A viewer writes that it is easy to spot which religions are among the "false religions" of the Bible. Here is one Bible method you can use to spot the true from the false.
Transcript
[Darris McNeely] We're going through a series of questions that have come in from some of our Beyond Today viewers through the weeks and past months as they view these Dailies and watch Beyond Today on television.
We on Beyond Today look at the Bible as our source of authority, as a source of truth that we use for whatever program and topic we cover. One of our viewers wrote recently about how the program was leading them to crucially examine what religions, other churches, say about the Bible.
Here's what she said. She said,
"Your program is very true. When we really look at the Bible, many Christ-based religions are exposed as veering away from or contorting what the Bible actually says. That, and also studying world history and doctrines of a number of today's prominent religions, it then is easy to spot which are among the false religions that the Bible mentions." End of quote.
It's a very astute comment that this viewer makes. There is a lot of false teaching out there, as the Bible calls it, that has crept into much of religious teaching today that doesn't square with the Bible. This person is looking at Beyond Today and the United Church of God, the church behind this program – they're looking at us and they're also examining what we say, what we teach, about the Scripture. And so they should. Every one of us should examine our beliefs that we hold, should examine whatever church or religion of our youth or your present attendance might be teaching you, to make sure that it squares with the Bible. Again, on Beyond Today, we believe that the Bible is the word of God, and that that word is also an essential guide for life, a source of absolute truth and teaching for our lives today. If we look at the Bible as indeed a holy book, given to us by God our Maker and our Creator, and study it and believe it, then we have a solid foundation upon which to build our lives and to study. And we can do that, and we should. In fact, we should be like a group of people that are mentioned in the Bible, called Bereans.
The Bereans were a group of people that the apostle Paul came in contact with in Acts chapter 17, in one of his journeys, beginning in verse 10 through verse 12 of chapter 17 of Acts (Acts 17:10-12). In that passage, we find a group of people that Paul begins to teach, and what is recorded about them is rather interesting – because he goes and meets these people, in a setting there in the city of Berea, and it says of them that "they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. And therefore, many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks and prominent women as well as men." They searched the Scriptures daily, regularly, to see if what the apostle Paul, or anyone else who was teaching Scripture, was actually staying true to what the word that they had at that time said and taught. And that's what we should be doing today.
We should be examining what we believe, what may be taught to us, or have been taught in our past. If in some cases, that belief has been found to be untrue, it's not square with the Bible, then hopefully can lead us on a search for what is true.
How we determine what and which religion teaches errors, and the ones as opposed to what Jesus Christ taught, is a fascinating process. And we can find out exactly what is the truth if we study the Scriptures daily, if we look into them for the stories of wisdom from men and women who were people of faith, who believed God, knew God, and sought to walk with God – they form examples, and there is a great deal of teaching there for us. But once we do that, what will we do? That's the big question.
What are we going to do with what we read or with what we study? You can read the Bible. You can study it. But eventually, we have to live it, and act on what we come to know and to understand. And that will take us to an even greater level of understanding and success and contentment in our life, in helping us to know God. It can be known. We can know God in that way, and we can know the Scriptures. Prove what is there.
