“Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, ‘Get me this girl for my wife.’
“Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done.
“But Hamor spoke with them, saying, ‘The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.’ Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, ‘Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me for as great a bride-price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.’
“The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, ‘We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.’
“Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father’s house. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, ‘These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.’ And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
“On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.
“Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ‘You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.’ But they said, ‘Should he treat our sister like a prostitute’” [GENESIS 34:1-31]? [1]
The pericope on which I am focused in this hour records a sordid tale of the misuse of religion to deceive, and ultimately to destroy. Religion should lift our vision to embrace our better angels, to seek what ennobles and elevates us in the midst of a dark and fallen world. That is not the case in this dark tale before us; no one named in the account comes off looking good, not even moderately so. It is a tale of one group deceiving another group for whom they had no respect.
Deceit is despicable and vile, no matter who employs such reprehensible actions nor where such hypocrisy may be revealed. However, deceit is more heinous still when religion is employed to deceive others, leading unwary souls into a trap that results in destruction. In this tale, one group excuses sinful behaviour and is willing to use religion to get what they want; the other group embraces the proffered religion seeking to advance their particular aims, even though it means their actions will lead to death and ruin.
The tale recounted in the text tells of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob using religion to destroy a people. And though those destroyed were not pure and truly not innocent, their destruction brought shame upon Jacob and his family. Let’s review the story in an effort to discover how we may avoid dishonouring the Son of God.
Jacob, forced to flee his childhood home because he deceived his father, fled to the ancestral home of his mother. There, over the course of many years, he married two sisters, fathered multiple children, and acquired considerable wealth. What is not always acknowledged is that the LORD was watching over Jacob for good, ensuring that he was blessed. After years serving his father-in-law, tensions had grown as the sons of Laban became increasingly hostile toward Jacob, Jacob fled, planning to return to Canaan.
Even then, the LORD was watching over Jacob, protecting him. At one point, Laban and his sons caught up to Jacob and likely would have attacked him had not the LORD intervened to warn Laban against attempting to harm Jacob. Jacob did make it back to Canaan, where he met his brother Esau. It had appeared there would be conflict, but again, God was watching over Jacob, even changing his name to Israel. The Lord changed this man’s name from “Deceiver” to “God’s Prince.”
Now situated in Canaan with his family, a monstrous injury to his family occurred; and grievous as the insult to the family was, the response of Jacob’s sons was more horrendous still. A daughter of Jacob was raped by one of the young inhabitants of the land. Like young women today, Dinah thought she was capable of handling herself and travelled out into the region without an escort. A young man, the son of a prominent man among the Hivites living in the land, grabbed Dinah and had his way with her. Perhaps it wasn’t just about the sex, because he asked his father to arrange marriage after he had committed this atrocity. Whatever the case, it was truly a culture clash.
Hamor, attempting to do the honourable thing, went to Jacob to request that the patriarch agree to a marriage between the two families. Jacob didn’t immediately give Hamor an answer. His sons, however, were enraged when they had come in from the fields to learn of what had happened to their sister. Young men in their teens and early twenties assume an exaggerated responsibility for their sisters, a sense of responsibility that blinds them to consequences and disables their ability to think critically. Consequently, we read, “The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done” [GENESIS 34:7].
Their father, Jacob, was doing nothing, in their estimate. The family honour was at stake. If Jacob wouldn’t act, they would! And so a dreadful, heinous plan began to form in their minds. It would eventuate in forcing Jacob and his entire family fleeing to preserve their lives. It would stain the reputation of Israel for a generation or more, creating distrust with their neighbours; above all else, the actions of Jacob’s sons would dishonour the Name of the Lord God whom they worshipped.
ARTIFICIAL CONDITIONS — “[Jacob’s sons] said to [Shechem and Hamor], ‘We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone’” [GENESIS 34:14-17].
When the sons of Jacob went to Hamor, they were united in what they said. It leads me to conclude that they had consulted with one another, coming to an agreement on what they would demand. A best-case scenario would be that some of the brothers were sincere in what was presented. If this was the case, it would mean that they didn’t value the unique relationship the descendants of Abraham enjoyed with the Living God.
Go back in your mind to recall the position Abraham enjoyed with the LORD. Abram had left Ur in the land of the Chaldeans at the direction of the LORD. We read of this momentous decision early in the Genesis account. “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
“So Abram went, as the LORD had told him” [GENESIS 12:1-4a].
This was a bold step of faith that honoured God, just as we read when another writer observes, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” [HEBREWS 11:8-10]. Therefore, Abraham provides one of the great examples of faith to encourage the people of God to this day. He not only heard God’s command, but he acted with courage, believing that the Living God would honour him if he honoured God.
