Jesus says, “If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32).
The great tragedy of life is the world’s misunderstanding of the truth about God. The truth of God’s Word sets people free. If only the world knew this God!
But Satan does not want the truth to be known. He works hard to hide the reality of who God has revealed Himself to be, both in nature and in the Bible.
Nature reveals an unfathomable Creator God who loves the world so much that He supplies the very things humans need to live, even if these same humans reject Him! The rain falls on the just and the unjust! Every beautiful flower, tree, and mountain speaks to the human heart in an inexpressible voice that cannot be dismissed.
The Bible speaks to people in human language to show specifically how God has acted in human history, how He has loved them to the point of giving His own Son as a sacrifice for their sins. The Bible also reveals through prophecy that Jesus will return to this world once again to redeem those who accept the gift of salvation.
The devil tries to obscure both of these witnesses to God’s love. Because of sin, nature is not perfect. There is death and predation, disease and disaster. The devil uses the imperfection of nature to confuse humanity into explaining God away and replacing Him with theories that emphasize death as the means to life! The beauty of nature is obscured or becomes the basis of worshiping the creation instead of the Creator.
When he can, the evil one works through Christian claims of truth that oppose the Word of God. Sometimes from ignorance, sometimes on purpose, Christians oppose the very God they claim to worship by proclaiming “truths” that are actually lies. This is where tradition comes in.
Christianity is full of people who teach tradition rather than truth from the Bible.
Two main doctrines come to mind. Both are traditions that distort the character of God. First, there’s the teaching that God will punish the lost by burning them forever in the fires of hell. This doctrine did not originate from the Bible, but from pagan philosophy. The vast majority of Christians embrace this teaching, yet this teaching repulses millions of individuals who might otherwise accept God. Second, there’s the teaching that the Church had the authority to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Nowhere does the Bible speak of such a change. The seventh-day Sabbath was created in the beginning, was kept by Jesus, and will be kept in heaven!
By claiming the power to change the Sabbath to Sunday, the Church placed itself above God. Daniel 7:25 predicted that this would happen under the fourth “beast,” that is, Rome. And indeed the Catholic Church claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday on its own authority.
An embrace of falsehood leaves people in bondage, which is exactly what Satan wants. By teaching what it knows to be false, the Church is labeled “Babylon” in the New Testament. The Roman Church has many children. Many churches came out of Catholicism without a complete break from her teachings.
God understands this very well. Many fine, authentic Christians remain in the clutches of Rome without realizing it. They embrace some of her horrific teachings and pass them on to others. This is why the book of Revelation contains the everlasting gospel message of Rev. 14. The final gospel is a set of three warnings against the worship of spiritual Babylon. Rev. 13 tells the story of how the mark of the beast is achieved. The whole world will be forced to worship the beast on pain of death.
A small minority will refuse to worship the beast just as the three young Hebrew men refused to worship the image set up in the kingdom of Babylon. The king of Babylon cast these three men into a furnace, but they were miraculously rescued by God.
This history will be repeated on a worldwide scale!
God’s faithful people in spiritual Babylon will be given a special call at the end of time. This call appears in Rev. 18:4—“Come out of her [Babylon], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”
How gracious and loving of God! This is the God of truth and justice. Please listen for the voice of God speaking to you in nature and in the Bible! The Bible points the way to salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Drink freely of the water of life. Feed on the bread that comes down from heaven.
(All Bible references are from the New King James Version.)