people like Josh and Youzi because they are
actively seeking spiritual truth, compared to the majority of people I meet who
don’t seem to give spiritual belief much thought. Yet I fear for them also, because of the many
false doctrines and evil influences there are out there. I’m glad that God has instituted the local
church, where spiritual seekers and new and mature believers can gather around
the Word of God, helping to clear away the fog of war. And maybe I was able to bring a little of
that local church out to Josh there in that laundromat on a cold and rainy
night.
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