I will look specifically at Christianity later, but for now I want to briefly present what some of the major religions of the world believe. I’m not covering all of them, just an overview of the main ones. It’s important to know what these religions teach so that we can decide if they hold any real answers, truth, or hope (compared to Christianity), and so that we as believers can have biblical responses to them. (This is my paraphrase of things I’ve learned over time and information from a religion comparison guide called “Christianity: Cults & Religions” and from a book by Fritz Ridenour called, So What’s the Difference?)
Judaism:
The founders of Judaism are Abraham and Moses, of the Bible. Jews do not consider the whole Bible to be scriptural, but only the Old Testament (called the Hebrew Bible), especially the first five books (the Torah). There are four kinds of Jews: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Messianic.
Orthodox Jews are strict “rule-followers.” Besides the Old Testament, they also live by additional rules in the Mishnah and the Talmud. To make sure that they follow the rules completely, they take things to an extreme. Such as Exodus 23:19 says to not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk, but they take it even further, always eating meat and dairy separately, never in the same dish. Conservative Jews are a little more relaxed in their rule-following, more concerned about trying to keep Jewish traditions alive. Reformed Jews are not concerned with strict rule-following either. They believe that following the principles of Judaism are more important than following all the fastidious rules.
Christianity and Judaism are similar in much of their values and beliefs. However, the great difference is how we view Jesus. The only Jews who follow Jesus are Messianic Jews, who still observe Jewish customs yet believe Jesus is the Messiah. The rest generally believe He was a false messiah or a good teacher who had an unfortunate death. (Would a “good teacher” deceive everyone by claiming He was God and the only way to heaven?) Since they don’t believe Jesus is God (as Christians do), most Jews don’t believe in the Trinity, that God is three persons in one (see note below), but they believe He is one Being.
Conservative and Reformed Jews believe God is an impersonal and unknowable spirit, whereas Orthodox Jews believe He is personal and knowable. Some Jews think the Holy Spirit is just another name for God’s love/power and some think it refers to His activity on earth. Most Jews believe salvation is obtained by commitment to God and moral living. Christians and Messianic Jews believe salvation is only through Jesus’s atoning death.
(A huge difference between Christianity and all other religions is that all other religions are about man working his way to God, to heaven, but Christianity is about God reaching down to man, paying our way to heaven for us because we could never be perfect enough to earn heaven on our own. In all other religions, man struggles to make his way to heaven. But in Christianity, God made the way for us, and all we have to do is accept it.)
NOTE: Christians believe the Bible teaches “the Trinity,” that God is three persons in one God: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. Each has a distinct personally and role, but they all together make up one God, being one unit with the same nature and essence. It’s hard for us to fully understand this because there’s nothing else like it on earth, but various analogies have been given to help us grasp the idea of the Trinity (all analogies fall short at some point, so don’t read into them too much), such as:
H20, which comes in three distinctly different forms: liquid water, gassy steam, solid ice. Each has its own role and purpose, but they’re all made up of the same thing: H2O.
An egg, which has three basic parts (shell, yolk, and albumen, the clear goopy part). Each part has its different role, but each is genetically “egg.” And all three parts together make up one egg, not three. If any part was missing, it would not be a full egg.
A Totem Pole with three faces. Each face is distinct from the others, but all three are made of the same materiel, and all three together make up one Totem Pole.
Or even a family of three people, where each has their own personality and role, but each is made up of the same “human” material (ignore the fact that they don’t have the exact same DNA), and all together they make up one unit, one family.
(Can you think of other analogies?)
Here are some verses on the Trinity:
Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness …” (Notice that God said “us,” talking to the three persons of the Trinity. But He also says “image/likeness” in the singular, not the plural. The three persons have one image, one likeness, because they are one God. If they were three different Gods, it would be “images/likenesses,” in the plural.)
Likewise, Matthew 28:19 indicates that the three together make up one name, singular (which would be “God), not three different ones: “… baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.
John 10:30: “I and my Father are one.” [Jesus says He and God the Father are one and the same, which is why the Jews wanted to kill Him, thinking He was blasphemous. And Acts 5:3-4 says that when Ananias lied, he lied to the Holy Spirit, and that it was really lying to God. In the Word, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are identified as God (not a god or gods, but God), along with God the Father.]
Luke 1:35: “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” [In this verse, an angel tells Mary, a young virgin, how she will become pregnant with Jesus, the Messiah. Each member of the Trinity is here, working together in this: the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary, God the Father will overshadow her, and she will become pregnant with God the Son, Jesus, to bring Him into the world as a human so that He could fulfill His role in the redemption plan, dying for our sins to save us. If Jesus is not God, then He died as a sinful man, nothing more, and His death means nothing and cannot save anyone. But it is because He is God (perfect, righteous) that His death could pay the price for sin that sinful man could never pay. It is because He is God that He alone could bridge the gap between God and us which was created when mankind rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. Man, in his fallen, sinful condition, could never be perfect enough to reach God, to “earn” heaven. But God could reach down to us, paying our way to heaven Himself, which is what He did when Jesus came to earth to die for our sins.]
1 John 5:7 (KJV): “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word [Jesus], and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” [One of the clearest verses on the Trinity. However, most translations, but the KJV, just say “There are three that testify,” making the rest of the verse just a footnote. But from my research (a whole other topic I won’t get into here), the KJV is the most reliable version, so this verse should be included.]
And here are verses about each member of the Trinity being “creator,” being there in the beginning: Genesis 1:1-2 (God the Father and the Holy Spirit): “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…. and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” and John 1:1-3 (Jesus): “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God [the Father] in the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.”
