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"And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world."
(1 John 4:3)
We have been discussing this week the importance of the child of God to know the Bible and not believe every spirit but test those spirits to determine if they are genuine and biblically based. Even when a teacher seems sincere, if he or she espouses doctrines diametrically opposed to Scripture, he or she must not be believed but rejected. In those cases, the best thing a Christian can do is lovingly share the true Gospel of Jesus with such people. I am not being mean or cruel to those who do not believe the Bible. I too, before I came to Christ, had beliefs that were not aligned with truth. Praise God for men and women who taught me and pointed out the true grace Gospel of Jesus so I could be saved!
Another religious group that clearly has no biblical foundation are the Druids. They are one of 4,200 religious groups in the world and one of the 372 in the USA. The Druids have a faith built on paganism and a spiritual path rooted in nature. "Many Druids view Jesus not as the exclusive son of God, but as a highly enlightened teacher, prophet, or historical 'wise man,' putting him alongside other spiritual leaders like Buddha or native guides." (Source: Google AI) They venerate or worship the divine as they understand it in nature. They believe in reincarnation where after death, people come back to earth in the forms of rocks, trees, or animals. Recently, thousands of Druids dressed in costumes and antlers attended the annual summer solstice at Stonehenge in the UK. (Source: Jim Denison's Daily Article, June 23, 2026)
The reason I call the Druids and those like them strange is because the primary tenets of their faith are very alien, foreign, and strange to the New Testament.
Listen carefully to John Stott's warning to the follower of Christ:
"Still today there are many voices clamoring for our attention, and many cults gaining widespread popular support. Some of them claim some special revelation or inspiration to authenticate their doctrine. There is an urgent need for discernment among Christians. We are often too gullible, and exhibit a naive readiness to credit messages and teachings which purport to come from the spirit-world. There is such a thing, however, as a misguided charity and tolerance towards false doctrine. Unbelief ('believe not every spirit') can be as much a mark of spiritual maturity as belief. We need to preserve the biblical balance, avoiding on the one hand the extreme superstition which believes everything and on the other extreme superstition which believes nothing." (Source: Stott, The Epistles of John, p. 153)
Truth is worth knowing and defending against heresy. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you know and defend "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).
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