Testing the Spirits: Faith, Science, and Humility

Ecclesiastes 3:9 to 15 holds toil, beauty, eternity, limits, joy, and the fear of God together. The Teacher sees that God has put eternity in the human heart, yet has not handed human beings the power to fathom everything from beginning to end. God makes things beautiful in their time, gives daily work and satisfaction as gifts, and does what endures beyond human control.

The call to “test the spirits” requires more than swallowing every claim made in Christ’s name. John’s warning invites believers to ask good questions, look deeply, and discern what comes from Christ. The image of considering the lilies means more than taking a quick glance. It means studying closely enough to see God’s care at work.

The relationship between science and faith does not need to become an either-or fight. Science pursues knowledge about how things work, while faith pursues meaning, wisdom, and trust before the God who made reality. Western science itself grew where Christians read both Scripture and creation carefully, applying close observation to the world God made.

The contrast between faith and certainty matters deeply. Certainty says every answer must already be secured or faith will collapse. Trust says God remains God even when old answers fail, new evidence comes, or understanding has to grow. A believer can be wrong about God without God being wrong.

Small godism turns discoveries into threats because it imagines a God who can only survive inside the gaps of human knowledge. The bigness of God means that evolution, medicine, molecules, test tubes, healing, and creation itself cannot threaten the One who created reality. God does not merely fill in the blanks. God is around, above, within, and sustaining all that exists.

Humility makes room for learning. Rigidity breaks easily because it cannot bear challenge, while trust can ask questions and receive questions without treating disagreement as disloyalty. The church needs freedom to observe, question, test, learn, and admit limits, because questions should not become chains that keep people from truth.

The faith of the Son joins faith not to certainty but to trust. God knows every unknown place, so no honest question has to become forbidden territory. Jesus Christ and him crucified remain the center, while the rest can be received as God continues to reveal the wonder and goodness of creation.

##

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Faith is trust, not certainty. Faith becomes brittle when it depends on having every answer already settled. Trust rests in God’s character when answers change, evidence grows, or understanding proves incomplete. God’s truth does not need human certainty in order to remain true. [62:07]
• 2. God does not fear reality. Reality belongs to God because God created it. Scientific discovery cannot expose a flaw in God, though it may expose flaws in human assumptions about God. A big God is not protected by ignorance but known more deeply through the world he sustains. [47:40]
• 3. Questions can become instruments of freedom. Questions become dangerous only when communities treat them as signs of betrayal. Jesus links truth with freedom, and honest inquiry can loosen chains built from fear, false certainty, and tribal loyalty. Christian maturity learns to test without trying to control every outcome. [53:27]
• 4. Humility makes room for God’s wisdom. Humility admits that incompleteness is not failure. Another person’s insight may become a means through which Christ exposes, corrects, or completes what is lacking. The refusal to listen can become the refusal of grace arriving from an unexpected place. [59:30]
• 5. Creation and healing belong to God. Medicine and miracle do not compete when God is understood as present throughout creation. Molecules, medicine, skill, prayer, and healing all exist under God’s care and providence. The mundane can carry divine mercy without becoming less wonderful.
  
  ## [56:08]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [34:01] - Ecclesiastes and Eternity in the Heart
• [36:08] - Atheists Who Tested the Resurrection
• [37:16] - Testing the Spirits
• [40:23] - Science Pursues Knowledge, Faith Pursues Meaning
• [42:22] - Questions, Humility, and Growing Faith
• [44:29] - Francis Collins and the Question of Why
• [47:02] - Faith Is Not Certainty
• [50:03] - Ecclesiastes, Suffering, and Wisdom
• [53:05] - When Questions Become Chains
• [55:40] - Healing Through Miracle and Medicine
• [57:17] - Humility and the Limits of Knowledge
• [60:13] - Discipleship and Science
• [62:07] - The Faith of the Son
• [64:07] - A Church That Keeps Asking

Bible Reading

Ecclesiastes 3:9–15
“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.” [34:01]

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.” [37:53]

John 8:32
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [53:52]

Galatians 5:1
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” [53:52]

1 Corinthians 2:2
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” [01:03:25]

Observation questions

1. In Ecclesiastes 3:9–15, what things does the Teacher say God has given people, and what things does he say people cannot fully discover?
2. What does 1 John 4:1 tell believers to do before accepting claims made in Christ’s name? What situation in the church prompted John’s warning? [37:53]
3. How are “knowledge” and “wisdom” described differently when facing hard realities such as suffering, disease, and death? [50:32]
4. What kinds of “chains” can be created when a church treats certain questions as signs that someone does not belong? [53:27]

Interpretation questions

1. Ecclesiastes says that God has put eternity in the human heart while limiting human ability to understand everything from beginning to end. How can both a deep desire for answers and an acceptance of human limits be part of faithful living?
2. When 1 John calls believers to test the spirits, does that mean believers should become suspicious of every new idea? What would careful, Christ-centered testing look like in a conversation about faith, science, medicine, or culture? [38:09]
3. If God created and sustains all reality, why might a new scientific discovery challenge a person’s assumptions about God without threatening God himself? [47:40]
4. Paul centers Christian faith on “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” How can this center help believers hold convictions firmly while remaining humble about matters they may not fully understand? [01:02:07]

Application questions

1. Is there a question about God, Scripture, science, suffering, or your own life that you have avoided because it felt dangerous? What would it look like to bring that question honestly before God and trusted believers?
2. Faith is trust, not the need to possess every answer. When have changing circumstances or new information made your faith feel shaky? What might trusting God look like in that specific area? [01:02:20]
3. Think of a belief you once held very confidently but later changed your mind about. How did that experience affect your relationship with God? Did it make you more defensive, more humble, or more curious?
4. Have you ever felt that disagreement or asking a hard question made you seem disloyal to a church, family, or Christian community? How can this group become a place where people can test, learn, and still treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ? [53:11]
5. Where are you most tempted toward “small godism”—imagining that God can only work through one explanation, one method, or one set of answers? How does the truth that God is present throughout creation change that fear? [48:04]
6. Is there a health need in your life or in the life of someone you love? How might you pray with confidence for both miraculous healing and the ordinary gifts of medicine, skilled caregivers, and treatment? [56:08]
7. Whose insight have you been quick to dismiss because they see an issue differently from you? Is there a way God may be inviting you to listen with humility, without pretending that every difference is unimportant? [59:30]