Examining the Options
(Life, Death, and Eternity)
Richard Hollerman
You are probably one of the many who just are born, live a normal life, get an education, marry your sweetheart, have children, have some entertainment, gain maturity (we call it “old age”), and then die. You may “hope for the best” or assume that you will have a better life in the age to come. If you just are not a total atheist, agnostic, or a youthful “none,” you just take life as it comes and hope that the life to come will be happier and better. Is this the scenario that you have?
I rise very early in the morning and while I am walking in the neighborhood, in the dark, I do a lot of thinking (and praying). Often when I am going down the darkened streets, near the lake, and onward, I think. In fact, every day I do a lot of reflecting on life and eternity. I am sure that there is a God who has created everything, thus such philosophies and beliefs as atheism (no god), agnosticism (ignorant of whether there is some sort of god or not), or nothing else—all of this comes to me as I meander down the streets. But then we must ask, if there is a “God” of some sort, what do we know and believe about life now and life eternally? In fact, what do we know about God Himself and who He is?
If we do believe in Christ Jesus, we must believe in eternal life (John 3:16, 36). We must believe in a “resurrection” at the end of time (John 5:28-29). We must also believe in a heaven and hell (Matthew 13:40-43). And we must believe in a divine reckoning before God (John 5:22) in which Christ will judge, under God, at the end of time (Acts 17:31). But we know that not all will believe these facts.
As I’ve surveyed the landscape of world religions, there are a number of observations I’ve had. Over the past years, especially during the latter period of time, I’ve read many books on world religions and what they believe and disbelieve. Of course, there have been other histories of the movement and how we can evaluate their beliefs. We know that there may be ten or twenty major world religions of various sorts in the world. And each of these categories contains a number of varieties. Within the Christian category, we know that there are over two billion adherents in the world. We also know that half of them are Roman Catholic with many in the Orthodox Church category as well. Each of them has a variety of sects and groups.
And within Protestantism (which is a sort of “catch all” term) we have often read that there are some 30,000 different groups and 3,000 of them are in America alone. Besides all of this, there are many groups that have been called “cults” by those in the more “mainline” groups (some of which may be Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Jesus Only (Oneness, they prefer), Christian Science (which someone quipped is neither Christian nor science!), and others. Some may include “Seventh-day Adventism” and others here.
As I have walked and mused about all of this, I could contemplate and make some observations. These would be “options” (in keeping with the title we have given our thoughts here). And we are aware that the nine billion people on earth have chosen one of these options for various reasons. Some have merely followed the lead of their parents. Whatever their father or mother (or both) has chosen for themselves is what some people choose. But as we can observe, this is a very foolish way of going about our holy quest. What if the parents are wrong? What if they have other motives and another background? What if they “inherited” their religion from their own parents and their parents “inherited” this from their parents, and so forth. No, this is a terrible way of choosing a religion.
There are others who choose a given religion because of the land or the country in which they live, where they were born, or their background, or their culture. Again, we must observe that this is a very inferior way of choosing a religion. This is what billions do and most surely are wrong.
Perhaps there are others who have been affected by the ministrations of a religious leader, or maybe by the influence of a trusted friend or leader. Or they have been influenced by the media (TV, radio, computer, website, etc.) Or it may be history—an incorrect or faulty history—that they assume is unassailable. There are various reasons why people are what they are, religiously, but these are some of the leading ones. And as I have walked, they have gone through my mind. These would be negative ways of choosing a personal religion. There must be a better way!
Obviously, without paper, pen, a Bible, or any other book, my inner thoughts have been somewhat limited but day after day, week after week, and month after month, I’ve thought and thought about all of this. In addition, of course, I have contemplated much, listened to CDs and other recordings, read books, and talked to people with a desire to understand and come to conclusions regarding religion and why people choose what they are, religiously.
The Options, the Choices, and the Conclusions
First, we must eliminate certain choices that millions of people have chosen. Keep in mind, that we all know that our earthly life is extremely limited—to maybe 70, 80, 90, or even 100 years. People have deeply-held religious beliefs and they tend to stay where “they have been planted.” If we are speaking about a family, a person tends to have some loyalty to the father and mother and other relatives. Further, if we are speaking about a geographical area, we know that certain religions are common to these regions and it may be hard for people to break away from this—and still remain in the area.
