Tag: Bible

Doctrine and Salvation


I am having a hard time with this one so bear with me.

Our Lord, Jesus, specifically said that we come to the Father through Him. By accepting Him as our Lord and Savior we are saved. There was no particular doctrine involved, at the time there were no Baptists or Methodists or any other religion besides Judaism or pagan beliefs in the area where He lived.

According to John 14:6: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

This is not a doctrinal statement and it does not give partiality to any belief other than in Jesus and God, the Father and the Spirit since He is the Comforter that was sent after Jesus ascended to Heaven. These concepts are not in question between doctrines or between true believers. The problems have arisen over the years because of disagreements in the church itself, regardless of the denomination.

These disagreements have resulted in hurt feelings, splintered families and broken churches. We are all trying to worship the same God and His Son, Jesus, so why can’t we get along? The reason may be as simple as this: we are human. We have differences of opinion about everything, especially religious topics.

Can we get past this and worship the One True God and His Son? Yes, we can if we follow what He teaches us in the Bible. The way to know Him is there because that is where God reveals Himself to all of us, through His Word. Doctrines don’t reveal or save anyone, regardless of their origin.

The apostles were with Jesus and gave us our New Testament by their writing to the churches which they started. Jesus said to go and tell the world the good news about salvation through believing in Him and by repenting of our sinful ways. Follow Jesus and allow Him to live in you and through your life in this world.

Sometimes, actually most of the time in our lives, we who are Christians are the only representatives of Jesus that many people see. It is through our actions and our words that they can see Him and if we don’t act like our heart has been changed, what will they conclude? If your heart has not been changed by allowing Jesus in, why not pray that He will come into your life and change you into that “new creature in Christ” mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Sometimes, our churches are split in two because of hard feelings and pride. Sometimes it is because of jealousy. Sin can cause more problems in churches than it does in your daily life. The reason behind this is that it is not recognized until it has done the work that Satan intended for it to do. Sin in churches is easy to see for someone outside the church but hard for those inside. Although it is the effect of sin that we can see, not the sin itself. We are not to be judges toward our brethren, that is left up to God alone.

I know that I may get many comments about being judgmental toward others because of this but I am only stating an opinion and an observation. From outside a church it is hard to know what the cause of the split is, whether it is personal or is it due to “factions” inside the church.

In 1900 there were only about one thousand religions in the world. Now, there are over ten thousand. Many of them are man made and don’t follow the One True God so how can we be so fractious in the Church that Jesus and His disciples started, regardless of the denomination? Satan has caused the splits in the church over the years and has laughed each time a denomination has split apart. Satan is the main cause of these problems because he attends church more than most of us do.

Christians need to get back to the basics of Christianity, telling others about Jesus, calling for a revival in our congregations and bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus and the reason why He is needed in their lives today! If we are not doing that, then we are not doing what Jesus told us to do as His followers.

Can we have a daily Sabbath?


Can we have a daily Sabbath? Can we enjoy a time with God as the focus of our attention and nothing else? In today’s world and the society that we live in with everything being instant and with no time for listening and waiting, can we slow down enough to hear His voice? If we heard it, would we listen?

The answer to these questions should be a resounding, YES! We must make time for God in our lives on a daily basis, because if we don’t we will miss out on the most important relationship that we have available to us. Just as with any friendship, there has to be a time of conversation but we also have to listen too. God’s voice is not the booming voice heard in movies or on cartoons. It is still and quiet and we need to quiet our minds in order to hear it and understand the meaning behind it.

God doesn’t need us, but He wants us in a relationship with Him on a daily basis. He doesn’t want us to come to Him once per week or just when we are hurting. He wants us all the time and we should want Him too! He does allow us to live on the earth and be what He intended for us to be and He is the Creator, so why can’t we give Him some attention daily?

I think that we don’t give Him daily time because we don’t think that we have the time to give. We do have the time but we usually put other priorities ahead of God, when He should be number one! I imagine some people might want to know why He should be number one so I will tell you, because you are breathing!

He created the earth and the trees and everything else that allows us to breathe, and He created you! He has a purpose for you and once you find that purpose, you will know.

Our Creator wants us to love Him because we are loved by Him, not because we have to but because we want to. Many people in this world refuse to acknowledge Him which is sad and it is because of Satan‘s influence in the world. He has convinced scientists and most of secular society that God doesn’t exist and that he doesn’t either. The problem with this is that it is wrong and when history comes to an end, we will all find out the truth but it will be too late.

