“Beloved, do no believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” – I John 4:1 NKJV
Origen was a 2nd century post-Gnostic philosopher who lived and taught in Alexandria. The Alexandrian School was the nucleus of the mixing of Christian, Platonic and Gnostic influenced learning in the 2nd century. Most of us are very little, if at all, familiar with Origen. Even fewer of us are aware that the spirit of Origen is alive and well today and threatens the church of Christ with a neo-Gnostic approach to biblical interpretation. In an effort to appeal to the “we can’t ever find the truth” post-modern generation, some among us have adopted Origen and his philosophy. Origen taught, among other things that Bible passages have multiple meanings and that each person can perceive these various meanings through a template of their own personal stories.
As a result, New Testament a-cappella singing has morphed into head banging rock and roll, the Lord’s Day has rolled back into Saturday night and the blood bought church of Christ has become just another denomination . . . according to some among us today.
“IF” Origen is correct, John the inspired apostle must be wrong. In order for us to “test the spirits,” we must have a clear, singular meaning and linear standard by which to do the testing. Otherwise, you have your truth, I have mine and there is no standard at all by which to judge anything. “Let God be true and every man a liar.”
Jesus told the apostles that they would KNOW the truth, he told them that the Holy Spirit would lead them to ALL the truth and he finally told them to teach baptized disciples ALL things whatsoever he commanded. Any biblical interpretive model that teaches, or even infers, that truth is somehow unknowable, unreachable or otherwise clouded in "mystery" is FALSE.
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