David,
You are right---Judgement is for God and I am thankful for this. God is the one who searches every heart and knows the intent of each person. But being a witness to the Truth is not judging another; it is simply showing others the way. Jesus came to be a witness to the Truth and as His followers we are to do the same. It is my joy and privilege to share Him with others. When you experience a relationship with Jesus Christ nothing else in life compares. You won't be able to keep it to yourself either.
Jeremiah says "If I say I'll never mention the LORD or speak in His name, His Word burns in my heart like a fire. It's like a fire in my bones! I am weary of holding it in." I so understand this!!
I can see why you think all religions say their books are correct and are from God but that doesn't mean one isn't real. There is counterfeit money but that doesn't negate the real stuff. Actually I think the fact that there are so many religions trying to point the way to eternal life only supports the argument for God and heaven. We were made with a desire to know our Maker but too many of us want to make Him in our own image (create our own God, on our terms) not realizing we were made in HIS image. We must come to Him on His terms not ours.
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3
When you read this verse, His terms seem a little easy compared to all other religions. The Bible is the only religious book that shows it is not about man working or earning his way to heaven, nirvana (or becoming a god); It is about what God did for man so that we would be able to have a relationship with Him again(sacrificed His Son).
Those verses in Deuteronomy that you mentioned, show a God who is jealous for us. It is hard to believe but His love for us is deeper and greater than even ours for a spouse or a child. He is expressing the outcome of someone who is trying to take one of His own away. I think you would be willing to kill if someone was taking your child from you. The Old Testament is crammed full of verses of His unfailing love, His faithfulness, His trustworthiness...The same God is in the Old Testament as in the New Testament(don't forget Revelation).
God will not force us to choose Him (That is not love); In Isaiah 30, it says "But the LORD waits for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion". Isaiah also says "The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted the instructions of God, violated His laws, and broken His everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth and its people".
One more thought about the Bible. Can you say this about any prophet of those other books---
"He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn't go to college.
He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of these things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
Buried in a borrowed grave.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is still the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind's progress.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as much as this ONE SOLITARY LIFE." Author Unknown
Believer in Truth
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