Which Religion is the Truth? (Part 2: The Tree is Known by Its Fruit)

Situations are going to seriously darken as we approach the end of days.  A darkness you can feel will prevail.  The BORN AGAIN will be caught up to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds during very wicked and chaotic times.  In the minds of the lost, evil will become good and good will become evil.  Isaiah 5:20-24:

20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

II Thessalonians, Chapter 2 speaks of an end-days spirit of strong delusion that will possess the minds of the unsaved so that they will believe a lie.  The world’s universities have cast off the God of the Bible for the foolish blasphemy known as evolution, and their students believe their first cousin is a mushroom, their second cousin a banana, their father a monkey, and every last bit of all the life surrounding them just incredibly sprung forth as a result of a fortuitous explosion of nothing.  All this everything from all that nothing, right, with no Creator in sight?  Yes, a spirit of strong delusion is here.

Hold tight, saints, and know this for a certainty: The best friend of the candle is extreme darkness.  Jesus speaks to the church in Matthew 5:14-16:

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Hold your cross high.  It’s almost over. 

Dear visitor, have you been BORN AGAIN as Jesus declares in John 3:3? 

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.    

In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, you will be BORN AGAIN—literally born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God.  Today, you will participate in the greatest miracle man can know.  Today, every sin you have ever committed and its shame will be forgiven, even washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken, and the word is ALL!  Today, you will be free and clean.  Today, you will become a child of God.  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Luke 6:43-44:

43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

GOD SAID, John 10:10:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

GOD SAID, Psalm 138:2:

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

MAN SAID: Even if there is a God, no one knows which is the “true religion.”  Everybody knows that.   

Now THE RECORD:   The world will end over the debate of which religion is true and righteous altogether.  The world touts nearly 4,000 religions, but could it be that only one singular religion is the truth?

Truth, by nature, is singular.  Truth has no equals, truth has no companions, and truth neither honors nor respects opinion.  Truth stands alone.  Two plus two equals 4, and 3.9 won’t do, no matter how sophisticated the presentation.  Truth has zero tolerance and is exclusive.  Jesus Christ, God’s creator of the universe, defines truth in John 17:17:

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Acts 4:10-12 speaks of salvation:

10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

For discussion, let’s place the number of world religions at an even 4,000.  Even though they reject each other, 3,999 of the world’s religions find they have one common denominator: They all reject the one true religion.  

All things are an aggregation of words.  This most certainly includes religions.  Last week, we discovered the first and second religions the world has ever known, and as you would expect, these two religions were both on display in the very beginning. Genesis 3:1-5:

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The first religion was the Word of God, the Creator.  His children enjoyed the blessings of His Word by mixing His Word with their childlike faith.  In this state of faith and obedience, Adam and Eve were immortal and dwelt in Paradise.

Satan offered the second religion, which is unbelief in God’s Words.  Eve and Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, ushered in the law of sin and death, and were booted out of Paradise.  All of the other false religions followed the devil’s lead, which II Thessalonians 2:10 calls “the deceivableness of unrighteousness.”

Isaiah Chapter 34 prophesizes the end of the world at a place called Armageddon and tells us that the end will come as a result of a controversy God has with the nations.  Isaiah 34:8:

For it is the day of the Lord''s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.  

The controversy is over whose Word is true.  The true religion is a book, a living Book.

🕇 John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

🕇 Revelation 19:13: And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

🕇 John 1:14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

An emailer challenged GodSaidManSaid to “prove God without the Bible, and without miracles,” as if such a feat weren’t relatively easy to do.  However, he missed the entire point.  True religion, which always must be the truth, is an inerrant, supernatural, God-authored Book, and this Book stands high above all the world’s religions, ideologies, scholarships, theories, and, of course, all its books.  This Book is the majority-text Holy Bible and the fruit it bears is unmistakably good.

World religions dominate entire countries, and you can look at the fruit that country bears.  Some worship their ancestors and various other gods; and some revere cows, or rats, or snakes, or sex.  There are others that strap bombs to their bodies to blow up “infidels.” Jesus Christ, on the other hand, came to give life and give it more abundantly.  Jesus said in John 10:10:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  

Which is the true religion, the truth religion?  It is a Holy Book. 

GodSaidManSaid uses four truth platforms to establish the bonafides of God’s beautiful Book.  Platform #1 is titled Archaeology, and under this banner you’ll find paleontology, anthropology, geology, ancient history, and ancient societal records.  Platform #1 certifies the absolute accuracy of God’s Holy Bible, miracles and all.

