LESSON 11
Reject False Religion!
Satan and his demons do not want you to serve God. They want to turn everyone away from God if they can. How do they try to do this? One way is through false religion. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15) A religion is false if it does not teach the truth from the Bible. False religion is like false money—it may look like the real thing, but it is worthless. It can cause you much trouble.
Religious falsehood can never please Jehovah, the God of truth. When Jesus was on earth, there was a religious group who wanted to kill him. They thought that their way of worship was the right way. They said: “We have one Father, God.” Did Jesus agree? No! He said to them: “You are from your father the Devil.” (John 8:41, 44) Today many people think that they are worshiping God, but they are really serving Satan and his demons!—1 Corinthians 10:20.
Just as a rotten tree produces bad fruit, false religion produces people who do bad things. The world is full of trouble because of the bad things people do. There is immorality, fighting, stealing, oppression, murder, and rape. Many who do these bad things have a religion, but their religion does not move them to practice what is good. They cannot be God’s friends unless they stop doing bad things.—False religion teaches people to pray to idols. God says not to pray to idols. This is reasonable. Would you like it if someone never talked to you but only talked to your picture? Could that person be your true friend? No, he could not. Jehovah wants people to talk to him, not to a statue or a picture, which has no life.—Exodus 20:4, 5.
False religion teaches that it is all right to kill others in time of war. Jesus said that God’s friends would have love among themselves. We do not kill people we love. (John 13:35) It is even wrong for us to kill bad people. When the enemies of Jesus came to arrest him, he did not let his disciples fight to protect him.—Matthew 26:51, 52.
False religion teaches that the wicked will suffer in hellfire. Yet, the Bible teaches that sin leads to death. (Romans 6:23) Jehovah is a God of love. Would a loving God torment people forever? Of course not! In Paradise, there will be only one religion, the one that Jehovah approves. (Revelation 15:4) All religions based on Satan’s lies will be gone.