Hello Everyone,

My name is David Mathews and I am a Christian. I love diversity in all of its forms and am especially fascinated by religious diverstiy and the diversity of life. On behalf of natural diversity I love to hike throughout all of the many ecosystems of Central Florida, and enjoy taking pictures. You are invited to view these on my home page:

http://www.geocities.com/dmathew1

and ...

Yahoo! Photos - dmathew1's Photos

Sincerely,

David Mathews

Nice pictures... welcome to the forum.

What exactly does "Place of Worship: Many & Diverse" mean?

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In Christ,
brother Sonnie

Hello Sonnie,

It means that I have visited many of the branches of the Restoration Movement, several denominations and a healthy number of non-Christian religions. I'd love to visit them all, but there certainly is not enough time provided in order to accomplish that goal.

I consider religious diversity analogous to the diversity of life. God has populated the Earth with millions of different species of plants and animals, just as God has provided humankind with thousands of different religions. Christianity has fragmented into thousands of denominations and the Restoration Movement has split into dozens of distinct groups. The more, the better.

I am not in favor of every human becoming identical. Diversity of thought and freedom of thought are blessings, though we seldom recognize them as blessings. These differences provide an opportunity for humans to behave in a tolerant, loving, merciful and forgiving manner. They also serve to motivate Christians to learn and think differently.

For that reason, I encourage Christians to explore the denominations and the world's religions. Christians ought to read the Scriptures and wisdom literature of the non-Christian religions. Christians ought also to love Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.

As Christians we are commanded to love others... but we are also warned not to divide and create denominations. It's not that we don't love the individuals, we just don't agree with their religion because they are false religions.

So, have you studied the Bible with any church members in the past?

__________________
In Christ,
brother Sonnie

Hello Sonnie,

I have studied the Scriptures with many Christians. This message is important and worthy of the effort.

I consider the notion of "false religion" as a form of prejudice, in the sense that it involves pre-judging the merits of another person's beliefs in a manner which precludes any sort of defense by the judged & condemned individuals.

What ever happened to the notion of "innocent until proven guilty" as it relates to religion? More often than not, Christians function under the principle "guilty and excluded and forbidden to speak". We speak with certainty about the sins and faults of other religions but we do not bother to verify the accusations and absolutely refuse to hear any sort of defense by the accused & condemned on behalf of their religion.

There is no such thing as a "false religion", all that exist are religions which differ from your own.

I’m perplexed at what you’ve been studying or how you may have arrived at your disturbing conclusions. Your views do not represent those of Christianity; therefore you have falsely represented yourself to our forum.

We’ll conclude this here. “False religion” is ubiquitous. If you read any of the Koran or the Hindu Writings or any other religious holy books, you will quickly learn what people of these other religions believe, which contradicts the Bible and would be considered a false religion, if you are a Christian. We as individuals do not have to condemn or judge them… God’s Word does. God’s Word proves them guilty.

According to God, religions that differ from Christianity are indeed false. If you are a Christian, then you must believe God’s Word and would not argue this.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Do all other religions claim the only way to the Father is through Christ? No! The Koran exalts Mohammed above Jesus. Who does the Buddhists and Hindu worship? Do they worship the God of the Bible? No!

2 John 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

God condemned the pagan false religions of Egypt, Babylon and many others throughout the Old Testament.

If you are a Christian, you will accept the Bible as God’s Word. The Bible proves more evidence and inspiration of God and Christ than any other holy book. To accept another religion would be to deny Christ. To accept other religions you would have to accept other gods, and the God of the Bible clearly commanded that there be no other Gods other than Him. I can’t imagine someone claiming to be a Christian would want to defend another religion other than Christianity. In fact, a true Christian would not.

__________________
In Christ,
brother Sonnie

Well said, Sonnie. Too often it is the case that a love for sinners is mixed with an unScriptural tolerance for sin. This is one of the problems with Liberalism in religion today. If we really love these people of "Many and Diverse" religions, we will teach them the truth, because that is the only thing that will make them free (John 8:32).

We Christians love people of all religions, but we also have a love for the truth, and therefore we have a disdain for error. Anyone who studies God's Word will see that Jesus and the inspired writers of the Scriptures were the same way:

"Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:104).

"Therefore I esteem all [thy] precepts [concerning] all [things to be] right; [and] I hate every false way" (Psalm 119:128; see Matthew 23, Galatians 1:6-10, etc.).

The bottom line is that the false way leads people to hell. We want people to go to heaven, and compromising with false teachers is not the way to get people to heaven.

Jason Hilburn