A Posting from Steven

Hello, my name is Steven and I would like to share a testimonial about a discussion I’ve had with the Lord. It started many years ago when I asked the question to the Lord, but was unable to hear the answer at the time because I was not saved. The question was why would He condemn people that have never heard His Word, or about Jesus. For example, the natives in the jungles of South and Central South America. Jesus came to the world long before Conquistadors arrived in Central America, and yet there was what we call a pagan religion already in place there, and that is when they started to learn about Jesus. But what of the time before that? God said the only way to heaven is through his son Jesus. So does that mean that the millions of people who had died went to hell after Jesus had come to save us? This, at the time, did not sound like the holy and loving god people were telling me about. To me it sounded down right cruel and kept me from the Lord for many years.

As far back as I can remember I started to wonder about this is when I was in high school studying about Greek mythology. I noticed some similarities between Greek mythology and Christians. How Zeus reminded me of God. How the semi-gods under Zeus was like angels and Hades being the power of the underworld where everyone went when they died. At that time in my life these two stories actually sounded almost exactly alike. This prompted me to look up other religions across the globe looking for any other similarities, in my spare time on the internet. Alas I did not find any real similarities until I started finding the origins and original beliefs in many different cultures from Egyptian mythology to the many different mythologies surrounding India, China, and Japan. Apparently each culture's stories changed as time went on to become what they are today. In the original stories of these religions were the basics of Christian beliefs. Such as loving each other, never hating anyone, no killing, and just a different way of saying the 10 commandments. Its like the 10 commandments had spread all across the globe in different forms. And one day I started to believe that just as Jesus speaks to every Christian in a different way that it would make sense to each of us, that it was possible that God had made Himself present in every culture in every part of the world. That through time, as fallible and gullible as humans are, Lucifer had twisted thoughts and minds with his deceit and warped the faith of each religion into what it is today. This helped me with my original thought, and that God had indeed been loving and caring.

Well, time had past and those thoughts had become the past for several years. In this time frame I found Jesus and was saved and I am now born again. I have learned the ability of communication with Jesus and talk with him about 70% of my day. But that is a different testimonial. The thoughts of the so called born religions started to come back recently and I had discussed it with some of my friends. It didn’t seam quite right. It felt weird to discuss the things I learned from so long ago. But even more weird is that I still believed it! I spoke about these findings and how I felt with my mother, Linda. I have always trusted her judgment. She said she didn’t have an answer for me and that I should just ask Jesus about it. As I hung up the phone with her, Jesus popped in and said he wanted to give me clarity and peace. I’m 30 now and as you remember I had these thoughts and doubts when I was in high school. So many years later, I have now gotten the chance to ask Jesus these questions and He wanted to answer them, and this time, I could hear.

Jesus said “I want you to stop your worry about other's beliefs. I know you Steven and you usually want an explanation but I am not going to give you one. Let's say you are right and all people have worshipped me under different names and different religions, then the Christians of today would think those people are no longer in the wrong and would stop praying over them, sending missionaries to them, helping those in need of salvation, and generally would stop spreading the word of Me. Then again, if you are wrong, and all have worshipped false gods and idols then the Christians would double and triple their efforts in desperation to try and make sure that no one is not Christian so all could enter My kingdom. In this effort they would try and force My Word and that would make people very angry and it would cause chaos and hatred, the last thing I want. Even if the Christian's heart is in the right place. So again I say, you are not to worry about these things any longer. I have commanded that all love each other and that you and all Christians like you are to spread the Word of God. It does not matter where someone comes from or what they believe in, only that they know I died so they may be forgiven. And you will say this. And you will not force them to believe this. You will love them and show care for them. This way a seed may be planted and I will do the rest. Be at peace.”

After Jesus said this to me I have not wondered about the questions I originally had. Honestly now I don’t want to know the answer because if I did then either way is a bad road to be on. I realized it does not matter if a person is Hindu, gay, or has the Koran as their beliefs. I should not wonder about their religious beginnings or judge them for their beliefs. I should just love them and let them know that Jesus loves them as He loves me. I often see Christians telling gays that they are wrong and should repent. So much so, and forcefully, that now most of them hate us. Or the fact that other religions feel that they are now in a holy war with us over "how we tell them they should be". Even if those things are true or not true it is not our place to say so. OUR job since the beginning is to tell them that Jesus loves them very much as he loves us. I wrote this not to remind myself or dwell on those questions I asked so long ago but to try and educate. I think every person asking those questions in their own search for salvation and those of us who already have salvation need to hear this. Stop hating people and telling them that they are wrong for who they are or how they were raised and just let them know how much Jesus loves them as He loves you. I wish for Jesus' love and arms to wrap around you and that you are able to show it to others.

God blessed you the day HIS blood spilt on the ground and may He continue to bless us all.

Steven Rosenbaugh.