Even on a Desert Island the Truth is Simple
Sometimes great truths can be taught by using the most simple thoughts. This is why both Old Testament prophets and even Jesus employed objects and stories to illustrate great truths. The following story is far from being equal with those, but perhaps it will help us understand the truth about the church Jesus built and the religious division in our world.
Knowing God and His salvation is simple.
Imagine a man, isolated on a deserted island, who finds a Bible which has washed ashore. He begins reading it and is so fascinated. There is much he struggles to comprehend, but he learns what this book taught about the origin of man and the earth. He learns about a holy God who expects His creation to obey Him, punishes those who turn away and rewards those who obey Him. He learns of God making a great nation of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and sending prophets to tell that nation that someday a great One would come to deal with all of man’s sinful disobedience.
An amazing thing happens. These words are powerful, and he begins to believe these truths. He has a simple faith which comes from hearing the simple truth. As he reads more, he finds that the great One came—His name was Jesus. He died. He was raised. He ascended back to heaven and left men on the earth to show a new way and established the church.
The man’s faith grows. He changes his life, and he is immersed so that God will wash away all his sins. He worships like those apostles taught men to worship. He lives by the moral precepts they taught. Because he did what those twelve men taught others to do to become members of the church, he does what they did, and God adds him to that church.
This story is not an actual event, but if the Bible is from God and is written in such a way that a common man can understand it, it could happen. That Bible this man found was from God, and God fulfilled the promises He made to those who would seek to find Him, hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
Now imagine that man being rescued and coming into our world. He would learn of churches begun by the Pope, Luther, Wesley, Calvin, Smith, Russell, and other churches based on ecclesiastical hierarchy. He would readily see how different they were from the simple church Jesus started. He would struggle to see the many “faiths” on which these churches were built, but he knew where his faith came from. He had the same faith as those taught by the apostles, and he was so glad the circumstances in his life had taught him the simple truth.
Does this story interest you? Would you like to know more? Let’s talk. We are like that man who seeks to build our simple faith on the One who came years ago.