I meet so many people today that do not think that the world is that bad. Many people believe that just everyone goes to heaven. That we have all these people going to church and all of them are going to heaven. Well I cannot judge them but the statement, "the world is not that bad," is what I wish to work with on this page.

On the topic that just about everyone goes to heaven. Well here it says that "few" will find the way that leads to life. People think that religion has evolved so well now and that now all of the people that are involved in it are Christians. We just have to be careful.

Matthew 7:13-14
13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Here again Jesus answers this question of how many will be saved. These verses emphasize the people that are "religious" but that Jesus Christ is not the Lord of their life. They say that they know Him but they don't, they know about Him but they don't have Him in their heart.

Luke 13:23-28
23 And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, "Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, "I do not know where you are from.' 26 "Then you will begin to say, "We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets'; 27 and He will say, "I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.' 28 "In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.

See, even the demons know:

James 2:19-20
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.   20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

Acts 19:15
And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"

If you are truly a Christian then you are different than the world. How can Christians be a light to the world if they blend right in? If you think about what so-and-so is going to think when you get a chance to say what is right, are they your god?

Matthew 5:14-16
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

People say now that they don't have "other gods." But people today don't necessarily make idols or golden calves but other things are their god. It is so easy to have your family become your god. It comes to the point where they are more important than anything, the kid's ball practice is more important, their grades are more important. They can miss Church if they need to study. Well we have only so much money, do we cut out the second sport or do we give it to God? I'm not saying here that these are the decisions that anyone needs to make but if you haven't prayed about it and you are making some of these choices without considering God then your family has become a god. And I'm not saying at all that you are to neglect your family. I'm just trying to make the point that you are to put your family in God's hands and He will provide for you.  If God is the most important thing in your life then He will have come into your account when you make decisions.

The world is different.

Here is a parable that almost everyone knows.

Matthew 13:18-23
18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. 20 "The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."

Now lots of people know that parable but do they really think about what it means. When Jesus explains it below he says that the field is the world. Now the trick here is that the word or the seed falls into the field or the world and only when it grows does it do any good. Well lot's of people consider themselves Christians but hardly ever read their bible. And again I'm not trying to say that by reading your Bible you will become a Christian but if you are truly a Christian you will hunger for the Word of God and you will want to read your bible. If Christ is truly at the center of your life, like it is with "true Christians" then you will want to try to live more for Christ and the only way to do this is through the Word!! We don't all produce the same amount of fruit but we have to really analyze ourselves, is our fruit any different than Joe Shmo next door who doesn't ever go to church and has never been told the Gospel? Remember, being good doesn't do it. If anyone thinks that they really are good, or not that bad, or that they have gotten to a point in their Christian walk where they don't need to grow anymore, then they need to read Luke 18:10-14. (I have it listed at the end.)

Matthew 13:36-39
36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field." 37 And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

I found the following verse and I don't want to seem to be trying to mislead anyone by excluding it so I am including it. It may seem as if this is a contradiction but if we look at the context, we see two verses prior, "For not even His brothers were believing in Him." From this we can see that he was talking to non-believers who were in the world, and thus wouldn't be hated by their own (the world):

John 7:7
"The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

Here is a good verse to define goals. What are your goals? Are they to be successful? Are they to be liked? What are they. Well if they are not to "let your light shine" and Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31. So if you can't think of the reasoning being there for what you do that it was for God and that never is a driving force in your life then something's wrong, that's not what the Bible says a Christian is.

John 12:25-26
25 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Truly being a Christian is having the Spirit of God abiding inside of you:

John 14:16-17
16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

It says above that "YOU KNOW." It's not blind faith, you know.

The world doesn't have Jesus inside of them:

John 14:19-20
19 "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

The world loves its own, but not the chosen.

John 15:18-19
18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

Are you any different than the world? Are you a light in the world? Are your actions based on "what would so-and-so think"? If they are then Jesus isn't your Lord. What about "what Jesus would think?" Jesus says "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. in Matthew 10:32-33. Have you ever confessed your love for Jesus to someone? When you got the chance and I'm not saying that you go around and force this in people's faces, but did you ever have the chance by God opening the door, that you could have shared your faith in Christ and didn't because that person would not have liked you anymore? Well part of salvation is confessing:

Romans 10:10
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Jesus said to his disciples that they would have tribulation in the world. I have proven that the world is not good. So do you avoid tribulation for your faith at all costs? Is Jesus the Lord of your life or are YOU the lord of your life? Is it your IMAGE that is Lord???

John 16:33
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

Jesus distinguishes the world from the chosen:

John 17:9-11
9 "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 "I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.

The word is truth, true Christians are not of the world and the world hates them.

John 17:14-19
14 "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 "As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

It doesn't just say it once:

James 4:4
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

A good sign that you are growing spiritually is that you realize how short your fall, from the Glory of God.  And it is not a belittling of yourself but a more and more grateful thankfulness that you have for Jesus Christ taking your sin on Him when he died the most horrible death on the cross.

Do you think that you are good? Think again:

Luke 18:10-14
10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: "God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 "I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' 13 "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' 14 "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The word of God says that anyone who relies on being good (which no one can do on their own) is accursed:

Galatians 3:10-14
10  For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM."  11  Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."  12  However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM."  13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-- for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"--  14  in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

For more on this look here:  False Concepts of Salvation