The road to salvation will be travelled by few?

Question

The Bible talks about steering clear of "false religion," and that it will lead most people astray and away from salvation. Could it be that all organized religions may be the "false religion" the Bible speaks of? After all, these religions divide people. They cause fights. They cause people to judge one another. How many people have died in the name of their religion (throughout history?) Could it be that this "road to salvation" is one that steers clear of organized religions altogether? Could the few who resist being seduced by these religions be the few who are actually the ones in the end who are "saved?"

Your thoughts?

I see nowhere in the Bible where it endorses any of the existing organized religions. Not Catholicism, not the Protestants, nor the Buddhists, or the Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Mormons, or the Islamics, none of them. Could the "fall of Babylon" be the fall of organized religion? Is the Bible warning us to steer clear of all of these?

Answer 1

yes, you're right religion and government are considered the two horns of the dragon... and not even 'christianity' is mentioned in the bible... but i'll tell you what???

Answer 2

The salvation is where I seem to have a problem. It is very hard for me to believe that an infant is born with sin "Original" Sin was placed in the bible to give us guilt. The only way out of this and have salvation is to accept Jesus as Savior. Jesus was added into the bible from a story that happened about two hundred and fifty years before Jesus This was Joshu and Mara.
The new testament, "as if there could be a new testament" was written by the Romans. The Piso family and was written around the time of Constantine 315 CE. Most of the writings were given to make people be submissive and to disallow women any position of power. Fear and guilt are the ways it is written. We are told to Have Faith that all these writings are true. Well that is a good one. How about having proof that any of this material was true.
The Bible is a complete fabrication written by the Romans to make people easy to control> Blessed are the meek, it better to give than to receive and have Faith that we are telling you the truth.
"The greatest story ever sold" "The emperor has no clothes"

Answer 3

Yep.That's what God's Word states explicitly.And it speaks of only a remnant of Believers in the Last Days.Come out of Babylon and be ye not partakers of her sins.Years of comparative religious studies led me to the Truth[John 14:6] and also that all organized religion is controlled by the illuminati.That includes Protestantism. http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/2007/February2007.html

Answer 4

We need to be in Christ's religion. I believe Christ made a organized religion when he came. Ex. he had disciples that taught to people. Many may say their church is his but there only needs to be one. If we (people) could find the organized religion purely based and headed by Christ then there would not fighting. So we create our own problems with help from Satan

Answer 5

The Bible is a faerie tale book, written by men not some God.. These same men who invented the Christian religion created the Christian God in their own image...
The Bible has been bastardised by Popes, Kings and scribes alike, leave this out, add this, change this word, change that, it is a total fabrication...
Most of what is written can be traced back to more ancient pagan religions, and every Christian festival and holiday was stolen from the pagans, there is not one that doesn't have a pagan root..
The entire Christian religion rose to power through murder and assimilation, especially after the death of Constantine..
The Christian Church is the most corrupt institution on earth, and is a FALSE RELIGION..
Blessed Be... )O(

Answer 6

I think that the Bible preaches one concept. Love. Jesus's final commandments to his diciples were this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love you neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

I don't believe in "organized religion" but I believe in an "organized relationship." The bible says that "When two or more gather in his name so shall he be." It also says that "he inhabits the praise and worship of his people."

Answer 7

Tera,
I’m new to this forum, so I have never seen you answer a question or ask one before now, so I have no prior knowledge of your value system. I see that you are a top contributor and have a reasonably good score which tells me you are at least literate and probably open minded. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother to respond at all. I’m not into public debates over things that I hold sacred, but at the same time, I feel an obligation to at least attempt to answer your question because you sound sincere. This forum is clearly trolled by many who are actively hostile toward any belief, and many so called Christians are no better. Daniel didn’t walk into the lion’s den, he was tossed. So I open this gate very carefully . . .

You state in your notes that you see ‘nowhere in the Bible . . .’ so I expect that you have one and have read from it. Let’s discuss this Bible for a moment. The Bible is a collection of writings given to prophets and was not organized as we have it for a very long time. Many of the books were written long prior to the coming of Christ, and hand copies of those texts were not widely dispersed, but were kept by those who were trusted to their care. Could have errors crept in over the years? Yes, possibly. One of the great finds of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the books of the Old Testament. They showed that the records we have today are remarkably accurate to at least several hundred years before Christ. Do I believe in the Bible? Yes, I do. Do I believe what everyone teaches out of the Bible? No, I do not. Their understandings or interpretations are often flawed.