Let’s remember also that not everyone is as “fluid” in their ability to move compared to other areas of the world. Further, if one is deeply immersed in a culture and this religion either supports or has been supported by a religion, this is another obstacle. Further, the person himself or herself may be so deeply enmeshed in a religion for one reason or another that it would be hard to leave that religion, even if, intellectually, one knows that it is wrong and faulty—and should be renounced!.
Thus, we know that our earthly life is a mere drop in an ocean of time, still many people are reluctant to change and adopt a better or different “religion.” (We know that Christianity is technically not a “religion” in the sense that we use the term but here we are using it as an accommodate term to communicate in this way.)
Second, let’s remember that religion is very close to people, regardless of whether we may or may not find it rational. There are atheists (for example) who tenaciously cling to their faulty view of “no God” because this is comfortable and their lifestyle (which is often immoral) may support this view. This change can be done but it may be difficult to effect this. We refer to God changing a person or the person also changing. It can be done and has been done but it may be complex.
For example, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim, or a Taoist may know that they need to renounce their religion, but for many, many reasons it could be difficult to do this. As we read Scripture, we learn that Jesus warned that those who would come to Him and turn away from their Jewish past may face extreme hardship and persecution (cf. Matthew 10:22-23; 24:9-14). Some today who have changed have been murdered by family or authorities. Some have been persecuted by facing prison sentences or a period of time in a “re-education center.” This is part of coming to Christ but it may happen and God has allowed it to happen in some cases.
Third, now let us address certain religions directly. We do this to show that at least some if not all of them are faulty and should be abandoned in favor of the truth. Remember that Jesus declared, “You will know the truth; and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). We do want to know the “truth” about life, God and Christ, and we all want to be “free” from sin, from bondage, from Satan’s grasp. Thus we need to learn of these false religions and turn from them to the truth that Christ has brought into the world.
Fourth, as we approach leading religions of the world (they are usually called “world religions”), we won’t spend much time with each of them. We have actually addressed them elsewhere and numerous books have been written about them. Further, “You Tube” videos have been produced and websites created that would show the faulty nature of these religions. We’ll plan to include some of these resources at the conclusion of this article.
Hinduism. This is a religion found especially in India and environs and it is very old. In fact, some claim that it may go back as far as Moses, about 1500 BC. Statistics say that there may be about one billion of this religion in the world. This would be about 15 percent of the world population!
Buddhism. This is also a very large and old religion, with about 400 million adherents.
Muslims. Here we find about 1.8 billion members of the religion if Islam that began about AD 700, founded by Muhammad. It is especially prominent in North Africa, the Middle East, and environs, although they have made inroads into Europe, the Americas, and other locations, and elsewhere. (This religion would be the official religion of some 26 different nations.)
Taoism. This religion of Japan has about 8.7 million followers. Like Hinduism and Buddhism, it is extremely faulty.
Jews. Although many would deny this, for there are atheistic Jews as well as “observant” ones, and there are some four different factions, we find some 14.8 million followers, about 0.2 percent of the world population.
Roman Catholics. This large religion with about 1.2 billion followers in the world, dates back to about AD 600 or earlier (some would say the time of Constantine about AD 325). (There is more about this religion later.)
Orthodox. This conglomeration of groups in the world would number about 260 million. Also known as “Eastern Orthodoxy” it began as a separate organization since the “split” in 1054 in which the Catholic and Orthodox churches divided.
Protestants. As we mentioned, this is a widely-scattered and many-beliefs groups, numbering about 800 million to one billion souls.
Atheism. Here we would find about 500 to 750 million people in the world. Although many would say that this category is the “absence of religion” it actually is a “religion” nonetheless. It is the religion that says they “believe” there is no god, no life after death, and that everything we see is the result of blind chance and some 14 billion years. Just what existed before 14 billion years hasn’t been determined.
Fifth, now that we have at least surveyed the leading religions of the world, we come back to our search for the truth. We know that there are many “religions” we have not touched (Confucianism, Shinto, Native American Religions, etc.) but this would be sufficient to establish our point. Further, these statistics are the latest on record although they may not, in every case, be totally up-to-date.
As I surveyed the available world religions, I thought of Hinduism. With three chief “gods” but a total of perhaps 330 million gods, regardless of the antiquity of the religion, it is and must be false. It is totally unreasonable to think of a “god” has been shaped as an elephant or a many-armed woman. Idolatry, of course, is utterly unreasonable and must be rejected. Thus, in our consideration of religions, we just regretfully reject this one regardless of the pleasant people who adhere to it.
