From testing the spirits.
1 John 4:1-3.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: for many false prophets are gone out into the world. By this you shall know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which ye have heard that it shall come, and is even now in the world.
(1) Ye have heard how precious is the doctrine which is written in the contradiction, saying, We shall take heed to the spirits. For two spirits shall come together and be with one another while the kingdom of God stands. These will act only with the word; therefore
We must use the touchstone to separate the teachings.
2 John gives two resolutions here. The first: "He who confesses that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God"; the other: "He who does not confess that Jesus is from God".
Let Christ come into the flesh, he is not of God." Here it is clear that the one spirit is not full of God. The right spirit has this sign about him, that he faithfully preaches the sign of Jonah. Now when the teaching comes down from heaven that God's Son became man, it is decided that no one could have helped him from death; otherwise Christ would have died in vain. On the other hand, freedom follows with God, with us in conscience, and with all creatures.
Otherwise, our conscience always accuses us: if we sin wickedly, our conscience gnaws at us and leaves us no peace. My heart passes judgment, I am to take punishment for it, then God's wrath falls on me, who can leave no evil unpunished. Then follows the fourth, despair and eternal death. Fifthly, there are the masters of the stocks and the executioners, who open their necks and want to be sure of judgment against me. No creature or work can help us out of this fear, but only this pure teaching of the Spirit of God, which comforts us and says: "Do not despair, I will show you a spirit that will help you. You should bear the punishment eternally; but Christ has rejected the judge's wrath, put down the enemy, he will not remember your sin, bear it only to him. He who has this faith is a child of God, he is born again, and has all the creature of God. The devout Christians feel this, and have joy before God and give thanks. If they do not experience this, they crawl to the cross, complain to God, and ask Him for mercy. He does not want to deny it to them. But do not be too sure.
(4) So the little word works great deeds in us, that we are God's children and his heirs. Secondly, it makes us free to use all creatures, and let me not be bound to any, nor separate any from the other, so that they should make me more pleasing to God than other creatures. Thirdly, the service to our neighbor with all creatures that we really need follows from this freedom; otherwise we really need none.
5. the other is called the Antichrist, who makes this pure sound doctrine (that God's Son died for us) impure and false.
with its addition, since it says: Christ has died, but you must also do something about it. This antichristic teaching is still in our flesh. For since God's teaching is from heaven, it does not grow in our gardens, but God must give it; if not, we live in false doctrine.
This spirit also takes away the custom of the creature. There is the best saying: I believe as the charcoal burner believes. How does he believe? As the Christian church believes. What does she believe? I believe in God the Father etc. And in JEsum Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born, suffered, died etc. I believe in the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins etc. This is what the charcoal burner believes. The antichrist spirit divides the sexes, calls them monks in one part, the others laymen, priests and marriage holders. The charcoal-burner does not believe this, but believes that he who is a man and takes a wife at God's command is not a blasphemer. As the pope urges his people, against the creation of God, that a man should remain alone without a woman, a woman without a man; these are vain doctrines of the devil, 1 Tim. 4, 1. 2. 3. forbidding marriage and food etc. If Paul were alive now, he would have to be under Pabst's spell to call this doctrine of forbidding marriage and food devilish doctrine, as, Pabst, bishops are. This cannot be denied, whoever holds this, does not follow the devil and his doctrine; for no creature shall bind us, we must use it, as it is revealed to us, for the betterment of the church. Eating flesh makes no one godly: so wolves would be more godly than men. So let your conscience be bound to the flesh, that God may be pleased; if you eat no flesh on Friday, it is surely the devil's doctrine. Woe to the pope, for he is guilty of all souls who have accepted his teaching. If our forefathers died in it, they were not helped. God wants to keep his order, the people blessed with this pure teaching of God's spirit.
The third is the abomination before God, which is made a decree. He who speaks against it shall lose his neck; he who does this is a Christian. For so he blasphemes, the knave: it behooves him to speak, to give law;
It behooves us to accept and do the same.
8 Probate Spiritus (Test the spirits). We do not have to take this sword. Here we are all commanded to judge, to separate the teachings from each other. It does not apply, I want to wait for the concilium, how it closes and where it wants to go out. It applies, then, that you may be sure that there is no doctrine other than this: Christ died for you and rose again. If you want to look at the pope, your conscience will frighten you, and you will have to despair.
(9) Therefore learn well that you have the testimony of Christ's coming into the flesh, by which all doctrine is removed. Every man shall be judged, every man shall be judged before the judgment seat, whether he knoweth God or not. He who has the right doctrine with him will stand. So does St. Paul when he preaches about the resurrection of Christ, Acts 17:11, they diligently search the Scriptures to see if it is so. Thus it is written in Isaiah: Ad legem et ad testimonium etc. (Yes,
according to the law and testimony). It pleases God that you seek counsel there and nowhere else.
10 Christ does Joh. 4, 21. 22. 23. with the woman: "The time will come, that neither on this mountain etc. but in all places of the world, the Father will have worshippers, who worship him in spirit and in truth. This doctrine the woman proclaims in the city, then the people fall to the JEsu, hear him themselves, and say v. 42. "Now we believe not in Christ because of thy saying, but we have heard it ourselves." So there are two parts: one is hearing, the other is experience. The hearing must taste and feel the favor of God, as the Gospel says, otherwise it is heard in vain. Here we may well crawl to graces, ask and call upon God to plant it in our hearts that we may feel it; otherwise he will punish the contempt of his treasure with eternal fire. He wants to preserve his honor. His highest honor
is, consider him to be a true God and desire help from him.
Thus St. Paul teaches that the hearers shall judge, not those who sit on high, 1 Cor. 14. If he speaks against the doctrine that is Christ's Spirit, then it is mine to judge and be idle, if he teaches otherwise. Daniel calls the Antichrist Rex facierum (a splendid king), he shall have no truth, only outwardly beautiful appearance and splendor of holiness; basically it shall not be; as Paul says: Ore fatentur Christum, factis negant (They say they know God, but with their works they deny it). The Pope always writes in his letters: In nomine Domini (In the name of the Lord), we seek only God's glory and the Christians' benefit; after that he attaches his pen and poison: Whoever is against it, let him be banished. So they do not accept God's word as much as their doctrine. The priests must be without wives; those who do not eat meat must atone for sin. That is denying Christ in deed. Therefore we must be sure that if a thousand conciliarities were to conclude in this way, I would not hold it against them for this reason alone. God's word is to be our foundation, not their statutes. For this is right knowledge, to rely on God in this way. As Christ has been useful and of service to everyone here; item, as God saves His Son from death; so He will also pull me out. Whoever does not grasp this in his heart will have to experience it with his damage. You rely on this, not on the great people and concilia, they do not belong in heaven, they are spirits of lies. But what outwardly conceives that we would be united there, that would go, that they would have it fame: but they become one or not, then the gospel will probably remain a scandalum Judaeis and stultitia gentibus (to the Jews an annoyance, to the Greeks a foolishness). Do they conclude, or not, also from faith; so I say: I do not ask much about it, I have my own about it, say, praise be to God.