Section 4
by some so-called Christians who, in their phil osophical concepts, did not recognize that Christ was God incarnated to be a man. They claimed to be Christians, but did not believe that Christ, the Son of God, had come in the flesh. These were called antichrists by John (1 John 2:18, 22). Thus, 1 John 4:1-3 says that we may test the gen uineness of a spirit by asking it whether or not it recognizes that Christ has come in the flesh, for "every spirit which does not confess Jesus, is not out of God." Furthermore, in his second epistle John warned the believers about antichrist, a per son who claims to be a Christian, but who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (v. 7). Those who preach Christianity with out believing that Christ was God incarnated to be a man caused a large hole in the net. Thus, by His sovereignty, God prepared a mending min istry to patch up all the holes. John's ministry fulfilled this task, testifying that Christ, the very God incarnated, came in the flesh (John 1:1, 14).
In principle, we face the same situation today as John faced in the first century. The spiritual net is broken and full of large holes because of many doctrines, teachings, concepts, and ideas. We must be brought back to the beginning. What was in the beginning? In the beginning was