Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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One of the characteristics of humans that never varies throughout world history, and in every culture, is superstition. Superstition is found everywhere in all ancient historical records, and it is the most significant factor in the recorded, and even the unrecorded, human experience on earth. Superstition can be defined as thinking that things or people are connected with the Creator God when they are not. People of every time period, in every society that has ever existed, have been superstitious, some more than others, perhaps, but even that is debatable. All of the cultures that men have developed have been extremely superstitious. All of them.
All of the "faith systems" that are called the "great religions of earth" are mere superstitions. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, and all other religions of earth differ only in the degree of their superstitious activities and ideas. Because the Bible used by them is truly from God, various sects within Christianity do proclaim some truth, such as the fact that Jesus is the Son of God who died for the sins of the world. But a growing number of Christians are edging away from even such simple truths as that. This past week when a Church of God minister in Long Beach, Mississippi, placed a sign along the road declaring that there was but one God and that His name is not Allah, some Christian leaders were shocked at what they considered to be the man's shallow-minded views. One Christian minister who complained about the sign explained that just because people have a different name for God doesn't mean that they are worshiping the wrong one.
Does that fool not know that the god who inspired Islam told Mohammed to write in the Koran (Islam's bible) that it is a disgraceful lie to say that Jesus is the Son of God? How then can the Allah god of the Koran, who said it is a lie to say Jesus is God's Son, be the same Jehovah God of the Bible who proclaimed Jesus to be His Son? Many Christian leaders today promote the idea that Muslims, Jews, Christians, and others are all worshiping the same God but are just calling Him different names. Don't get me wrong; calling God by different names is fine. After all, in the holy Bible, God is called by many different names. But do such ministers think the only difference between the gospel of Christ and the gospel of Mohammed is the name that is given to God? Is the gospel of Buddha, or the Hindu gospel, really the gospel of Christ Jesus in disguise? Don't bet your life on it.
The real reason that an increasing number of Christians are falling victim to the "we all worship the same god" idea is that, in reality, their connection with God is no more real than is the connection of a Buddhist or Muslim. Christianity does not require and cannot provide men with a genuine connection with God. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can make the living God real to men. He said, "No man cometh to the Father but by me." And he said, "Everyone who has heard from and learned from God comes to me." Does that sound like anything Buddha would have said? Don't be a fool.
Christianity, with all other of man's religions, has its "holy" places and its "holy" men, its "holy" garments and its "holy" ceremonies, its "holy" doctrines and its "holy" days. And it is, with all other of man's religions, a superstitious fraud. If you really want to know God, turn from all unrighteousness, get alone with Jesus the Lord, and confess your sins to him. He is the door, the only door, to the Father's house. And if you knock, he will let you in. "For everyone who seeks, finds. And to every one who asks, it shall be given. And to every one who knocks, it shall be opened." That's the word of Jesus. And Jesus is the living Word of God.