036. What difference does it make what religion a man professes provided he does the best he...

What difference does it make what religion a man professes provided he does the best he can?

It makes all the difference in the world. Christianity is true; other religions are false, though they may have elements of truth in them. It does not make a lie any less a lie to believe it most sincerely. Indeed, the more sincerely and heartily a man believes a lie, the worse he is off. I may believe that poison is food, and believe it very sincerely, but it will kill me if I take it just as quickly even though I believe it is food as it would had I known it to be poison. If I get on the wrong train, the train going the wrong way, it will not take me to my desired destination no matter how sincerely and earnestly I believe it is going to that destination. It is the truth that sets men free when they believe it, and no amount of earnestness of faith in an error will set me free. Indeed, the more earnestly one believes error the more it will enslave him.

There is no more foolish thought in the world today than that it does not make any difference what a man believes if he is only sincere. What a man really believes determines what a man is, and if he believes error he will be wrong, not only for the life that is to come but for the life that now is, no matter how seriously or earnesly he believes it.