What is religion? Religion is a set of institutionalized system of beliefs and practices. For most people when you call someone religious you are saying they have a belief in God and a devotion to what they consider sacred. Buddhists and Shintoism are called religions but do not believe in heaven or God. Communism could be called a religion whereby the government is God.

Religious people, for the most part, make good American citizens. They pay their taxes, work hard, and try to live by a human moral code. They build hospitals, schools, and orphanages. They build rescue missions for people living on the streets and feed the poor.

People have the right to practice their religion and worship who and where they want. However, religious tolerance is not a religious endorsement. I have friends and relatives who are Mormons, Catholics, and apostate Protestants, but I do not endorse their religion. One of the greatest things about our country is the freedom of religion. Religious tolerance is a cornerstone of our democracy and republic.

Our constitution says that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble. The Pilgrims who founded this country were fleeing from Europe to get away from the religious persecution of the Church of England. When religion becomes one with government it becomes the most evil satanic force on earth.

Patrick Henry said, “It cannot be over emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

People who say they do not talk about religion and politics are lying. That is all people want to talk about. Politics affect our life in the here and now. Religion affects our lives in the hereafter. This country and this world are religious.

Religion in America
Protestants – 52 percent (48 percent are born again Christians)
Catholics – 24.5 percent
Jews – 1.3 percent
Muslims – 0.5
Atheists or no religion – 14.1

The World’s Religions
Catholics – 1billion
Muslims – 1.3 billion – (Fastest Growing Religion in the world and will double by 2050)
Buddhists – 450 million
Hindus – 1.1 billion
Atheists or no religion – 149 million (make up 2.5 of the world’s population)

False Religion-Islam

Franklin Graham said on NBC Nightly News that Islam is a wicked and evil religion. “The God of Allah is not the God of Christianity.” Pat Robertson has been quoted as saying that radical Muslims are demonic and satanic. Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam’s goal is world domination. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia have religious police, called the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, roam the streets with mini whips enforcing dress codes and prayer time.

The greatest religious violators of freedom of religion are the Muslims and the Communists. This would be in the countries of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Vietnam, Burma, Indonesia, Egypt, China, and North Korea. In many of these countries you can go to jail just for possessing a Bible. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 requires the U. S. government to take action against what it calls countries of particular concern. Yet, they do very little in the way of fines and sanctions to put pressure on these religious persecutors.

Muslims who have a militia should not be considered a religion. Any religion who orders their followers to execute infidels should not be considered a religion. Muslim radical Pakistanis are murdering, maiming, and jailing Christians on a daily basis around the world. This year one man had his arm cut off for handing out gospel literature. Another man was cut up and put in a bag and placed in a ditch. He had a gospel tract in his hand that asked, “Where do we go when we die?” Muslim radicals in Indonesia are burning the churches and homes of Christians down. One man in Afghanistan, a Christian convert named Abdul Rahman, was arrested and sentenced to be executed because it is against the law to convert to any other religion. He was put to death under a blasphemy law that is a part of the Sharia constitution and punishable with death.

It is very disturbing to me that the United States would send our young men and women to bring a democracy to these Islamic countries. We overtake their dictators, but allow a government to be set up with no freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of assembly. It was nauseating for Saudi Arabia to ask for protection from Saddam Hussein, but then insist that our soldiers not read Bibles on their soil. No democracy can survive without these freedoms.

False Religion: Apostate Protestants

There is a big difference between churchianity and Christianity, between a religion and a relationship, between a church member and a true conversion. There is a big difference between fools gold, and pure gold. There is a big difference between wheat and tares. There is the authentic and fraudulent. There are true conversions and false conversions.

According to George Gallup Jr., 48 percent of the American people say they are born again Christians. About 96 percent of Americans say they believe in God. About 90 percent say they pray. On most weekends four out of ten shows up at religious services. Seven out of ten Americans say they are members of a church or synagogue. 93 percent of Americans own a copy of a Bible or other Scriptures, yet only 42 percent can name just five of the Ten Commandments.

