1 John

I don't know about John. I mean, he had a weird gospel, the weirdest book in the Bible (Revelation), and 3 other letters. This one, the biggest of the 3, is pretty eye-opening. From a philosophical or logical standpoint, he doesn't appear to be very thoughtful. Some of what he wrote looks downright harmful to me, but we can get into the details below!

1 Jn 1:1-4 - We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life- this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us- we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Personal experience sounds very convincing - until you look at the personal experiences of people in all other religions. Just like with miracles, personal experiences are of the same quality and frequency in all religions, and are useless when looking for the true facts. It's also interesting here that John, like Paul, talks about fellowship with God the Father and Jesus the Son - but he fails completely here to mention the Holy Spirit! Do you think it possible that even John, the "favorite" among the apostles, didn't know a thing about the Trinity?

1 Jn 2:1 - My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous...
John thinks it possible to avoid sin? That's interesting! But just in case believers "fall off the bandwagon," he assures us that Jesus will be there to pick up the pieces. Oddly enough, I thought that this "advocate" was supposed to be the Holy Spirit (based on the writing of other NT authors).

1 Jn 2:4-6 - Whoever says, "I have come to know him," but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, "I abide in him," ought to walk just as he walked.
John apparently has higher standards than most Christians! All of Jesus' commands must be obeyed, or else they are not truly Christians, but further than that, John thinks real followers should live just as Jesus himself lived. That would be truly interesting to see!

1 Jn 2:15-17 - Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world-the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches-comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.
Here's a passage for those who love the ascetic touch! Stay away from anything that's pleasant or nice in this world, says John. Save yourself for the pleasures to be found in heaven. There's no real reason to do this, other than that today's pleasure isn't from God. Of course, John seems to ignore the statements he made earlier that nothing was made without God.

1 Jn 2:18,19 - Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.
I just love this! John says that I am an antichrist! Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Booga!

1 Jn 2:24-26 - Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life. I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you.
Once again, we see a leader who contends that the first thing believers hear about Christianity is the only one that should count. Did it ever occur to these people that with so many different, conflicting ideas floating around there that maybe they weren't really in touch with a supreme being - that maybe it was just a matter of a bunch of people making the religion up as they went along?

1 Jn 3:6 - No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
This is a remarkable statement, and one that is pretty confusing. To me, it seems that you could easily tell a True Christian by seeing if that person sins. Of course, you'd first have to define exactly what sin is, which is impossible, because the Bible has no definitive statement on the subject - I refer you to reading 1 Samuel chapter 24 as an example of what I mean.

1 Jn 3:9 - Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God.
So now John says that the real Christians are incapable of sinning! From my experience, there are precious few of those around, in that case!

1 Jn 4:1-3 - 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world.
I read the beginning of this passage and I thought - good idea! John is telling people to investigate things and judge them on the evidence they find! Then I read on, and saw the test John had in mind. The man was an idiot, you see. All you had to do to gain his trust was to say "Jesus Christ came in the flesh." I find it most amusing that these writers actually believed that non-Christians would be unable to say certain things.

1 Jn 4:7,8 - Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Once again, we have a rather idiotic "litmus test" of godliness from John. I expect that the word "love" here is from the Greek word "agape," meaning a selfless, giving love that Christians are so very fond of talking about. The problem is that all people are capable of exhibiting this sort of love - the fact that the Greeks even had the word before Jesus came along shows that. As to the claim that God's very nature is love (in any sense of the word) is too ridiculous to bother with in any detail. Just about any page in this project will do for a refutation.

1 Jn 4:12 - No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
It seems to me that anyone who says that no one has ever seen God doesn't even have the rudimentary knowledge of the contents of the Bible that I have. The Old Testament clearly and unambiguously states that Moses, Job, Micaiah and Isaiah saw God. Adam, Enoch, and Elijah spent time in heaven and presumably saw God. I wonder why the New Testament writers felt it necessary to maintain this statement, and why even Jesus said it?

1 Jn 4:18 - There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
And yet, we are told in other places throughout the bible that love of God is based and founded on the fear of God. How can both of these concepts be true? They completely oppose each other!

1 Jn 4:21 - The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
I can understand the need to treat my fellow people with decency, and to try my best to keep from harming them. However, this says that a believer is commanded to love his brothers (the NRSV always adds "and sisters" where the original text only has the word "brothers" - being rather endearingly politically correct!). If you have to command love, how honest can it be?

1 Jn 5:3 - For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome...
I heard the exact same thing in Deuteronomy! It sounds like the same sort of setup - here, John says that all we need to do is live like Jesus lived - homeless, penniless, performing miracles and getting the authorities mad at us. That's not "burdensome," is it?

1 Jn 5:14,15 - And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.
Looking at this statement logically, you have to ask: What is the point of asking God for anything? If something is "according to his will," that means he was going to do it anyway, and all you'd be doing is telling God to go ahead and do what he wants (as if he needed your permission!).

1 Jn 5:16-18 - If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one-to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal. We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them.
This goes against Peter's teaching, saying that some sins are pretty bad, others don't bother God very much. Peter said that if you break one of God's rules, you are responsible for breaking all of them. Obviously, even these close associates didn't get together much on their teaching on something as simple as what exactly sin is!