Christians do not worship three different Gods, but one God of three persons, each having their own role. Very briefly, God the Father is chief Creator who is over and above all, overseeing all things and working all things into His plans. God the Son (Jesus) came to earth in a human body to die for us and to represent God the Father to us, pointing the way to Him. And God the Holy Spirit works in the Spirit realm, making sure everyone senses that God is real and that they need Him, and He lives inside each Christian, marking us as believers, sealing us for the day of redemption, and helping guide us and grow us in Him.
Another way to say it: God the Father made the redemptive plan, Jesus carried out the plan, and the Holy Spirit applies the plan to people, helping us understand and embrace it. (What other verses can you find about the roles of each member of the Trinity?)
Catholicism:
While both Catholics and Christians believe in the Bible and God and Jesus, there are a few BIG differences between the two. Catholics believe that new revelations are given to the bishops. Therefore, scriptural authority is not just “the Bible” (as Christians believe), but “the Bible plus the bishop’s new revelations.” And the leaders – Rome – are the only ones with the ability to understand and correctly interpret what the Bible teaches. (But Christians believe that God’s truth is made available to everyone in the Bible and can be understood by everyone.) The pope claims papal infallibility, meaning that he has complete authority over the church and cannot be wrong in what he decides. (Christians would say that all men are fallen, and so you should never consider any man as perfect.)
Catholics hold Mary in higher regard than Christians do, basically to the point of worshipping her. They believe she was born sinless, died sinless, and remained a virgin her whole life (despite verses to the contrary), that she was taken up bodily into heaven, and that she shares Jesus’s job of being a mediator between man and God.
[Catholics have their own Bible, the New American Bible. And to maintain the idea of Mary’s eternal virginity, they changed Matthew 1:18 from “before [Mary and Joseph] came together” (which according to the concordance means “conjugal cohabitation”: marriage, which would include marital sex) to “before they lived together,” which could happen without sex. And in the footnotes, they explain that when a verse refers to Jesus’s human brothers and sisters, it means cousins/extended family.]
Catholics pray to Mary, angles, and dead saints, asking for their help. They believe priests are mediators between us and God, so they confess their sins to priests. And the priests pronounce forgiveness, after commanding them to do certain things to atone for their sins, like praying many prayers including several “Hail Mary’s.” Christians do not believe we can earn or secure our forgiveness by doing these kinds of things (God alone forgives sins, and only because of Jesus’s death for sins). We do not believe in praying to anyone other than God. And we believe that we can confess our sins directly to God.
[From what I understand, Catholics believe in having the priests (and Mary, the angels, and dead saints) mediate between people and God out of respect for God’s high position, believing that the common person should not approach God too informally. While I appreciate the respect they are trying to show to God, they forget that God lowered Himself to a “human” level by putting on flesh and coming to earth to make Himself accessible to us. Making Him inaccessible to people again is reversing/denying what God did, regardless of their good intentions. Ephesians 2:18: “For through him [Jesus] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Hebrews 4:16 10:19: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need… we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…”]
Salvation for a Catholic comes through faith plus their good works, including adherence to the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church: baptism, confirmation (the final step of baptism), taking communion (which they believe has been transformed into Christ’s actual body and blood, instead of being just symbolic, as Christians believe), the regular confession of sins to the priest, being anointed by the priest with oil when you are sick or near death, the ordination of Catholic ministers at three different levels, and Holy Matrimony (being married in the Catholic Church).
Catholics also believe in purgatory, a place your soul goes to when you die where you work out any unconfessed sins so that you become fit for heaven. (What did Jesus’s death accomplish then, if we are still required to pay for our sins? And where is this taught in the Bible?) Living Catholics can help those in purgatory get out of it faster by praying for them, by doing good things on their behalf, and by being granted “indulgences” by the leadership. “Indulgences” is the idea that the Catholic Church has accumulated God’s favor over the years through prayers and good works, etc., and that a priest or bishop can dip into that “bank account” and take some of God’s favor and extend it to a person in purgatory as a “pardon for sin,” declaring that the person can now get out of purgatory so many days early. (Huh!?! Where is that idea in the Bible?)
Here are some verses to consider when examining Catholic theology:
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Tim 2:5). Jesus Himself is the only mediator between men and God. How wrong it is to elevate mere humans to Jesus’s level and to blatantly defy Scripture.
“And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9) Catholic priests are called “father.” This verse isn’t about genetic fathers but spiritual fathers, saying that there’s only One who should be called “Father”: God! Of all the titles they could pick, they pick the very one that’s forbidden.
“They [false teachers] forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods …” (1 Tim 4:3). Priests are not allowed to marry, according to the Catholic Church. However, the Bible claims that church leaders are to be “the husband of but one wife … He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect.” (1 Tim 3:2-4) You can’t have a family or wife if you’re not allowed to marry (a rule made up by men, not God). And Catholics are forbidden to eat meat on Fridays during Lent, another rule made up by the Catholic Church, not God.
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” (Matt 6:7) What do the priests require of you so that you can earn forgiveness for your sins? That you repeat a certain number of prayers over and over again. And you are required – as a good Catholic – to pray the rosary. More repetitive prayer, most of which are prayers to Mary.
And yet who did Jesus tell us to direct our prayers to? “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven …’” (Matt 6:9) Jesus also instructed us a couple verses later to ask God to forgive our sins, but in a Catholic church, you ask the priest to do it. Because in the Catholic church, he is the one who grants (or withholds) forgiveness, requiring you to jump through their hoops first, as if they have the authority to grant or withhold forgiveness or to require more than what God does in the Bible. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins …” (1 John 1:9). And who is “he” in this verse? The priests, those self-appointed “fathers”? NO! It’s God Himself.