In J. McDowell’s book The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, you’ll find the following:

Earl Radmacher, retired president of Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, quotes Nelson Gluek, former president of the Jewish Theological Seminary at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and one of the three greatest archaeologists: “I listened to him [Gluek] when he was at Temple Emmanuel in Dallas, and he got rather red in the face and said, ‘I’ve been accused of teaching the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Scripture.  I want it to be understood that I have never taught this!  All I have ever said is that in all of my archaeological investigation I have never found one artifact of antiquity that contradicts any statement of the Word of God.’”

Platform #2 is Prophecy.  God tells the end from the beginning and uses His prophecy to establish the supernatural and perfect nature of His Word. Isaiah 41:21-24:

21 Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

22 Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.

In this category, we employ the laws of probability.  For example, what are the chances that a mortal man could make all the contingent predictions of the destruction of the ancient city of Tyre and see history verify those predictions?  Suppose the odds were one chance out of 5,000,000,000 that a mortal man could correctly predict the required events.  It would then follow that the chances were 4,999,999,999 out of 5,000,000,000 that it was God. There is no book like God’s majority-text Holy Bible.

Platform #3 is called God Said Man Said, from which this ministry derives its name.  In this category, a Biblical commandment, precept, or insight is highlighted, man’s mockery or disregard is recorded, and the results are presented.  The cardinal law of Galatians 6:7 rules here:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.      

There are nearly 1,000 features in this category, each demonstrating the results of this global field study of carnal man’s refusal of God and His wisdom.  Unsurprisingly, the results have been deadly indeed.  One particularly timely example of man’s disregard for God’s Word concerns Leviticus Chapter 11 and Deuteronomy Chapter 14, which both strongly condemn the bat.  We are commanded not to eat bats, and we are further commanded to not even touch the carcass of the bat.  Carnal men chose to disregard God’s commandments, be it a wet market or a lab in China, and the deadly results were COVID-19 and a global pandemic.  Bats are bad news, says God, but man knew better. 

Platform #4 is titled The Historicity of Jesus Christ, and this platform establishes beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus Christ was, and is, what the Bible claimed Him to be, that He did what the Bible recorded Him as doing, and you can be sure that He will be returning just as the Bible says He will. History, archaeology, geology, astounding fulfilled prophecies, and apostolic testimony certify God’s only begotten Son, the Lord of Glory. [End of quotes]

Jesus promised us life and life more abundantly.  Let’s see if He delivered on His promise.  Excerpts follow from research cited in previous GodSaidManSaid features that certify the validity of the promises of the King of Glory.

From the feature “Want a Longer, Healthier Life?  Science Says Go to Church:”

Concerning prayer, Dr. Dale Matthews of Georgetown University, author of The Faith Factor, reports that 75% of all research on studies of spirituality has confirmed health benefits.  He said, “If prayer were available in pill form, no pharmacy could stock enough of it.”  [End of quote]

Hundreds of studies have been, and are presently being, conducted to ascertain whether there is any connection between religious faith and health.  Some of the latest results are shocking to the unbelieving world.  In 1999, the results of a study conducted by the University of Texas were published.  Twenty-two thousand people were followed over a nine-year period.  Those who attended church or synagogue more than once a week lived an average of eight years longer than those who didn’t.  Let me say it another way: Those who attended church more than once a week lived 2,920 days, or 11% longer than those who didn’t. 

A Yale study reported that churchgoers were less likely to become physically disabled.  In a syndicated article released by Knight Ridder Newspapers, it was recorded:

Several studies concluded that people who attended religious services regularly are hospitalized less often and have stronger immune systems than people who rarely or never attend. 

Again, the Knight Ridder article cites a 1996 poll of family doctors [arguably some of the world’s most educated] and found that 99% believed spiritual practices and prayer can be helpful in medical treatment.  [End of quotes]

The headline from the January 9, 2014, MailOnline reads: “Religious people take fewer sick days and are less anxious because spirituality ‘offers a buffer against the strains of modern life.’”  The sub-head reads:

• People who are religious are less likely to be stressed at work
• They are also less likely to be depressed or exhausted
• They are more likely to feel that their life has meaning

The research comes just after it was revealed that people who have a spiritual side have a “thicker” section of brain tissue than those who do not. 

The research, from Columbia University, also suggested that this thickening of the brain’s cortex could help to stave off depression.  The study authors believe this could suggest being religious changes the structure of the brain in a way which reduces depression risk.  [End of quotes]

An exhaustive analysis of more than 1,500 reputable medical studies “indicates people who are more religious and pray more have better mental and physical health,” Dr. Koenig says. 

“And out of 125 studies that looked at the link between health and regular worship, 85 showed regular churchgoers live longer.  There’s a lot of evidence out there.” 

Dr. Koenig says a striking study published in the Southern Medical Journal demonstrated that prayer has a remarkable effect on patients with hearing and visual deficiencies.  After prayer sessions, “They showed significant improvements based on audio and visual tests,” Dr. Koenig said.

