From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 13 of a series. Read part 12.

Church leaders' lack of discernment about Mormonism is an indicator of far deeper problems.

In our time, leading men who call themselves Evangelical Christians promote the idea that Christians and Mormons can and should work together in spiritual causes. But that is the same as saying that Christians and pagans can work together in spiritual causes. Worse yet, as we have seen, some self-described Evangelical leaders actually embrace Mormonism as a legitimate branch of Christianity. This lack of spiritual discernment is appalling and alarming.

What Is Spiritual Discernment and Who Possesses It?

God has called upon His people to exercise spiritual discernment. Malachi 3:18 tells us that the true people of God will be able to discern "between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God, and the one who does not serve Him." Our theme verse for this series, First John 4:1, commands God's people, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

We must exercise discernment. We must "test the spirits." This raises another very important question: Who can "test the spirits"? Who is able to do this, according to the Word of God? The answer is that only an individual who is truly a regenerated believer in Christ, only a person who is therefore indwelled by the Holy Spirit, can exercise true spiritual discernment. An unbeliever does not have this discernment, and indeed cannot have it.

Why is that? First Corinthians 2:14 gives us the answer. There we read that "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

The natural man, the unsaved man, is incapable of making proper judgments - discerning judgments - about spiritual things. The man who does not have the indwelling Spirit of God, and who does not place himself in subjection to the Word of God, cannot "test the spirits." He cannot make sound judgments about these things. He cannot properly decide what to accept and what to reject. These things "are spiritually discerned" and the unsaved individual has no spiritual discernment. He is incapable of it.

That is the negative. But let us put the same thing in the positive: First Corinthians chapter two also tells us that the teachings of a cult like Mormonism can be properly evaluated and judged by an individual who has God the Holy Spirit living within him, and who makes use of the Spirit-inspired Word of God, which is the authoritative resource the Spirit has given us to make these judgments.

Lack of Discernment: An Indicator of More Serious Issues

Why is this so important? For two reasons.

First, dear reader, think of these things as you listen to and read the statements of so-called Evangelical leaders who are saying that we must not talk about Mormonism as a cult, and that we must have a give-and-take dialogue with pagan Mormonism about matters of doctrine -

When someone who claims to be a Bible-believer says such things, we must ask serious questions: Does that kind of thinking come from a truly regenerated heart? Is this the voice of spiritual discernment? Is this the voice of men who are truly saved, who truly have the Spirit of God living within them?

I frankly fear for the souls of the so-called Evangelical leaders who want to make spiritual compromises with pagan Mormonism. We have the authority of the Word of God, that a man who claims to be a preacher of the Gospel cannot persist in this kind of deep compromise if he is truly saved. Spiritual discernment is an evidence of salvation and of growth in Christ. Lack of spiritual discernment is evidence of the opposite. Many people seem to be afraid to say this today, but we must say it, because God's Word says it.

Secondly, it is Biblically right and proper that true believers in Christ should reject men who persist in these things - no matter what titles they may hold in the church or in a seminary, no matter what claims they may make about their relationship to Christ.

The Response to False Teaching is a Test of the Visible Church

In fact, Scripture makes it clear that God from time to time brings evils like Mormonism into contact with the visible church in order to test us, in order to show who is truly His and who is not. What will we do? Will we remain true to Christ and His Word, or will we follow the opinions of fallen men?

It is Biblically right and proper for those who exercise spiritual discernment to recognize men who persist in such compromises with unbelief for what they truly are. In Acts chapter twenty, the Apostle Paul called such men "savage wolves." He warned the Ephesian elders about them. He said, some of these men will even come from among your own numbers - not from the outside the visible church, but from within it. They will be people you once thought were believers, but now they are proving that they are not.

And so Paul said, in Acts 20:31, that we must be watchful.

For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. (Acts 20:29-31)

The force of the word "watch" in verse 31 (Greek gregoreite) is this: Take heed to what is being said and done even within the church, because if you are not watchful, you run the risk that spiritual calamity will overtake the church.

Dear reader, for the sake of your own soul, for your family, and for your church, you cannot afford to fail the test of watchfulness. And so let us continue to be watchful, as we ask one final critical question about Mormonism.

Next: Mormonism's False Gospel

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