“… should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19) And I think we can also apply it like this: “… should not a people pray only to their God? Why pray to the dead on behalf of the living?” (They might say that they don't pray to Mary, just that they ask her to pray for them. But once again, "why consult the dead on behalf of the living”? Why consult another human instead of God?)
Look even at what an angel told John when he fell before it in worship: “At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!” (Rev 19:10) And what’s the Catholic church doing? Worshipping servants of God and dead humans and requiring that their followers pray to them. It's quite disturbing to see the many pictures on-line of Catholics kneeling before statues of the Pope and Mary and the "saints." Kneeling in worship! God commands us to not make images and to not bow down to them, but this is exactly what the Catholic church does.
“But wait,” a Catholic would say, “Mary wasn’t just a mere human! She was sinless!” And what does the Bible say? Not one verse about Mary being sinless (or ascending bodily into heaven or being called the "Queen of heaven" or “Mother of God”)! However, there are many verses about Jesus being sinless, which is why His death alone could satisfy the payment required for mankind’s sins (2 Cor. 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22, Hebrews 4:15, 7:26, 1 John 3:5). And furthermore, it clearly says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Not “all but Mary have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
While I do respect the fact that there are a lot of good, God-fearing people in the Catholic Church and that it’s been a stepping-stone to real faith for many people, I think that the Catholic church itself has become more about "religion" and less about biblical faith, less about a true, saving relationship with Jesus. It has added many rules that are not in the Bible and many layers to the true gospel that are not biblical, corrupting the Truth and the church and, I believe, leading many people away from the real truth of the Bible. (To convince people that they’ll be saved if they just follow the man-made, extra-biblical rules of the Catholic church - when the Bible says that the only way to be saved is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus - is heresy. Damnable heresy.)
[Update 5/21/18: I just watched something alarming online, a clip of Pope Francis telling people that a personal relationship with Jesus is dangerous and harmful. He's basically saying that it's dangerous to attempt to have a relationship with Jesus Christ without the mediation of the church - the Catholic church, of course. He says that being a Christian means belonging to the church (Catholic, of course).
Umm ... NO! Being a Christian means being a follower of Jesus Christ. The church is simply the followers of Christ coming together for fellowship, to lift each other up, to pray together, to worship together, and to study the Word together. Jesus came before the church. Jesus is the foundation of and head of the Church. Not the other way around.
Yes, we Christians need to be in fellowship with other believers ... BUT the church is not the way to salvation; Jesus is. The church doesn't save us; Jesus does. The church isn't God on earth; Jesus is. The church isn't the way, the truth, and the life; Jesus is. The church does not supersede Jesus. The Catholic Church, the pope, has not taken Jesus's place here on earth. And there will be consequences for the pope claiming so!
Furthermore, the Catholic church is working on forming an alliance between Islam and Christianity (actually, I should say “their brand of Christianity”). Anyone who is actually a faithful follower of either Muhammad or Jesus knows that these two cannot be reconciled, that they cannot both be true, not when they both have very different foundational truths.
To my Catholic friends: I suggest you get out of the Catholic church. You don't need the Catholic church to be a Christian or to tell you what God's Word says. Read it for yourself and find out who Jesus really is and what it really means to be a follower of Christ.]
Islam:
Founded by Muhammad in the 600s A.D., who claimed to be a prophet but did not claim to be divine. The Qur’an (Koran) is their holy book, which they believe supersedes all other holy writings, even the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Muhammad claims that the angel Gabriel dictated this book to him. There is also the Sunnah which contains teachings and sayings of Muhammad, and the Shariah which is a collection of strict laws that govern a Muslim’s life.
According to Islam, there is only one God - Allah. The idea of the Trinity is highly offensive and blasphemous. And Muslims believe that God cannot be known. To a Muslim, Jesus was not God but a respected prophet who was sinless and did miracles. He did not die on a cross nor rise again. But God took Him to heaven before he went to the cross (because no prophet could die such a humiliating death) and someone else was in His place, disguised as Jesus (such as Judas). Also, Jesus will not come again before judgment. Muhammad, the last and greatest prophet, will be the one coming to usher in the End.
In Islam, man is born as a clean slate, as opposed to the Christian belief that man is born in sin and separated from God. And each Muslim has to make up for their own sins by being a faithful Muslim and following Islam’s Five Pillars of the Faith: converting to Islam through a Statement of Belief, praying five times a day toward Mecca, giving alms, celebrating Ramadan, and taking a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Muslims are taught that God does not love people who do wrong, whereas Christians believe that God loves all sinners and has paid the price for their sins. For a Muslim, heaven is a place of sensual pleasure where a man is given a bunch of virgins to pleasure him for all of eternity. (Would that really be a deeply, eternally-satisfying reward? How long before those 72 virgins are old news, before the constant sex loses its appeal? And do you know what the married women get as a reward? To be with their husbands for all of eternity, yet to feel so beautiful that she won't be jealous about him having sex with the 72 virgins. WHAT KIND OF FREAKIN’ REWARD IS THAT!?! That ought to make any woman today enraged! What kind of an eternity is that!?! Definitely a religion made up by a man!) And hell awaits those who oppose God and Muhammad.
On a different note, there is much contention and confusion nowadays over the idea of “Muslim extremists” versus “moderate, peaceful Muslims.” (In fact, many Muslims say that the word "Islam" means "peace," whereas it really means submission to God ... and then you will find peace. Islam is about forcing people into submission to God, often through violence or extreme control, where they will then find "peace.") While most Muslims in America do seem to be peaceful, it cannot be ignored that Muhammad did, in fact, teach of warfare and killing those who disagree with him. I believe his earliest writings promoted tolerance and a “live and let live” kind of mentality. But his later writings promote killing “infidels,” subjugating those who disagree, Shariah law, and Jihad (warfare against their enemies). And these later writings are supposed to override the previous ones. Therefore, those who are “extremists” are not really misrepresenting Islam. They are actually the most committed and are following the whole Qur’an to the letter.
