How can a professing Christian apply the following "Trying the spirits?"

  1 John 4:1   Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

  1 John 4:2   Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

  1 John 4:3   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.

Are not other sects, like for example the Seventh Advestist would say in applying this "test for spirits," "any person who works on Saturday or does not keep the Sabbath holy" is not of Christ and therefore has the "spirit of the antiChrist." And so on with the 1001 sects defending their respective doctrines.
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fil----

1 John 4:1-3 says nothing about sabbath's, or testing spirits by that doctrine. It is giving a very clear test-----Every spirit that says Jesus is come in the flesh is of God, every spirit that denies that is not.  Seems to be very clear.

Seventh Day Adventists do not say the above.  The scripture says that the spirit of antichrist is upon those who deny that Christ came in the flesh, that is our flesh.  Those who teach such, have the spirit of antichrsit.  The Church of Rome is a good example of the same.  They teach that the mother of Jesus, Mary, was nothing like the rest of humanity, having no original sin, sinless.  Thus making the mother and Father of Jesus completely different than the rest of humanity.  Thus He was also, not of our flesh.  This is the spirit of antichrist.

Immaculate Conception
THE DOCTRINE
In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."
"The Blessed Virgin Mary . . ." The subject of this immunity from original sin is the person of Mary at the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body.
". . .in the first instance of her conception . . ." The term conception does not mean the active or generative conception by her parents. Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents. Neither does it concern the passive conception absolutely and simply (conceptio seminis carnis, inchoata), which, according to the order of nature, precedes the infusion of the rational soul. The person is truly conceived when the soul is created and infused into the body. Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first moment of her animation, and sanctifying grace was given to her before sin could have taken effect in her soul.
". . .was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin. . ." The formal active essence of original sin was not removed from her soul, as it is removed from others by baptism; it was excluded, it never was simultaneously with the exclusion of sin. The state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially pertaining in her soul to original sin, were excluded. But she was not made exempt from the temporal penalties of Adam -- from sorrow, bodily infirmities, and death.
". . .by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race." The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt (debitum) of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin. Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ's redeeming wisdom. He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be incurred than he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor.
Such is the meaning of the term "Immaculate Conception."
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII
Copyright © 1910

Seventh Day Adventists do believe the following though,-

II Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Those who reject what Jesus taught as truth, have not God.

Starting from the beginning, GOD was alone:

* Isaiah 43:10   Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

There was only one Creator:

*   Nehemiah 9:6   Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

*  Isaiah 44:24   Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
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Quote Starting from the beginning, GOD was alone:


Gen. 1:1 in the begining "Gods" created.....   In the Hebrew it is Gods.  However, created is a singular act.  It appears to me that God was telling us from the very first that there is a Godhead or trinity.  Jesus was tere in the begining John 1.  "In the begining was the word and the word was with God and the word was God..."

personally i believe that churches who aren't christ centerd are already violating this verse...

if they only talk of the holy spirit and not christ, then they are of the anti-christ

Yes, you are correct. When we are conscious ourselves of "trying another spirit" means the Holy Spirit that resides in us is communicating with our brain - as to whether or not that particular person (any person has at least a little spirit they are born with) speaks in terms of the trinity- Jesus' divine nature as being fully human & fully God.

That is what St. John & the apostles & disciples were up against, in terms of those with an antichrist spirit.

That's the only doctrine God made sure the disciples preached.

That's technically why one can state that unbelievers are antichrists, as soon as they make it known to us that they do not believe that Jesus is/ & was God come to earth.

18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. (1Jn.2:18-19)

John spoke of antichrists & apostates, beginning since Christ had come to the world. And there were many. Roman had to silence many of those "crazy" false prophets, bc obviously they created civil disturbances. But the apostles were able to complete their mission(s) - & so we see the great Faith that survived bc of them- by & according to God's will & plan.

Even today, obviously too many are antichristian & say Jesus was a mere man & possibly a prophet.

1Jn.2:22,
22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.