monthly focus ~ why witness to religious people

WHY WITNESS TO RELIGIOUS PEOPLE?

Christians usually do not question the need to send missionaries to impoverished countries or the religiously uncommitted, but why bother someone who is already religious?  The answer rests in understanding the nature of religion. 
 
First, we are commanded by Christ to obey the “Great Commission” of sharing the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20).  Religion with all of its efforts worldwide does not satisfy the Great Commission.  Religion only imitates it.  People are not saved through a religious system of works; they are saved through Christ.
 
Secondly, good people go to hell (Matt. 7:21-23).  This is because religion chooses its way over God's way.  In Psalm 14:2-3 God looked down from Heaven on humanity to see if He could discover someone seeking after Him.  He states that He found none.  That is a mind-blowing comment.  I look around at the world, and I see millions of people who at least seem to be seeking after God.  Why would God say such a thing?  The answer is the biblical base for religion's failure.  The people of the world, no matter how religious, are not seeking God in God's way.  Religion, by its very nature of sinful man needing to work his way to the holy God, is doomed for failure.  Religious people fail to understand the issues at stake (Rom. 10:3).

This is serious business.  There are countless other cults and religions growing rapidly throughout the world.  We cannot ignore them and hope that someday they will go away.  The next person joining a false religion may very well be your daughter or father or wife or even you if you are not grounded in God’s word.  Religious people are good people who live moral lives.  Yet, the Bible teaches this is not enough.  They must come to the Biblical Christ in order to make it to God.
 
The world is filled with many organized belief systems, whether we call them cults or religions, Christian or pagan.  The Bible warns that there are barriers a religion creates, preventing its people from being with God when they die.  The barriers are tragic but not always obvious.  Here are some sobering facts about the falseness of religion (the barriers), and why religion is so dangerous.

False Authority

Second Corinthians 2:17 warns that already in Paul’s day there were those who were trying to corrupt the Word of God.  Destroying people’s confidence in the Bible is an absolute necessity to control their thinking in a religious system.  Religions exist and thrive on authority outside the Bible.  Religion, even when it accepts the Bible, may approach scripture in three incorrect ways:

1.  "The Bible has errors and you need our corrections."
2.  "The Bible cannot be understood without our leaders’ interpretation."
3.  "The Bible is not complete, and you need our additional scriptures."

False authority involves false apostles and teachers (2 Cor. 11:13-15) and false prophets (Matt. 24:11).  In 1 John 4:1 we read, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."  It would be nice if Satan's workers were required to wear a sign saying:  I AM FROM SATAN!  That would make them easy to identify.  Finally, false authority ultimately leads to false doctrine and massive error (1 Tim. 4:1).

False Gospel

Galatians 1:6-9 warns against a perverted gospel message that does not teach the grace of God (vs. 6).  False news is never good news – no matter how sincere!  The wrong gospel leads to a false righteousness (Rom. 10:1-3) and false godliness (2 Tim. 3:5, 7).  Religion promotes the great heavenly scales concept!  If my “good” will simply out-weigh my “bad,” God will overlook my “bad.”  People simply do not understand how pure God is.  The holy God observes the religious efforts of mankind and labels their actions as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6).

An illustration I use with children says it simply enough.  If I took a turkey dinner with all the trimmings and mixed in last week’s garbage, would you still want to eat it?  No matter how good the turkey is, it is still mixed with garbage.  No matter how good a person becomes, he must deal with the sin issue God’s way or God will reject him.

False Jesus

Paul warned about spiritual fakes being titled “Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:3, 4).  Just because a church, religious group, or organization claims to believe in Jesus does not mean they believe in the Jesus of the Bible.  Jesus Himself warned against false Christs (Matt. 24:5, 23-24).  Ultimately, a false Jesus leads to a false way (John 14:6).  Just because people are religious and/or believe in God, does not mean they are saved!  There are no two ways about it!  Christianity is unique in the religious world.  The tragedy is that religious people are working to be with God, when God in reality has done the work to be with people.

We have a very real responsibility not to examine every Jesus that is presented to us in the light of Who the Biblical Jesus really is.  If the one sharing with us his personal belief has a false Jesus, we are not to hate and ridicule him.  We are to present the real Christ in love, even though this lost one rejects our message (Ezek. 2:3-5).  Why?  Because if it were not for the grace of God, we could be as he is.

Urgency of the Gospel

People desperately want acceptance and seek it where it can be found.  Time is running out!  Our lifestyle must be to live and share Christ (Acts 18:27).  We no longer dare to take for granted that our religious friends and relatives are saved.
 
I remember as a missionary pastor being called to emergency at the local hospital.  After spending time with the people I had come to visit, I sat for a few minutes in the waiting section of the emergency room.  About then, I heard a siren grow in intensity until it screamed loudly at the emergency entrance.  I looked up to watch a couple of paramedics wheeling in a man on a stretcher.  The whole front of this person’s face was missing.  His head was covered with blood.  After a few minutes, the ambulance driver, who had entered a moment later than the others, came over to get a drink from a water fountain near where I was sitting.

“Does that patient have a chance to make it at all?” I asked.
 
The driver shook his head and said, “Not at all.  He will probably be dead in minutes.”
 
“What happened?”
 
“A motorcycle wreck,” came the reply as the man walked off.
 
Just a few minutes and this person would be in eternity.  I wondered, Did he know Christ? If not, this man would be gone in a matter of moments – and there was no way to help him.
 
Then I heard a scream behind me.  I turned to see several ladies and a man escorting a sobbing woman into a prayer room next to where I sat.  I was amazed that they didn’t close the door.  I moved away to respect their privacy, but I could still hear the woman weeping inside the room.
 
Those surrounding the sorrowful woman were seeking to console her, and I realized that she was the wife of the man from the motorcycle wreck.  Apparently, he had just died.  They kept repeating to the grief stricken woman that everything would be all right since she and her husband had done the good works their religion required.  I will never forget her reply.
 
She screamed, “It’s not enough!  It’s not enough!”
 
NOT ENOUGH?
 
I’m so thankful that Jesus Christ is enough.  We don’t have to make God satisfied with us by our religious actions.  Christ has paid the penalty and arose from the dead to give new life to those who have trusted in Him.  1 John 5:12 states, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”  It’s as simple as that.
      
John Rogers 
Director of PreField Ministry