If Your Religion Was Wrong Would You Want To Know The Truth?

"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
eyes they have, but they do not see;
they have ears, but they do not hear;
noses they have, but they do not smell;"
Psalm 115:4-6

When I was a child, I got up one night in the middle of the night and I went to the dresser and took down every statue I had there, and put them face down. This was so very vivid that all these years later I remember it as though it were yesterday. In the morning when I woke up I was appalled at what I had done, and very distressed at the insult to "the blessed virgin Mary." Little did I know that that was a prophetic event in my childhood showing that someday I would be led out of idolatry. At that time, I did not know the Word of God except for bits and pieces that I heard during the mass all those years. My church did not allow us to read the Bible, claiming that it was too difficult to understand and that an order of priests was given the responsibility to read and interpret it. Thus Satan kept us from the Word of God.

I had a second similar dream when I was a child, a dream which again, I remember as though it were yesterday. I dreamed that I was in church, and the large statue on the wall in front of me came crashing down. I was horrified. I woke up trembling.

Many years later, when I read the Bible for the first time, I was appalled to find the many contradictions between what I had been taught versus what the Word of God actually says. I was absolutely shocked to find that what I had been taught and what I believed was all wrong. My journey through the Word of God was something I could never have imagined, so eye-opening was it, it changed my whole life.

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image,
any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth;
YOU SHALL NOT BOW DOWN TO THEM
nor serve them." Exodus 20:4-5

I did not know when I took those statues down, that they were in direct violation of the commandment of God. Clearly, God states that to bow before statues is idolatry. His Word, the Bible, states repeatedly that ONLY GOD is to be bowed before. ONLY GOD is to be worshiped. ONLY GOD is to be consulted.

From reading the Bible for the first time and seeing that it spoke the opposite from what I had been taught, this led to a tremendous crisis of faith. To realize that what my religion taught contradicted what the Bible teaches - this discovery propelled me into a crisis unlike anything I had ever experienced in all my life. They couldn’t both be right, and one of them had to be very wrong and that eventually led to the point where I was forced to choose one and leave the other.

According to the second commandment in Exodus chapter 20, which the Catholic church removed, we are forbidden from bowing before any image, so it occurred to me that something must be wrong with the apparitions of "the blessed virgin Mary," because the apparition told those who saw it that they were to have a shrine built to her, and that they were to make medals of her. I wore three "scapulars," which were cloths one wore around the neck with images of "the blessed virgin Mary" on them, plus I wore the "Miraculous Medal" which was a medal which the apparition commanded to be worn, and then also the medal to Saint Christopher. I truly had CHAINS around my neck! After reading the Word of God, I knew those had to go, and I also knew the apparitions seen by many were not "the blessed virgin Mary," because the mother of Jesus would not have commanded that images of her be made and bowed before. Clearly the apparitions were not someone from heaven, and the implications of that were huge. Think about it!

As I progressed through the Word of God I learned that ONLY God is "omni-present." That means that ONLY the Spirit of God is everywhere and available to us. Mary is NOT "omni-present." She is NOT everywhere. She is in heaven and there she stays. She does NOT hear the prayers of the people on earth because she is NOT everywhere and neither are any of the so-called "saints." Saints are not "good" people who are declared "saints" by the Catholic church, that is heresy. The Bible says that the "saints" are the believers in Jesus Christ on earth who have been born again.

Friends, God created mankind and placed us on this earth. He did not then leave us saying, "So long, hope you make it." No, he has given us his Word. His Word ALONE contains the truth.

Every religion has its extra-Biblical version of "the truth." The Moslems have the Koran, the Jews have the Talmud, the Catholics have the Catechism, the Jehovah's Witnesses have the Watchtower, the Mormons have the Book of Mormon, and so on. These books are NOT sanctioned by almighty God, and in fact are Satan's COUNTERFEIT of the Word of God. Satan's number one goal is to keep people away from the Word of God, the Bible. ONLY the Bible is the Word of God, and every tenet taught by any religion which contradicts the Word of God is ...heresy, and more than that - they come under a CURSE. This is so important that the Word of God says it twice:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you
than that which we have preached unto you, let him be ACCURSED.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you
than that ye have received, let him be ACCURSED.
Galatians 1:8-9

Paul, who wrote a large part of the New Testament, never said a single word about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Not one word! And Peter - not one word. Those making her the "co-redemptrix" actually come under the curse. Those teaching people to bow before statues of her - come under the CURSE.

There is a question I have approached people with and have had mixed results because it's a hard one. The question is this: If the truth is something other than what you've been taught, would you want to know the truth - or would you want to remain with the traditions of your fathers?

Your answer will determine your eternity.

"Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
worthlessness and unprofitable things."
Jeremiah 16:19