[Some Islamic passages to consider:
Qur'an 9:5: "... slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush ..."
5:51: "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and Christians for friends; they are friends of each other."
9:29, 73, 123: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day... O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them… O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness."
48:29: "Those who follow Muhammad are merciless for the unbelievers but kind to each other."
Also see Qur'an 4:95-96, Qur'an 47:7, Sahih Muslim 30, Sunan An-Nasa'i 3099, Sunan Ibn Majah 2763, Sahih al-Bukhari 6922, Hadith 1:13, Hadith 19:4294, Hadith 9:4, etc. It's all there, in Muhammad's own words. This is not a religion of peace, but of warfare, of forcing others to submit, and of killing those who don't.]
And if I remember correctly, they believe that Jihad (holy war) will help usher in the End, the coming of Muhammad. This is why they (the “radical extremists”) are not afraid to declare Jihad on people and why trying to negotiate peace with them will not work. They want the war because it will bring them rewards, and it will bring Muhammad back again.
To those who say that Muhammad taught peace, that Islam is a religion of peace, I would say that, looking at his own words, Muhammad himself would disagree. Christians are to love their enemies. Muslims are to kill their enemies. Christians are to be willing to die for their faith. Muslims are to kill for theirs.
But let me say again that many Muslims seem peaceful and just want to practice their faith in peace. We don’t have to fear those who aren’t violent, nor should we be lashing out at them. Instead, we need to show them the same kind of grace and love that we should be showing everyone. Jesus died for them, too, that they might believe in Him and find everlasting life. (How can we tell the difference between violent and non-violent Muslims? I don’t know. But until someone proves to be violent, show them Jesus’s love and grace. And pray for them. This is what we Christians are called to do.)
And from what I’ve heard recently, many Muslims are coming to Christ because they are having visions of Jesus, revealing to them the truth of who He is and that they need to believe in Him to be saved. It seems that God is working in special ways to save these people. And you know it’s real when a Muslim converts to Christianity, because they do it at the risk of being attacked, banished, or killed. They would never make this decision lightly, unless they were fully convinced, because it could cost them everything.
Hinduism:
It has no founder but began sometime in 1800-1000 B.C. in India through the mixing of people groups and their polytheistic religions. Hinduism has no particular central theology or doctrine, but it allows for many various beliefs, such as believing in whatever gods you want or none at all. Oftentimes, they worship a god in just about everything in nature. But all Hindus believe in the idea of reincarnation and karma.
Basically, they believe that souls are repeatedly reincarnated into various forms on earth (human or animal), going through various levels of suffering while they work out their karma in order to reach the highest level of being united with the infinite spirit, Brahma (their idea of “God”).
Karma is a sort of “point system” based on the good or bad things you do. And karma determines what kind of body/station you are given in your next reincarnation. And, last I knew, they believe in not interfering with someone else’s destiny. So if someone is suffering, it is their karmic destiny. They brought it on themselves from the way they lived their previous lives, and no one should interfere with them while they work out their karma. (This is why they did not help those in the lowest rung of the caste system – the Untouchables. They believed the Untouchables deserved what they got because of their past lives and that they had to work out their own karma. They may have changed this recently, though.) And once you tip the scales enough to the “good” – through yoga and meditation and good works and faithfully living within your reincarnated position – you will be released from the endless cycles of reincarnation and be absorbed into Brahma.
(Yoga is a form of Hindu worship. Those poses are prayer poses to Hindu gods, meant to align you with the universe and with Brahma, where “all are one” and where you learn “I am Brahma.” And yet the Christians who practice yoga act like it’s just a harmless, “spiritually neutral” form of exercise. But is it really!?! Would God say it is? See my post "Is Yoga okay for Christians? Here's a hint: It's not!")
They believe that “God” (Brahma) is in everything and that everyone is part of God, which is why they worship so many different gods and allow different beliefs. They believe that all beliefs might take different paths, but that they all lead to the same thing, to the only reality out there: God (Brahma). (This is why it's so weird that they have recently been violently attacking Christians. Their beliefs allow for any and all beliefs. Apparently except Christianity now, I guess.) Idol worship – worshipping physical items of stone and wood – is common in Hindu homes. And the dot that they wear on their foreheads represents a spiritual “third eye.”
[In comparison, what does the Bible say about the way to heaven?
Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all sinners, which is why we need a Savior.
Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of our sins, we are all headed towards death, spiritual death, eternal separation from God. But out of His love for us, God offers us the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. We don’t work for a free gift; we can only accept it.
John 3:16,18: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life… Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” Romans 3:24: “God presented him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Jesus (God in the flesh) paid the penalty for our sins so that we don’t have to. He died the death we deserve so that we could live. And all we have to do is believe, to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That’s how we accept the gift. And if we don’t believe - if we reject His gift, His death in our place - then we choose to pay the penalty ourselves, which is spiritual death. Hell.
John 14:6: “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” There is no other person who can save us because no other person, but Jesus (God in the flesh), died in our place, for our sins.
Romans 10:9,13: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” It’s that easy. No struggling to pay for your sins. No trying to constantly tip the scales to “good enough,” never quite sure when it’s really “good enough.” Just call on Jesus, believe in Him as Lord and Savior, and you will be saved. God made it that easy because He loves us and wants us all in heaven with Him.
2 Peter 3:9: “He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” He doesn’t want anyone to perish. There are no “Untouchables” to Him. He reaches down to us all, to pull us out of hell and into heaven with Him. And all we have to do is grab onto His hand and let Him do it.]
