1 John 4:2 (This is interesting!)

So our family was talking this morning about 1 John 4:2:
We came up with this question and tried to answer it:

All of those people everywhere who are "casting out demons" and such, if you asked them if Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, would they answer "yes"? My parents had had a close encounter with some of those people, but they never heard them say "Jesus CHRIST". In verse 2 it says specifically those who confess that Jesus CHRIST has come in the flesh are of God.

What do you think???

           Yeah. I noticed that in the verse as well. According to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, every word of God is inspired: there are no mistakes. Every detail of scripture is important( even genealogies :)  ). John used the word "Christ", because "Christ" is the Greek word for "Messiah", which is Who Jesus is. It is very important that we identify Jesus as and believe Him to be the Messiah. Many Jews today know Jesus existed( in the flesh), but do not call or believe Him to be the Messiah.  They believe Him to be merely man. 

So to sum it up:
1 John 4:2-3 means

1. Those who don't confess that Jesus came in the flesh are not of God.

                                       and
   

2. Those who don't confess that Jesus is the Messiah are not of God.

   However, though one must confess that Jesus is the Christ; it does not say that a person must confess it with a certain frequency. For example, throughout the Gospels, you will see that many times(if not most), the author will refer to Jesus Christ simply as "Jesus". This does not mean that the author does not believe Jesus to be the Christ or has never confessed Him to be the Christ.

As for your "casting out demons"( I don't know whether you believe it can happen today or not), the devil will always try to counterfeit anything and everything that God does - whether through trickery or any other means. Just look at Moses' staff. God turned it into a snake. Could Pharaoh's magicians do it? The devil sure made quite an imitation. Does that mean that God didn't turn or couldn't of turned Moses' staff into a snake? Absolutely not! If I make a million counterfeit 5 dollars bills, does that mean that the real five dollar bills are no longer in printing. Of course not.

So we must be careful about saying what is and is not of God. That is why God said, "Try the spirits…". Test them. If you have any doubts, write them a letter or in person (if possible) ask them SPECIFICALLLY, saying, "Do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

I hope this helps. :)

Hm, not sure. Part of the reason 1 John says it like this is because he was refuting the Gnostic heresy. They believed that the deity Christ spirit came on the man Jesus at his baptism, and departed before his death. Therefore, John makes it very clear that Jesus CHRIST came in the flesh, through the Spirit AND the Water AND the Blood. (water being baptism, blood being his death). He is emphasizing that Jesus and Christ are one in the same and are not separate.

Any more ideas?

I don't have any ideas….if I think of any I'll let y'all know.

I think there is a difference between stating something and actually believing it here. The demons believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, yet they are obviously not of God. There are unbelievers who will affirm that they believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. But even if they say that, they do not truly believe it if they have not yet believed the essential truths of the gospel and thus been born again. So, I don't think a verbal confession necessarily means anything.