Only Two!

There are only two religions in the world. That’s all. Just two. In spite of the myriad of claims, there are only two. One is God’s, one is Satan’s. One is called the religion of human achievement, that is Satan’s religion and it based upon man’s own effort and ability. The other is the religion of divine accomplishment, that is God’s and it is based solely and only on God’s sovereign ability. One, you see, depends on what man can do and the other depends on what God did. One is earned, the other is a gift. One is by human effort; the other is by divine grace. One is by works, one is without works, and sadly but clearly, most people on the face of the earth in human history have banked their time and eternal destiny on the religion of human achievement that says I’m good enough if I just behave myself and carry out certain religious functions, God will accept me.

Now the religion of human achievement comes in many, many forms and packages, but it is all really the same religion. It is all the satanic counterfeit and if God says that men are saved by grace through faith apart from anything they can do. Satan will say men are saved by what they can do and all religion falls into those two conflicting categories.

Whether you’re talking about the mighty IM movement, Mormonism, Islam, Eurancha, the One World Family, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Spiritualism, the Association for Research and Enlightenment, the Divine Light Mission, OASPE, Worldwide Church of God, Great White Brotherhood, Ascera Unification Church, the Way International, Scientology, the Roman Catholic system or whatever other system of religion you’re talking about in the world; they all fall into the category of the religions of human achievement. And they all say that through certain means you can better yourself. You can become pleasing to God or gods that be, you can attain salvation, you can take yourself to a better world because you have within you the ability to do that.

There’s only, I say it again, a choice between two religions: the religion of human achievement which comes under many labels and the religion of divine accomplishment which is revealed in the scared pages in the Word of God.

Excerpt taken from a sermon preached by John MacArthur titled "Rejoicing in the Cross". You can read the entire transcript or download the MP3 at www.gty.org