What do you believe?
Three S’s of false religions
Introduction
A. Today I want to start a series called “What do you believe?” We are
going to talk about some of the major false religions that we are faced
with today and why Christianity is different from them.
B. Many Christians today are so confused about what they believe. They
are not sure if other religions are okay or if they are the same as
Christianity. Many Christians have bought into the lie that there are
many ways to God and Christianity is just another one of those ways.
C. Over the next several weeks we will look at the beliefs of the Jehovah
Witnesses, the Mormons, Scientology, and Islam.
Why am I doing this teaching?
A. I am not teaching this series so you can argue with the Mormons,
Jehovah Witnesses or Muslims. Last week I had two Jehovah Witnesses stop
at my house. I just told them I was not interested in talking to them
and sent them on their way. I could have invited them into my house and
spent an hour arguing with them about how they are wrong.
B. I have done that in the past. In my years of experience I have not
found it profitable to argue with people about different religions,
especially those who are totally indoctrinated. But, I have found it
beneficial to talk to people who are looking for truth and are being
lead down the path of a false religion, like a relative or a friend or a
co worker, especially if they are asking me questions.
C. The main reason I am teaching this is to help you establish what it is
that you believe so that you are not lead astray and deceived. Sooner or
later every Christian has to come to grips with what it is that they
really believe and if it is really different than other religions. The
second reason to equip you so that you can help others who are open and
looking for truth.
Three signs of false religions (3 S’s)
A. There are three clear signs that a religion is a false religion. I
call them the three “S’s.” They stand for Savior, Salvation, and
Scripture. All false religions differ from the Christian view on these
three major issues. Let’s take a few minutes to look at how they differ.
Savior: All false religions change who Jesus really was. They do not
believe that He is the ‘only way’ to heaven. John 14:6
A. All false religions change who Jesus really is. They usually will
recognize that He was a good man. Some even recognize that He was a
prophet, but they don’t teach that He was truly the Son of God and that
He claimed to be the ‘only way to salvation.”
B. Jesus said many times that He was the only way to reach God. Turn to
John 14:6 and read, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes
to God BUT BY ME.”
C. CS Lewis wrote a book called “Mere Christianity” in it he challenges
those who say that Jesus was just a good man. How many good men do you
know go around telling people that they are the ONLY WAY to get to
God.What would you say to me, if I told you “I was the ONLY way to reach
God?”
D. This is where Jesus is different from all other leaders of false
religions. He claimed to be the way. Others only claimed to ‘show the
way.’ Either Jesus was who He said He was, the Savior, the ‘only way’ or
He was a heretic or crazy person. He could not have been a good man!
This is one of the more difficult issues for people to deal with. How
can there be only one way to heaven? Yet if we say we are followers of
Jesus then we have to decide to follow His teachings or to deny His
teachings.
Salvation: All false religions teach there are other ways to be cleansed from sin, i.e. good works Titus 3:5
A. All false religions struggle with the Christian view of grace. All
false religions teach that we must do good deeds to earn our way to
heaven.
B. Let’s turn to Titus 3:5 and read what Paul wrote about this, “not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Spirit.” Paul also taught in Ephesians 2:5-8 “even when we were dead in
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been
saved), For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God,
C. All false religions have some kind of system of doing good works. Some
teach that you must atone for you own sins, by denying yourself food, or
punishing yourself, some even teach that you must hurt yourself to pay
for your sins.
D. The idea that we can just be forgiven for all of our sins, is just too
much for some people. It is because they are too proud to humble
themselves and recognize that they can’t do it on their own and that
they need help.
E. This teaching of ‘good works’ is found everywhere, even in some
liberal Christian churches today. People are taught to just keep
the ‘ten commandments’ and they will be accepted into heaven.
F. The problem with this kind of teaching is that there is no guarantee
that you are ever going to be good enough. There is always that struggle
to do more, to try to pay for all your bad deeds. But no matter how hard
you try you will never be able to be good enough.
G. What a sad thing, to never be sure that you are forgiven, to never be
sure that you are ‘accepted by God because of what Jesus did not the
cross.” The beauty of the Christian faith is that we can be confident we
are saved by the work that Jesus did on the cross. Any good deeds I do;
are done in gratitude for what He did for me.
Scripture: All false religions teach that the Bible is ‘incomplete’ and there are ‘other’ holy books 2 Tim 3:16
A. It is amazing to me how people will continually attack this book, but
no matter how much they attack it, the Bible still survives. No other
book has been put to so much scrutiny and discussion.
Even theologians struggle with the idea that the Bible could be accurate
after all these years. They are convinced that it has mistakes in it and
they deny its ultimate authority. People who have never read the Bible
are told that the Bible is full of contradictions. Sometimes theologians
try to intimate Christians by pointing to their educational background
and their ability to read/write Hebrew and Greek.