He added: “The benefits of devout religious practice, particularly involvement in a faith community and religious commitment, are that people cope better.  In general, they cope with stress better, they experience greater well-being because they have more hope, they’re more optimistic, they experience less depression, less anxiety, and they commit suicide less often.  They have stronger immune systems, lower blood pressure, and probably better cardiovascular functioning.”  [End of quote]

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “If You Want to be Happy for the Rest of Your Life:”

August 14, 2015, the WashingtonPost.com headline reads, “Want ‘sustained happiness’? Get religion, study suggests.”   The feature follows:

A new study suggests that joining a religious group could do more for someone’s “sustained happiness” than other forms of social participation, such as volunteering, playing sports, or taking a class. 

A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology by researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that the secret to sustained happiness lies in participation in religion. 

“The church appears to play a very important social role in keeping depression at bay and also as a coping mechanism during periods of illness in later life.”[End of quotes]

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Go to Church: Live Longer, Even Forever:”

Several paragraphs follow from the May 2016 feature, “Do Churchgoers Actually Live Longer,” published by ChristianExaminer.com:

The latest study was posted this month on the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) website and showed that among women, frequent attendance at religious services “was associated with significantly lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.” 

In fact, the study even suggested that church attendance could be part of a doctor-prescribed health regiment.  Unlike a similar, earlier study, this one did not involve men.

“Religion and spirituality may be an underappreciated resource that physicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate,” the study found. [End of quote]

Additional information concerning the Harvard study cited earlier follows. Several paragraphs follow from the May 16, 2016 feature, “Going to Church Can Help Women Be Healthier, Live Longer:”

Churchgoing aunts, grandmas, and moms might be on to something.  A study from JAMA Internal Medicine finds that women who attend religious services more than once a week have a 33 percent lower risk of death than women who never attend. 

“Religious attendance is a relatively good determinant of health,” says Tyler VanderWeele, a professor of epidemiology at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard and author of the study. “It is perhaps an under-appreciated health resource.” 

VanderWeele looked at data from 1996 to 2012 from the Nurses’ Health Study, a longitudinal study following 74,534 women.  Of the women, 14,158 went to church more than once a week; 30,401 went weekly; 12,103 went less than once a week; and 17,872 never went.  The church ladies were either Catholic or Protestant.  Over the years, 13,537 women died with 2,721 dying from cardiovascular disease and 4,479 from cancer. 

Yet, the church ladies were less likely to die.  Overall, frequent churchgoers were 33 percent less likely to die than their non-churchgoing peers.  Women who attended church more than once a week were 27 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and 21 percent less likely to die from cancer compared to women who never went to church. 

The results of this study reinforce what experts already know about religion and health, says Andrew Newberg, director of research at Jefferson Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the study.  Newberg studies how prayer changes the brain and has identified direct and indirect benefits that faith provides. 

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Want a Longer, Healthier Life?”

When today’s unmassaged discoveries are aired, the carnal world often will find themselves knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door.  Keep that in mind as you take in the following excerpts from the July 12, 2022, article published in Science Daily, titled, “Spirituality Linked with Better Health Outcomes, Patient Care.” 

Spirituality should be incorporated into care for both serious illness and overall health, according to a study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“This study represents the most rigorous and comprehensive systematic analysis of the modern day literature regarding health and spirituality to date,” said Tracy Balboni, lead author and senior physician at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School. “Our findings indicate that attention to spirituality in serious illness and in health should be a vital part of future whole person-centered care, and the results should stimulate more national discussion and progress on how spirituality can be incorporated into this type of value-sensitive care.”

“Spirituality is important to many patients as they think about their health,” said Tyler VanderWeele, the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School.  “Focusing on spirituality in health care means caring for the whole person, not just their disease.”

They noted that for healthy people, spiritual community participation—as exemplified by religious service attendance—is associated with healthier lives, including greater longevity, less depression and suicide, and less substance use. For many patients, spirituality is important and influences key outcomes in illness, such as quality of life and medical care decisions.  Consensus implications included incorporating considerations of spirituality as part of patient-centered health care and increasing awareness among clinicians and health professionals about the protective benefits of spiritual community participation.

“Overlooking spirituality leaves patients feeling disconnected from the health care system and the clinicians trying to care for them,” says Koh. “Integrating spirituality into care can help each person have a better chance of reaching complete well-being and their highest attainable standard of health.”[End of quotes]

“Get Jesus and get to church” the headlines scream:

🙏 Parade magazine, 2003: “Why Prayer Could be Good Medicine”

🙏 Health Day magazine, 2008: “Religion May Help Extend Your Life”

🙏 MailOnline.com, 2014: “Religious People Take Fewer Sick Days and are Less Anxious because Spirituality Offers a Buffer Against the Strains of Modern Life.”

