What is the right religion and where can one find it? I believe those questions need to first be answered. I truly believe that one needs to first ask themselves with all honesty, "What are my personal values in life?"
A person can never find the right religion without first knowing themselves and what their personal values are. When examining your personal feelings on this matter, one needs to be honest and really face up to what they truly feel and believe in their hearts.
If you are going to follow a religion simply because of family tradition, then you are just following family tradition, and family values. But what are your values? Your relationship with the Creator of the universe should be of the deepest importance and the religion you belong to should reflect that importance.
I personally am against being forced to belong to any religion simply because member of my family belonged to and practiced a certain religion. Though the handing down of a religion from one generation to another is on the decline nowadays, the majority still remain attached to the religion of their family. But is it always right to stick to the religious values of one's parents? What does the Bible say?
Joshua who followed in Moses beliefs referred to his forefather Terah, the father of Abraham. The Bible does not reveal much about Terah, apart from the fact that he worshiped other gods. Joshua 24:2 His son Abraham, while not having full knowledge of God's purpose, was willing to leave his home city when God commanded him to do so. Abraham chose a religion different from that of his father.
For so doing, Abraham received the blessings that God promised him, and he became the person whom many religions recognize as the "father of all who believe in God." Romans 4:11, Today's English Version.
The Bible also relates in a positive light the story of women called Ruth, an ancestress of Jesus Christ. Ruth was a Moabite woman who was married to an Israelite, became a widow and was faced with a choice: stay in her own country or return with her mother-in-law to Israel. Recognizing the superior value of Jehovah's worship compared with the idolatrous worship practiced by her parents, Ruth declared to her mother-in-law: "Your people will be my people and your God my God." Ruth 1:16, 17.
Commenting on the place of this record in the Bible canon, the Dictionnaire de la Bible explains that this account shows "how a woman of foreign birth, born among a pagan people hostile to and hated by Israel, because of her love for Jehovah's nation and worship, quite providentially became an ancestress of holy King David." Ruth did not hesitate to choose a religion that was different from that of her parents, and as a result of that decision, she received God's blessing.
The account relating the beginning of Christianity is more explicit about the reasons why Jesus' disciples abandoned their ancestors' religion. In a very persuasive speech, the apostle Peter invited his audience to "get saved from this crooked generation" by repenting of their sins and getting baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:37-41
The most remarkable examples were that of Saul, a Jewish persecutor of Christians. While on the road to Damascus, he saw a vision of Christ, after which Saul became a Christian and came to be known as the apostle Paul. Acts 9:1-9.
The majority of early Christians did not have such a spectacular experience. Still, all had to abandon either Judaism or the worship of various pagan gods. Those who accepted Christianity did so in full knowledge of the facts, often after having had long discussions about the role of Jesus as the Messiah. Acts 8:26-40; 13:16-43; 17:22-34
Those early Christians were clearly informed of the need to make changes in their lives. The invitation was given to all, both Jews and non-Jews, but the message remained the same. To please God, it was necessary to follow a new form of worship, that of Christianity.
Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 20, encourages those who want to please God: "Observe, O my son, the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother." Rather than recommending blind obedience, such counsel exhorts us all to accept godly standards by deepening our faith and by taking their own stand for God. The apostle Paul invited his companions to "make sure of all things," to check whether what they were being taught was in harmony with the Word of God and His will, and to act accordingly. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
That remaining one right religion is that of the "God of the Bible. It is not conceited for me to say that. Of course we believe we are right. Every religion on this earth should think his religion is the right religion. It is not conceit to think so; it would be hypocrisy to think otherwise, to claim to believe what we actually do not believe.
