Heaven Coach

People casually accept what they are taught, often from childhood. One of the great lies is related to truth in religion and it can be stated various ways:
1) There is no one correct religion.
2) Believe what you want, it does not matter.
3) My religious beliefs are as good as any other person.
4) The greatest wisdom is not to discuss religion.
5) Since most people are good and because there are so many religions – all religions are acceptable.
6) The bible is simply not true.
7) The scriptures are a matter of individual interpretation and are viewed very differently even by scholarly persons. Therefore the bible cannot be viewed in the same way and therefore also there is no singular truth.
Number Eight) The bible is just one of many books claimed to be from God. How can anyone know if one, or all or any of them are really from God?

There are hundreds of ways to state that truth is relative or a matter of individual preference. It is a great lie and always has the same source, namely it is man-made. The truth is much different and could be stated in various ways:
1) There is one God, One Faith, One belief system that is acceptable to God.
2) God is the God of the bible.
3) God will not accept people for heaven unless they fulfill the requirements as found in the bible.
4) The truth is the one thing that can set you free from sin.

Now, if you are studying the material on this website you may know that a very high percentage of the world’s religions are not acceptable to God. You may know that most people calling themselves Christian are not acceptable to God. The totally amazing thing is how millions, really billions of people associate with religious groups that are in NO WAY aligned with God. Even more amazing is how easy it can be to sort truth from error. The reason for these sad conclusions can be stated in various ways, such as:
1) People love what they have been taught and often there has been convincing indoctrination.
2) People love beliefs that align with how they want to live.
3) People love the associations they have with certain groups, and certain people within those organizations.
4) People find peace, comfort, sympathy, and purpose within a given religious organization and this is why they associate.

Many of these reasons seem good and some very attractive and yet there is only one valid reason to associate with a religion and that is because IT IS THE TRUTH.

Islam is a totally man-made religion and it is obvious and there is no excuse for being a Muslim. Admittedly, it is difficult to break-away from the tyranny of Islam. The God of Mohammed is his invention and in no way is like the God of heaven. At every point in their belief system there are problems and thus it is terribly easy to understand Mohammed’s Allah is not God. This is discussed is some detail under the title Islam. The heritage of Islam comes from the bible and Abraham is their father through Ishmael but Mohammed accepts the old covenant, which reveals that Issac was to be the son of promise and indeed it was Jesus who came through that lineage. God began that process back in Genesis 3.15. God has a purpose and a plan and it is perfect and it in no way includes Mohammed’s invention of Islam. Of all the surprising things, the growth of Islam has been staggering. In 2011, about 23.4% of the world’s population is Muslim. That is, about 1.6 billion people. People are more impressed with numbers than whether something is the truth.
About 32% of the world is “Christian” or about 2.2 billion people. Roughly, this number is made up of Catholics and Protestant Christian groups. People seem to flock to the numbers thinking in some way all these people cannot be wrong. Neither Catholic or Protestant doctrine will get you to heaven. Only the truth will provide you with a path to heaven. The thing that should be obvious is that there are very large religious groups that teach completely different doctrines. Thus, believing that large numbers of people alone translates to truth is not correct. Then we get to the popular belief that one religion is as good as another. Man’s logic in relation to understanding God has never been correct and is only true when their professed knowledge of God comes from God!

The liberal person in today’s world accepts all religions and in someway believes this is a wonderful thing. Since they cannot sort out truth from error, they just accept all religions. They define God and even act as God in creating their beliefs. People will live and die in such beliefs but they will be wrong and quite often also responsible for misleading others. Life is very serious and there is just one thing that has true value and that is not:
> Your life insurance policy
> Your family
> You car or cars or truck or motorcycle
> Your bank account
> Your love of sports
> Your vacations
> Your bucket list
> Your education
> Your ideas about life and God
> Your friends
> Your fame and power or your lack of these things
> Your home
> Your traditions
> Your heritage
> Your desire to do the right things
> Or anything else you can think of
BUT, life is about the soul, where you spend eternity, about winning the spiritual battle between you and sin.

There is no reasonable religion, no reasonable doctrine, no reasonable plan, no reasonable purpose other than what God has revealed in the bible. So, you face a world filled with deceit where those leading the deceit are often themselves likewise deceived.

It is very typical for people to struggle with the bible and yet astonishingly it is the most logical, most complete, most consistent book ever written. The bible provides information about God that you need, and about what you need to do in order to succeed in life. Despite a world where the the purpose for your life is obscured and the means for success is veiled you can succeed if you highly prize truth. Despite a world where few care enough to open their minds and in humility accept the truth – nonetheless some do care and find and live the truth. These will find heaven. Men reason that “good people” will go to heaven and that is true but God defines “good people” in terms of their relationship to His Son. So, you can believe what men/women teach, but how can they possibly know? If you possess a good, non-prejudiced heart you can take what God so carefully delivered and live pleasing God and instead of pleasing mankind. The myth of “good people” and such achieving heaven may be developed into an excuse. We all thought “good people” as we saw “good people” would go to heaven. How could we have known? Read the scriptures with a love of the truth and you will know – it is the most important thing in your life!

