Burdened for my brother

My youngest brother belongs to a religious group that claims to be the only true religion. They teach that Jesus is a created being who was once an angel. They also teach that He is not God in the flesh but merely ‘a god’ who gives them the privilege of earning their salvation. I read several passages from Scripture this morning that describe both him and the contrast between what he believes and what God has taught me.

The first one is 1 John 5:10-13:

He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Whatever my brother believes, it has not given him any assurance of eternity. He says that he does not know for sure what will happen to him when he dies. He is firm that God will change this present “system” yet has no idea where he will fit in the next one. He is naturally an optimistic person, but is terribly afraid of death.

This passage is so clear that eternal life is bound up in a relationship with the eternal Son of God. Jesus is eternal and anyone who has Jesus has His life. Further, those who know Christ also know that they will live forever with Him. That is a fundamental reality for me. Life is filled with uncertainties, but once Jesus came into my life, I’ve always known where I will be when I die. He is my life, my eternal life.

The next passage I read is 1 John 5:20-21. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”

Several things strike me about this. One is that God gives the understanding. Apart from His revelation, I would not know Him, nor would I have complete assurance that He is true and that faith in His Son gives me eternal life. I cannot look down on my brother as less intelligent or think of myself as superior. This ‘knowing’ comes from the Lord.

Second, truth is in a person. God is true; His Son is true, genuine and all that He claims to be. I cannot deny anything He says about Himself or anything that has been revealed about Him and remain true to Him or His teaching. It isn’t about church or religious training. Knowing God and eternal life is about Jesus.

Also, the Bible is black and white when it comes to false and true. According to Scripture, there is only one way to God. We may be accused of being dogmatic, but there is nothing more dogmatic that what Jesus said in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Third, the alternate to worshiping the true God and His Son is idolatry. We are made to worship. Even atheists worship their own ideas of ‘no god’ and cults (like the one my brother belongs to) exist because worship is part of the human heart.

However, my brother worships a god that does not exist. When I’ve asked him to describe Him, I get a religious view that does not conform to Scripture and reveals that they have made up their own version of God. When I asked what would happen if he began to see God in a way that was different from what he had been taught, he told me that if he should deviate in just one small point, he would be put out of membership. The ‘god’ he obeys is his religious organization, and it allows no room for questions or opinions.

The next Scripture is the saddest of all. 2 John 7 says, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

My brother strongly promotes what he believes as is ‘required’ of his religious group. He does not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, a phrase that (in the original language of the Bible) describes someone who habitually denies the deity and humanity of Christ, someone who says He is neither fully God nor fully man. My brother strongly declares Jesus is not God and was once an angel, not fully man. Therefore, according to the Bible, my brother is a false teacher, a deceiver, and an antichrist.

I’ve talked to him, wrote him letters, and shared my personal experience with Jesus Christ, but he remains firm. He became angry only once at my challenges, is generally friendly, but not the slightest open to anything I have to say. His wife is in poor health and this week when I told him I would pray for her, he immediately went into his ‘rote religious mode’ and like a robot, repeated what he believes, totally unrelated to the serious needs in his family.

I am sad for him. I would like God to open his eyes and show him what he is missing. I would like him to have the same assurance for eternity that God has given me. I would like him to know Jesus who died that he might live forever. I cannot make this happen, nor do I know his heart or where he slipped so far from truth. I only know that if a person denies Jesus and the truth of His Word, they stand on a slippery slope that plummets them into a dark place, a place where they are without hope, without freedom, and have no assurance about eternity.