they had earlier accepted. A mere profession of faith does not guarantee the actual possession of eternal life. The emptiness of mere profession would become clear by the departure from Christianity of some of the Ephesians (see 1 John 2:19 for the same idea). The “deceiving spirits” may be supernatural evil spirits who work through individuals, but against this view is the fact that Paul later described these false teachers in Ephesus as “deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim 3:13). It is best to