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We are Christians faithfully worshipping God through having the Sabbath revealed to us along with all 7 annual holy day festivals as set out within the Bible in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. We have chosen full immersion baptism as adults symbolising the death of “the old man” — our previous unconverted self, just like the example set by Jesus Christ when baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist almost 2,000 years ago (Mark 1:9, Matthew 3:13).
We desire our walk to be strong, not looking to deviate to any other religious affiliation, because we know that we have the Truth of the Gospel. Equally we strive to be steadfast in the faith as spoken about by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:58 and we know we are the called out ones (Revelation 17:14), the remnant (Romans 11:5), the first fruits (James 1:18, 2 Thessalonians 2:13), God's elect (2 John 1-2, 2 Timothy 2:10). Is this enough to ensure we stay on the right path while journeying throughout this life until we arrive in God’s Kingdom? It is if we remain faithful to the true God who created all things; all life, the earth, the stars, sun, moon, planets and all humans who have ever lived, are living now, and will live in the future. God our Father is the author, designer and maker of all life. His only begotten Son, Jesus, died for the sins of the whole of humanity in the ultimate sacrifice of love (John 3:16). There is nothing more that God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son could have done for us. They gave all. As God's children we willingly sacrifice our finite physical lives daily by listening to and living His will through heartfelt, humble obedience. Anything less is idolatry, adultery, and fornication with other gods which are demonic. We are living in this world but we are learning to come out of it (Revelation 18:4, Romans 12:2, 1 John 2:15-16).
Living in this world we see how things operate. How so many serve the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4) who offers pleasure, convenience, fame and fortune through celebrity, plenty of “good” times involving entertainment and fun. Seems harmless enough on the surface. However, these things all come at a tremendous price and inevitably end in death, both physical and spiritual. Is it really worth it? Is it worth killing a baby through abortion so people can have the convenient life they want instead of accepting the consequences of their behaviour? Millions think so. If something is deemed legal in our times, it does not necessarily mean it is right. In times past not only babies but children were sacrificed to a pagan god named Molech through burning alive in fire while drums were frantically pounded to shut out the noise of the screaming infants (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-3; 5; 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:10; and Jeremiah 32:34-35). We would think that barbaric now but abortion is no different as the limbs and baby parts are sucked out of the uterus with such vacuumous intensity they break off, the head becomes severed from the little body, while other pieces are extracted bit by bit. This is calculated and willful murder of the innocent no matter how you try to justify it.
So how does it look in modern times to inquire after other gods, for the nations that are scattered and mixed through multiculturalism? Can we even relate to the repetitive idolatry throughout the Old Testament of God’s people “flip flopping” between God the creator and the pagan gods? We can read of so many Biblical examples where the Israelites inquired after foreign gods to see the resultant havoc this caused — you only need to do a word search for idolatry. The prophet Elijah speaks with righteous authority in 1 Kings 18:21 lamenting the Israelites’ change of heart so many times after turning from God to worship false gods. Jeremiah, Amos and Joshua have much to say about serving other gods, and gave the people plenty of warnings about turning away from idolatry and adulterous worship.
Looking into other nations’ practices, which seemed rather harmless, involved superstitious nonsense which the pagans were strongly affiliated with — inquiring after the names of these so called gods was enough to cause the Israelites to get off track, lose their way, and no longer practice their faith as they once were because of adopting foreign ways. It meant spiritual death. Another influential nation that had massive saturation of false pagan worship was the Egyptians. Most likely you will have heard of the sun god Ra. They had gods for anything and everything, even more than one god for various things such as the Nile River, the weather, for growing crops, times of famine, insects, animals, death and life — the list could just go on and on. There were thousands, and like the Greeks, their gods were frightening, abusive, and to be placated at all costs, not with a healthy fear as we give to the true God which means awe and respect. Such an opposite contrast between terror and love.
God’s people repeatedly became unfaithful by mixing in some of these foreign or unfamiliar ways with that of God’s ways — this was likened or compared to harlotry, because becoming involved or mixing worship of demons and darkness with light has no place (2 Corinthians 6:14). God told them not to intermarry their sons and daughters with other nations like the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who drew them away into their idolatrous practices. But alas they did not listen to God as it is written in 1 Kings 11:2, “from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.’” And they did just as God said they would in His loving warning. Psalm 106:35 says “but they mingled with the nations, and adopted their customs”.