The survey cited that most of these religious people in America say they are less inclined to believe that God plays a big part in their everyday lives. What a mind boggling statement that religious people in America believe in God, pray, faithfully attend church, own a Bible, yet come to the conclusion that God does not play a big part in their lives. These statistics clearly show us that it’s possible to have a religion without a relationship with God. It is possible to know about God, but not know God. They honor God with their lips but their heart is far from Him. I can’t overemphasize that membership in a church and being raised in a certain religion guarantees that you are a Christian and that you have had an authentic birth and conversion.

Apostate counterfeit churchianity has done much harm to Christianity. The word counterfeit in Webster’s dictionary means to be made an imitation of something else with intent to deceive, something likely to be confused with the genuine thing. I can’t overemphasize that there is a genuine and fraudulent Christianity. Adolph Hitler said that if you tell a lie loud enough and long enough people will accept it as truth. There is a big difference between pure gold and fool’s gold. Everything in religion that glitters isn’t gold.

Liberalism and heresy have saturated these denominations. There are sections in many of these major denominations who deny the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the inspiration of Scripture, the blood atonement for our sins. These apostate Protestants murder babies and ordain homosexuals to lead and guide our churches. Being a member of a Protestant church does not guarantee that you have had an authentic conversion.

A lot of these churches, which started out in Christ, have gone apostate because of their leadership. My heart breaks for Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, United Methodists, and other mainline denominations that are ordaining homosexuals and condoning abortion. Every year there is a split in these churches with huge numbers of ministers wanting to ordain homosexuals. Many of these churches no longer belong to Jesus Christ, but to Satan, victims of his deception and delusion.

There are millions of so called Christians who claim that conversion is for those only that have been preordained to be saved or damned. In a nutshell, God ordained you to be damned or saved before the foundation of the world and there is nothing you can do about it. This is an absolutely horrific view of conversion.
There are also millions of so-called Christians who proclaim that conversion comes through the partaking of the sacraments. If you sprinkle your little children at birth, which they call water baptism, they will be converted. This is also a horrific, damnable heresy. Space does not allow us to give all the different fraudulent protestant views of salvation.

Jesus Christ asked the religious leaders of His day, and the same question could be asked of apostate Protestant leaders today. “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” What an incredible question! Religious traditions are violating the commands of God. It does not matter to God if you’re Presbyterian, Methodist, or Episcopalian. What matters is if you have been born again. “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

False Religion: Catholicism

A classic example of false Christianity is Catholicism. They claim to be the one true church on God’s earth. I like the Catholic people and believe they are good American citizens. I admire their stand against abortion, their support of the right to life movement, and other social endeavors, but their gospel of salvation is diabolical.

There is a huge discrepancy between authentic Christianity and Catholicism. Catholicism has incorporated and added onto the Word of God. They have their own Bible and also their own Catechism book. They know about Christ and have incorporated some of the essential doctrines, but their view on salvation on what one must do to be saved and converted is totally contradictory to the Word of God.

I know that there are many Christians who would object to saying that Catholicism is false Christianity. There are born again Christians who attend Catholic churches. There are also born again Catholic priests who are Christians and are a part of this organization. But just because Christians attend Catholic churches does not make Catholicism authentic.

About four percent of all Catholic clerics who served from 1950 to 2002 (4,392 out of 109,694) were accused of molesting over 10,000 minors according to the long-awaited study documenting the Catholic Church’s sex abuse problem. For decades the Catholic hierarchy conspired to cover up this corruption. This alone should give us major questions about the validity of Catholicism. Still, the epidemic of pedophiles and sexual immorality doesn’t compare to the spiritual immorality in the Catholic Church.

The greatest counterfeit religious position the world will ever know is the leadership position of the pope. This nation, called a church, has led millions down a path they say leads to heaven but instead leads to hell. Anyone who reads Fox’s Book of Martyrs will come away with tears because the Catholics are responsible for the death of thousands of Christians throughout the ages. It is my opinion that someday this position of leadership will head up a one world religion. Scripture calls him the false prophet.