Buddhism:
Founded in the 500s B.C. by Gautama Siddhartha (a.k.a. Buddha). Buddhists do not believe in the Bible, God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. If they do believe in Jesus, they believe He was an enlightened teacher or an avatar (the savior of your choice), but He was not God. Buddhists believe that life is about suffering, brought about by selfish desires (and all desires are bad and need to be eradicated). If you can get to a point where you master your desires and no longer crave anything, you will be released from the suffering-filled cycle of reincarnation. And the way to overcome cravings and selfish desires is through mastering the Noble Eightfold Path. This is when you get to the point where you have the right viewpoint, intentions, speech, behavior, job, effort, mindfulness, and meditation. If you can do all this properly, you will not suffer anymore and will reach a state of nirvana, a sort of perfect consciousness.
Jehovah’s Witnesses:
In the beginning was the Almighty God, Jehovah. He created Jesus, who isn’t really God but who can be considered a “lesser god.” Jesus actually was Michael the archangel when he was in heaven. After he was created, Jesus created everything else. But Jehovah is really the only God. There is no Trinity – no “three in one” of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is actually a teaching of Satan (according to them).
The founder, Charles Taze Russell, predicted that Jesus’s coming and Armageddon would happen in 1914. When it didn’t happen, he claimed it was an invisible, spiritual coming of Jesus. The next leader changed the date to 1925, and then claimed he was “misunderstood” when it didn’t happen. He also claimed that only the first 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses would get into heaven. The rest (those who became Witnesses after 1935) can’t get into heaven because “it’s full,” but they can earn everlasting life on earth as part of the “great crowd.” The next leader changed the date of Armageddon to 1975.
[Here’s some of what the Old Testament says about false prophets:
Ezekiel 13:9: “My [God’s] hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations.” Deuteronomy 13:1-5: “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he spoke takes place, and he says, ‘Let us follow other gods … and let us worship them,’ then you must not listen to the words of the prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer must be put to death [Old Testament/Jewish rule, not for nowadays], because he preached rebellion against the Lord your God …” Deuteronomy 18:20-22: “But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death. You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”
And here are some warnings for the Christian Church from the New Testament:
1 John 4:1-3: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in the flesh [not just that Jesus lived, but that He was Christ, the Messiah] is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
2 Peter 2:1-2: “… there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.”
2 Corinthians 11:13-15: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For a time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths.”
It is a serious thing for a person to claim that they speak for God. And it’s even more serious if they are wrong or lying about it. Be careful who you listen to.]
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was a perfect man when He was on earth but nothing more. And His death was a “good trade” for Adam’s sin, basically buying us the right to earn our salvation through good works, such as by evangelizing door-to-door. Of course, this is only for Jehovah’s Witnesses. And after dying, Jesus stopped being human and once again became the archangel, Michael.
The leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses teaches their followers that they must not try to read and understand the Bible themselves, but they must learn their theology from headquarters, from the Watchtower. And they are never to question the Watchtower.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have their own Bible translation: The New World Translation, which alters certain verses to fit their teachings. Such as, they took John 1:1 “... and the Word was God” and changed it to “... and the Word was a god,” thereby making Jesus sort of “a god” but not the God. And they add the word “other” when talking about created things to make it sound like Jesus was created first and then he created all the other things.
And while they talk about grace and salvation, they do not say that salvation is by faith in Christ alone. They claim that you earn your salvation – your spot on the eternal earth (because remember that heaven is full) - by working for it through your faithful obedience, faithful attendance, and door-to-door work. And there is no hell. All non-Jehovah’s Witnesses will be annihilated, simply ceasing to exist. (While new Jehovah’s Witness publications admit that Russell was the founder, they distance themselves from his beliefs and teachings. Interesting! How can one follow a religion made up by a man whose authority and theology they refuse to acknowledge?)
Mormons (Latter-Day Saints):
In the 1820’s, a teenage Joseph Smith, Jr. had a vision where the Father and Son (or so he believed) appeared to him and told him that all Christian denominations are off-track and that he should not join any of them. Several years later, supposedly through an occultic “seer” practice, the Book of Mormon was “shown” to Smith. And Mormonism was born. (Modern Mormons deny his occultic practices.)
According to Mormons, new revelations have been given to Mormon leaders which should be added to the Bible. So while they do acknowledge the Bible, Mormons base their faith primarily on the Book of Mormon, along with two other Mormon books, considering them to be inspired words of God. (Yet they feel the Bible has been corrupted, making it the least reliable book.)
One of these extra Mormon books (Doctrine & Covenants) is a book of prophecies made by Smith which did not come true. And ironically (considering their belief that the Bible has been corrupted), the book of Smith’s prophecies has been altered over the years. (To make them less inaccurate? I guess that when you can still get new revelations from God, you can make all the changes you want and still call it “God-inspired.”)
The other Mormon book (Pearl of Great Price) was partly inspired from a papyri fragment that Smith bought in 1835, which he thought was the writings of Abraham. But in the mid-1900s, it was reexamined and found to be about Egyptian funerals and how to embalm people. Yet the Mormons today claim that God supernaturally revealed the “Book of Abraham” to Smith through it.
According to the Mormons: In the beginning was a race of “gods” who were all created by previous “gods.” Somewhere along the line, God the Father was created and sent to a planet to live as a man, where he worked his way to godhood. Then he returned to the heavens and had a bunch of “spirit babies” with his goddess-wife. The first spirit-baby was Jesus. (However, it’s also said that Jesus was created when God the Father came to earth, took on a human body, and had sex with Mary.) And the next was Lucifer, Jesus’s younger brother. And then, God created all the rest of the spirit-babies who would eventually inhabit bodies on earth and become people.
