A detailed biblical infographic examining 1 John 4:1–3 and John's command to test the spirits because many false prophets had entered the world. It compares John's identification of Jesus as the Christ and Son of God with later teachings about the identity of Jesus.
QUICK FACTS: 1 JOHN 4:1–3
WHO ARE THE FALSE PROPHETS — AND WHAT DOES JOHN MEAN BY “THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTICHRIST”?
There are few warnings in the New Testament more serious than the warning given by the apostle John in 1 John 4.
John does not tell Christians to believe every preacher, teacher, denomination or tradition simply because they use the name of Jesus.
Instead, John commands us:
TEST THE SPIRITS.
Why?
Because:
“MANY FALSE PROPHETS HAVE GONE OUT INTO THE WORLD.”
This raises a question that Christians should not be afraid to investigate:
WHO WERE THESE FALSE TEACHERS?
And even more importantly:
HOW DOES JOHN TELL US TO RECOGNIZE FALSE TEACHING ABOUT JESUS?
We should not avoid John's warning because its implications may be uncomfortable.
Neither should we accuse people of something John himself did not explicitly say.
Instead, let us carefully examine John's own words and allow Scripture to define the Jesus we are commanded to confess.
JOHN COMMANDS CHRISTIANS TO TEST WHAT THEY ARE TAUGHT
1 JOHN 4:1 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
This is extraordinary.
False prophets were not merely something John expected to appear hundreds of years later.
John says:
“MANY FALSE PROPHETS HAVE GONE OUT INTO THE WORLD.”
They were already present.
Therefore, Christianity was already facing corruption and false teaching during the apostolic age itself.
JESUS ALSO WARNED US ABOUT FALSE PROPHETS
Jesus had already warned:
MATTHEW 7:15 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“But beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”
The danger is obvious.
False teachers do not necessarily announce themselves as false teachers.
They may appear Christian.
They may quote Scripture.
They may speak about God.
They may speak about Jesus.
They may appear sincere.
That is precisely why John tells us:
DO NOT SIMPLY BELIEVE THEM.
TEST THEM.
PAUL ALSO WARNED ABOUT “ANOTHER JESUS”
Paul gives an equally serious warning:
2 CORINTHIANS 11:4 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“For if indeed the one coming proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim…”
Think carefully about what this means.
Someone can apparently use the name:
JESUS
while proclaiming:
“ANOTHER JESUS.”
Therefore, merely saying “I believe in Jesus” cannot by itself settle the matter.
We must ask:
WHICH JESUS?
The Jesus proclaimed by the apostles?
Or a later theological version of Jesus containing claims the apostles themselves never made?
JOHN GIVES US A TEST
John continues:
1 JOHN 4:2 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is of God.”
Look carefully at John's actual language.
John says:
JESUS CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH.
And he says Jesus Christ:
“IS OF GOD.”
But John does not write:
“GOD CAME IN THE FLESH.”
That difference deserves careful investigation.
THEN COMES JOHN'S VERY SERIOUS WARNING
1 JOHN 4:3 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not of God. And this is that of the antichrist, which you heard that is coming, and now is already in the world.”
These are extremely serious words.
John identifies a false confession concerning Jesus with:
THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTICHRIST.
We therefore cannot simply read this passage and move on.
We must ask:
WHO IS JOHN TALKING ABOUT?
WHO WERE JOHN'S IMMEDIATE OPPONENTS?
Historically, John's immediate opponents appear to have included people who denied or radically reinterpreted the genuine coming of Jesus Christ in human flesh.
This explains why John places such enormous emphasis upon confessing:
JESUS CHRIST HAVING COME IN THE FLESH.
But we should not turn that historical explanation into an excuse to make John's warning irrelevant today.
John establishes a principle that remains enormously important:
THE IDENTITY OF JESUS MUST BE TESTED.
And John's own writings must tell us who Jesus is.
DOES 1 JOHN 4:3 SPECIFICALLY SAY TRINITARIANS ARE ANTICHRIST?
No.
We must be truthful about that.
John does not say:
“Everyone believing in the Trinity is antichrist.”
And most Trinitarians certainly do confess that:
JESUS CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH.
Therefore, we should not put words into John's mouth.
But this does not end the investigation.
It actually raises a deeper question.
A person could say:
“JESUS CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH”
while defining Jesus differently from the apostles.
