In an online article on the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/) religion is explained “as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe … and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.” The same article goes on to feature a list of twenty religions including atheism, Baha’i, Buddhism, Candomblé, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, etc.
Reference dot com tells us that as of 2014, there [were] an estimated 4,200 different religions in the world (https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-religions-world-8f3af083e8592895).
And we wouldn’t want to leave out our philosophers who according to the American Philosophical Association take on challenges such as reconciling “our apparently special epistemic relationship to our own beliefs with a broadly naturalistic epistemology” and dealing with “issues in epistemology and the philosophy of mind regarding belief” (http://blog.apaonline.org/about-us/).
Alrighty then … so …
We suffer no shortage of people who speak to the issue of life on the planet. Thousands of religions and philosophies and all the various and many offshoots of these religions and philosophies.
And … as we all know, everyone has an opinion …
We–with the help of the devil who leads the whole world astray, Revelation 12:9–have exalted our opinions to a place of tremendous prominence in our society. “What is your opinion? What does this mean to you?”
Just as the serpent in the Garden of Eden proposed to Eve, “Did God really say? Now, Eve, what do you think about that? How does that make you feel? Is that what he really meant, ‘Don’t eat from that tree’”?
The United Nations projects our current world population as around 7.3 billion people, so along with everything else, we have 7.3 billion people who have an opinion on life as it seems right to them.
- (Proverbs 14:12 ESV) There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
You have to wonder how we can know anything when you think about it? This is way too complicated.
Unless … unless we listen to God …
Knowing where we are in the end is the most important lesson of Revelation, not figuring when this happens and that happens, who this is, what that represents. Don’t misunderstand. Those things are important because God had John write them down, and they give us our necessary information.
But the most important lesson of Revelation is understanding where you fit. Where are you in the end? And this issue is simple.
- (Revelation 5:9 NIV) And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Only two categories:
#1: Purchased for God by the blood of the Lamb: Heaven.
#2: NOT purchased for God by the blood of the Lamb: Lake of fire.
–Message Title: The Lion Is a Lamb!
–Message Text: Revelation 5