God’s plan was to test people on earth while they lived in human bodies, and then they would return to him after death. But he needed someone to make amends for Adam’s sin. And when he chose Jesus, Lucifer got jealous and rebelled. And after a Great War in heaven, Lucifer was banished to earth where he was condemned to live as a spirit, never getting a human body. Jesus and the other spirit-babies then made human bodies out of the earth’s material. However, some spirit-babies who fought against Lucifer in the Great War didn’t really fight that hard, and their punishment was to be born with black skin.
Smith initially taught that there was a Trinity. However, he eventually changed it to say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate gods. (The Holy Spirit was never able to get a human body.) To attain godhood, according to Mormon teaching, Jesus would have had to have been married (most likely having multiple wives). And after Jesus died, he fully reached godhood. Eventually, Jesus will take God the Father’s place when God the Father moves on to a higher realm.
While Mormon’s claim that salvation is only possible because of Jesus’ death, His death only covered Adam’s sin, but we are responsible for our own sins. His death simply earned us the right to pay for our sins and gain our salvation, through our strict adherence to Mormon doctrines and practices. Like Jesus, humans can earn godhood through our works and rituals and proper Mormon living. We can even eventually earn our own planet. But there is no eternal life for those who are not members of the Mormon Church.
Mormons strongly reject the label of “cult” or “false religion,” claiming that they are indeed biblical Christians who believe in the power of Jesus Christ to save. But like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they use many of the same terms Christians do, but they have redefined them, ending up with a completely different gospel.
[2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is God-breathed…” 2 Peter 1:21 says that the prophecy of Scripture was not from men, but it was given to men by the Holy Spirit. And so what we all need to decide is “Which one will we believe and put our faith in: the Bible or the other writings which contradict the Bible?” And if the Bible is true, then all others that worship different gods and teach different ways to get to heaven are wrong, from false prophets. Galatians 1:8: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.” It can’t be the Bible and other writings, but it has to be the Bible or the other writings. And I, for one, think it’s easier to trust and worship a God who loved us enough to die for us.]
Freemasonry:
This is a secret society, a sort of fraternal brotherhood, surrounded in rituals, symbolism, and mystery. According to them, man is basically good, we can reach perfection, we need to live good, moral, charitable lives, and there will be an afterlife with rewards and punishments. However, the Bible is not the inspired Word of God. And Jesus wasn’t God but just a man. (They are not even allowed to speak Jesus’s name in their meetings, so they delete His name when using the Bible.) And we improve our standing before God (and gain salvation) through good works. Also, they believe that all religions essentially believe in the same God. So as long as you believe in a “supreme being,” you can be a Mason.
While they initially think that they were getting into a God-based religion, as they climb up the various levels of freemasonry, it reveals itself to be more pagan and occultic than they thought. The higher you go in the levels, the more pagan rituals you perform, the more prayers you are required to pray to false gods (even praying allegiance to them, even to Lucifer), the more blasphemies against God you are required to pronounce, and the more you learn you don’t need God (that there is no God) because you are a god. You are even required to pronounce curses of pain and death upon you and your family if you share the secrets of Freemasonry.
[Col. 2:8: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” 1 Cor. 10:20-21: “… the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.” Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before me.”]
Freemasonry is widespread (even my neighbor has the “Freemason” emblem on his door), and has ties with or is similar to Shriners (those who reached the highest level of freemasonry), Job’s Daughters (girls related to Masons), Eastern Star, Elks, Moose, Buffalos, DeMolay groups, International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, Knight’s Templar, Illuminati, Skull and Bones Society, and many others.
Christian Science:
Founded in the 1870s by Mary Baker Eddy. She taught that there is no physical reality. Everything is basically just a metaphysical idea. Nothing really exists as matter. Therefore, there is no sin, no sickness, no death. It’s all in our minds. And since nothing really exists except ideas, you can control your health and healing by believing that you cannot really be hurt or sick. Even God is just a principle, not a person. And heaven and hell are just states of the mind, based on whether we do wrong or right. And there is no need for a Savior – for Jesus – because all people are already eternally saved. Christian Scientists say that Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures supersedes the Bible and that the Bible can only be understood in light of it.
Scientology:
Founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954. They don’t have anything to do with the idea of the God of the Bible or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as sin or heaven or hell. They believe all people are immortal spirits who control their own bodies and universe. And as you work with an “auditor,” you can progress up the ladder to “total freedom” where you will gain total control over matter, energy, space, and time.
Hare Krishna (ISKCON):
Founded in the 1500s, with a foundation in Hinduism and the Hindu writing, Bhagavad-Gita. Having a personal relationship with the god “Krishna” is the way to salvation. And you earn your salvation by total devotion to Krishna and by tipping the karmic balance with an abundance of good works, by constantly chanting Krishna’s name and by obeying ISKCON rules throughout your reincarnated lives. Jesus wasn’t the Savior. He was either an enlightened teacher or may have been the son of Krishna. But either way, He is not as important. Krishna is the one to follow.
[Isaiah 64:6: “… all our righteous acts are like filthy rags …” In God’s eyes, the good things we do to try to earn heaven are “filthy rags,” no good. Because we cannot earn salvation. And thinking that we can is an insult to God, acting like He owes us salvation for the good things we do. It’s thinking we can save ourselves, snubbing the costly sacrifice Jesus made for us when He died on the cross in our place.]
Church of Christ (International Church of Christ, ICC):
An evangelistic church determined to save the lost and make disciples. The leader, Kip McKean, said that the Bible teaches that every city should only have one church. And, of course, he claimed that the church he founded – the Boston Church of Christ – was the church and that none of the others in the city were of God.
