How God Could End Religious Confusion
by Dennis Allan
I recently met a man on a bus, and our conversation quickly came around to spiritual questions. He spoke of his experiences in studying various religions. He had participated in several “Christian” denominations, had studied Buddhism, Islam, etc. We readily agreed on some fundamental facts, including God's existence and the sad reality of religious confusion.
During our conversation, my new friend made an interesting observation about how God could end religious confusion. He suggested that God could simply reveal His will to men, saying that this would be the definitive standard for all to follow, and that, in that way, there would be no more confusion or division.
I found his commentary interesting. I asked him how things would be if God were to do that in another 500 years. I then suggested that he consider that God had already done exactly what he was suggesting and even sent His own Son to present His will to men, but that the long-term results were not what this man expected. Consider the facts and their implications.
God never left man without guidance. The Bible shows that God began to communicate His will to men from the very first day that Adam and Eve existed. The ability to use and understand language was not the result of millions of years of evolutionary happenstance. On the day that God created the first human beings, He used spoken language to reveal permission, responsibility, prohibition, and consequence. Some of the first instructions were recorded in Genesis 1:28-30 and 2:15-17. As time passed, He revealed other things. Man was never left without guidance, as God made available the information necessary for the creature to serve the Creator. More time passed, and He gave the Israelites a specific law (Exodus 19-20), while other peoples continued to be governed by the basic instructions already given for the benefit of all. The presence and nature of prophetic messages to and about the Gentile nations make it clear that the just God never left them totally without rules to follow.
Since ancient times, history shows the great problem of religious confusion. Despite having received instructions from God, humans fell into countless contradictions. Adam and Eve chose disobedience. Cain killed his own brother. In just a few generations, divergence from Divine will reached the point that God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). And that privileged nation that received a special law did the same thing. The people of Israel abandoned the Lord and were almost totally destroyed because of their idolatry and rebelliousness. Even when God revealed His will, men chose to be disobedient, turn from Him, and embrace every imaginable form of religious confusion.
God did not give up on His stubborn creatures. He revealed His will for all men in Jesus Christ. After teaching in various ways the benefits of obedience to Divine will and the dangers of ignoring what the Lord says, He sent the perfect revelation of His will in the person and teaching of Jesus. In Christ, God did what my friend on the bus thought would be necessary: He revealed His will to men and taught them that they should follow His word. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). He taught by the example of His life, which is why Peter emphasized that benefit of the life of Christ: “... leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (I Peter 2:21). Jesus also taught through His words, and emphasized the importance of accepting those teachings: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:48-49).
Jesus published His words through people He chose and trusted. He used the apostles and others to transmit His words and to record them for future generations (see Matthew 28:18-20; Hebrews 2:3; Romans 1:16; Colossians 1:23). As those men neared the end of their lives on earth, they were not concerned about creating or sustaining mechanisms for future revelations. They focused on leaving a written record to remind their brothers of what had already been taught and to guide future generations (II Peter 1:12-15).
After God sent His Son to offer the perfect revelation, what have men done? They twist His words, invent their own doctrines, and lead others into the ever-increasing religious confusion that most have come to consider normal and even healthy.
Is there a solution? As Paul reminds us in Galatians 1:6-10, it is up to us to return to the message revealed by Jesus and the apostles, rejecting any additions or alterations. Human history shows us that this is not the popular course, but it needs to be our course!
