How to Spot the Common Denominator in All False Religion

How To Spot Falsehood:

Do you know the best way to spot falsehood? It's to study the true. That's why the best way to tell if someone is using counterfeit money is not to study the counterfeit, but to study real money. Because once you become well acquainted with the genuine article, you know it inside and out. Once you become an expert on it, counterfeit money doesn't stand a chance. An expert will spot any irregularities instantly.

For the Christian the genuine article is the Bible. Become acquainted with it, study it, learn it, and allow it's truths to guide you. Once you accept the Bible as your standard, you'll never be the same. It will change your life. Your life will have meaning and purpose, and you'll be able to discern truth vs. error, i.e., you'll spot the irregularities. But you have to discover that for yourself, it never happens vicariously.

Why Our Beliefs Matter

The beauty of Scripture is what it says to us about God. What it says about who He is, and what He is like. And that's why the central idea of this article is important. Because our beliefs really do matter. The greatest tragedy of falsehood is that it distorts a persons picture of God. It's vital to understand you can't have a doctrinal belief that doesn't somehow define an aspect of God's character. What you believe about God will have an effect on the kind of Person you think He is.

And that matters.

Like it or not, our beliefs shape our perceptions. It's how the mind works and there's no way around it.

How Can We Know The Truth About God?

So what IS God like? What kind of picture does the Bible paint of Him? Is there a way of knowing beyond mere speculation? Christianity says, "Yes, there is!"

The best picture of God the world has ever seen, is revealed to us in the life and mission of Jesus Christ. The life of Jesus reveals a picture of God that isn't shared by any other religion. In Christ we see a God who reaches out to a planet in rebellion against His government. We see a God who takes upon Himself the task of bringing about a reconciliation between Himself and those who are lost without Him.

Probably the most well known verse in all the Bible is John 3:16, which tells us, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The next verse, John 3:17 adds to that. It says, "For God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

In the Bible God claims that we can know the truth about Him by studying the life of His Son Jesus.

How does God treat people? Look at Jesus. How did Jesus treat people? Once you see how Jesus interacted with people during His time with us, you see the truth about what God is like, and what His attitude towards us is like. Jesus left no room for doubt about this when He said, in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." Why? Because as He further stated in the next verse "he that has seen Me has seen the Father." John 14:7. Elsewhere He asserted, "I and My Father are One." John 10:30.

So we can know the truth about God by seeing how He was revealed to us by His Son. This means that TRUE religion pictures man as being saved by a God who takes the initiative to win us back to Himself.

The Common Denominator In All False Religion

False religion, on the other hand, teaches that man can somehow save himself through his own good works. Meaning man's salvation is "performance based". If he can perform good enough, he believes he'll earn and deserve his reward. And that's the common denominator taught in EVERY false religion.

True Christianity teaches the exact opposite. It says that man CANNOT save himself, or obtain a reward, other than by trusting in the means that God Himself both initiated and provided in our behalf. The Bible says that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself". 2 Cor. 5:19

Christianity is the only religion that presents a God who reaches out to humanity, in order to win them back. The way He does that is through a revelation of what He is really like. To know God (as He really is) is to love Him.

Every other religion, without exception, involves man performing works, in one form or another, to elevate himself to God, or to a self-deluded "God-like" status. Sadly, that includes many forms of false Christianity. Whether through pilgrimages, or "karma", or self-denial, or (worse yet) through world domination, (e.g., by "conquering the infidels") or praying a certain number of times a day, or at certain times at certain places, etc., etc., etc.

People do all these things, and more, in an attempt to win God's approval, or His favor, or to earn their way to heaven - or to a better, reincarnated life, or "Nirvana", or some other future reward, vs. the picture shown to us in Jesus Christ, of a God who reaches out to US ... out of the love He Himself has for us. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Eph. 2:8,9

What an amazing contrast it is. The love of God for a world that did not love Him, vs., an angry God who has to be appeased by our "good works".

And that's why knowing the God of the Bible will save you from the common denominator in all false religion ... which is man thinking he can somehow save himself through his own works.

Virgil Ray became a Christian in 1979. Since then he has been both a Bible student and teacher. Out of admiration for God, as He's been revealed to us through the life and teachings of His Son Jesus Christ, Virgil has been a lay pastor since 2004 (a "lay" pastor is a pastor who's not denominationally employed).

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