Recently when reading Joshua chapters 1-7, I was struck by how seriously God takes sin. His character does not change, so He still views sin just as seriously as He did then. He also takes worship of Himself very seriously. We cannot worship however we want. It is each of our responsibility to worship God in spirit and truth according to His word. Being religious and doing what your religion says, without testing it against Scripture, is a dangerous game that could have very serious ramifications. I would never trust my eternal security to anyone but God, especially when it comes to my children. Religion and tradition will not permit you entrance in to Heaven and they can actually send you on a course that leads directly to Hell. Deception is real, it is all throughout the Bible how we need to be careful as believers. We know from Paul's life, before Christ, that sincerity and excelling in a false religion means nothing good to God.
Matthew 7:21-23 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [a]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (realize this is saying people who do this and do that, meet this criteria and that criteria, will feel like they are pleasing God, but those 'things' mean nothing to him. He tells us to repent, believe and walk in faith. Doing things that are pleasing is a RESULT of our salvation, they will not give us salvation.)
John 3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The New Birth
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
1 Tim 2:1-6 NASB
A Call to Prayer
1First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. (there is no one else who can 'go to God' for us other than Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that Mary, the mother of Jesus, intercedes for us. She had more children after Jesus and was a regular person. We were not told that she didn't die before going to Heaven either. Those ideas come from man, not God. Saints do not intercede either. The Bible says we who believe are all saints.)
Eph 4 ESV
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[c] and teachers,[d] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[e] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
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