One of the biggest problems that exist in today’s society is that too many people want to take too many perceived shortcuts on their route to Heaven. We hear it all the time:
“We just need to agree to disagree; we’re all going to the same Heaven anyway.”
“It’s not a choice; I was born this way.”
“She has her whole life ahead of her; delivering a baby would change things too much.”
“Why don’t we just live together to see if it will work out; there’s no need to make a lifelong commitment.”
“Just say this prayer [the sinner’s prayer], and you will be saved.”
“I’m a good man – whether I go to church or not.”
“A loving God would not punish his creation in the fires of Hell.”
The list goes on and on. The shortcut is appealing and convenient, but the taking the shortcut in matters of faith are also character revealing; it reflects a distorted sense of priorities; and the shortcut becomes a detour and a dead end.
In the August Awake! publication from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a lawyer examines their beliefs. Coming from a Jewish background, the attorney was admittedly not faithful to his religion. Then he married an Anglican woman, who eventually felt the couple should “do something to give him some form of religion”.
The lawyer-author was resistant when the “Witnesses” came to the door. He, like many, “always cut them short”, but soon, his wife convinced him to join her in studying with them. Here, essentially, is a quick list of what appealed to him about this new religion:
- Prophecy – They were able to show him prophecies in the Old Testament and how they related directly to the Christ.
- Friendliness – Elsewhere in the same publication, there are many references to the politeness and friendliness of this group, as well as the exemplary behavior of their children.
- Love for one another – He had never witnessed such compassion in his own background.
- Lack of racism – This is another area the lawyer had no experience with, though you would think he would have a reference point to some type of anti-Semitism.
That’s it! That was enough to convert this Jewish attorney to a completely new belief system. Strangely enough, he cites in the article an exact date mentioned in prophecy, relating these dates to the exact date Jesus began his ministry. This type of meticulous attention to Scripture appealed to this man who studies legal and logical laws and regulations.
Yet, he has taken a shortcut. Why does he not apply the same logical mind to the many false tenets of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Where are the questions about their belief that the soul is not immortal? Where is his scrutiny of their idea that the wicked will not suffer in Hell? Shouldn’t he investigate the claim that there is no Trinity? Why is he not reluctant to believe the earth “will be made into a paradise and populated forever by righteous humans”?*
To be fair, the “Witnesses” get some things right, as do most religions, but why not study further? For one who claims to be logical and meticulous, it is illogical to stop short of hearing the full testimony of the Bible. For one who is supposedly ground in facts and evidence, it is unreasonable to pass judgment before all the evidence has been weighed.
It is a shortcut that our neighbors and peers take everyday, yielding to personal preferences and entertaining presentations rather than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. You and I must never be satisfied with such, and may we be ever-vigilant to grow in rich knowledge of the Bible!
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4, NASB)