Why follow Jesus?

Recently I received this question via email from someone who supports Bride's work. "I was wondering why you follow Jesus and not other religions? I believe in Jesus and his teachings but I also am into new age and the acceptance of other's religion and read their sacred texts also. This is not a stab; this is a serious question. This is also not a joke." This was my response. John 14:6 "I am the way the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me." This is a statement which Jesus made concerning access to the Father. There is no way according to scripture to reach God without going through Jesus Christ. In the book of Exodus, it is plainly written in Chapter 20, verse 5, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." Isaiah 42:8 "I am the Lord; that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." To say you believe in the teachings of Christ is nothing; even the devils fear and believe (James 2:19). To follow what Christ taught seems to be where most people draw the line in their relationship with him. Is 45:20 says, "why would you want to pray to a god that cannot save?" Romans 1:22-23 speaks of man's ill reverence to the one true living God. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things."

New Age embraces concepts like crystals, mysticism, UFO encounters, entities masquerading as extra terrestrials, channeling, etc. God will not permit such things to pervert his holy and sovereign ways because he is a jealous God and will not share his throne. He does not endorse any other way except that which Jesus performed and accomplished on the cross at Calvary as means to his throne.

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Truth is the beginning of every good thing - both Heaven and on earth; and he who would be blessed and happy should be from the partaker of the truth. We know that from the scriptures that there is one truth in which all truth exists and this is Jesus Christ. Christianity is not just intellectually credible; whether considered philosophically, historically, scientifically, ethically, or culturally, but from an evidential perspective it is actually superior to other worldviews - secular or religious. Truth is Christianity's most enduring asset!

In our pluralistic and pagan culture, almost anyone is a viable target for conversion to a wide variety of false beliefs, from various cults and New Age occultism to solipsism and nihilism. This is an increasingly poisonous age in which we live. We must remember certain things about Jesus if we are to remain true to him. Christ is not valued at all unless He be valued above all. William E. Biederwolf was quoted as saying "A man who can read the New Testament and not see that Christ claims to be more than a man, can look all over the sky at high noon on a cloudless day and not see the sun."

Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the beginning and first born of the dead (Colossians 1:15-18). Christ is the all in all. Mohammed only claimed to be a prophet of God, but Jesus claimed to be God. Mohammed claimed he was sinful, but Jesus claimed he was sinless. The Koran the Muslim prophet Mohammed states "Muhammad is naught but a messenger" and "surely I am no more than a human apostle." Jesus claimed to be the message!

Consider the Buddha who merely claimed to be an "enlightened man." He never claimed to be the Son of God.

Zoroaster, who said, "I have become perplexed in my search. In the darkness I find no way. Devoted to pride, I weep in sorrow. How shall deliverance be obtained?"

Lao-tze and Guru Nanak both confessed their ignorance and humanity.

I could go on and on about the falsity of all other religions, but that would be the length of a book. John 17:3 "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Psalm 35:10 "My whole being will exclaim, "Who is like you, O Lord?"

Indubitably true is the fact that the God of Christianity is the one true God. This is why Bride goes out to the world, to bring the message "so that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other" (1 Kings 8:60 See Isaiah 41:20-29). Since God does not lie, (Titus 1:2) we ought to conclude that He and He alone requires our 100% worship.

As a Father of three young boys I would be highly disappointed if even one of them were calling another man dad. No one else is the blood Father of my sons except myself. If we are to understand God and what it is he expects out of us we must acknowledge him solely without compromise.

Dale Thompson