B. There are many brilliant theologians who have done the unbiased
research on the accuracy of the Bible and have found it to be true and
without any contradictions. Here are just a few:
C. Dr. Gleason Archer majored in Latin, Greek, French and German at
Harvard University. At seminary he majored in Hebrew and Aramaic
eventually teaching courses on these subjects. In addition he obtained a
full law degree and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. He also
visited the Holy Land and most of the important archaeological sites. He
holds the B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. from
Harvard Graduate School. This background enabled him to become expert in
the issue of alleged contradictions in Scripture. Regarding alleged
errors in the Scripture this is what he says, “In my opinion this charge
can be refuted and its falsity exposed by an objective study. I believe
I have been confronted with just about all the biblical difficulties
under discussion in theological circles today. As I have dealt with one
apparent discrepancy after another and have studied the alleged
contradictions between the biblical record and the evidence of
linguistics, archaeology, or science, my confidence in the
trustworthiness of Scripture has been repeatedly verified and
strengthened by the discovery that every problem in Scripture that has
ever been discovered by man, from ancient times until now, has been
dealt with in a completely satisfactory manner by the biblical text
itself or else by objective archaeological information. Given the fact
that Dr. Archer has graduated from Princeton and Harvard, done extensive
studies in archaeology and other areas relative to the biblical text,
become fluent in 15 languages, received full training in legal
evidences, etc., the above statement can hardly be summarily dismissed.
D. But there are many similar testimonies by other competent scholars.
Dr. Wilson received his Ph.D. from Princeton. He is an Old Testament
authority and author of A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament.
He could read the New Testament in nine different languages by the age
of 25. In addition, he could repeat from memory a Hebrew translation of
the entire New Testament without missing a single syllable and do the
same with large portions of the Old Testament. He proceeded to learn 45
languages and dialects. Here is what he says, “I have made it a habit
never to accept an objection to a statement of the Old Testament without
subjecting it to a most thorough investigation, linguistically and
factually, and I defy any man to make an attack upon the Old Testament
on the grounds of evidence that I cannot investigate.” His conclusion
was that no critic has succeeded in proving an error in the Old
Testament.
E. Theologian, philosopher and trial attorney John Montgomery, holding
nine graduate degrees in different fields observes, “I myself have never
encountered an alleged contradiction in the Bible which could not be
cleared up by the use of the original languages of the Scriptures and/or
by the use of accepted principals of literary and historical
interpretation.”
F. John Haley examined 900 alleged problems in Scripture, concluding, “I
cannot but avow, as the conclusion of my investigation, the profound
conviction that every difficulty and discrepancy in the scriptures is
capable of a fair and reasonable solution.”
G. Dr. Arndt concluded in his own study of alleged contradictions and
errors in the Bible, “We may say with full conviction that no instances
of any contradictions occur anywhere in the Scriptures.” Clearly the
evidence lies in favor of biblical inerrancy. The apparent discrepancies
and errors in the Bible constantly “discovered” and exploited by critics
for millennia have been explained and reconciled long ago by
conservative scholars. Critics, however, commonly ignore the resolution
and continue to present the same old alleged errors and contradictions.
H. All Scripture is inspired by God 2 Timothy 3:16 Maybe we should revise
this passage to read, “Most of Scripture is partially God-breathed and
profitable (usually) for teaching (except where wrong) rebuking
(assuming you are certain you have the authority) correcting (when you
find the inerrant parts) and training in righteousness (unless it
concerns culturally prejudiced ethics) so that the man of God (possibly)
may be thoroughly (?) equipped for every good work.”
I. Most false religions seek to add their own ‘holy books’ such as the
Koran, the Book of Mormon, or the watchtower. Usually they teach that
the Bible cannot be trusted or that it is incomplete and they have
finished it with one of their own books. Yet not one of these
other ‘holy’ books has ever stood up to the scrutiny that the Bible has.
J. To deny any portion of God’s Word opens the door to a total breakdown
of your faith, if you can’t believe one section of if one section
is ‘outdated’ today, what is stop you from declaring that about other
sections of the Bible. This is what is at the root of much of the debate
in churches today when it comes to teaching of evolution, the leadership
roles of women, spanking children, homosexuality, and divorce. Even
though God’s word speaks directly to these issues many people feel that
God’s word is outdated, not culturally relevant anymore, full of
mistakes, and as a result Christians begin to make up their own rules.
K. Bible inerrancy is not an option if you intend to live a full and
abundant Christian life. But you must be prepared to be mocked, looked
at as ‘uneducated’ ignorant and just foolish. But if that is all the
persecution I have to endure for following Christ, bring it on!
