Many skeptics often ask, when looking at the various world religions, “Who’s right?”  Even within Christianity’s many denominations the sentiment of “Who’s right?” comes up as well.  We can discuss right and wrong between Christianity and other world religions in another discussion; I want to focus on the fundamental issues that Christianity, itself, is facing regarding the current Zeitgeist.  There are several Christian denominations that have relaxed many fundamental biblical teachings in order to seem “more inclusive” or “more palatable” for those who know they are living in sin but are looking for a way to justify their sinful behavior. This in and of itself is a sin by leading people away from the true gospel and teaching false doctrine.  These false teachings will ultimately lead these lost people to eternal destruction.  2 Peter 2:1 says that “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.”

For those who have rejected Christ and the salvation it promises, the reasoning is actual quite simple. They can claim science or philosophy or other intellectual arguments all they want but ultimately it comes down to accountability. People do not want to be held accountable for their sin and don’t like being reminded of how sinful they all are.  Those who have accepted Christ as their savior are not claiming any “holier than thou” status; the Apostle Paul In his letter to the Romans 3:23, it specifically states that “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…”

Within the last century there have been sects of Christianity who began to ask a particular question; “did God REALLY mean that?”  These groups began to argue that the ancient biblical teachings were no longer relevant according to today’s standard and started to “re-word” scripture to fit into the particular current time.  That of course is still going on today.  They want to “spin” – like a modern-day journalist – what the scripture “REALLY meant” according to a human perspective.  God’s Word was apparently too harsh for the modern ways of life, so it had to be re-interpreted in order to make people feel better about the sin under which they were living.

Let us go ALLLLLL the way back to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve.  Everything was perfect!  They had all of the food and water they could have ever needed; they had the perfect climate so in their nakedness were never hot nor cold.  What happened next was today’s equivalent to “you had one job.”  They had everything they could ever possibly need and all they had to do was avoid this ONE tree. In Genesis 3:1-7 it said that

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.”

 In this passage, did Satan, the deceiver, force Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  Of course not.  The devil has no power over anyone, only to attempt to make one doubt the word of God.  Satan essentially asked Eve, “Did God really mean that?”  He made Adam and Eve call into question the veracity of God’s word; and look what happened.

Fast forward a few hundred years… For quick reference, Cain was the first born of Eve and shortly thereafter Able came along (believer or non-believer, most have heard of the story of Cain and Able).  Able was the “cattle rancher” and Cain was the Gardener.  For roughly 100 years Cain and Able had been making the appropriate, God ordained annual animal sacrifices.  Until one day, Cain decided that he had enough of going to his little brother to get one of his flock and presenting an animal sacrifice at God’s alter and decided to bring a sacrifice of his fruit. Now Genesis 3:17 stated that “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.”  God required an animal sacrifice because He had cursed the ground.  Cain felt that the fruit he had to bring to the alter should be good enough for a sacrifice.  Again, Satan didn’t force Cain to sacrifice his harvest from cursed ground, he merely called into question God’s requirement for an animal sacrifice.  This is another example of Satan asking, “Did God really mean that?”  (Also notice that both examples of disobedience involved fruit.)

Many “new and improved” interpretations of God’s word regarding acceptance of homosexuality and/or how “everybody goes to heaven” are gathering more and more support because it “feels good” to believe in those concepts and teachings. The arguments of “that is just how they were born” and “there is more than one way to get to heaven” are permeating modern “Christianity” and any conservative Christian has become the pariah for holding fast to the fundamental teachings of God.  The scriptures from Genesis, Leviticus, Mark, Romans, Corinthians, Timothy, Jude (notice that most of these come from the New Testament) describing acts of homosexuality somehow have been retranslated or simply ignored by the false prophets of today. John 14:6 succinctly states that Jesus says “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Ultimately it is yet another example of Satan asking people – including many pastors and priests – “Did God really mean that?”

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