Numbers Don’t Make A Religion True

Numbers Don’t Make A Religion True Brother Felmar Serreno: A common appeal in advertising and politics, the fallacy called argumentum ad populum (argument to the people) argues that something must be true and acceptable because many or most people believe or like it. But does a religion’s being composed of the majority translate to its being true and of God? If many believe so, is it necessarily so? You’re listening to the podcast version of God’s Message magazine, where our topic today is “Numbers Don’t Make A Religion True.” Even in choosing a religion, this “appeal to popularity” seems to deceptively work as many feel guilty if they go against the majority, but feel confident and secured by joining forces with large numbers of other so-called “believers.” This is precisely the reason some refuse to join the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) knowing that it is not the religion of the majority. “If indeed there is only one true religion,” they say, “it could not be the Iglesia Ni Cristo because its members are comparatively few.” Fallacious indeed Brother Felmar Serreno: The truth of a belief does not depend on the preponderance in number of people who hold it. No rule of thought grants infallibility to the majority. In fact, numerous people have been wrong about many things: that our planet is flat and motionless, that the Earth is the center of the universe, and that the Sun and other planets revolve around it, to name a few.  Even in Ethics, the fact that the majority of people support a certain act, say divorce, does not prove that it is morally right. Correct reasoning clearly states that a belief’s widespread acceptance is not counted as its binding justification.  Biblical proofs Brother Felmar Serreno: The Bible disproves the assumption that the religion where a great number of people belong is necessarily of God. The Holy Book recorded that during the time of Noah, the whole of mankind, except just for eight persons, was annihilated by the great deluge (II Peter 2:5). Noah’s ark, which was purposely designed by God for man’s salvation, was ignored nonetheless by the huge majority of Noah’s time. Relatedly, Sodom and Gomorrah were leveled to the ground by fire and brimstone and only Lot and his two daughters were saved (Genesis 19:16, 29; II Peter 2:6-7).  Also refuting the belief that predominance in terms of membership makes a particular religion true is the universality of Satan’s deception (Revelation 12:9). Those who will be condemned to eternal punishment, according to the Bible, are “as numerous as the sands of the sea” (Revelation 20:8 New Revised Standard Version).  The determinant Brother Felmar Serreno: The true Church—God’s chosen people in the Christian era—does not need to be composed of the majority for it to be saved on the last day. Of ancient Israel, which was the first nation of God, the Bible says:  The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. [Deuteronomy 7:7 New King James Version] