1 John 4:1-3; 1 John 2:22,23
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye 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 that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Compromise must always be impossible where the Truth of God is essential and fundamental. There are some points in which we may agree to differ, but these are points in which there can be no mutual concessions or toning down of statement. Christ Jesus is either God or He is not! And if He is God, as we believe He is, then those who reject His Deity cannot be true believers in Him. And therefore they must miss the benefits which He promises to those who receive Him. I cannot conceive any man to be right in religion if he is not right in reference to the Person of the Redeemer. “You cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of Him.”
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): All that deny the deity, sonship, and Messiahship of Jesus Christ, are liars…And such who deny the deity, incarnation, Messiahship, work, office, grace, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; and who profess themselves to be Christians, are not.
C. H. SPURGEON: We cannot make any terms of peace with those who deny the Deity of Christ, nor ought they to want to be at peace with us, for if Christ is not the Son of God, we are idolaters. And if He is, they are not Christians! There is a great gulf between us and them and we do not hesitate for a moment to say on which side of that gulf we stand.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The Socinians, in all their disputes against the deity of Christ, do always make use of this name, and continually repeat it―“Christ,” they say, “is not the most high God.” A god they will allow Him to be, but not the ‘most high’ God.* But whereas this name is used in distinction only from all false gods, if their Christ be a god, but not on any account the most high God, he is a false god, and as such to be rejected.
C. H. SPURGEON: The Socinian is nearer akin to the Mohammedan than to the Christian. He who does not acknowledge the Deity of Jesus disowns Him altogether. I cannot see how Jesus Christ can be anything but one of two things—either the Son of God, or else a gross impostor who allowed his disciples to think him Divine—and used the virtues of his character to support his claim…He must have been either God or an arch-deceiver!
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Men may profess to honor Jesus by recognizing Him as the mightiest among the mighty, the greatest of all the great men of the world, the most marvelous of all its ethical teachers, but in reality they are only degrading Him unless they acknowledge Him as God over all. Jesus is God come in the flesh. The denial of this fundamental doctrine is the spirit of antichrist. Notice, whether this denial is couched in rude or ignorant terms, or presented in beautiful language, it is the denial of the incarnation. To think of Jesus as anyone else than God the Creator become man for our redemption, is to deny the truth concerning Him revealed in this Book, and is the spirit of the antichrist.
C. H. SPURGEON: Let others say of Him what they will. Let them make Him to be a mere man, or a Prophet, or a delegated God—such talk is nothing to the point with us! We believe Him to be very God of very God and we worship Him this day as He is enthroned in the highest heavens, believing Him to be worthy of the adoration which is due to God, alone! I do not wonder that those who believe our Lord Jesus Christ to be a mere man say severe things of us. Nor must they wonder if we deliver very strong utterances with regard to them! If we are wrong, we are idolaters, for we worship a person who is only a man. If we are right, much of their teaching is blasphemous.
OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Reader, ponder this testimony: Jesus of Nazareth, the anointed Saviour of poor sinners, is emphatically styled the “great God,” Titus 2:13; the “mighty God,” Isaiah 9:6; the “only wise God,” Jude 25; the “true God,” 1 John 5:20; and the “only Lord God,” Jude 4. The name Jehovah particularly belongs to God; it is never applied to a mere creature. “I am Jehovah; that is my name,” Isaiah 42:8. And yet this very name is ascribed to Jesus by the Holy Spirit: “This is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness,” Jeremiah 23:6. He is Jehovah Jesus, “over all, God blessed for evermore,” Romans 9:5. Could a testimony be more clear and decisive? What a precious truth on which to live and glorious rock on which to die! Jesus is Jehovah; He is “Emmanuel, God with us,” Matthew 1:23―God manifest in the flesh.
C. H. SPURGEON: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John 1:1; In His glory He was “with God.” In His nature, He “was God.” “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth),” John 1:14; “And He was in the world, and the world was made by Him,” John 1:12. We cannot describe the Deity of Christ in clearer language than John uses. He was with God; He was God; He did the works of God—for He was the Creator.
H. A. IRONSIDE: The great truth is that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation,” 2 Corinthians 5:19; “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory,” 1 Timothy 3:16. This is the Christian confession.
C. H. SPURGEON: If any doubt His Deity, they must do so in distinct defiance of the language of Holy Scripture. How any believers in Scripture ever get to be disbelievers in the Deity of Christ is altogether astounding.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Those who deny the deity of our Lord are of the world.
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*Editor’s Note: Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, and Unitarians all deny the Deity of Jesus Christ, and therefore are not Christians, no matter what they may profess to be. Like Socinians, some will admit that Jesus is a god, but not the “Almighty God,” which is really no different from polytheistic paganism, in which some gods are more powerful than others; it also denies the essential Trinitarian unity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, as well as Jesus Christ’s own statement of John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.”
