1 John 4:1 compared to The No True Scotsman Fallacy and sophisms

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Boru,


Do you think that every person who tells you they are a Christian is really a Christian ?

Do you think 1 John 4:1 talks about testing the spirits to see if they are really from God ?

Question #1:  Since NTS is a valid fallacy, whether or not someone is a Christian isn't for me to judge (at least not on the basis of them saying so).

Question #2:  Yes.

But I think you misunderstand NTS.  It works like this:  Angus was born and reared in Aberdeen.  His mother was from Glasgow, his father from Edinburgh.  He wears a kilt, plays bagpipes, speaks fluent Gàidhlig, and is passionate to the point of distraction about Robert Burns.  But, since Angus takes sugar in his porridge - which no true Scotsman does - Angus isn't a true Scotsman.

With Christians, it would probably go something like: Thomas believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God, was able to work miracles, was tried, crucified, died, rose, and ascended into Heaven.  Thomas also believes that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and died for all of our sins.  However, Thomas disbelieves in the virgin birth.  Since no true Christian disbelieves this, Thomas is not a true Christian.

I'm still not getting how this applies to John's admonition to test spirits or prophets.

Boru