There will not be a party in hell, but it will be hell for those who don’t or won’t believe what the Bible has taught for thousands of years. It is like believing in gravity, whether you believe in it or not it is there. Not believing in it won’t nullify its effect. If you don’t want to believe in hell, that is fine, but don’t blame anyone but yourself if you end up there one day.

The only way to salvation is through belief in Jesus and the sacrifice that He made for us, acknowledge that you, like everyone else, are a sinner and ask Him into your life. This is the easy part, the hard part comes with living your life through Jesus and His life through you.

Is the Bible up to date and relevant?


The Word of God is beyond time. It was, is, and always will be true. There is no time, no season, nor a single day during which the words in the Bible are not binding. I know that this will upset some people but it is true. Every word and punctuation mark in the Bible and the Torah is valid and always will be. The Spirit of God permeates the Bible and makes it relevant to our time because it is timeless and the wisdom contained within it is too.

Do we have any reason to ignore the Bible? For our own spiritual well being we really don’t and shouldn’t but many people do. They look at it as an old outdated book that has been around for thousands of years and many scholars have pointed out that the wisdom in it is contained in writings from other cultures as well. I have heard the argument that the Bible is copied from other religious texts and may not be original.

Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s Word is true and was given to the prophets and poets of the Old Testament as a guide to Him. It also points to the Christ long before He came into the world. No other religion has this prophetic quality and accuracy in their writings. God’s word told specifically how long the Babylonian empire would last, how long it would be before the Messiah came into the world and when the crucifixion would take place. All of these prophecies were given through the prophets at least 500 to 1000 years before they occurred.

No other document from any other religion can claim this and the reason is because God gave the words to the people who wrote them down. He is the only One who is outside time and therefore can see the beginning and the end and everything in between.

The Bible illustrates why the world sees its wisdom differently:  (1 Corinthians 2:14) “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  (KJV)

The world and those who are not part of God’s family, cannot discern the wisdom contained in the Bible, regardless of the translation, because it is the spirit living within which gives the interpretation. The wisdom of God‘s Word is foolish to those who don’t know Him.

When we are saved by accepting Jesus into our hearts, the Spirit resides within us from that point on. It is His job to teach us, instructing us as we read and study to be better equipped as Christians. Because, following Jesus and being a Christian is not a “walk in the park”.

Being a follower of Christ and not just a fan requires more than just accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior like many believe. It takes discipline to become a disciple and you have to realize why you are doing this too. It is not just because you don’t want to go to hell, but because of your thankfulness toward God who loved us even before the world was created.

Hell is for those angels who rebelled against God and were thrown out of Heaven. It was not meant for us and yet when we refuse to accept God’s grace through Jesus, we are as guilty as they are in our rebellion toward Him. Some people may say that they have not rebelled against God, but when you don’t accept a gift given to you freely isn’t that a form of rebellion?

When you refuse a gift from someone, aren’t they offended? If someone refused a gift from you, wouldn’t you be offended? God does not take offense the way we do, but it still counts as rebelling against Him when we refuse the gift of His grace through Jesus. We are, in effect, telling God that we want to get to Heaven our way.

Except, there is no other way to get there. Nothing that we can do is good enough, regardless of the amount of money or time or effort involved, to be equal to the sacrifice which Jesus provided on the cross to pay for all of humanity’s sins.

They have all been paid for, all we have to do is claim the grace that is there for us and eternal life is ours! The only “catch” is that we have to do it while we are alive, here and now. Once we have accepted it, the work in our life begins again because we are born anew as “new creatures in Christ”. The old life that we had is done away with and a new life begins. It will not be easy, but the reward will never end.

There will be time with family that are Christians that you will never have to worry about losing because you will have eternity. As someone once said, “billions and billions of years” will be your reward for accepting Jesus! Time will have no real meaning at all because we will have far more than a lifetime to get to know someone or get to know many people!

This existence or life that we have now is but a “puff of smoke” compared to eternity. Make the best decision that you can make, accept Jesus as your Lord, give Him your life so that He can give you His!

In what shape are you in?


I am not talking about your body shape, I am speaking of the shape of your relationship with Jesus? Are you good friends? Do you speak to each other on a daily basis or do you only call when you need something?