There Is No Excuse
For Rejecting God’s Way

God uses the idea of NO EXCUSE in reference to those who would even reject His existence.

Romans 1:20

20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse

If I were to make a list of excuses that might be considered reasonable when faced with God and judgment, it might look like this:
> I was indoctrinated
> I was mistreated
> I had lower than average intelligence
> I made some bad decisions but would do better if I had another chance
> I just followed others whom I thought had better knowledge in “godly matters”
> I tried to do my best, but often failed
> I was never taught the truth
> I was convinced by an irresistible force in the person of a very charismatic, gifted speaker

There is no need to discuss these, but a couple of things in general. Everyone has difficulties in life and even those who we believe do not, actually may be suffering more than one might think. No one should consider their personal difficulties anything other than something to be overcome and never an excuse. The other general issue is trying to place the blame for your condition on others and that includes persons we trusted in the area of religion. You need to understand what you believe and not follow along after some forceful individual or well-meaning organization.

Of course, I cannot conceive of a person even trying to excuse themselves in the presence of God. Much less, can I imagine God haggling with anyone over their judgment. These are the ideas of men and women. I listed some excuses above just to indicate what many may think. Also to provide you the following advice, “Don’t place yourself in the position of needing excuses (they will all fail) but obey God, live faithfully.”

The Interpretation Objection

At the beginning of this page, I mentioned eight different common statements that in some way shut the door on religious truth and very specifically, the bible. They are not true statements, but few can answer them or care to challenge them.
The bible easily answers all of these objections and much if not all of those things are addressed at this website. I will select just one that seems to influence many people to turn away from the bible.
The statement is something like this, The bible can be interpreted differently, how can anyone know the true interpretation? What follows is a short excerpt from chapter 30 of my book, “What Is Life All About?”
This short excerpt provides a solid answer to the question of bible interpretation.

2 Peter 1.20,21

20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Interpretation:
What It Means,
not What You Want It to Mean

Even the Constitution of the United States is under perpetual interpretation. We use this document as the standard to judge various legal cases and at times, the case goes before our Supreme Court. The judgment is always determined against the standard. What was the intent of the founding fathers? How do we interpret the Constitution in this specific case? The Constitution is solid in principle but the founding fathers knew that as the nation grew there would be the need for changes to the Constitution. Therefore, we have an Amendment process and have 27 Amendments to the Constitution with the last one occurring in 1992. The Word of God needs no amendments. It is perfect being from God and referred to as, “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” In fact it was, “not to be added to or taken away from” and there were penalties for “preaching another Gospel.” Therefore, it is clear God’s Word was not to be amended; let us discuss its interpretation.
Every day we deal with documents that require interpretation. It may be a legal agreement. It may be your company’s “mission statement.” In truth, most things we deal with have various interpretations. The truth that comes from God does not allow private interpretation. Actually, the verses above (2 Peter 1.20,21) refer to the fact that the ORIGIN of the revelation was from God. This is clear as Peter says, “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Since the Word of God has been delivered, not allowing private interpretation by the writer, who was inspired of God, those receiving the message are not allowed their private interpretation. Men can interpret the Bible differently, but then either one or both are wrong. God does not allow such an option. The Bible says of itself, “No prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.” It is not acceptable for you to have one interpretation and for me to have a different one and we both are correct. God’s hand was in the delivery of scripture. The message God has delivered requires no great Bible scholar for understanding. The message from God is straightforward and the differences in interpretation are frequently the result of prejudice. The prejudice may have been part of your indoctrination or maybe your strong desire to avoid the apparent God’s meaning because it is uncomfortable, perhaps limiting your lifestyle. God wants people who can love the truth and look into His word and accept it even though it may be problematic for them.

Answering Objections

This is a fair answer to the question of interpretation, but for truth lovers the evidence, the purpose of God and how everything perfectly fits together in scripture makes such questions unnecessary. Yet, we are to give an answer to those who inquire of the hope that is in us. Although, there may be endless questions and some devised to entrap, we gently help those genuinely wanting truth. The focus in teaching people is simply to PREACH THE WORD. The gospel is God’s power unto salvation and that message to those who love truth and possess some associated qualities will satisfy, encourage and strengthen. As mentioned, many of the questions regarding interpretation fade away when we understand God and His purpose, His power and His Love. Trying to satisfy the objections to the bible raised by insincere persons “bent” on destruction of believers is futile. People need a love of the truth and not a love of what they currently believe. We need answer such objections to help those being influenced by such people.

The bottom line:
There is NO EXCUSE for rejecting God as the God of the bible.
There is NO EXCUSE for rejecting God’s Son
There is NO EXCUSE for not obeying the gospel