A State of the Church Part 2: God Accepts the Worship of All Religions

 In our culture, there are many who believe that God accepts all worship from all religions if the person is sincere. Sincerity is the test, not the source of that sincerity. 33% of US Evangelicals strongly agree  that God does accept the worship of all religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. 38% of US Evangelicals strongly disagree that God accepts the worship of other religions. I must wonder what the 38% have been taught and why the number who strongly disagree is not higher.

In the Ten Commandments, we are instructed, "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:2) Why? Because the gods of the false religions are actually demons. The worship of these demons is actually an abomination. (Deuteronomy 32: 16-17; Leviticus 17:7) The Apostle Paul taught the same thing. (1 Corinthians 10:20) In His temptation, Jesus told Satan that "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." (Matthew 4: 10) Jesus Himself stated that "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14: 6) Salvation is found in one name, Jesus, and one name only. (Acts 4: 12) Further, if God accepted all religions, then it would not have been necessary to send Jesus to the cross for our sins.

Christianity is an exclusive religion. However, that is ok because our God is an exclusive God! God only accepts one religion and that is the one He provided . He does not accept substitutes. Why is this fundamental Biblical truth not accepted by more people that claim to be born again? The answer would be twofold:

1. There are a lot of people who claim to be born again but really aren't. To these we need to preach the uncompromising truth of God's Word to bring conviction that would lead to repentance.

2. The ministry leaders are watering down the Word of God to be more culturally acceptable. The people are not being discipled, they are being deceived.

It is time for true believers to shout from the housetops the truth of God's Word. As we continue this series we will discover many more examples of how the world is shaping the church instead of the church changing the world.