The False and The True

For they exchanged the truth . . . for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.

Romans 1:25 NASB

My major in college was anthropology, which the dictionary explains as a science dealing with the races, customs, and beliefs of mankind. I have also had the privilege of traveling extensively on every continent. I have found from personal experience that what I learned from anthropology is true: man has naturally and universally a capacity for religion—and not only a capacity, for the vast majority of the human race practices or professes some form of religion.

Religion can be defined as having two magnetic poles, the biblical and the naturalistic. The biblical pole is described in the teachings of the Bible. The naturalistic pole is explained in all the man-made religions. In humanistic systems there are often certain elements of truth. Many of these faiths have borrowed from Judeo-Christianity; many use portions and incorporate their own fables. Other religions or faiths have in fragments what Christianity has as a whole.

The apostle Paul described the naturalistic pole when he said that men “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:23 NASB).

A false, naturalistic religion is like the imitation of high fashion. I’ve read that after an exclusive showing of original designs in one of the fashion centers of the world like Paris, copies will soon appear in the mass merchandising stores under different labels. The very presence of counterfeits proves the existence of the real. There would be no imitations without a genuine product. God’s original design has always had imitators and counterfeits!

Our Father and our God, I know You are the one true God. From You comes all truth and holiness. In You I find all purity and peace. Let me never worship a false god, Lord. Keep my faith focused on You, and let my song always raise You and Christ Jesus, my Savior, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).