The Duck Test

The Duck Test: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

Unfortunately it isn’t that easy when it comes to what is and isn’t Christian.

They may look like a church, use Christian verbiage in their sermons, prominently display the Bible, meet on Sundays, sing songs about God, have the name of Christ plastered on their walls, but it doesn’t mean they’re God’s people.

This lesson is found in 1 Kings 12. “Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar” (1 Kings 12:32).

It looked and sounded like the feast of Tabernacles, but it wasn’t.

Jeroboam made every effort to have everything look and taste like the worship and sacrifices of God in the Temple, but they weren’t. They had changed it. It was in the wrong month.

Today, there are religions trying to look and sound Christian, which is the definition of a cult, but they’re not Christian. They’ve changed the truth ever so slightly. But a lie is still a lie even if it contains some portions of the truth.

They accept the Bible, but not completely adding to it their own writings, thus changing who God is.

Further they give a good first impression that they’re righteous and holy, having a great set of standards and good morals. But a lie is still a lie no matter how nicely it’s dress up.

Therefore, be careful not to get caught up the lies being taught thinking they’re truth. It may not be a duck after all.

Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:22-23).