Wise King Solomon is yet another example. He fell victim to the idolatry of his 700 wives and 300 concubines by adopting their false foreign ways of worship (1 Kings 11:1-13). No one is immune, not even the wisest man who ever lived. The account is documented for us in 1 Kings 4:29-34 “And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon”.
How can one so wisely blessed turn his heart from God in such weakness and foolishness? Solomon pleased his wives and concubines and he did not put God first. He started off exceedingly well by pleasing God and that is why God gave Solomon so much, as stated in 1 Kings 3:7-14. In Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 he concluded we need to fear God by respecting Him, putting Him first above everyone and everything else. We can all start off well in our walk but of critical importance is how we end our walk. This is a huge lesson for us to determine in our hearts; to not even go there seeking out or wandering off, as once we start becoming interested or dabbling where we shouldn’t, it becomes a slippery slope. Knowledge puffs up, and self righteousness is a very real threat to our ability to see clearly.
Seeking + Dabbling + Curiosity = Prideful Falling Away
This leads me to a personal experience of tragic consequences some years ago. Only a year or so into my new life as a Christian, and with many friendships within God’s church I became quite close to a couple of Sabbath keepers who enjoyed looking on the internet at various things to do with religion. It seemed harmless and quite interesting and I remember thinking at the time that it was important to know about all other religions in case of one day being able to counter their beliefs with that of my own. I now realise this is human logic and not wise at all, even though it seemed wise at the time. How our hearts can justify almost anything (Jeremiah 17:9)! After becoming increasingly uneasy about the time spent on the internet looking into how others worship their gods I decided to speak briefly to my Pastor on this matter who simply said “I don’t think that is such a good idea”. His one line statement really made me think, and examine what I was doing, and the reasons why. It caused me to change my direction. He seemed to know something I didn’t. He had many years of experience compared to my one year of conversion. I humbled myself and listened. From that moment I knew for sure that what had seemed right in my own eyes was wrong (Proverbs 12:15). I marvelled at this lesson. Since then my time has been wholeheartedly devoted to focusing on God’s true Church, in the body into which I had been called and placed by God the Father. Thankfully I listened to wise counsel and God blessed me as a result.
The others continued to seek out many things on the internet but would not listen to me when I explained that it was dabbling with a mix of truth and error. One had read a book on the two witnesses, pressed it into my hands rather excitedly and urged me to do likewise. Before speaking with my Pastor I read about one quarter of this book which was incredibly interesting. It all looked like truth and I wanted to know as much as possible regarding the two end time witnesses (it was about this time that I had a fascination for prophecy which was unbalanced). I could not discern any errors. Being young in the faith it is much easier to be deceived but I have come to learn that each one of us can be deceived at any time therefore we must continue to remain on high alert.
This early trial in my walk with God was such a quick, intense time which threatened to take me away by pulling me out of God's church. What saved me was listening to the still small voice while all the crazy intensity kept pushing me urgently to read the whole book. The one thought that gently replayed in my conscience was “If I call in sick at work to take 2 days off to read this book, I will be lying. Lying is against God”. So I did not take matters into my own hands and I did not read the remainder of the book. It may sound strange but it truly took all of my concentration and strength to resist this strong pull. God was intently watching at the time and caused supernatural intervention of the word YOU to leap off the page to stop just short of my eyes from the scripture in Mark 13:32-33 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for YOU do not know when the time is” as I read these words out loud. As soon as this happened suddenly I realised that I had been under a spell or strong demonic influence. All the intense chaos and rushing noise of wind ceased. Very bizarre.
Seeking out information for the sake of gaining knowledge is fine where the Bible is concerned, but not for all the vast array of false information out there in the world, as it is a veritable minefield. Curiosity is something to master with self control as it often leads to pride. Both men subsequently at different times left the Church of God which was quite traumatising to me. No matter how I tried to help them it was to no avail. Even though one pleaded with me beforehand to convince him at least three times it was deception if I believed it to be so, and I did as he asked, it was useless. I could not get through to him. The enemy had already taken him. Where he is today I do not know but God knows. God desires all to be saved, and this statement in 1 Timothy 2:4 is of real comfort.
Our loving Heavenly Father cannot make it more plain or more simple. His warning in Deuteronomy 12:30-31 states clearly “Be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise’. You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates”.
Finally, permit me to leave you with Isaiah 45:22, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other”.