Inconclusive Marks of Religious Affections
This post continues the For the Love of God series with the Session Four message from the 06SR. The audio file for this message is also available for download.
We are commanded to disbelieve certain things. In his book, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of God, Edwards basically exposits and expands on one verse that requires disbelief.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This text was the benchmark and the basis for Edwards’ book as well as for much of his ministry. He saw it as a biblical mandate to unbelief. Obviously this is not the kind of unbelief or lack of faith that is typical in a non-Christian who rejects Christ. Rather the kind of unbelief required in 1 John 4:1 functions as a red flag, as warning flare against certain claims when the evidence is inconclusive. We are not to believe everything that everybody tells us.
R.C. Sproul put it this way:
Any claim to spiritual power is to be tested to see if the claim can be validated by the work of God. This rests on the axiom that not all spirits are holy. (The Spirit of Revival, p. 23)
Testing the spirits is necessary not only because there are many teachers spreading fiction and falsehoods, but also because their claims are typically appealing, likable, and easy to swallow.
Edwards likens this to the problems faced by the Israelites’ in the Old Testament. Their biggest threat was not enemies warring against them — as dangerous as those enemies were. Instead, their greatest problem was the false prophets among them. The spin of the false prophets always seemed to be more popular than the truth.
And there are false prophets and deceiving spirits in the church today. The influence and work of the Holy Spirit is often imitated by counterfeit spirits, even by Satan himself (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:14). That is why it is absolutely critical to recognize what are true and reliable signs of genuine religious affections and what are not.
That is our goal. Soon we will look at Part III of The Religious Affections in which Edwards attempts to provide us with clear, distinguishing marks of genuine affections. But first we are going to consider Part II in which Edwards describes those things that are “No Sure Signs.” Here he attempts to answer the question, What are not reliable signs? These are things that don’t prove — one way or another — whether there is a true work of grace; a Holy Spirit empowered work in a person’s life.
We’ve tried to establish that God demands our religious affections, since our affections for Him are what most magnify Him. Everything we do should be for the love of God. We’ve seen that Scripture everywhere makes our affections not only the source of all we do, but the most fundamental aspect of following God.
And some of you may be thinking to yourselves, “I’ve got religious affections. I like certain things about God, church, and the Christian life.” Maybe some of you think you have had great spiritual experiences and therefore you assume that your experience must be genuine. But there are some things that are no sure signs.
Now let me say two more things before we look at what are no sure signs.
First, neither Edwards or I are making the claim to know “for sure” who are Christians are who are not. Edwards goes out of his way on numerous occasions to say that even though the Scripture gives us much instruction on how to tell the true from the false, the final judgment is God’s alone.
That does not mean, however, that we are not to consider these distinguishing marks. In fact it is crucial for shepherds to help protect and lead the sheep. Even though we cannot always distinguish between the wheat and the tares, that is not permission to ignore the evidence we have. We ought to be gracious in our dealings with those that give evidence of being posers, but we will answer for our faithlessness if we allow them to continue in their deception.
This study then is of great importance not only to shepherds but also to you. This is an excellent time to examine and consider the state of your own soul. There is no greater danger in the world than the deception of thinking yourself to be safe when in reality you are least secure. By the way, this also means you should be primarily concerned with examining your own heart — rather than those around you.
Second, this is hard stuff. Some of you who are Christians, who have been made alive by the Spirit and who have spiritually sensitive hearts will probably hear things that will cause you to question your salvation. That is appropriate, at least to a certain extent. The apostle Paul called everyone in the church to:
1 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.
And the more sensitive you are, the more likely you will be to take this seriously. Pray that God will help you to evaluate and examine in a balanced way, heeding the warnings but not going overboard.
But others do need Edwards’ teaching from Scripture to come down as a hammer on their hard hearts or as an ice pick to shatter their frozen heart. Discerning what are no sure signs may obliterate their counterfeit confidence and cause them to seek God with genuine religious affections.
