One True Religion—One True Church!
Despite centuries of secularist efforts to tear religion down, it has returned with a vengeance to become the most divisive force in society today. Whether it be marriage, family, human relations, or discourses on morals and ethics in a confused and confusing society, religion is woven through the entire debate on the future of civilization.
Religions of all forms have created a foundation whole societies for generations. But it is the two great evangelizing religions—Christianity and Islam—that have wrought so much destruction over the centuries in their clashes against each other, and in recent times caused so much suffering for the Jew in particular. These three religions—Judaism, Islam and Christianity—have had the most powerful influence on society over the past 2,000 years.
Sooner or later, any thinking person who believes in what Sir Winston Churchill termed “divine Providence” has to ask and seek to answer the question, “What is the true religion?”
So let’s consider that question. A good place to start would be to define the term religion.
The Britannica Dictionary defines it, “Any system of faith and worship.” Though such a definition includes all three religions that accept one or both testaments of the book known as the Holy Bible, it also includes those that don’t. It is thus too broad for our purpose. We shall narrow that definition to embrace “A system of faith and worship that claims to believe in the one true Creator and Sustainer of the universe.”
As our audience is formed primarily of those who do believe in one omnipotent God, it is to these three predominant religions that we look to prove the answer to our question, “What is true religion?”
The Truth About God
Judaism, Islam and Christianity in its three major forms—Roman Catholicism, Orthodox and Protestant—all purport to believe in one true God. To the Jew, that is yhvh, as revealed in the Torah. To the Islamic believer, it is Allah, as revealed in the Koran and the writings of Mohammed. To the Roman Catholic, the Godhead is triune—consisting of the God of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ of the New Testament, and a personified Holy Spirit—plus Mary, queen of heaven. To the Protestant, the Godhead is the trinity, without the attachment to Mary.
Why is it that these three religions, all claiming to believe in the God of the Abraham of the Torah (the Old Testament), two of them claiming Abraham as their ancestor, so thoroughly disagree on a singular definition of the God that Abraham worshiped?
The Old Testament definitions of God are clear, precise and impossible for the open mind to misunderstand. He is the beginning of all things (Genesis 1:1). There are no other gods apart from the one true God (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 1 Kings 8:60; Isaiah 45:5; Joel 2:27). He is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:7-8). He prophesies the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10; 48:3-5). He never changes (Malachi 3:6). He prophesied the coming of the Messiah, the city of His birth, the exact duration of His earthly ministry and His return to set up God’s government over all (Daniel 9:25-27; Micah 5:2; Isaiah 9:6-7).
Concerning the true historical figure of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, those familiar at the time with the prophecies of His coming to the Earth to fulfill His short 3½-year ministry would have known the prophesied timing and location of His birth in Bethlehem. That is clearly why scholars of those ancient prophecies came to Bethlehem to search Him out in the early autumn of 4 b.c. They had computed the time of the event from the prophetic accounts in the Old Testament (Matthew 2:1-6).
The only provable historic accounts of the Messiah’s prophesied birth are recorded in the New Testament of the Bible. The subsequent eyewitness accounts of His ministry, the history of the early Church, plus that of the first apostles ordained by Jesus Christ, are recorded there.
The True Church Must Exist!
Thus to the mind opened to the revelation of truth, there can only be one true religion. That is the one that embraces all of the teachings referred to above—and which is also fulfilling Christ’s commission to His disciples to go into all the world and preach His original, unembellished message to everyone (Mark 16:15).
That being the case, we have to recognize that Christ established a church founded upon His direct leadership under the administration of one of His disciples, the Apostle Peter, to fulfill the commission He gave it, prophesying that it would never die out! (Matthew 16:18).
Where is that church today?
Christ established only one church under and by His divine authority, based on one divinely inspired body of doctrine (Ephesians 4:5). He is the personification of the Word of God (John 1:1). That means, by definition, that the one true Church He established will not only exist today, but it will also possess the same, unchangeable doctrine He gave it at the beginning. It will be founded not upon only one testament of the Bible, but two, for as one of the foundational apostles of the Church, the Apostle Paul, declared, the true Church is founded upon the apostles and the prophets! (Ephesians 2:20).
That church will exhibit faith not in a triune god but in a Godhead comprised of Father and Son (John 14:6-14). It will not worship at the throne of the queen of heaven. It will have no history of slaughter through crusading to extend its empire (Matthew 10:14). It will be a small flock, comprised of the weak and the base of society (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). It will be an embattled church (John 15:20), persecuted but vibrantly energetic in fulfilling its mission by the power of the Holy Spirit, the very power of Almighty God! (Acts 1:8). It will be a church given to fulfilling a mission of prophecy! (Revelation 10:11).
Where is that one true Church today? It must exist, for Jesus Christ its Head declared of it that the gates of the grave would never shut it down—it would never die!
A Coming Clash of Religions
Like it or not, religion, the church and Jesus Christ are vital topics of discussion once again. Even a mass-circulation newsmagazine has asked the question, “Jesus—Will He Ever Return?” Yet again, religion dominates international relations, particularly in the hottest spot of international tension, the Middle East. It is at the core of the pope’s cry for a great evangelizing of Europe. Religion is at the heart of the war in Afghanistan. Religion is the spur for Islamist terror. It is at the very foundation of the Jewish state.
Your Bible prophesies the coming clash between two powers, a great northern power and a southern power, each driven by religious zealotry to seek universal domination. Religion is about to affect your life profoundly, whether or not you are a believer. Believe it or not, your Bible prophesies of a global power that will soon dictate whether or not, and how often, you will eat! (Revelation 13:11-18).
There is only one true Church that can explain to you the relevance of today’s tumultuous world events to your life, where this is all leading, what you can do to cope with the impact, and the guaranteed outcome. Believe it or not, the church Jesus Christ founded so long ago does exist in its original purity of doctrine amid and despite all the religious and anti-religious confusion that floods society today.
You need to read two basic booklets, which are entirely politically incorrect, mincing no words and pulling no punches in revealing the plain truth about the one true God, and the reality of God’s Word. Request our free booklets Does God Exist? and The Proof of the Bible and begin to experience the power of the Word of God working in your life!