No doubt, living in a foreign land without heirs from his own body was difficult for Abram. And though it is evident that he worshipped the LORD, there was not a great deal of communication given to Abraham for years. After one particular event when the old man had been compelled to rescue his nephew along with the degraded people of Sodom, God appeared to Abram.
The account of this meeting is provided in the pages of the first book of the Bible. In Genesis, we read, “[The LORD] said to [Abram], ‘I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’
“When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites’” [GENESIS 15:7-21].
Later as we read the history of Abraham’s descendants, God appeared to Jacob. Jacob had deceived his father, causing his brother Esau to be disinherited of his birthright, and so he was forced to flee from his brother’s anger in hopes of finding refuge with his mother’s family. As he fled from the rage of his brother, Jacob had an unexpected encounter with the Living God. The account of that meeting is as follows. “Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’ And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven’” [GENESIS 28:10-17].
The land was given to the descendants of Abraham, meaning that God had given the land to Jacob. The LORD had even personally appeared to Jacob to emphasise that the land was his. However, The LORD had not yet dispossessed the other inhabitants from the land—and they vastly outnumbered Jacob and his family. Therefore, Jacob would need to be patient, waiting for God to direct him. There are only two routes to accomplishing the promises of God—attempt to take matters into your own hands, or wait on the LORD to fulfil His promise. The essence of faith is confidence that God will do what He said. The essence of unbelief is attempting to take matters into your own hands to compel the Lord to do what you think He has promised. It was this latter course that was adopted by the sons of Jacob; and this would not be the last time they seized control in a vain attempt to makes things go their way. Neither should anyone imagine that the followers of the Risen Saviour have ceased attempting to employ such illegitimate means to accomplish the work God has assigned.
Professed Christians are easily tempted, and too often succumb to the thought that there is an easy way to do the work of the Lord. Jesus charged His follower, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:19-20]. Our charge as followers of the Lamb of God is to disciple all nations. Those who are discipled are to be baptised and then taught to obey the commands Christ has given.
Again and again we witness congregations that believe there must surely be an easier way to accomplish the work Christ has assigned. Thus, they baptise in order to make disciples, reasoning that if water is necessary to make disciples, then the sooner water is applied the better. Consequently, infants are wetted and said to be disciples of the Lord of Glory. The reality is apparent that they don’t really comprehend what the Faith is all about, so they will need to be indoctrinated through a process that has come to be known as confirmation in which a child is taught to parrot the words that a church or religious group expects to hear.
Notice that the sequence given by the Saviour is grossly distorted. The individuals are first baptised, then called a disciple, and at last taught. The biblical method is to make one a disciple, then to baptise those who are disciples, providing instruction in the things of God throughout their lives. Salvation is the gift of God, and baptism is identification as one who follows the Lord. In short, the redeemed are baptised because they have been born from above. The errant religions baptise to make one saved, which defies the Word of God.
That the order is essential becomes apparent from even a casual review of an incident that occurred during the first foray of Christian missionaries onto the European continent. It was in Philippi that Paul and Silas were incarcerated for the crime of preaching Jesus and setting at liberty a demon-possessed young woman. Around midnight, as they were praying and singing praises to the Risen Lord of Glory, God set His servants free of the shackles and bars that had held them in bondage.
The jailer, seeing that his prisoners were freed and fearing that his own liberty was at stake, was prepared to take his life. However, Paul, seeing what was about to take place, in alarm cried out, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here” [ACTS 16:28]. The jailer immediately ascertained that all the prisoners were indeed present and accounted for. At this point, the greatest question anyone can ask was posed to the missionaries.
“[The jailer] brought [the missionaries] out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved’” [ACTS 16:30]? The missionaries responded, perhaps in unison, but certainly in full agreement, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” [ACTS 16:31].
We read the response of this jailer, one of the early members of the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Philippi. “[The missionaries] spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God” [ACTS 16:32-34].
Throughout these accounts you will note that salvation comes from believing Christ. Faith in Jesus as the Risen Son of God is sufficient to deliver us from sin and to set us free from condemnation. All the elements of the practise of the Faith of Christ the Lord follow faith. Faith is the sole and proper response to the call of the Spirit of God. Then, having believed, people are to grow in faith through obeying the Lord’s command to identify with His death and resurrection and through learning of Him.
Again, looking at our text, we witness Jacob’s sons attempting to make the pagans into worshippers of the LORD through application of the externals of the religion. Essentially, Jacob’s sons presented an easy way to be followers of the Lord GOD; but they answered deceitfully. We read, “The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah” [GENESIS 34:13]. They would use their religion to destroy the Shechemites, gaining revenge for the insult to their family.