Read what the reformers had to say about the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Martin Luther, “…the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist…” Charles H. Spurgeon, “We must warn with judicious boldness those who are inclined towards the errors of Rome; we must…tell them of the black doings of Popery.” John Knox said the pope should be recognized as “the very antichrist.” Of the Papacy, John Wesley said, “He is emphatically, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure.” John Calvin, “…we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist.” Will anyone attempt to discredit these men by claiming that they were anti-Catholic bigots? Should someone who agrees with the reformers teaching be called bigots, Catholic haters, and be identified with the KKK? Jesus Christ wants us to proclaim to every Catholic and to the pope himself that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. There have been some popes in recent history that have fought for the right to life, social justice for the poor and the elderly, and spoken out against Communism but this does not qualify them for heaven. Pope John II was glorified at his funeral by the media as a great Christian. During his reign he bowed down and kissed the Koran and also received a blessing from a Hindu priest. Does this sound like something the Apostle Peter would do, or for that matter Jesus Christ would do? Pope John II was a major proponent of bringing the major religions together. Does this sound like something Christ would do or more like something the Antichrist would do?

The Catholics send a mixed message about salvation. In a September 2003 interview with Mel Gibson reporter Peter J. Boyer writes, “I told Gibson that I am a Protestant, and asked whether his pre-Vatican II Catholic world view disqualified me from eternal salvation for those outside the church.” Mel paused (There is no salvation for those outside the Catholic Church.) and said, “I believe it.” He explained, “Put it this way, my wife is a saint. She is a much better person than I am. Honestly! She’s like the Episcopalian, Church of England, she prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it’s just not fair if she doesn’t make it, she’s better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it.”

Pre-Vatican II Catholics perceive themselves as the only saving institution. On Meet the Press, April 24, 2005, Tim Russert brought up documentation from the Fourth Lateran Council that there is indeed one universal church of the faithful, outside of which no one at all is saved. On the same program, he asked a Catholic priest, Reverend Bohlin, if he was, in fact, Hindu or Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Protestant, or whatever, and if you live a good life can you can achieve salvation? Reverend Bohlin responded and said, “True.” This is what the Church teaches. Folks, we are getting mixed messages about salvation from these various Catholics.

Let’s look at the Catholic official view of salvation on one’s entrance into the kingdom of God in their doctrinal book called the Catechism. Their gospel of salvation is horrific. Their catechism book of the Roman Catholic Church lists the requirements to enter heaven.

1. The Church states that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. (#1129).
2. God has bound salvation to the sacrament of baptism (#1257).
3. Outside of the Catholic Church there is no salvation (#846).

The Catechism also says the Catholic Church is the mother of the new birth. Who are we going to believe, the Catholic Church or Jesus Christ who says the Holy Spirit is the author of the new birth? If Jesus Christ met with the pope today or for that matter with any Catholic, He would tell him, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

I believe, without question, that millions of Catholics would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ if they were given a pure gospel by their leaders. Catholicism is a mixture of paganism and Christianity. They magically proclaim to be able to turn bread and wine into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Every year the Immaculate Conception is celebrated which proclaims that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born without a sin nature. They have a Bible, but have added books to it such as the book of Macabees. The most evil is their gospel of salvation. They say give a mental assent that you believe in Jesus, be good, keep the commandments, partake of the sacraments, do penance for mortal sins, and you will get to go to heaven. This salvation leads to hell, not to heaven. Catholicism is a classic example of false Christianity. The evangelicals who have endorsed this false gospel of salvation are not helping Catholics to be saved, but instead to be damned.

False Religions: Cults

Another classic example of false Christianity is the cults. There are also religious organizations such as the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, and the Moonies which have incorporated the Bible with their own book. Some even have the audacity to call their church the Church of Jesus Christ. I admire their dedication to their mission, their morals, and their family values, but being a part of these organizations does not make a person an authentic Christian.

Cult leadership influences others to follow a false message and a false mission. How do people come under the spell of cults? People like Jim Jones convinced hundreds of his congregation to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Parents were even poisoning their own children at the direction of this charismatic con man.

How do thousands each year allow Sung Yung Moon handpick their partner for marriage? Reverend Moon proclaims to be a Messiah, the perfect man with the perfect family. He brings in millions of dollars for himself every year. Yet Reverend Moon was exposed for adulterous affairs, and had a child out of wedlock. He claims he needed these affairs to help him fulfill his mission on earth. He also proclaims to be the perfect man and that he has the perfect family. How then is one of his sons a reported alleged drug addict!

