Monday, February 13, 2006

I work with a young man who frequently tells me that he is a Christian. He says that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, and that He rose from the dead to give us eternal life. Okay, granted, sounds like Christianity.
In reality, saying these things doesn't make him a Christian, anymore than walking into a McDonald's will make me a Big Mac.
When you get to know him better, he will tell you that he also believes many things about the Jesus he knows that are nowhere to be found in the Bible. It soon becomes apparent that the Jesus he says he knows, and the Jesus that I know from the Bible, have very different histories. In fact, they are not the same person at all. In talking to him, you would also find a very great deal of differences in the "Father God" of the Bible, and the god whom he refers to as "Heavenly Father." They also, are not the same person. He will tell you that he believes that this "Heavenly Father" was once a man, just like us, who was exalted to godhood from a long line of gods, and that there are as many like him as there are stars in the heavens. The most amazing thing that he has told me several times, and I asked him to be very clear on this, is that he says he believes that he too, will one day be exalted to and attain godhood, and have a planet like this one to rule over.

I referred him to the passage in Isaiah 43:10 which reads;

10 “ You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “ And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.

This is a verse he cannot reconcile in his mind. He can't because the truth is, telling people that they can become gods is the same lie that Satan used in the Garden of Eden to seduce and deceive mankind from the beginning.
How does Satan lead people away from God? He appeals to them basically by telling them exactly what they want to hear.
"You can be like God, and then you won't have to answer to Him, and obey Him."
"God has no power over you."
"There isn't any such thing as sin."
"God is just a kindly old gentleman in space and after you've paid for your sins here, He'll give you an eternity of whatever you want."
"If you're good enough in this life, you can become a god and rule your own planet.
"Do what you want to, as there is no hell because God simply doesn't exist."

What exactly is it that you are wanting to hear? Maybe you need to realize that what you want to hear may not be what's best for you. It is always easier, for a time, to give in to what sounds glamorous or desirable. Maybe, just maybe, it is time to realize that the untainted message of the Bible, from beginning to end, is that God loves us, and wants us to have a relationship with Him, and that Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, is the only way to have that relationship. None of the other things that have been tossed out there by Satan, are worth hearing.

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