Again, turning our attention to text, we read, “Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, ‘These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.’ And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city” [GENESIS 34:20-24].
To be certain, the sons of Jacob used their religion to deceive the Shechemites, but the Shechemites thought to use the religion to gain an advantage over the Israelites. No one comes out looking good in this instance. The deceit we witness in this account may be worse than the deceit practised by many contemporary religions. I haven’t time to focus on the deceit practised by eastern religions or the so-called Religion of Peace. They are deceptive as evidenced through even a casual study of these false religions.
Rather than invest the limited time available in this message looking at religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and other such religions originating on the Asian subcontinent, I will focus our attention on the religions that purport to be Christian, noting especially the grave danger of even brief tolerance of these deceptive religions. Our attention will be focused on the “Christian cults,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Churches of Christ and others teaching baptismal regeneration, various paedobaptist groups, and groups that adhere to works based salvation.
Establish this one truth in your mind: a religion can be either true or false; no religion can be somewhat true or somewhat false. Since religion speaks of devotions pleasing to God, the religion must be that which God Himself has given, in which case it is true. If this is not true, then the religion in question must be one that man has concocted, in which case the religion must be false. There can be no partially true religion nor a partially false religion. When we delve into the religious practises of the religions of this world, all can be reduced to one of two concepts. Either a religion leads adherents to look to God for mercy, depending upon His grace, or a religion teaches that people can perform some act to induce God to receive them. Thus, either a religion is dependent upon God, or it is dependent upon the individual.
At that moment the sons of Jacob deceitfully distorted the religion to compel others to become as they were, they transformed what God had given into a practise that was false. When the Shechemites attempted to embrace the religion of the Lord GOD in an effort to enrich themselves, they emptied the Faith of the Living God of truth, rendering their efforts as futile and void of all truth. And a religion that is not truthful cannot honour the God of Truth [for “God of Truth,” see ISAIAH 65:14-15].
Can we summarise the tenets that identify followers of the Son of God? At a minimum, it seems reasonable to identify the truths that all followers of the Risen Lord of Glory hold as true as follows:
1. God presents Himself as the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
2. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is truly and fully at once both God and man;
3. Jesus was born of a virgin as prophesied in the Word of God;
4. Jesus died a sacrificial death, taking upon Himself the sin of all mankind;
5. Jesus was buried, but He conquered death, hell, and the grave, being raised from the dead on the third day;
6. Jesus the Risen Saviour walked among those who knew Him, blessing them and giving them instruction for a period of forty days follow His resurrection;
7. Jesus ascended into Heaven on a cloud as witnessed by hundreds;
8. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for those who look to Him in faith;
9. God forgives the sin of each one who receives the Risen Son of God as Master over life;
10. Those whom God forgives are adopted into the Family of God;
11. Jesus is coming again to reign over the earth;
12. The basis for this Faith is the Word of God, which is received as inerrant and infallible.
Well, what about the various “Christian cults” you named a short while ago, Pastor? What makes them false? Let’s give them at least a cursory look in order to see if that designation is accurate. Even a cursory review of the groups named will reveal that all of them rely upon various actions as necessary to moving the hand of God to accept them; in short, each of them teach the necessity of prescribed acts to receive the forgiveness of sin.
Jehovah’s Witnesses claim to be Christian, but their own writings do teach that “deliverance from sin and death is possible through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus.”
The grace they claim is nullified when they teach that “to benefit from that sacrifice must not only exercise faith in Jesus but also change their course of life and get baptised.” [2] This alone is sufficient to identify these deluded souls as a cult. Added to their error is the fact that they deny the Triune God, refuse to believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man, refuse to believe that Jesus was resurrected bodily from the tomb, do not believe in the Person of the Spirit of God, among other unbiblical concepts.
Mormons add to the Word of God by promoting “The Book of Mormon” as of equal stature to the Bible. [3] Mormons effectively deny the Virgin Birth of Christ when they teach that God had sex with Mary. [4] They teach that people may be saved “by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” [5]
Adventists teach adherence to the laws of the Old Covenant save for animal sacrifice. Implicit in this religion, if not explicit in the minds of many within the group, is the necessity of maintaining these religious and dietary laws in order to be saved. They exalt the writings of Ellen White to equal value to the written Word of God. [6] Effectively, they teach salvation through their own works, believing that a redeemed soul can be lost through apostasy. [7]
A tragic number of religious organisations within the pantheon of Christianity teach the necessity of some form of baptism to be saved. Of course, if water is required to save, then the sooner water is applied, the better. The Greek term, baptizo, is emptied of its meaning by teaching that it refers to a rite rather than a means of identification. Thus, the amount of water is unimportant since it is a rite rather than a picture of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Some groups teach that baptism removes their sin, thus making the rite the means of salvation. Many religious organisations teach that people must live lives free of sin in order to be received into God’s Family. Some teach the necessity of confession to a priest in order to be forgiven of their sin. Others among the religious groups wishing to be identified as Christian teach that redeemed people can be lost again. For these sad souls, eternal life is never a certainty but always probationary, meaning that one can never be certain of salvation until the last moment of life.
