The Gospel? All Religions Are Lying To You

This is a lead-in to a more fascinating idea that has been hidden from all the religions, actually kept from them, yet all through the pages of the Bible.
When people try to get me to go to some church or join, I quote my favorite scripture to them; Matthew 24:23 “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not“.

“And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”.(2 Thessalonians 2:11)

And why did Jesus speak in parables? Many think it was to clarify or simplify his message, for better understanding. That’s not what Jesus said! When his disciples asked why he taught in parables, he answered:
“Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given“.(Matthew 13:11) In Matthew 13: 35, it is explained that Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy:

“I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have been kept secret since the foundation of the world.”

Things which have been kept secret? Has the truth been revealed to Christianity? If so, why are there an estimated 38,000 or more versions and growing? If you think your religion has provided you truth, how do you know? Can you prove it?

Certainly you can’t prove it logically, first because you have no provable evidence of God and second, Romans 8:7 tells us that the natural mind is enmity against God and cannot be subject to God’s laws. If you really do have THE truth, how do you prove it to a natural, “carnal” mind?

“There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end therof are the ways of death(Proverbs 16:25)”.
“Lean no unto thine own understanding(Proverbs 3:5)”

If you take these scriptures with Romans 8:7, you can also add Isaiah 55:8:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord”.

Our minds do no work like God’s mind, and our natural minds are enmity against God. How DO you know? The very act of proving, that which “seemeth right” to a logical mind, could very well be wrong! That leads logically to Jesus’ warning in Matthew 24:23: “If any man says to you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not“. Any person who tells you “here is Christ” could be lying, and you could not prove the true “man of God” by reason!

Still not convinced? Even Paul carries this same idea in his own writings. Romans 11:7:
“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for: but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded“.

Blinded by God? Romans 11:32:
“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all”.

Obviously “good works” won’t get us where we want to go, as Jesus points out in Matthew 7:22: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name hast cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?”

That’s pretty strong stuff. Who among us can claim to prophesy, and cast out devils? Even those will not be accepted!
Verse 23: “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”.

“Good works” can’t get us there! Paul also says this in Ephesians 2:8-10:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest man should boast”.

Works won’t get you there, and reasoning won’t get you there! You simply cannot get there from here, by your own efforts. How about faith? Paul says even faith that saves you is not your own !

Is it enough to believe? “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble”.(James 2:19)

Faith, belief, reason, logic,  these will not get you there! You simply cannot get there from here by your own efforts! And yet James points out that faith and works provide justification! Contradiction? Not at all. James did NOT say that the law justified you. In fact, he pointed out that if you judge by the law, you must judge by the whole law, not just part of it(James 2:10).

What “works” did James emphasize? James 2:15: “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?”.

James emphasized “works” but not works of the law. James 1:27:

“Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world”.

Noting about law there. Simply helping others, seeing that others are not harmed. Or as Paul wrote in Romans 12:19:

“…revenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.”

What we see here are not actions of law, but of love. Not control according to doctrine or dogma, but simple principles of giving, sharing with others, forgiving them even as God forgives you(Matthew 6:12,15).

War? Not by those standards! We aren’t even to pass laws that punish others unless they have harmed someone! How many professing christians actually practice these things? How many professing christians are encouraging war against enemies of other religions? In fact, they are not christians, as defined by Jesus and Paul. That definition really has been “kept secret from the foundations of the world”. I will explore it next.