The Way, The Truth and The Life

In a local newspaper, the Sunday Times of November 1, 2009, an article was written titled 'Stop missionary work in schools' which can be viewed at the link. In response to this article the following was sent to the editor for publication.
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Dear Editor

In answering your article ‘Stop missionary work in schools’ (Sunday Times November 1, 2009) I respond as a born again Christian. To put this article in perspective it is important to have the Truth told and to have this complete response published in its entirety as is, capitalising the names and words as reflected.
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THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

What is important is not what you believe in, but whether what you believe in is true. There are many religions in this world, but there is only one true way. To quantify this statement I will use a simple math test: What is the sum of 2+2? Most reasonable persons will agree the answer to be 4. Can the sum of 2+2 ever be 5? Or 7? Or maybe 57? The answer is no. The only answer to this sum is 4 and therefore there is only one correct and true answer.

The question posed in your article ‘Stop missionary work in schools’ (Sunday Times November 1, 2009) read: Should there be religious studies in public schools? First up I do not believe there should be religious studied in schools. Secondly, I don’t believe in religion. Religion is man’s attempt at trying to get close and right with God. And thirdly, I believe in the ultimate Truth being known. As there is only one true answer to the sum 2+2, so there is also only one true way of getting right before God. So, I wouldn’t go for religious studies – I would go for Biblical Studies. Before discounting this article, read further to see why I would encourage Christianity in schools. After all, does everyone not want to know the truth?

What matters in life is not what we believe in, but what really matters is whether what we believe in is really true. Let me ask you the most important question you will ever encounter in your life – What will happen to you the day you die? The day you die becomes the most important day of your life on earth. The reason is it is the day you move from this world into eternity. God’s inerrant, infallible, incorruptible Word, the Bible, states that it is appointed for man once to die and after this comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). The ultimate statistic is 10 out of 10 people die and one day you, too, will stand before an infinitely Holy and Sovereign God and be judged by the only Lawgiver and Judge of the Universe. On that day will you be deemed good enough to enter into His presence in heaven? Or will your justice be eternity in hell? At this point some of you might say you don’t believe in there being a God, a heaven or a hell – remember, it doesn’t matter what you believe in, what matters is what is true.

To illustrate this point: If you said you don’t believe in trucks and in your quest to prove trucks don’t exist you jumped onto the highway in front of an oncoming truck, when is the moment that you will change from believing trucks do not exist to believing they do exist? The moment you make contact with the truck reality comes to pass and you will start believing. The same principle will apply when you die and stand before Almighty God – reality will come to pass and it will be too late to make amends.

Now that you know that reality will come to pass, in what state will you stand before God. The way you can see yourself as God sees you is by examining yourself against His perfect standard which He has commanded mankind to live by. This perfect standard is God’s perfect Law that restores the soul and makes wise the simple (Psalm 19:7) – it is The Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20). Let us see how you will do on that great and terrible Day. How many lies have you told in your lifetime? Have you ever stolen anything? The size and the value of the object is irrelevant. Have you committed adultery? Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, “but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Have you looked with lust? Do you fornicate (having sexual relations outside the bounds of marriage)? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, God sees you as a lying, thieving, adulterer and a fornicator – and you have only been examined by three of the Ten Commandments. By breaking any of His commandments will you be innocent or guilty? God’s Word will give you the justice of guilty. It reads: Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God (1Corinthians 6:9,10). So by God’s standard sinning lawbreakers will be damned in hell for eternity – does this concern you?

At this point think how evil and wicked mankind is and how God will see you in your sin. The Bible says that man has a deceitfully wicked heart who can know. Just turn to any other page in this newspaper and see the crime, violence, debauchery, corruption, fraud, mismanagement, hatred, wars, murders, blasphemy, thieving, rape, religious killings, abortions of innocent children, lying, adultery, idolatry (of the mind, possessions and false gods), pornography, and the list goes on and on. Turn on your television sets to newscasts and you will see the same decadence of society unfolding before your eyes. Go to the film theatres and game arcades and see the violence our children are being exposed to and then parents wonder why there are child rapes, murder, drug abuse, drunkenness, suicides and the like. These are all the results of people who do not want to live by God’s Commandments. This is truly the bad news – hell awaits the ungodly, lawless sinner.

The Good News – the Gospel – is that God has made one way, and one way only for sinners to be forgiven their sin. About 2000 years ago God – the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the seas and everything in them – revealed Himself and became a Man in the person of Jesus Christ. The Son of God was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin named Mary. The Messiah’s birth was supernatural – a birth never to be repeated ever. He was fully God and fully Man and without sin. Jesus, as John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). God in the flesh, Jesus, revealed Himself by performing miracles by healing the deaf, blind and lame, those who had illnesses like leprosy, He even exercised His authority over creation by calming the wind and waves and He also raised people from the dead. Jesus came to this world to do the will of His Father God. He went to the cross and was crucified taking upon Himself the sins of the world and received the full wrath of God that should rightly fall upon you and me. Jesus paid a fine He did not owe for crimes (sins) He did not commit. He died a sacrificial death in the place of sinners. He gave His life as is recorded in Scripture: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16-18).

Jesus is a Good God who took the punishment that you and I rightfully deserve. He lay down His life and took it up again when He was resurrected to life – overcoming sin, death and the grave. Jesus is the resurrection and the life; Jesus is the way, the truth and the life; Jesus is the doorway; Jesus is the bread of life; Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end, the same yesterday, today and forever. For God has commanded men everywhere to repent (turn away from your sins and forsake them) and believe the Gospel of Grace (unmerited favour from God). It is by grace alone, by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone that a person is saved by God. You have to be reconciled back to God, not by any works of man so that he cannot boast. It is a supernatural work of God that you have to be born again to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

So to answer that question again to have religious studies in classrooms. A definite NO!! True Biblical Studies – A resounding YES!! Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with the One True God Jesus Christ. Religion is used by Satan to blind the eyes and understanding of the world. Why do you think Christians are persecuted the world over for our faith? The Truth cannot be silenced! As believers we are commissioned by God to preach the Good News in love to all nations.

Repent South Africa and put your trust in Jesus Christ alone. It is your only hope of glory.

Gary Crous
Pietermaritzburg
www.chroniclesofafisherofmen.blogspot.com
www.luke923evangelism.wordpress.com
www.NeedGod.com
[Jesus] saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.” – Mark 1:15