God loves you as no one on earth can and His love is unconditional. He doesn’t require you to do anything to earn His love. He does ask that you ask Jesus into your heart and your life, but He will never force you into a relationship with Him. God doesn’t do that, regardless of what other religions say with regard to your acceptance of their version of “God”.

When you become part of God’s family, you are a part of it but yours is a unique part. Unique in the way that you are because there is no one on earth with your abilities and God knows what you can do, even if you don’t, yet!

The Bible is a collection of stories, true, but it is also God voice speaking to us and telling us how much He loves us. He speaks to us through the poetry and the history of the Jewish people but He also speaks through the letters and the prophecies, the wisdom contained in the book of Proverbs. Many people don’t realize that God spoke and is still speaking through the words contained in this book. But it is so much more than a book. God’s love is expressed all through it from Genesis to Revelation. It is expressed angrily as a jealous God would but it is also expressed lovingly as a father would to a child that he loves.

The anger that is expressed is the kind that a parent would have toward a child that is doing something which might hurt them or cause them to be killed. It is not a hateful anger nor is it an anger which is comparable to our anger, it is a type which I cannot fully describe to anyone unless they have a child which they love. When that child runs out into the street or touches something which might endanger their life, don’t you feel a little angry and anxious because you may have lost your child?

That is the type of anger that most closely mirrors what God expresses and yet He loves us with an unbounded love, one which we cannot fully comprehend. When you are looking for something and yet you don’t know exactly what that something is, you will find your answer in the Bible and nowhere else! You may try to find it in another religion or a job or by using drugs or alcohol, but when you wake the next morning feeling hollow and still wanting something to fill that space, God is the only One who can.

“I have lost my way” is what I have heard some say about not going to church or that they have been gone too long. God knows where you are! He never left you, you just looked away from Him, that is all! Just like the grass looking greener on the other side of the fence and the cows stretch to get at it not knowing that the grass is the same.

God loves us with a love that none of us can understand or comprehend in our human way because He is our Creator. He is as far above us as we are above a bacteria so our feelings and His feelings are totally different and yet He cares for us as no one else can, like a father caring for billions of His children.

Giving your life and your heart to Him and becoming one of His children in a real sense is the best decision that you can make with your life. I do not want anyone to think that being a Christian is easy because it is not. The old self is still there, as are the temptations of your previous life. The world and all of its temptations as well as Satan and his demons will bring up things and people that will cause you to stumble and fall from your life as a child of God. At which point you have to decide to ask God to forgive you and turn back to Him, following His lead just as a sheep follows its shepherd.

In saying this I don’t mean that we are considered sheep, but in some ways we are. We are like children and sheep, we don’t know what is best for us so we have to be shown or taught what to do. Many people don’t like this idea, they are very independent and like the two year old that everyone has heard say “I can do it myself”; but even the two year old gets into trouble before long and comes running to mommy or daddy.

Our Father is the ultimate daddy because of Who He is. He won’t give you everything when you ask for it, but He will provide for you a life and the ability to serve and glorify Him here and in the life to come. Even if you don’t subscribe to the “afterlife” idea, it will be because God refers to it many times in His Word.

Our life…does it matter?


Many people ask this question and wonder if it does matter. The answer is YES! Because you are alive, you matter and your life matters! God doesn’t make mistakes and you wouldn’t be alive on this earth if your life didn’t matter in some way.

He has a purpose for each of us and all that we have to do is find it. Many people think that they will never find their purpose in life and they are right….if they never look for it! Your purpose or reason for being is, in a nutshell, to have a personal relationship with God. Everything else will fall into place after that, but until that part of your life is working like it should nothing will seem to be right. There will always be a feeling of loss or emptiness in your life and you will attempt to fill it with something.

That is why the drug trade and other problems that plague the “human condition” are so plentiful. Many people are looking for something, anything to fill that place that only Jesus can fill. In some of my other writings, if you want to call them that, I have called it a “God-sized hole”, and that is exactly what it is! It is a space that only one thing, one being in the universe can fulfill!

Your life matters to the Creator of the universe,you matter! Your life does have meaning and a purpose and He knows exactly what that is and He has given you the ability to fulfill that purpose. No one else can do that except Jesus and He will when you ask Him to come into your life.