Therefore, the important question becomes:
WHO DOES JOHN SAY JESUS CHRIST IS?
JOHN TELLS US EXACTLY WHO JESUS IS
Near the conclusion of his Gospel, John explains why he wrote it:
JOHN 20:31 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
This is one of the clearest statements in John's entire Gospel.
What does John want us to believe?
JESUS IS THE CHRIST.
And:
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
John does not conclude his Gospel by saying:
“These things were written so that you may believe Jesus is God the Son.”
He says:
“JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD.”
JOHN DISTINGUISHES THE FATHER FROM HIS SON
This distinction continues throughout John's first letter.
1 JOHN 4:9
John says that God sent:
“HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON”
into the world.
Then:
1 JOHN 4:10
God:
“SENT HIS SON.”
And:
1 JOHN 4:14 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.”
Notice the repeated biblical pattern:
THE FATHER SENT.
THE SON WAS SENT.
John does not say:
“GOD BECAME HIS SON.”
He says:
GOD SENT HIS SON.
JOHN GIVES US ANOTHER WARNING ABOUT ANTICHRIST
This becomes even more important when we read an earlier statement:
1 JOHN 2:22 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“Who is the liar, if not the one denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one denying the Father and the Son.”
Notice John's framework:
THE FATHER
and:
THE SON.
The biblical relationship matters.
The Father is the Father.
The Son is the Son.
Therefore, any doctrine concerning Jesus must preserve the apostolic identity of:
THE FATHER AND HIS SON.
BUT MOST TRINITARIANS ALSO CALL JESUS “THE SON OF GOD”
Absolutely.
This must be acknowledged.
A Trinitarian will normally say:
Jesus is the Christ.
Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus came in the flesh.
So where is the disagreement?
Traditional Trinitarian Christianity goes further and teaches that Jesus is:
GOD THE SON,
the eternal second Person within the one God, equal in deity with the Father.
This produces the question that deserves investigation:
WHERE DOES JOHN CALL JESUS “GOD THE SON”?
He does not use that expression.
Nor does John ever state the later formula:
“GOD IS THREE PERSONS.”
Therefore, the issue is not whether Trinitarians use the words Son of God.
They certainly do.
The question is whether adding:
“GOD THE SON”
preserves John's identification of Jesus or introduces a later theological identity that John himself never states.
COULD THIS BE WHAT PAUL CALLED “ANOTHER JESUS”?
That is the question Christians should be willing to investigate.
Paul warned about:
“ANOTHER JESUS WHOM WE DID NOT PROCLAIM.”
2 Corinthians 11:4
So we should test every version of Jesus.
That includes:
Trinitarian teaching.
Modalist teaching.
Arian teaching.
Jehovah's Witness teaching.
Unitarian teaching.
And my own teaching.
EVERYONE MUST BE TESTED AGAINST SCRIPTURE.
Nobody receives an exemption.
The question is not:
“Which denomination has the most followers?”
The question is:
WHO DID JESUS AND THE APOSTLES SAY JESUS IS?
JESUS CALLED HIS FATHER “THE ONLY TRUE GOD”
This is especially important.
Jesus prayed:
JOHN 17:3 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Notice again:
“YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD”
and:
“JESUS CHRIST WHOM YOU HAVE SENT.”
Jesus distinguishes himself from the One he calls:
“THE ONLY TRUE GOD.”
Therefore, if we later say Jesus himself is the same one true God, we have an obligation to demonstrate that teaching from Scripture rather than merely assuming it.
WHAT ABOUT “GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH”?
This brings us to 1 Timothy 3:16.
The King James Version famously reads:
1 TIMOTHY 3:16 — KJV
“God was manifest in the flesh…”
This wording has been repeatedly used as direct proof that:
GOD CAME IN THE FLESH.
But there is an important textual issue.
The earliest and strongest manuscript evidence underlying most modern critical Greek editions reads:
ὃς — HOS — “WHO”
rather than:
θεός — THEOS — “GOD.”
That is why the Berean Literal Bible reads:
1 TIMOTHY 3:16 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: Who was revealed in the flesh…”
Therefore, the famous wording:
“GOD WAS MANIFEST IN THE FLESH”
should not be treated as unquestionable evidence that the original text explicitly said God became flesh.
And we should be historically accurate:
The KJV translators did not simply invent the word “God.”
They followed the Greek textual tradition available to them.