We must also come to this conclusion regarding Buddhism. Although a few of the doctrines differ from Hinduism, we know that their doctrines also are faulty in the extreme. Siddhartha Gautama (563 to 483 BC) began this religion after departing from orthodox Hinduism. Again, we must reject this religion as having any truth that leads to eternal life. (In fact, with the rejection of eternal life by Hinduism and Buddhism in favor of the faulty doctrine of “reincarnation,” we must reject this religion outright. We here would include Tibetan religions and the so-called Dali Lama.
Other Eastern religions, such as Taoism, Shinto, Confucianism, and the like must also be rejected if we are to seek truth. These religions have many false views of many things that must be found faulty.
As we continue our exploration, we come to Islam. As one can see above, this religion of many different countries, especially in North Africa and the Near East, begun by Muhammad (AD 570-632) in about AD 600 or at the time of his death in AD 632. There are many false views that we must reject. Surely the evil escapades of Muhammad himself, the various faulty statements in the Koran (Qur-an), and a massive number of other doctrinal elements cause us to reject this as a viable option in our search for truth. Along with much good in this religion we find a massive number of false views and violence that we must reject.
We find other religions also faulty and they must be rejected. For example, the over 14 million adherents of Judaism, with some four different divisions, and with a great number of false views, must be rejected in our search for God’s truth.
When it comes to atheism, we also must reject this forthright. Any rational being knows that human beings didn’t just arise from the prehistoric slime and that life didn’t arise some millions of years ago. Evolution is totally wrong and the world didn’t arise over 14 billion years ago. If the world didn’t begin at this time, if life didn’t begin as the evolutionist claims, and if God is true that He created all life only thousands of years ago instead of billions of years ago, we must utterly reject atheism and its partner, agnosticism. The new “none” view of the younger generation of atheists must also be rejected for obvious reasons.
Now we must come to the group that calls itself Roman Catholicism. Of course, “Roman” refers to the city of Rome where the Vatican or the Catholic “headquarters” is located. This massive religion of 1.2 billion people was liberalized during the Vatican II upheaval of 1961-1965 and a great number of changes were made to “liberalize” this church. Now non-Catholic groups (Protestants) are called “separated brethren” and can be accepted as such. Women are no longer required to wear the veiling “in church” along with a liberalized feministic view, and so forth. But the person who seeks God’s truth must totally reject Catholicism in its many forms for dozens of reasons. The person who seeks God’s mind in this will seek to follow His directions (as found in the Bible) regardless of the number of constituents this Church may have.
We come to the various “Orthodox” churches (there is one for Russia—the Russian Orthodox Church, one for Greece, one for Syria, one for Egypt—the Coptic—and so forth). Some of the same objections that we find in Roman Catholicism are also found in Orthodoxy. (Strangely, “orthodox” comes from a word that means true to the Bible, but we find many, many reasons to reject this system). Regardless of the 260 million adherents, we must reject this aberrant religion. (We realize that a number of Catholics and Protestants have defected to this perspective.)
The same is true of the various “cults” that exist in the world. Regardless of the cults found in world religions, let’s focus on Protestant cults or shall we say, “non-Catholic” cults. We refer to such groups as the Mormons, the so-called “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” and some would say the “Seventh-day Adventists.” We might also include the Christian Scientists, the Oneness adherents (such as the United Pentecostals), and others. We have thought of these and have studied them but in certain serious particulars they do differ from what God teaches in Scripture.
When it comes to Protestantism, it is hard to know which direction to take. As we noticed before, we must reject certain world religions for we find that they conflict with the words of Jesus and the apostles, as well as God’s Word as a whole. And they reject truth as found in life also. Thus, we have rejected such religions as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Churches, and other religions. But what about those groups that object to Catholicism, to Orthodoxy, to the various world religions, and others?
Among all of these, we have studied and also been forced to turn from certain groups that would be called “Protestant.” We reject Anglicanism (in America, known as Episcopalianism) for many reasons, such as churchianity, infant baptism, church organization, and so many other factors. This would be true of the Methodist Church also (especially the United Methodist Church) for some of the same reasons. Remember that this liberal group had its origin within British Anglicanism.
We must also reject Lutheranism with its devotion to Martin Luther, his writings, and numerous non-Scriptural changes and additions. When it comes to the umbrella of Pentecostalism, there are many different forms but they seem to all suffer from various false teachings. Think also of the various smaller sects and factions and groups in the world that may fall under this general heading. They too all suffer from various objections in regard to Biblical authority. (We invite you to come to my website and find selections there by the use of the Search engine).
Where Does this Examination Leave Us?