Can you do it on your own? Yes, you can exist and have a life without Jesus but what will you do when you die? Our life doesn’t end when this body is dead. The Bible teaches that from beginning to end. We are supposed to live eternally with God but when you reject His offer of salvation through Jesus that eternal life will be in hell!

I have had many friends who said that they would rather party with Satan than live in Heaven.

I don’t understand that line of thought because there will be no party in hell! There will be no laughter, no fun, no light, no water, only separation from God and darkness and heat, lots of heat! That is why the Bible calls it the second death because without God or Jesus, there is no life!

Do your own research into the Bible. Read the New Testament, especially the book of Romans. There is a way to life and it is only found in Jesus, and then your life will matter, here and in the hereafter.

New creation, same old body


How can I be a new creation after Christ has entered my life? Is it possible that I let Him in by mistake? The answers to these questions are: you can’t and you didn’t!

We can’t be a new creation on our own, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who came into your heart when you truly accepted Jesus, you are. It is not something which will be heralded by angels or by some miraculous healing, but it is a transformation of your spirit. You become aligned with one of the Trinity and by His power you are a new creation!

The second question from above is not possible because unless God calls you spiritually and you respond by giving your heart and life to Jesus, you can’t and you won’t be His. You may go to church and be a deacon or a Gideon, you might even become a missionary overseas but you will be doing these things under your own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That being said, I do not mean that you aren’t a good person, but you can be a “fan” of Jesus and not a follower. By that I mean the same as someone who is a fan of a particular sport. You are a true fan but you don’t play professionally. You know about the sport or the person Jesus, you have heard and read many parts of the Bible, but until you let Him into your life and your heart and truly become a follower like His disciples were, you are just a fan and nothing more.

It is wonderful to be a fan of Jesus, but until you can say truthfully that you love Him and know Him from His word, that is all that you are. You are not a new creation because you don’t have Him in your heart! This is a hard truth that many in the church today have a problem with and many who have been in church and who have left also have a problem with it. Being a member of a church and attendance every time there is a function at the church doesn’t do anything for you spiritually anymore than being in a garage makes you a car!

Until you can ask Jesus into your life and your heart and live that way daily, not just on Sunday, you haven’t changed! Until God calls you to be that new creation and you answer that call by asking Jesus into your heart, you aren’t a new creation!

Oh, but when you do answer His call on your life, everything changes! Your life takes on a new meaning, your relationship with everyone becomes more meaningful, your whole character changes because you are not the same anymore! Your heart and your mind will begin to reflect the attitude and the person of Christ and everyone will know it, even if you don’t say anything about your decision.

God wants all of humanity to come to Him. Whether we choose to do so is our individual choice. It is not forced because love cannot be forced. He won’t make you love Him because that is not love. Choose Life from the Sustainer and the Creator of all life because when you do, you will be a new creation! All of the old habits won’t have the same hold on you, your friends will either like the “new you” or they won’t. Give Jesus a chance in your life and your heart because He is the longing that we have been searching for and didn’t know that He was it!

What we should be doing


praying-hands-258x300In our time alone with God, when we are not alone but with the Creator of everything, we should be praying. Our lives are merely His to work out His will on this earth, regardless of how we feel about Him or even if we acknowledge Him at all. If by some chance, you know Him but don’t pray much, He is waiting patiently.

All of the gifts and blessings of this life come from God. Satan has a hand in all of the bad things which happen to people, but only so far as God allows him to go.  God is in control and always has been, so there is no reason to worry about your life or what you will eat because God feeds the birds and He cares enough for you to do the same in your situation.

There is so much more that God can and will do for you and all that you have to do is ask Him into your heart and life. When you have done that, I am not saying that your life will be rosy from that point on, but He will give you the assurance that His love brings and the strength to carry you through.

My life is out of control, HELP!


What happens when you feel this way? Do you panic or call a friend? Do you feel that this is what happens to people when they have nowhere to go or anyone to turn to? I have heard from and talked with many people who think that when this happens, there is nowhere to go or no one to go to.

Our educational system in this country has pushed God out of the classroom so much that children and teenagers may not have any concept of Him at all. If they have never been to church or bible school, they certainly wouldn’t have any concept of Him. As someone who lives in the “Bible-belt” it is hard for me to imagine anyone not knowing about Christ but I know that there are some people who have never heard of Him and His grace toward us.

