I as an Italian in ancestry, American, by birth, raised by an Atheist father, and a Roman Catholic mother, became an Apostolic Pentecostal because of study and research encouraged by my atheist father, who once said to me that if I was going to believe the scriptures I better make sure I looked into it far further than those who claimed to be the defenders of the faith.
I dedicated my life to not only teach my children to evaluate the evidence critically, but be able to understand where the opposition is coming from, and why they choose the paths they have chosen.
We have family friends who are part off different religions, and religions which are not Christian, they too say they have studied to know why they believe the way they believe.
Not everyone is like our (as Barb aptly stated "poser") PreacherME, they're Hindus who have studied out the Mahabharata in the original Sanskrit, Modern Jews who have studied out the Talmud and Torah in the original Hebrew, and Aramaic, LDS, and Jehovah Witnesses who have gone painstakingly through their own teachings and found what they believe to be as correct as what you and I claim to be as correct.
A person who is SINCERE in a religion would have to be dog barking mad to say they never really studied it out after being in it for over 40 years.
Yet, people have all sorts of reasons for being in their cults, cultures, and religions, even those who we think are blatantly wrong are usually sincere about their wrongness.
I don't doubt your sincerity in whatever you claim to be your religious truth, but whether its you or I, saying that we study doesn't mean anything in the grander scheme of things.
One of us is wrong, and the WRONG is what will put one of us in a burning lake of fire.
In
Deuteronomy 4:2,
Deuteronomy 12:22,
Proverbs 30:6,
Ecclesiastes 3:14,
Galatians 1:8, and
Revelations 22:18-19 these verses admonish the reader of the Bible to not add or take away from what has been written or taught, therefore there can only be one truth.
While we may want this truth to allow all who claim to have a burning in the bosom, and believe in Jesus Christ all to be saved, the Bible gives a different story.
While we all roll around the floor having a hair pulling contest on Calvinism, Arianism, or Molinism, we can't deny that there is ONLY ONE TRUTH. While I go round and round with Muslims, Hindus, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Presbyterians, Eastern and Western Catholics, on doctrines, we all agree on one thing. We agree that there is only ONE TRUTH. You and I just better be sure we are in that one truth,
others get around it by saying that God in His mercy will circumvent His word and allow everyone to gain access to eternal life. While they may gain some a sigh of relief that isn't what is obviously found within the pages of the Bible.
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