The Mormon cult, in my opinion, is the one of biggest rip-off cults in the world, yet it is one of the fastest growing western church organizations. Over 72 percent of the people who live in Utah are Mormon. It has the most bizarre theology, straight out of a comic book. A couple examples are wearing holy underwear and each man hoping to someday have his own planet with lots of wives.

Reverend Robert Schuller has the dream of bringing all the world religions together for the sake of world peace. He made the following comments about world religion during a Larry King TV interview on Christmas Eve 1999. “I’ve had a wonderful past few days, several meetings - three in my home - with the leading Muslim thinker and leader in the world, the Grand Mufti of the great mosque in Damascus. I have seldom met with a man whom I felt an immediate kinship of spirit and an agreement of faith and philosophy quite like I have with the Grand Mufti of the faith.”

Schuller is willing to embrace religions that deny the deity of Christ and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. About the president of the Mormon Church he said, “I want to thank very much President Hinckley for pointing out that Christianity has been the greatest success possible.” Schuler also thanked Larry King, an avowed agnostic, and his wife, a Mormon, for their contribution to positive faith. What ungodly flattery! A Mormon and an agnostic, a contribution to Christianity?

We have freedom of religion and speech in this country. The people who have been deceived by false religions are to be pitied. We do not have the license to be obnoxious or discourteous to those who are held by these false religions. Everyone, regardless of their race or religion, whether they believe or don’t believe, should be treated with courtesy and respect. They have a constitutional right to exist. Yet, this doesn’t mean that we cannot unite to stop a social evil such as abortion, or any other moral cause. However, we should not compromise and embrace these people as brothers and sisters in Christ and endorse them as authentic Christians. False Christianity promises multitudes that they are going to heaven when the truth is multitudes will end up in hell.

Jesus Christ: God’s Way of Getting to Heaven

The big lie is that being a part of a religion will get you to heaven. Religion has done more to send people to hell than all the porno dealers and drug dealers combined. Satan has used religion as a counterfeit and a substitute to keep people away from Jesus Christ.

The biggest lie of the snake is that all religions lead to God. If you believe in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man you will be going to heaven. All roads lead to heaven and we are all going to end up at the same place.

I have a friend who says that he is 33 percent Catholic, 33 percent Mormon, 33 percent Jewish and 1 percent Christian. He simply says he is covering all his bases. He likes the rituals and architecture of the Catholics, the family values of the Mormons, the higher education of the Jewish people, and concludes that because he believes in Christ and attends Spirit-filled, evangelical fellowships, he is an authentic Christian. This is truly a picture of a person’s conscience hiding behind religion.

Religion is based on human achievement. Christianity is based on God’s divine achievement. Religion is man’s way of getting to heaven. Jesus is God’s way of getting to heaven. Read this incredible proclamation from Jesus Christ. “I am the truth, the way, and the life, no man comes to the father but by me” (John14:6).

Religions have their own books

Muslims – Koran
Catholics – Catechism
Jews – One-half the Bible, Old Testament
Mormons – Book of Mormon
Protestants – Bible and also denominational bylaws
God Almighty – the Old and New Testaments

Religions have their own prophets

Muslims – Prophet Mohammad
Catholics – Pope
Jews – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
Mormons – Joseph Smith
Protestants – Reformers
God Almighty – Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is not a religion. I cannot over emphasize that entrance to heaven comes through an encounter with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not a religion, denomination, doctrine, or a cult. He is not a set of rules and philosophies. He is not a Catholic, Protestant, or a Mormon or a Muslim. He is God Almighty and He went to the cross to suffer for your sins and save you from eternal death. He is a living God who wants to save you from your sins and its penalty.

The word Jesus means Jehovah – God saves. The word savior means to rescue from danger. Jesus loves you so much that he became a man. He suffered in your place for your sins so that you could be forgiven. He rose from the dead to rescue you from being separated from God forever. Name one other religious leader or prophet who proclaimed he could forgive your sins and rise from the dead. Authentic Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ not a religion.