Our Savior is the Creator of everything, but He is also a friend who loves each of us more dearly than we can imagine! His Word, the Bible, is full of stories of His love toward us and His chosen people, Israel. When you read it from cover to cover, you find that it is not a book of rules about what you can’t do but it is an instruction book. One that suggests ways of doing things with your life that will inspire others to do the same. It is also the living Word of God, so when you read it the message that you get from it will be different each time.

God’s Word will also influence your life in ways that you might never have considered before. Our Lord loves all people because He had a hand in creating each person on the earth. The problems that we experience in this life are felt by God because He knows each person whether they know Him or not. Remember, according to Jesus, “Are not two sparrows sold for a pennyd? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.” Matthew 10:29

Our God cares for this world enough that He watches over the sparrows as well as all other creatures, including us. Even when you think that He is not watching or listening, He is, and even though our world is coming to the end of the church age, He is carefully watching everything.

Our world is under the influence of Satan and as such we experience many deceptions and hardships because of him. Although he is not in control of our world, he just influences things which happen here, God is in control and He allows Satan to do some things as long as those things follow His will.

When life and trouble seems to be too much, look to Jesus. Ask Him to help you overcome the problems which seem to be too big because even though they may be too big for you to handle, they are not too big for God. When you have come to the end of your rope and hope seems to have faded, trust in Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life as well as our Savior and Friend. He is the Creator of all things and the King of Kings who gave His life to pay the price so that we don’t have to! All you have to do is ask Him into your heart and believe that He is Who He is, then repent and follow Him.

What will you do with Jesus?


After you have asked Him to come into your life, what then? Can you just go back to being the same person you have always been?

If there was true repentance and acceptance of His Lordship over your life, it is not possible for you to return to your old life and habits. Your heart and your Spirit won’t let you and your conscience won’t allow it either.

Can you ignore the prompting of the Spirit and your conscience and return to your old life? Yes, you can and each time you ignore the prompting of the Spirit, it will become easier and easier until you quench the Spirit entirely. Then you will be just another hypocrite who said they got saved and then turned away from it.

Will you feel good about doing so? At first you won’t, but eventually that small voice in your heart will go silent. Like ignoring your wife or your parents, it becomes easier with time until one day you don’t notice it at all.

Satan loves it when a “Christian” returns to their old ways because he has been watching you closely and so have your friends. If this was genuine, true repentance you wouldn’t turn away like Lot’s wife did. Why does this happen? In our society today people look for easy ways to get their way or what they want.

This has been happening ever since humans have been on the planet, so it is nothing new. Society hasn’t changed all that much in the thousands of years that we have been here. The facts speak to us from the pages of the Bible.

When they were in the wilderness and thought that Moses had died while talking to God, they begged Aaron to make them a god like the gods of Egypt. The Israelites wanted a god they could see and touch in the wilderness, even though they had seen the miracles that were wrought by God to bring them out of Egypt.

Then when they were in Canaan, they did not do as God had told them and they intermingled with some of the inhabitants of the land. Eventually, they began worshiping their gods and doing the detestable things that the Canaanites did, like sacrificing their children to a piece of wood or stone.

Our so-called modern society isn’t much different. We work more hours than our fore-fathers did, sacrificing our family life and our relationships with our children in the process in order to have “stuff” like everyone else. Our neighbors buy a new car or truck, so we think we have to have one as good or better. Your child comes home and tells you that Jordan or Sarah has this kind of game or toy, so you go get then one just like it.

Why? Why do we have to do or be like everyone else in the world when our Lord said that we were to be in the world but not of the world? This is not in the Bible word for word, but He meant that we are no longer ruled by sin which is of the world. When we come to Him and give our heart to Him, we are His and to be that which He wants us to be we have to be different. Different in ways that the world can see and therefore want to have. But, it is striving each day that makes us this way because the temptations are there every day. As children we may not see it as much as adults do, but the world, Egypt, whatever you call it is there and the ruler of our sinful world is Satan.

Satan and his fallen angels are real, whether we can see them or not and they rule over this world by tempting us and causing us to fall from the grace which we have been granted through Jesus. Some might ask, “Will I lose my salvation because of this?”. Losing your salvation is not possible in a real sense, except when you walk away from it yourself. Your witness to others will be affected because they might see that your life changed and then when you walk away from it for some reason they question if you were saved to begin with.

