What Should We Believe?

I had someone tell me once that they think the important thing is that one believes whatever one was brought up believing. I have a problem with that, personally, and not just because I no loner believe what I was raised to believe. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, I was raised in a Christian denomination, and I am still a Christian, but I now belong to a non-denominational church. Some might not consider that a change in beliefs so much as a change in emphasis, but it seems to me that if God requires people to continue to believe what they were raised to believe, then I am in trouble. Let’s consider, for a moment, though, that the members of the early church were mostly raised to believe in Judaism. Now, again, one could say that the difference between Judaism and Christianity is more a change in emphasis than in belief. After all, the Jews believe in the Messiah, they just don’t believe that He’s come yet. I suppose that there is something to be said for that, but then a lot of the early church came from some form of paganism, if not what is now known as Roman mythology, then Greek. Surely those can’t be considered the same belief. That was different, though; God was beginning a new religion, making it available to more people. “For what purpose?” I would have to ask. Those people already believed in something. If the important thing is believing in something, and not so much believing in the right something, then why would God bother? The crucifixion was a pretty horrific experience; I don’t think that I would have even wanted to watch it, much less go through it. And yet, so many people think that Jesus went through that just to give us another option. I can’t accept that. Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He also said that no man comes to the Father but by Him. I also have to question, “What if I had been raised as an atheist?” Would that be okay with God if I disregarded all that He has done for me, simply because my parents didn’t believe in Him? Would Jesus’ sacrifice then be meaningless, because I didn’t believe? Am I absolved of doing anything for God because I don’t believe? Would I be welcomed into Heaven because I kept the teachings of my parents, even though those teachings excluded all of God’s teaching? I don’t mean to down any other religion. I have known many Buddhists that were good people. Some of them are better people than some of us who call ourselves Christians. If you know anything about Buddhism, though, you know that Buddha never claimed to be God, or even that he knew the way. He only taught that one should search out the way, and he tried to teach what he had been able to learn about the search for the way during his life. He was certainly right that we should seek the Way. Even those of us who have come to know that Jesus is the Way should seek to know Him better, and allow Him to guide our steps and direct our paths. We should never take His sacrifice for granted. If it’s possible for any living human being to be held responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, those are the people that take His suffering for granted. Those of us who have come to love Him for what He has done for us have been absolved, as long as we keep the faith. Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses. If it doesn’t matter what you believe (other than, perhaps, that it be the religion of your parents), as long as you believe something, doesn’t that make religion the placebo of the masses? Of course, I don’t believe that at all, but I think part of the problem is that people don’t think of religion as real, so they think it just doesn’t matter what you believe—one sugar pill is as good as another. The problem is that a substitute religion can never replace the truth, any more than laetrile can take the place of a good cancer treatment protocol.