Each of us is born a sinner and all have sinned

 

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
(Joh 14:6)

Almost all of the world follows one of six major religions
(source Adherents.com )
  1. Christianity 2 Billion
  2. Islam 1.3 Billion
  3. Hinduism 900 Million
  4. Secular/Non Religious/Agnostic/Atheist 850 Million
  5. Buddhism 360 Million
  6. Chinese Traditional 226 Million
Christianity is by far the largest with about 2 billion people in this category. Yet Christianity has many, many factions and various beliefs amongst Christians, how is this possible? What do you think about when it comes to religion?

Religion by definition is
"..any specific system of belief and worship, often involving a code of ethics and a philosophy..." as defined by Websters College Dictionary.
Believe it or not these religions of the world today are based on a defined set of beliefs; someone elses.  Someone, or a group of people, at one time said "this is how to worship God". They established another way to worship God with rules and traditions.  All of their rules and traditions are supposed to help you with your relationship with God and by adhering to THEIR practices you can get to heaven.  We even have one faith mocking another faith for the other faith's weakness and beliefs. So what are some of these defined beliefs?

Roman Catholics believe that the waffer served as communion is transformed into Christ by the priest. However when their mass is over any remaining waffer is locked up ( remember the waffer is now Christ ) in the tabernacle until the next mass, hugh? can anyone turn a wafer into Christ? Jesus said He is the body and His blood was shed ONCE so that all sins can be forgiven, you need to ask God or Jesus for forgiveness of sins, not a priest. We are to honor Him from time to time and celebrate the last supper as He instructed. The Roman Catholic Church has over 1700 official rules to follow --

Christ has two:
Love thy God with all thy heart and mind and soul, and love everyone even as we love ourselves; this fulfills all of the law.

We must remember that God has set the rules (law) and we are to obey It! Unfortunately when a religion modifies God's law or even changes it then they are not faithfully spreading God's Word but rather a watered down or even wrong version of His Word. Without any doubt, the apostles helped to establish many Christian churches and communities for the purpose of worshiping God and spreading His Word. At the time there were many religions already in practice of which Mithraism and Sol Inviticus ( God addresses sun worship and Mithraism in Ezekiel ) were the two prominent ones, and of course they too had rules. The interesting thing we must remember about religion is that it is by definition an established spiritual organization with rules. A Christian, one who truly believes in Christ, lives in the Body of Christ because Christ lives in them.

The apostle Paul warned us that we all need to be one with Christ and not have some say I follow this aposotle and others saying I follow that aposotle; we are all one through Christ when we believe in Him as our saviour. Yet all of the Christian faiths ( and other religions too ) have their own set of beliefs and rules that are not always faithful to God.
    Roman Catholics
  1. Priests can not marry
    2. --The Roman Catholic Church claims authority back to 125 AD in Antioch. That bishop was married.

  2. Can't eat meat on Fridays during Lent

    3.
  3. A priest must grant absolution from sin, you can't go direct to God.
    4. --In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins: (Col 1:14)

    Islam
  1. It is OK to kill Christians and Jews
  2. Jesus was only a prophet
  3. Jesus did not die on the cross, someone else did.

    Hinduism
  1. You may worship God in whatever way you want.
  2. believes that the path to God are many and hence tolerates other forms of religious worship and practices.
    3. --India has over 980 million Hindi and yet there is still much fighting between the Hindu and the Muslim.
As it turns out the Roman Catholic Church has been changing their own rules about every one hundred years. The Vatican II is another clear example. Hinduism claims also to have evolved and grown over time. Islam has many factions that do not always agree, and of course muslims deny that Jesus is the savior and Son of God.  The Taliban is one example while the Sauidis observe another form of Islam.

Christ said He is the only way to God the Father and to enter the kingdom of heaven. He sent forth His apostles to spread God's Word to all the nations of the earth and to teach everyone of Jesus so anyone who has faith in Jesus will have eternal life in heaven and that we may be freed from the death of sin. Our Father in heaven has given us His law from the beginning and when we continued to let Him down and disobey Him He sent His son to us; and we killed Him. The blood of Jesus was shed that day to save each and every single one of us.  Jesus said if ye love me then follow me. He clarified two rules for us: He came to fulfill the law which is to love and honor and obey God with all our hearts and minds and souls. He added a new rule in that we are to LOVE OUR ENEMIES. Just two rules to follow and we can enjoy eternal life in heaven with God the Father.

So simple but so difficult because we are tempted daily to do WHAT WE want to do. However we must remember that we need to do God's will.  Jesus said that if we follow Him then we do the will of the Father in heaven.  Jesus clearly includes the gentiles in His new message and that through faith in Him alone one will enter the kingdom of heaven.   How can one hate another and love God?

See, in the old day God allowed an-eye-for-an-eye but he also insisted that a burnt offering be made for sins ( see Leviticus and Dueteronomy ) Job used to make a burnt offering every day JUST IN CASE ON OF HIS SONS SINNED. However an eye-for-an-eye was more then we could handle. Satan had already corrupted the garden where the seed was sown and to much hate existed in the world.

Unfortunately even during the lifetime of the apostles Satan was at work starting to deceive many away from Christ, much like he did when he tempted Eve, and create confusion amongst the followers of Christ by seducing their own desires. This is why Jesus and the apostles reminded us that we are not to be slaves to this world and sin. It is just to tempting with all that the world has to offer. We are reminded that the carnal mind is not subject to God's law but does cause us to sin greatly. This is how Satan decieves and confuses people, with lies. This is all to tempt us so that we rely more on ourselves ( or worse yet, someone else ) and not upon Christ. The Bible has this to say about tradition:

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Col 2:8)

The devil was already at work in the world when Jesus came to save us and has been slowly replacing all that Christ was teaching by introducing false doctrine and counterfeit worship with rules and such to sooth our minds. Remember what God has said to us. If you ever doubt or question then open your Bible and read the Word of God. This is the rule that we need to adhere to and follow.
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