A person who has truly given their life and heart to Christ cannot just walk away from it because you have been changed from the inside out. If that change never really took place, if you never truly gave your heart to Him who sacrificed everything, then you never belonged to Him in the first place. Churches are full of people who think that they are Christians because they are in church and have belonged to it for a long time. They tithe, they volunteer for projects and help in the church, some may be deacons or even lay ministers. You can do most or all of these things in the church under your own strength and still not be a true Christian!

The ones you know that are easily identified as Christians, may not have Christ at all. True Christians, those who have Him in their life and in their heart, are humble and are usually behind the scenes. Not all of them are this way, but many are. Their life reflects the humility of Christ and His way of serving. Many so-called “upstanding pillars” are more like the priest who told God how great he was and that he was glad that he was not like the sinner who was in the temple with him.

As Jesus’ story illustrated, the person who went away justified was the sinner because he acknowledged that he was a sinner and asked forgiveness for it.

The priest only magnified himself in the eyes of those who may have heart him, not in the eyes of God. Pride was the sin he was guilty of that day and he didn’t even acknowledge his sinfulness.

God knows your heart, so bare it to Him. Ask Him to show you how to be His, ask Him to help you be the vessel that He knows that you can be. He will give you the strength and the wisdom from His word, the Bible so don’t neglect the reading of it. Even a few minutes each day can make a big impact in your walk with Him and in your service to Him.

God, the Creator of everything, is waiting for you to answer His calling on your life. We are important to Him, He cares for us and wants us to know it and to show it to others by allowing others to see what He has done in our life.

Through modeling and reflecting Jesus’ character by what we do and say everyday, we magnify God to the world. Isn’t that an awesome and humbling responsibility? Think about that as you go through this week.

 

The Apocalypse of 2012?


In reference to the end of the Aztec calendar, maybe but not likely the end of the world as we know it. At least not yet! Nobody knows when the world will come to its end but the alignment of planets with the center of the galaxy won’t bring it about.

The end of the world as foretold in the Bible is also in our future and it is foretold in the Koran as well but trying to cause it to happen will not work. Praying that it will end tomorrow or the day after that won’t work either. It will be when it will be and nothing that we or anyone in the world does will cause it to begin sooner.

God can and does see the end from the beginning so only He knows when the end will come. The book of Revelation tells about many things which will happen at that time but the timing of the 70th week of Daniel is up to God and no one else.

The world and many people around the world are expecting something to happen this year. Something may happen, but we don’t know what or when because only God knows that. If there is a person who comes on television or the Internet and says that the world will end on such and such day, don’t believe them.

The future of our world is in God’s hands but Satan is in control on earth, at least as far as God will allow him to be. We have more to fear from those who hate Israel and Christians than we do from the doom-sayers that are pointing to global warming and the other possible scenarios that some say “may happen” this year.

A revival in this country and in the world itself should be our priority right now. Make sure that your heart belongs to Jesus because in the end, whenever it comes, eternity will depend on that one decision alone! Search the Bible, ask God to show you His wisdom and open your mind and heart to the Truth that is in the scriptures. He will never abandon you or forsake you but you have to be willing to ask Him to come into your life. He will not force you to do anything, it is your decision alone so make the one that will benefit you rather than condemn you.

God doesn’t want anyone to perish apart from Him but if you choose to go through life without making the choice to accept Jesus as your Savior, you will. It doesn’t matter if you were raised in a Christian, church-attending family because association doesn’t mean anything unless your heart has been changed and filled with the Love of Christ. Many people who have filled pews in churches will be in hell because of that one decision that they failed to make because they thought they were religious enough the get into Heaven.

That is the biggest lie ever to come from Satan…the one that says “all I have to do is join the church and I will have my “fire-insurance”!” Religion doesn’t save your soul, regardless of which religion it is. The worst disaster in history won’t hold a candle to the time of Tribulation that is coming. No amount of religion will save anyone from that time, only by accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior will you be able to stand in that day! I don’t know when that time will come, no one does, but it is not far off. Your personal meeting with God could be tomorrow since we are not guaranteed any number of days or years, so don’t put it off any longer. I pray that everyone who reads this will pray and read the Bible in order to at least have an idea what they need to do.