This is the 4th blog in the series “False or Faith-Worthy?“.

One very important question to ask ourselves in any religion is: who do we follow?  Are we following somebody that really makes sense or did we not really stop and think about who we are really following.  When I say this, I am not referring to a God necessarily.  Many religions claim to follow God, but they are actually following the founder of the religion, because if it wasn’t for the founder, they would not have that religion.  Many popular religions are based on Christianity, but the founder didn’t like some things about Christianity and they have different beliefs from Christians.

Who Do I Follow?

I can honestly say that I believe in God and I follow Jesus.  I follow Jesus because I believe He is the Son of God and I believe that everything he said is true.  Why do I follow Jesus?  First off, just to begin I would have to say that Jesus has more supernatural miracles than any other religious figure, because I can’t think of another religious figure that performed any supernatural miracles.  Jesus lived a sinless life, unlike any other person to ever live.  Jesus did claim to be the Son of God.  This always amazes me when I hear other religions say things like:  Jesus was not the Son of God, but he was a great prophet.  Does that really make sense to say:  I know he claimed to be God and all, but he was just confused or lying, he is just a great prophet.  I think it has to be one way or them other.  He either is the Son of God as he claimed or He is just a crazy or a liar, because he claimed to be the Son of God.  You can’t claim to be the Son of God without either being crazy, a liar or truly being the Son of God.  So if they believe He was just a prophet, they also have to think He was either a liar or a mental patient, thus not really making Him prophet material.

Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church

Mormons believe that without Joseph Smith, we would not have salvation.  What made Joseph Smith so special?  He is one guy that claimed to have spoken to God, as many people have.  He claimed to have visions from who he thought was God, as many people have.  He performed no miracles and if you ask a Mormon about Joseph Smith, they really don’t know as much as you would think they would know about him, being the founder of their religion.  They tend to say that he was a good person and he lived the best life he could.  That’s arguable, but even if he did, I know many people like that.  He was heavily involved with the occult and spiritism.  He was arrested for counterfeiting money, stealing horses, burning down a printing press and many other crimes.  Finally, he died in a gun fight, shooting 2 men before he was gunned down.  There is absolutely no reason to believe anything that Joseph Smith ever said pertaining to the spirit world.  Joseph Smith died being proven a false prophet and Mormons today still follow his teaching.  View my blog on Mormonism.

Charles T. Russell and the Watchtower Organization

Jehovah’s Witnesses basically all agree with Charles T. Russell and his opinions on theology.  They would have to, to be Jehovah’s Witnesses; otherwise, they would most likely just be Christians.  Russell grew up in a Christian church, but he personally believed that some of the Christian doctrines were wrong.  Because of this one man’s belief to change these things, there are now millions of people in the Watchtower Society.  Who are they following?  They claim to follow Jesus, but they really follow one person’s distorted view of Jesus Christ.  Russell never performed miracles in any way and in fact he and the other Watchtower leaders prophesied a few things, including the end of the world, and they never came true.  Russell  and a few other leaders of the Watchtower Society all died being proven to be false prophets and though millions have left the Watchtower, many are still there.  View my blog on Jehovah’s Witnesses.

L. Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology

Somewhere between 50,000-100,000 people follow Hubbard and for what reason?  He preached against drugs and he was on drugs when he died.  His son reported Hubbard using drugs through his whole life.  Hubbard was quoted saying that religion is where the money is and on top of everything, he was a Science Fiction author.  Why does it matter that he was a Science Fiction author?  Because Scientologists believe aliens live inside us all and all of the aliens were put on this planet millions of years ago by the great overlord Xenu from another planet.  There is no basis for any of Hubbards’s teaching outside of his creative mind and people follow him and believe him.  I will admit that many early Scientologists don’t know anything about the crazy alien stuff, but by the time they get to that level they have spent so much money that many stay in.  I may write a blog about Scientology, but I am a little scared, because anybody who speaks out against Scientology seems to get attacked by the Church of Scientology.  Including people who have had their offices broken in to and been physically assaulted.

Who Do We Follow?

That is just to name a few of the more popular groups of followers.  I know Scientology is one of the world’s smallest religious movements, but the media makes it seem much bigger.  They all follow false prophets.  It’s funny that they almost all agree that Jesus was a great person.  They say Jesus was a great person and then they say He is not our Savior.  He is not our Savior?  He performed outstanding miracles, he is mentioned as an amazing person in books other than the Bible, we base our entire dating system on Jesus (this is the year 2009…2009 years since what?  Jesus) and most of all, He claimed to be the Son of God and he fulfilled 100s of prophecies.  Explain why you wouldn’t automatically assume He was our Savior and then go from there?  There is only 2 options here.  You can either assume He is who He says He is or you must assume that He was crazy or a liar.  It makes no sense for somebody to accept Him as a good person or a prophet, but not the Son of God.  If people do not believe He is the Son of God then they have to assume He was either crazy or a liar.

Another question arises for non-believers.  Do we have to follow anybody?  You don’t have to follow anybody if you think you are as good as it gets and there is no higher force.  Personally, I don’t want to be as high as the totem pole goes.  If you think there may be a higher force or power then you should probably figure out who the most reasonable figure would be to follow.  I have never been an Atheist, so I can’t understand how people could think there is no God.  I have been an Agnostic, but it really didn’t make sense for me to not follow Jesus after I realized that there are no flaws in His teaching and living.  I believe that the main reason people don’t follow Jesus and His teaching is because they don’t want to change the way they live.  This is just my opinion, like the rest of this post, but it makes perfect sense to me.  So, who do we follow?  Who do you follow?  Thanks for reading.

As we begin our series on world religions, I want to let a few things be known. I am writing this series as factual not purely philosophical, though there may be some of my personal opinions and beliefs, I will defiantly separate them from the facts, but this series will stay strong to the facts.

Why am I doing this series? As I have said in previous blogs, I think it is very important for people to know what they believe and know why. Some people grow up believing what they are told, some people find false facts and some people don’t know what to believe. This series should help everyone in one way or another. I will dive deep into the most popular world religions from a factual standpoint.

For Christians reading this series…why should you read it or care? Let’s see what The Bible says about this:

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

1 Peter 3:15-16

We are not only called to defend our own personal faith, but to know how to respond to people with a different faith. Reading this series will help you to understand different religions and faiths.

For Non-Christians…Why read this blog or care? If you belong to a religion that is discussed on this blog, please read the blog and study the information for yourself. I will try to give as much backing and evidence as possible for the facts so that you may look it up for yourself. You don’t have to believe everything instantly, but please look it up! If you are of another faith or no faith, this blog will answer many questions you may have about different world religions.

Look forward to this blog very soon. The first post will be on Mormonism and I will post ahead to let you know what each new blog will be about in this series. If you have any suggestions before I post a blog or after I posted it, please contact me about it. Thanks for reading!