In order to obtain salvation, you must be baptized into and totally committed to the ICC, and you must live righteously. And if you want to join the ICC but were baptized by a different church, you must be baptized again by them because only their baptisms are valid. As a member, you must fully obey the leadership (with McKean at the top), even if asked to do something un-Christ-like. You must submit all parts of your life to their authority, even your marital relationship. They claim authority over a person’s every aspect of life because of Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.” You must also undergo intense discipleship, confess all sins to your mentor, and attend every ICC meeting. And once you are a member, there is to be no sin in your life. To accomplish this, many members pull away from family and friends and get more and more involved in the Church of Christ. The leadership often confronts those who want to leave the ICC, bringing up their previously confessed sins (to harass them? intimidate them? blackmail them?) and telling them that they will go to hell if they leave the church.
[The Bible does say we are to obey leaders, but it also says that church leaders are not to lord it over people but should be examples to them (1 Peter 5:3), that whoever wants to be great (leaders) among us must become a servant (Matthew 20:26), and that not many should seek to be teachers because teachers will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). And Matt. 23:13-15 condemns terrible spiritual leaders, showing us that not all spiritual leaders are good and godly: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to…. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.” Never just blindly trust any old leader. Not all leaders are worthy of being followed: “… they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matt. 15:14). Always go back to Scripture to evaluate what any “spiritual leader” tells you. Be a Berean! “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).]
Unification Church (The Moonies):
Founded by Sun Myung Moon in 1954. (In the US, it’s “Lovin’ Life Ministries.”) Moon claims to have had a vision at the age of 16 where he was called to complete the mission that Jesus failed at. They believe that Jesus (a perfect man, but not God) was supposed to save humans by getting married and having sinless children. Obviously, since Jesus died (and didn’t rise again, according to them), he failed. So Moon stepped in to finish the job. (What a guy!) He teaches that the mass weddings that he and his wife perform and bless will result in sinless offspring for the couples they marry. (I bet it doesn’t take long for that illusion to come crashing down on the new parents.)
They don’t use the Bible. They use Moon’s writing, The Divine Principle. Moon believes that he is the Second Coming of Messiah. Moonies pray in the name of Sun Myung Moon and his wife, the “True Parents.” They believe that even Jesus bows down to Moon. The Moonies believe that people are basically good, even divine, and that we can save ourselves by our good works. And eventually everyone, even Satan, will be saved.
Moonies support the idea of contacting the dead and channeling spirits because they believe that dead ancestors can help you become divine. [But what does the Bible say? “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19:31) and “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.” (Deut. 18:9-13) and “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19)] In fact, after his “vision,” Moon claims he spent years contacting spirits of “great teachers” like Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, etc. for guidance and knowledge. He even claims that Satan revealed to him the real reason for mankind’s Fall - that Eve had sex with Satan and then with Adam, causing sin to be passed down through their children.
Unitarianism:
Jesus wasn’t God, but He’s just a man who reached perfect levels of god-consciousness. The Bible is not God-inspired, but just a myth. And God is not a conscious being, but just a force. Since they’re not bound to a book like the Bible, they can update and change their theology. In their theology, people are not “sinners” by nature and don’t need a Savior. Mankind is his own savior. And all that’s required for salvation is to live a good life and treat others as you want to be treated. It’s a “Love everybody ... It’s all good ... No rules, no judgment, no guilt” kind of religion, which I’m sure is very appealing in this age of moral relativity. They focus only on this lifetime, believing that heaven and hell don’t exist. Even the very idea of hell offends Unitarians (because that would imply rules and judgment and “right and wrong”). They try to find and embrace spirituality in everything, such as in nature, but also even in things like neo-paganism, allowing Wiccans to join them.
[One of Satan’s best tricks is to get people to think that he and hell don’t exist. But…
Matthew 25:41,46: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devils and his angels…. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
2 Thess. 1:9: “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord …”
Rev. 20:15, 20:10: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire… And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur … they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
1 Peter 5:8: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
John 8:44: “You belong to your father, the devil … He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
2 Cor. 11:14: “… Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
2 Cor. 4:4: “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Which is eternally riskier: believing or not believing there’s a devil? What are the risks of both? What if you’re wrong?]
The Emerging/Emergent Church
This is a new-ish movement, from the 1990’s. And it’s going to be one to watch, to be carefully discerning about. These churches want to get away from the stiff, organized way churches traditionally operate, making themselves inviting, fresh, relevant, more informal. And I don’t have a problem with that, but they seem to be trading in biblical truth in order to do this. (A BIG problem!) Emergent churches seem to have a fluid, undefined, shifting doctrine and way of living, depending on the culture around them. They don’t have a clear “faith statement,” no defined stands on doctrine or biblical truths. In fact, some of their biggest leaders deny the authority of Scripture and basic doctrines like eternal hell and the virgin birth. They say things like, “We are all God’s children. He loves everyone, so eventually everyone will be saved, and no one will spend eternity in hell.”
[Well, no wonder these kinds of churches are popular then! Because it’s all warm and fuzzy. But did you know that Jesus spoke often of hell, more than anyone else in the Bible, warning people about it, to help them escape it? In Luke 16:23, He calls it a place of “torment”; in Matthew 8:12, a place of “darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”; in Mark 9:43, a place of eternal “fire”; in Matthew 25:46, “eternal punishment”; etc. To ignore the truth of hell is to not only to ignore much of what Jesus taught, but it’s also failing to warn people, failing to tell them how to avoid it.
