world and this volume and diversity alone is an extremely effective tactic for the devil. How can you possibly know which religion is true? Or worse, many believe that all can be true, and all roads lead to heaven, whichever you want to choose.
Now of course Jesus tells us he is the only way so let’s focus down on ‘Christian’ like religions. An even smarter tactic is to present ‘almost truth’, or slight variations on the truth. That is why we have to be very careful with the term ‘Christian’ because many people do not understand the real meaning.
To many if you live in a ‘Christian’ country or attend a church you are a Christian. That is not necessarily the case. If I stand in a garage it does not make me a car. In the same way if I attend church or even (dare I say it) stand in a pulpit (wearing a dog collar or not) and preach it does not make me a Christian. The bible tells us that a true Christian is someone who has repented of their sin, turned to follow Christ Jesus and depends not on their own merits or strengths for salvation but wholly on the death and resurrection of Jesus as payment for their debt.
In this group of religions many twist the truth (my heart sinks every time I see another kingdom hall being built), and many water down the message so that it loses they key components necessary for salvation. So much of Christianity is geared to tell people what they want to hear. The message can easily become a ‘self help’, or ‘be nice to each other and we’ll all be okay’ message, and many so called churches would now be better categorised as Sunday social clubs.
On holiday recently we were faced with a choice of three promising churches in a row on the Sunday morning. We opted