The question concerns which reading best represents the earliest text.
WHAT ABOUT JOHN 1:14?
John writes:
JOHN 1:14 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
Again, read precisely what John says:
“THE WORD BECAME FLESH.”
He does not actually write:
“GOD BECAME FLESH.”
Trinitarians interpret the Word as an eternal divine Person—God the Son—and therefore understand John 1:14 as the incarnation of God the Son.
But that theological interpretation should be distinguished from John's actual wording.
John says:
THE WORD BECAME FLESH.
JESUS CALLED HIMSELF A MAN WHO HEARD FROM GOD
Jesus himself said:
JOHN 8:40 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“But now you seek to kill Me, a man who has spoken to you the truth, which I heard from God.”
Look at the distinction:
JESUS — “A MAN.”
And:
GOD — THE ONE FROM WHOM JESUS HEARD.
Paul gives us the same distinction:
1 TIMOTHY 2:5 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Again:
ONE GOD.
And:
THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.
DID GOD COME IN THE FLESH — OR DID GOD'S SON COME IN THE FLESH?
This is therefore the central question.
Throughout Scripture we repeatedly find:
GOD SENT HIS SON.
John says:
JESUS CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH.
John says:
JESUS IS THE CHRIST.
John says:
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
John says:
THE FATHER SENT THE SON.
Jesus calls his Father:
THE ONLY TRUE GOD.
But later Christian theology commonly uses another expression:
“GOD CAME IN THE FLESH.”
Are those two statements necessarily identical?
That should be demonstrated from Scripture, not merely assumed.
EPHESIANS SAYS ERROR SHOULD BE EXPOSED
Paul writes:
EPHESIANS 5:11 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them.”
Therefore, Christians should not be frightened of examining doctrines—even ancient and enormously popular doctrines.
But exposing error requires accuracy.
We should never falsely accuse someone.
We should never deliberately misrepresent another Christian's beliefs.
And we should never make Scripture say something it does not say.
Instead:
PUT THE TEACHINGS SIDE BY SIDE.
COMPARE THEM FOR YOURSELF
JOHN'S WORDS:
“JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD.”
JOHN'S WORDS:
“THE FATHER HAS SENT THE SON.”
JOHN'S WORDS:
“JESUS CHRIST HAVING COME IN THE FLESH IS OF GOD.”
JESUS' WORDS:
“YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST WHOM YOU HAVE SENT.”
Now compare those statements with the later formulation:
“JESUS IS GOD THE SON, THE ETERNAL SECOND PERSON OF THE ONE GOD, WHO BECAME INCARNATE.”
Then ask:
ARE THESE REALLY THE SAME TEACHING?
That is the question every reader must investigate.
FINAL CONCLUSION
John's warning is too serious to ignore:
“TEST THE SPIRITS.”
False prophets existed even during the apostolic age.
Paul warned about:
“ANOTHER JESUS.”
And John warned about:
“THE SPIRIT OF THE ANTICHRIST.”
We should therefore test every teaching concerning Jesus against the testimony of Jesus and his apostles.
But we must be equally careful not to go beyond Scripture.
1 John 4:3 does not explicitly say that Trinitarians are antichrists.
Neither, however, does John's statement exempt a doctrine merely because billions of Christians accept it.
The test remains:
WHO IS THE TRUE JESUS?
John gives us his answer:
JESUS IS THE CHRIST.
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
JESUS CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH.
JESUS WAS SENT BY HIS FATHER.
And John warns us about denying:
THE FATHER AND THE SON.
Therefore, the question Christians today should seriously examine is:
IF JOHN IDENTIFIES JESUS AS THE SON OF GOD, DOES THE LATER TITLE “GOD THE SON” PRESERVE JOHN'S JESUS — OR DOES IT CHANGE HIS IDENTITY?
And if Scripture warns us that “another Jesus” can be preached, we should have the courage to test that question against the entire Word of God.
Not against popularity.
Not against tradition.
Not against church councils.
Not against what we were raised to believe.
But against:
THE WORD OF GOD.
Because John himself tells us why he wrote his Gospel:
JOHN 20:31 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
JESUS IS THE CHRIST.
THE SON OF GOD.
That is John's confession.
And every later teaching about the identity of Jesus should be tested against it.
Research by Simon Brown
wwwrealdiscoveriesorg-simon.blogspot.com