Let’s return to the simplicity of the Word as given by the Lord God. Let’s avoid every attempt to rewrite the Word of God to fit our conception of Who God is and of what we are to do in order to please God. Let’s train ourselves to look at the various religious efforts parading as Christian to accurately assess what they teach. Let’s train ourselves to be discerning about what pleases the Lord our God, and then ensure that we do that which honours Him. Let’s avoid distorting the Word as did the sons of Jacob and turn from every effort to use the Faith of Christ the Lord for our own sordid ends as did the Shechemites. Let’s determine to glorify our Saviour.
ACUTE CONSEQUENCES — “On the third day, when [the Shechemites] were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.
“Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ‘You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household’” [GENESIS 34:25-30].
Death and ruin always results when deceitful religion is introduced. It is but an application of the dark warning given when the Apostle writes, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” [ROMANS 8:5-8].
Embracing the false religion presented by the sons of Jacob cost the Shechemites their lives. Distorting the Faith of the Lord God in order to deceive the Shechemites compelled the Israelite to flee from the land that God had promised. Adjustments meant to make the Faith of the Living God palatable always results in disaster. No one benefits from errant religion; everyone pays a horrendous toll when religion is twisted to achieve our own ends. Deceitful religion must inevitably lead to destruction.
Let this serve as a warning to any who hear my voice, or to any who read the words of this message, embracing deceitful religion can lead only to destruction and ruin. How else should we believe the words written by the Revelator when he has written, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” [REVELATION 22:14-15]. John was concluding the Book of the Apocalypse and echoing the Words Jesus had delivered through His servants, the angels. How dreadful it must be for any who have thought to use the Faith of Christ the Lord to deceive the unwary, to promote their own ungodly agendas, or deceived themselves through embracing error!
If you are seeking a religion that costs you nothing and promises you everything, know that you are only deceiving yourself. The Shechemites thought they could enrich themselves through embracing the religion of the Israelites, but they only deceived themselves, not knowing the Lord GOD Who redeems lost people and makes them whole. The Faith of Christ the Lord is not an easy religion—it will demand your very heart. Surely, this is what Jesus meant when He taught, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” [MATTHEW 7:13-14].
I am confident in warning that any religion teaching the necessity of prescribed acts to ensure God’s mercy is deceitful; that religion leads to eternal ruin and unending misery. Salvation is offered only through faith in the Son of God. Jesus has taught us, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” [JOHN 14:6].
Let me speak in broadest terms concerning the Faith of Christ the Lord. We who follow Christ are confident that, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” [ACTS 4:12].
The Apostle to the Gentiles was labouring to deliver a group of people who had fallen under the sway of people who were teaching that they must perform certain acts if they wished to be in a right relationship with the Lord. Paul met this errant teaching through appeal to his own life, a life that had once embraced the deceitful religion that these false teachers were delivering. The Apostle wrote, “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” [PHILIPPIANS 3:2-10].
If you are being taught that you must do some particular act in order to be accepted in Christ the Lord, flee from the one telling you that. Look to Christ, believe in Him, the Risen Son of God, receiving Him as Master over your life. The Word of God is very clear in teaching all who will receive God’s promise, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” [ROMANS 10:9-10].
The Lord, making the offer of life in the Beloved Son so simple that none can miss what is offered, says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:13]. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe?” What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe?, accessed 5 April 2025
[3] Rachel Bruner, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” 13 Articles of Faith: Overview of What Mormons Believe, accessed 5 April 2025
[4] Aaron Shafovaloff, “Redefining the Virgin Birth; Mormonism on the Natural Conception of Jesus, Redefining the Virgin Birth: Mormonism on the Natural Conception of Jesus - Mormonism Research Ministry, accessed 5 April 2025
[5] Mormon Beliefs: Do Mormons Believe in Being ‘Saved,’” Do Mormons Believe in Being "Saved"?, accessed 5 April 2025
[6] “Ellen White Recognized as a Modern Prophet,” What Adventists Believe about the Prophetic Gift | adventist.org, accessed 5 April 2025
[7] How to Know You’re Saved,” How to Know You’re Saved | adventist.org, accessed 5 April 2025
