I must admit, I have also been fooled.
Let me tell you a story. When I was a child, I knew a man … in fact, he was my uncle. He was a very good and pure man in my eyes. He was extremely kind, humble and compassionate. I revered him because he gave me a kindness I never really knew before.
This man also believed wholeheartedly in God. He was a devout Christian… in my eyes. One day, I came home to see a Buddha figure on his table. At this time, I happened to also be heavily interested in the Bible and Christianity (I know, it’s crazy).
I asked him what it was and he commenced to explaining how all religions are the same and if you get into reading about them, you realize they all tell the same story. I refused to believe this idea because one of the things I remember reading heavily about was false idols. I was saddened at this point because I knew this devout Christian had begun to worship idols.
And not just the idols of today (televised entertainment, famous people and music) but the idols of the Old Testament. Real figures that have no life in them. I was listening to the Bible one morning and God was being quoted in this particular part. He said something along the lines of [How can you take wood, build a fire with that wood and even cook your food on top of that wood, and take the rest of the wood and build a statue to be worshipped?]. It’s a very loose translation. Isaiah 46:6–10
How is it possible that you can worship something that you, yourself, manipulated and you, yourself, control?
I think that’s the point God was getting at.
The same goes for anything we create as humans then put on top of everything else in our lives. We created money, yet some of us worship it. We built things, yet some of us use all our money to buy them. We created sporting events, yet some of us spend all of our time and energy on them. The point is, we created these things but sometimes devote our lives to them.
But I digress…
I never forgot that conversation with my Uncle. The one where he lost a lot of my respect but gained a lot of my compassion. I felt so bad he had been fooled. There’s actually quite a remarkable difference between Christianity and every other religion. The only way to “heaven” is by faith in Jesus Christ. Every other religion requires you to do good deeds and you “might” enter their promise land.
However, God says the only way in is to admit you are a sinner (basically you have character defects) and accept that His Son, who was perfect, paid the penalty that you should have paid. There’s more to the Christian experience but that is the only way to start. Acts 4:12
Funny enough though, I went through my own period where I lost faith. I started to doubt Christianity. All these different viewpoints on the internet and different ideologies confused me. I started to doubt any of it was real.
What if Christianity was a hoax? What if all the religions are valid? Why would a loving God create a hell? What if there’s just this higher power and we are all too busy fighting over the minute details to realize it’s just “there”. No religion, no input in our lives… it’s just… the universe.
Headline news,
“Scientists have just confirmed the universe created itself!”.
It’s funny because God had a plan for my doubt. You see, I was lucky enough to have been chosen by God a long time ago to be a Christian. I didn’t look for him, his son looked for me. I just was laying down one day and realized that I wanted to give my life to God. I had no clue who or what he was. I just knew I wanted to.
I forgot the living God actively worked in my life. And in that doubt, the living God actively left me to my own devices. Now me telling you about the blessings I had and lost while believing in this new age theory that there is no Jesus, no Christianity, only the universe might be unverifiable but I’ll say this. I’ve definitely seen the difference in my life when I stopped being engaged in my Christianity. Not just things on the surface but deep things. My ability to forgive. My sincerity. My integrity. My morality.
You see, we are all sinners and God actively works in our lives to help us learn to become righteous. No other “god” does that. The universe doesn’t teach you anything. It’s only God who shapes and molds you into a perfect creation. Don’t believe me? Just google things like “murderer becomes Christian” or “Christian transformation”.
There’s living proof of God’s saving grace out there. Don’t be fooled.
For instance, here’s a website that has lots of scientific evidence that science has, in part, been a tool of deception.