And while we’re all God’s creation, we’re not all His “children.” His children are those who call Him “Father,” who accept Jesus as Lord. John 1:12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
And, yes, God is love. But there is another side to Him: His holiness, justice, and wrath. His holiness cannot tolerate sin, which is why we sinful humans could never reach God on our own, Hab. 1:13: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” His justice demands that the penalty for sin be paid. (If He let sin go unpunished, it would be as if He didn’t care that we lie, cheat, steal, hurt, kill, that we disobey Him, reject Him, worship other gods, etc.) And His wrath punishes sin. Col. 3:5-6: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” Romans 2:5: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.” Isaiah 13:9,11: “See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it…. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins….”
But the world ignores this side of God because it’s not what they want to hear. They excuse their sin and idolatry by viewing Him as a gentle, squishy, all-loving grandfather who winks at sin, who doesn’t enforce rules or punish anyone, and who just wants to make us happy, whatever it takes. (Or maybe they think He threatens us with hell if we don’t behave, to squash our fun or keep us in line.) But when God’s holiness, justice, and wrath is denied or downplayed - in favor of just His love - there will be a major imbalance, major consequences. And a lot of people will be shocked to someday meet the other side of Him.
Hebrews 10:31: “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
The thing is, God’s love and justice are both part of His redemptive plan to save us. Because He is just, He couldn’t let sin go unpunished. But because He loves us so much and doesn’t want to punish us, He took the punishment on Himself. He poured out His wrath against sin on Himself, to spare us from it. It would be like a righteous judge who has to apply the law, to demand that the penalty for a crime be paid. But he is also a loving man who loves the law-breaker, who doesn’t want to punish them, and who knows they can’t afford to pay the penalty themselves. But since he can’t let the crime go unpunished (for then he wouldn’t be righteous, just, or trustworthy anymore), he has to demand the penalty be paid. And so he does … but then he pays it himself. His love and his justice come together in this one act: paying the penalty that he had to require.
Contrary to what the world thinks, God doesn’t threaten people with hell if they’re not good enough. He knows we could never be “good enough,” and so He does all He can to save us from hell. And His love doesn’t excuse sin. His love paid for it.
1 John 4:10: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loves us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 2 Cor. 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God...” Gal. 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…” Isaiah 53:5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Romans 5:8-9: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” Romans 3:23-26: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice… so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus…”
God cannot take sin lightly. It cost Him His life. He died on a cross to save us, paying the penalty for our rebellion against Him. And all He asks us to do is believe. But if we refuse Jesus’s sacrifice for our sin, His death in our place, then we choose to take the punishment for our sin on ourselves. John 3:16,18: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life… Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”]
The Emergent church acts like they believe Scripture while at the same time questioning it or dismantling it. In effect, they end up teaching half-truths, watered down so much that it’s not truth anymore. However, straying from clear biblical truth opens the door to all kinds of heresy. This church sounds like a Christian version of Unitarianism, a sort of “It’s all good and everyone’s just fine” view. It seems to be more about a feel-good spirituality than biblical truth, more about blending in with the world than about taking the firm biblical stands that make Christians stand out from the world, more about telling society what it wants to hear than about preaching the hard truths that might offend them, more about being popular than being faithful. 2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths.”
I don’t care how popular or appealing it may be, if it contradicts the Bible then it’s not good. Scripture matters. Truth matters. And people will be held accountable for embracing and spreading falsehoods and feel-good half-truths, whether they call themselves Christian or not. Shifting, flexible truths are no truths at all. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Matthew 7:15-23: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them… Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire… Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
And remember that Jesus taught that the world will hate Christians because of the stands we take, the truths we teach. They won’t understand it or like it because it convicts us of sin, of our need to get right with God, of our need for a Savior. And so if everyone loves everything you’re teaching, if New-Age-y people like Oprah praise your church, if worldly people think it’s just swell and are comfortable there, then you’re probably doing it wrong in God’s estimation.
2 Tim. 3:12: “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” John 15:18-20: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you… If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also...” 1 Cor. 1:18: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…”
And what is the gospel, in a nutshell? That we are separated from God because of sin, that Jesus died for our sins to save us and He rose again to prove He is God and has power over death and sin, that we need to believe in Him to have eternal life, and that if we don’t believe in Him then we reject the only way to heaven and will end up in hell eternally.
Biblical truth is offensive and convicting to those living in sin, who don’t think they need to be saved from anything. And that’s why the world will hate us.
[Unless it’s because you’re a smug, judgmental, jerky Christian who isn’t reflecting Jesus’s compassionate heart, graciousness, and “truth in love.” In that case, you need to get right with the Lord before you try to force others to do it. Eph. 4:15,32: “But speaking the truth in love… Be kind and compassionate to one another…” Phil. 4:5: “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” Gal. 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” 1 Cor. 13:1-2,4-8: “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing… Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…”]
And finally, other groups to be cautious and discerning about are Bethel Church in Redding, California, the New Apostolic Reformation, and Word of Faith churches. I am just now learning about these, but they seem to be drifting really off-track: elevating emotions and exciting experiences over Scripture, elevating “love” over Truth, putting on rock shows and entertaining people, glorifying themselves more than the Lord, using occultic and New Age kinds of practices, focusing more on signs and wonders and spiritual gifts than on the gospel, watering down the Truth so much that it’s basically meaningless, teaching that we can basically bring heaven to earth and do the same things Jesus did, denying His full deity, spreading the "prosperity gospel," etc. Mega-churches in general seem to be more about attracting people than preaching the Truth, more about making people feel good than warning them about the hard biblical truths of sin, hell, wrath, obedience, godliness, our need for a Savior, etc. But once you throw out sound doctrine and spiritual discernment, once you elevate personal experiences over Truth, anything goes. Not everyone who does signs and wonders is godly. Not everyone who preaches is preaching Scriptural truth.
Matt. 24:24: “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible.”
2 Cor. 11:14-15: “… for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.”
These people fell facedown, trembled, covered their faces, cried out in distress about their sinful condition, passed out.