Let’s examine the time of Christ. He came among the Jews, a people of the Torah, a people who had the scriptures in their fullest at that time. Did they recognize him as the Messiah? No, they crucified him. Why? The Jews did not understand the scriptures that they had and when He preached the Truth, they killed the Messiah, thinking that they killed the messenger of some troublesome, blasphemous sect.

You noted that the Bible does not endorse certain religions and you numbered a few. You are correct that Islam and the Buddhists are not there. They are good with that, because they do not believe much in the Bible. They are still, many of them, very good people and we should remember that. So, that leaves us looking at the contenders.

Anyone can pick up the Bible and declare that they know the truth and preach it, right? No. They can claim it, but it doesn’t make it so. Christ established a Church during his time. He declared one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Christ called his Apostles, they were not elected by man, nor did they go to theology school. They were lay men. Through them, He established an organization. Who does that now?

Dark times came for the Church. After the resurrection of Christ, the Apostles and the leadership were killed, most in hideous ways. Through the writings of the Apostle Paul we see even during the times of the Apostles they fought false doctrine and the records are clear that the great apostasy was already beginning. The teachings of Christ were now scattered among the survivors and conflicting doctrine began to be taught. The New Testament had yet to be organized. Hundreds of years went by and those pesky Christians were still around! The people began once again to regroup. Because the original organization was destroyed, it was necessary for this collection of Christians to come together to determine what doctrine to espouse, which of the surviving records were scripture and what was not. These committees formed and made a valiant effort, and reconciled their beliefs. The result was the formation of the Catholic Faith or sect. This sect went through some rather difficult times of its own and some serious divisions of power took place compounding the problem. To their great credit, they preserved the writings that they had accepted as scripture. We don’t know what else might have been lost over the years prior to this, but we get a fairly clear idea of the life of Christ and many of His teachings. Now again, the scriptures were a controlled item. Lay people were not to be reading from it. They had already struggled to define their faith now they didn’t want uneducated people getting it all confused. Suddenly, with the advent of the printing press, their fears were realized. Now everyone had a new interpretation of the writings of the Early Church and began forming their own sects. The Protestants are branches off of this Catholic tree, taking many of these same beliefs with them. Like the Catholics, they had access to the earlier writings, so they have many truths yet they formed entirely new ideas from the Catholic dogma. Like the Catholics, you will find people of all these faiths to be wonderful, caring people, some willing to die for the truths that they hold. They do not need to be ridiculed or slighted in any way. Many have courageously led exemplar lives and devoted their lives to Christ. Do I think that they are Christians? Yes, I believe that they are. Do they follow the same doctrines and have the same authority as was practiced before? No. But I do not slight them for this. Many are doing the best that they can, and deserve as much respect for following the light that they have as anyone else, including those who live decent lives without professing any religions beliefs.

So, where does that leave us? If there was a break in authority and doctrine, it had to be restored. Like in the time of Christ, those currently holding the scriptures may not recognize the truth when it comes their way and we see this reaction is somewhat natural. This sort of restoration could not be accomplished through the efforts of men, it would have to come through divine means. What would the Church of Jesus Christ be called after? It might have some distinguishing modifiers to reflect its time, but if Christ made the effort to restore His organization, His Priesthood, His doctrine, I think we could be confident He wouldn’t be putting it in someone else’s name. As in days of old, His Church is ridiculed by the prevailing religious authorities who perceive it to be doctrinally incorrect. (Of course it is, from their perspective!) As in days of old, authorities organized mogs and killed the messenger of this troublesome, seemingly blasphemous sect. Few in number, of ten persecuted, more often ridiculed, but it’s here! That’s the important thing.

(Got to go, I see lions coming my way!)

Answer 8

I think that passage came from man and not God because God has inspired the birth of so many different religions and they all claim to be true. God hasn't pointed out a false one yet. If anything, they are all true. Early Christian Gnostic religions believed that Salvation comes through knowledge of yourself. When you think about it, that's not a bad idea.

Answer 9

Yes.And it wasn't until delving deeply into the branch of eschatology that I found how many protestants were off base.Protestants are the daughter harlots of Rome in Revelation.And certainly a study of the rest of of organized religion proves them to be false. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/BeWiseAsSerpents01.pdf

Answer 10

Who is conscious, yet you will assume that gays can see the sunshine of salvation.. look at it this style, gay adult adult males are meant to be adult males with heterosexual lady needs as in they fancy adult males.. all of us know that heterosexual women people see the sunshine of salvation, as a result gays could see it too..