Question 4 – 1 John 4:1 from Turretin Fan

In your rebuttal essay you used some strong language to describe my appeal to the command in 1 John 4:1 to “Try the spirits whether they be of God….” In fact, you made lots of negative assertions about the text.

1 John 4:1-3
1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

But what is inescapable is that the verse is commanding believers to pass judgments on teachers. And, in fact, this particular epistle is commanding them (implicitly) to use Scripture (since this epistle is Scripture) in the process.

This principle of testing teachers and churches against Scripture is reflected in the writings of the early Christians:

Ambrose wrote, for example, “Therefore, to begin, the faith which is to be sought is entrusted to the Church. If Christ lives in it, then no doubt it is choiceworthy. But if, on the other hand, the populace is false, or a heretical teacher mars the house, the fellowship of heretics must be avoided, and the synagogue judged as something to be avoided. The dust on the feet must be shaken off, lest the footprint of your mind be polluted by the splitting dryness of barren lies, just as a footprint may be polluted by the dry and parched earth. For just as a preacher of the Gospel ought to take onto himself the bodily infirmities of the faithful people, and just as our own empty deeds must be compared to dust, traces that should be lifted up and destroyed, just so was it written: Who is weakened and I am not weakened? Thus, if it is the Church that lacks faith, it will not possess the teachings of the aforementioned apostle. It must be destroyed, so that it is not able to spread the stain of falsehood. The apostle evidently asserted this very thing, saying: Avoid the corruption of heretics after [you have seen?] one man. And he said to them: You give them something to eat. And they replied: We have no more than five loaves.”

Augustine wrote, likewise: “Whoever dissents from the sacred Scriptures, even if they are found in all places in which the church is designated, are not the church.” De Unitate Ecclesiae, Caput IV, §7.

And again Augustine wrote: “Let no one say to me, What hath Donatus said, what hath Parmenian said, or Pontius, or any of them. For we must not allow even Catholic bishops, if at any time, perchance, they are in error, to hold any opinion contrary to the Canonical Scriptures of God.” De Unitate Ecclesiae, Caput XI, §28.

And yet again, Augustine wrote: “We ought to find the Church, as the Head of the Church, in the Holy Canonical Scriptures, not to inquire for it in the various reports, and opinions, and deeds, and words, and visions of men.” De Unitate Ecclesiae, Caput XIX, §49.

And still further Augustine testifies: “Whether they [i.e. the Donatists] hold the Church, they must show by the Canonical books of the Divine Scriptures alone; for we do not say, that we must be believed because we are in the Church of Christ, because Optatus of Milevi, or Ambrose of Milan, or innumerable other bishops of our communion, commended that Church to which we belong, or because it is extolled by the Councils of our colleagues, or because through the whole world in the holy places which those of our communion frequent such wonderful answers to prayers or cures happen.” De Unitate Ecclesiae, Caput XIX, §50.

Furthermore, in Scripture the Bereans are commended for testing the apostolic teachings themselves against what they already knew to be the Word of God in Scripture (Acts 17:11).

So, if Scripture clearly indicates that believers have a duty to judge whether their teachers are false prophets, how can they do this aside from comparing their teachings to Scripture – emulating the Scriptural example of the Bereans, the Scriptural command of 1 John 4:1, the implicit testimony of Ambrose, the explicit example of Augustine, and the teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith?



Answer to question 4 - 1 John 4:1 by Matthew J Bellisario

You said in this question regarding 1 John 4:1, “But what is inescapable is that the verse is commanding believers to pass judgments on teachers. And, in fact, this particular epistle is commanding them (implicitly) to use Scripture (since this epistle is Scripture) in the process.” How can you deduce that this is implicitly speaking of Sacred Scripture alone? Just because the epistle is Scripture in the process? This is the most absurd assumption I have ever heard of. What is important is what this passage of Sacred Scripture says. It says to test the spirits whether they are of God. It says no place in Sacred Scripture, let alone this passage that Sacred Scripture is the only authority we have to go by. In fact the whole point here is that at this point and time when this passage was written, the Christians then would have thought no such thing. In fact the only “Scriptures” the people who were referring to was the Old Testament. What is inescapable for anyone reading this is that it never tells us the means to determine how to test the spirits, let alone telling us that it is Sacred Scripture alone.

Secondly the Bereans that you made reference to once again do not prove anything regarding Sola Scriptura. You have made yourself a hole here that you cant climb out of. You cannot assume that just because the Bereans searched the Scriptures, that they regarded this to be the only source of Divine Revelation. Thats like me writing and telling everyone that I searched the Webster dictionary today, and someone reading that and assuming that I never used any other source other than that in my life. The fact is you cannot prove that position from that statement. The same goes for your Berean argument. You are asking something from the text that just isn't there. The Catholic Church and her theologians today search the Scriptures as well, yet we all know very well that the Catholic Church and her theologians do not deny the full Divine Revelation of Tradition as well.

Yes Scripture tells us to test teachers to see whether they are false prophets. Unfortunately for you and your position, which you have thus far been unable to prove, this passage does not tell us that Sacred Scriptures are the only rule of faith to be used in doing this as you keep falsely suggesting.

As far as you citing St. Augustine and St Ambrose we can see once again how you cannot quote them in context as I have already indicated several times so far in this debate. Saint Ambrose never tells us that Sacred Scripture alone must be used. Once again you have to tell us that it is implicit, which is not true. The fact is Saint Ambrose never said that. Saint Augustine also never said in your quote that the Sacred Scriptures were the only source, he merely said, as the Catholic Church does, that no one is to contradict them. So what? How does this prove anything in regards to your argument for Scripture alone? The fact is it doesn't. 1 John, as I pointed out earlier in my debate does not give us any support for the false doctrine of Sola Scriptura either, because it also never even mentions once in its text anything of the sort. So far none of these arguments has even come close to being convincing.