🙏 WashingtonPost.com, 2015: “Want ‘Sustained Happiness?’ Get Religion, Study Suggests”

🙏 CharismaNews.com, 2015: “Healing Power of Prayer Undeniable, According to 1500 Medical Studies”

🙏 The Week, 2016: “Health Benefits of Church”

🙏 ChristianExaminer.com, 2016: “Do Church Goers Actually Live Longer?”

🙏 ChristianExaminer.com, 2016: “Going to Church Can Help Women Be Healthier, Live Longer”

🙏 Science Daily, 2020: “Unconscious Learning Underlies Belief in God, Study Suggests”

🙏 Science Daily, 2022: “Spirituality Linked with Better Health Outcomes, Patient Care”

They must end up here.  They have no alternative, yet they are oblivious to this reality. However, we are not.  I need to know it’s true and righteous altogether, and it certainly is.  Choose life in Christ Jesus and live.  Everything depends upon it. [End of quotes]

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Heaven—Looking for Proof?”

I’ve got answers for my questions—big answers to life’s most important and bewildering questions, and these answers provide the information needed to navigate my own particular journey.  I have the answers that fully satisfy the cravings of the mind and soul.  The answers are found in a very ancient and peculiar Book that has aided multitudes of travelers to direct them successfully through joy and sorrows, over the eons of time. 

This Book is like no other. Every book ever penned by man must bow before this Book.  As you read this supremely rare and ancient tome with an ear reverently bowed down to the ground, it comes alive right before your spiritual eyes. 

Job 34:3:

For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.

The physical man eats bread, but the spiritual man eats words.  This ancient Book is the food of the eternal soul of the righteous.  The Words of this Book change the vilest of us in a moment of time.  This peculiar Book carries us through our hardest trials, and elevates us to our highest joys and achievements.  This Book has been authored by the Creator of all, and is the majority-text Holy Bible, and this Book is found in a living person.  Revelation 19:13 speaks of Jesus Christ and says:

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

When the ear is reverently bowed down to the Book, everything changes—absolutely everything. 

Salvation is the greatest miracle a man can know, and its benefits are staggering: From our initial deliverance from our own carnal selves, to the redeeming of our life’s energies unto eternal purpose, even to the harnessing of the power of the genius of God, and swallowing the grave itself. The marvels of redemption are beyond exaggeration.  When you put your faith in God and His Christ, you unleash the supernatural powers of genius, and science continues to confirm. [End of quotes]

From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Which Religion?”

All thoughts, especially religious thoughts, bear fruit. You should take time to consider the fruits borne by all other religions. I will focus on the fruits of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. This following excerpt is from a feature on this website titled "The Light of the World:"

The followers of Christ have marched forth in His name armed with commandments of love and have turned the world upside down. Organizations working in the name of God’s precious Son Jesus have fed more hungry, housed and clothed more poor, ministered to more sick, visited more prisoners and educated more illiterate than all the world’s other organizations combined. In His name, more broken hearts have been mended, more broken homes restored, more hope given to the hopeless, more widows and orphans cared for than by any other. In His name, untold multitudes of alcoholics and drug addicts have been delivered and restored to their households. Prostitutes have been redeemed and wayward children restored to their families. In Jesus’ name, more hospitals have been commissioned, more colleges and universities established, more missionaries funded and dispatched, and more charitable organizations chartered than by any other name. Many years ago, an anonymous writer clearly summed up this matter in this following statement:

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. Until He was thirty, He worked in a carpenter’s shop and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He wrote no books. He held no office. He never owned a home. He was never in a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did any of these things that usually accompany greatness. The authorities condemned His teachings. His friends deserted Him. One betrayed Him to His enemies for a paltry sum. One denied Him. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He owned on earth: His coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, yet today He is the crowning glory of the human race, the adored leader of hundreds of millions of the earth’s inhabitants. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat and all the rulers that ever reigned—put together—have not affected the life of man upon this earth so profoundly as that One Solitary Life. [End of quote]

True religion will be according to truth and by definition, God’s Word is truth. The commandment to "Prove all things," is the standard of Jesus Christ who is the head of true religion. Of course, by their fruits you will know them. True religion is a living Book. [End of quotes]

There is no book like our Book and that Book is the true religion.

GOD SAID, Luke 6:43-44:

43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

GOD SAID, John 10:10:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

GOD SAID, Psalm 138:2:

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

MAN SAID: Even if there is a God, no one knows which is the “true religion.”  Everybody knows that.  

   

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “Heaven—Looking for Proof? (Let There Be No Doubt)”

GodSaidManSaid, “The Bible—Get One!”

GodSaidManSaid, “Want a Longer, Healthier Life? Science Says Go to Church!”

GodSaidManSaid, “Which Religion is the Truth? (Part 1: Shocking but True)” 

GodSaidManSaid, “Which Religion?”

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