L. Historians try to say that the history of the Bible is incorrect, just
because they don’t have records of some of the battles that it mentions,
or some of the leaders that it mentions, but as archeologist continue to
do research they continue to find out that the Bible is correct.
M. In the twentieth century it is commonly presumed that the Bible is
fraught with scientific inaccuracies and misconceptions. Students are
often given the impression that numerous scientific fallacies are
contained within the Bible. However, when the biblical text is carefully
examined the reader will quickly discover an uncanny scientific accuracy
unparalleled by any document of antiquity. The Bible does describe
scientific phenomena in common terminology with unmistakable clarity. In
virtually all ancient religious documents it is common to find
scientifically inaccurate myths about the nature of the universe and the
life forms on planet earth. However, the Bible is unique because of the
conspicuous absence of such myths. In fact, throughout the Bible we find
scientifically accurate concepts about the physical universe that were
not “discovered” by modern scientists until very recent times. Consider
some examples of the accuracy of the Bible when it speaks about
scientific facts:
The stars cannot be numbered Jeremiah 33:22
The stars can speak. Psalm 19:1-4
The universe is wearing out. Psalm 102:25-26
The sun moves in a circular path Psalm 19:6
The earth rests on nothing Job 26:7
The rain cycle Job 36:27-28
The earth is round Isaiah 40:22
Matter is made up of particles too small to see Heb 11:3
When atoms are split they release intense heat 2 Peter 3:10
The ocean has paths in it Psalm 8:8
The wind blows in a jet stream Ecc 1:6-7
N. There is no easier way for the doctrine of inerrancy to be disproved
than to examine the Bible scientifically. All other books of antiquity
that comment on scientific matters have errors, and, of course, this is
to be expected. It would be impossible for these books to have stayed
abreast of 4,000 years of scientific advancement. So how can we explain
the lack of scientific error in the Bible apart from divine inspiration
and inerrancy? Scientifically speaking, the Bible was thousands of years
ahead of its time. The only credible way to explain the existence of
these passages is through divine inspiration. These kinds of statements
are simply too far beyond the ability of men living 2-3,000 years ago to
have made accurate guesses.
O. When the Bible speaks on Astronomy, Geology, Biology, Physics,
Meterology, and Medicine it has always been ahead of men’s knowledge of
the day.
P.Certainly, for skeptics to successfully argue that the Bible is not the
inspired Word of God, they must explain how the Bible contains statement
such as these which were often disharmonious with the accepted knowledge
of the time in which they were written—and yet so accurate in light of
today’s facts of science. In essence: To argue that the evidences for
biblical inspiration are the result of a myriad of lucky guesses
requires an enormous measure of faith. Such an assertion requires us to
believe that ancient fishermen, tent makers, shepherds, kings and
paupers, who were separated by 1,500 years on three different
continents, could consistently, and without error, describe the nature
of the universe, planet earth and it’s life forms, in a way that is
fully consistent with twentieth-century science. It requires us to
believe that those same men wrote history in advance all of this without
the guidance of One with supernatural “inside information.” Indeed, “In
the twentieth century, more than any time in history, it can be
demonstrated that the Bible is a skillfully designed, integrated message
system that evidences supernatural engineering in every detail.”
Q. Challenging the truth of God’s word is not a new thing. It started
back in the garden with Eve and the serpent. Wrestling in doubt over
what the Bible teaches is an unnecessary anguish and, in all likelihood,
a fruit of the enemy of God who inspired the first doubt in God’s Word
with, “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1).
What should I do? 2 Tim 2:15-16
A. “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and
vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.”
The problem with most Christians is that they do not ‘study’ God’s
word.
B. Most Christians have never even read the entire book even once! No
wonder many Christians are confused by the strange voices and babblings
of false religions and false prophets. Most Christians know about being
saved but for the most part that is the extent of their biblical
knowledge. I am appalled at some of the things that come out of the
mouths of Christians who should know better. They are so easily tossed
to and fro by every wind of doctrine and sleight of men’s hands.
C. Let me encourage you to establish a life goal of ‘studying’ God’s
word. The easiest way you can do this is simply by reading it regularly,
become familiar with it. Develop some kind of reading program that gets
you through this book from cover to cover. This is why I encourage the
weekly reading every year here at the church. In a three year process
you can read the entire bible, the first year ½ OT, the second year ½ OT
and the third year entire NT, amounts to about 1 to 2 chapters a day.
D. I have been doing this for over thirty years. It still is inspiring
and encouraging and helps me when I am challenged by false religions or
when I want to help a friend. I am equipped. I believe it would be
beneficial to study the Bible even more by attending special classes
when available or using a study Bible to help understand certain
passages and how the Bible fits together. We are hoping to offer
accredited Bible college classes here at the church starting next year.