As we have examined the various options available to the truth-seeker and have been forced to turn from these world religious to the will of God, what shall we do? Sadly, we have turned from millions and even billions of people. We have found that they teach and practice various falsehoods and doctrinal errors. We have found that they embrace various false ways and reject the truth of Scripture. This is a serious matter, as you might imagine.
We don’t want to unnecessarily reduce the number of people who might be considered “saved” or “redeemed” or “reconciled to God.” Yet, if we are going to be loyal to the truth of God, we must. For instance, if we discover that Hinduism as a world religion is idolatrous, we must reject this regardless of the “good” people therein (and we know that from God’s standpoint, no one is really good, Romans 3). So what are we to do at this point? We know that sin leads to death—see Romans 6:23 and Ephesians 2:1—but we also know that certain nations and religions not only condone sin of various sorts but also applaud it. Although we may “love” adherents to these religions, we must observe that they are lost and will spend eternity in hell unless they repent! If we are faithful to God, we must say and to likewise!
In the same way as we are forced to reject Hinduism, we must reject Buddhism (for it too is idolatrous and there are a massive number of other objections). We must reject Islam for Muhammad taught and practiced many, many sins that—regretfully—condemn one to God’s wrath. We reject Judaism, Taoism, American Native Religions, Confucianism, and others for the same reason. Further, we must reject Chinese views since this religion is officially atheistic in nature and we know that there is a Creator God who has given us the truth—including spiritual truth that is necessary for eternal salvation. We are also forced to turn away from Catholicism, from the Orthodox Church, and like false churches since they deviate widely from God’s revelation.
It is impossible to review some 30,000 different Protestant Churches, but they also are untrue to God and His will in many ways. For instance, not only did the Lutherans, the Calvinists, and the Roman Catholics kill many “Anabaptists”—about 5,000 of them, we find a massive number of false doctrines prevalent in these groups. Or consider the infamous “St. Bartholomew’s Day” massacre, plotted against the Protestant French Huguenots. Some 3,000 were immediately murdered but some 70,000 across France were killed. Obviously, millions upon millions, have been slaughtered over the years, including the infamous Inquisition and the equally-infamous Crusades.
These would be some of the undeniable facts that have come to mind and should inform our opposition against both Catholics and others. (As far as we know, the so-called “pope” or Catholics have not repented of this slaughter!)
From all of these facts and figures, we hope that you can see where we have come from and why we would object to world religions in general. Non-Christian religious would not be an option for the reasons cited. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches would be another negative for the reasons we have cited. Many of the Protestant Churches would likewise not be an option in our pursuit of truth for the reasons we have gone over. Without going over all 30,000 different Protestant sects and denominations, hopefully the reader will see that there are massive reasons to reject them as well. It is true that we are not dealing with hundreds of others since this would be virtually impossibility.
Hopefully, you will be able to deal with these yourself. We hope that you can obtain the proper information that you need to see the truth that we have examined. Since we are not covering every single non-Catholic group, we think that you will be able to obtain sufficient information about sect “A” and sect “B” to see either the rightfulness or the wrongfulness in them.
We are dealing with an extremely important matter here and it calls for your devoted attention. Hopefully you will lose no time to pursue this. Hopefully, you also will see the extreme magnitude of this matter.
Friend your life now and eternally depends on what you find and what you do with this information. You can’t depend on a preacher, priest, or teacher to tell you what to believe or what to do. You can’t depend on a confession of faith or discipline to inform you. You can’t depend on your reading a short synopsis of what a group believes. You must examine the Word of God yourself and compare what you discover with what a church believes, what a religious leader believes, and the way that members lives. Remember the way that Luke describes the noble-minded people of Berea? They “received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
This is something that you and I must do! We need to receive the Word of God (the inspired and authoritative Scriptures) with “great eagerness” and examine them day after day (not week after week or month after month) do determine whether what someone or some group believes and how anyone lives! Let this be our quest! And we know that God will support us in this!
Several Resources
We also have available some 100, 200, or more booklets on a variety of topics that may help you in your quest
www.AnswersinGenesis.org (thousands of helpful articles but promotes the so-called “sinner’s prayer” and “eternal security.”
www.ICR.org (similar to the above)
We invite you to examine some of our articles that deal with apologetics:
Is Jesus the Only Way?
Are You Sure of Salvation?
Will You Enter the Kingdom of God?
Are You Absolutely Sure of Eternal Life?
(There are many other titles with this theme. Please check them out for further information.
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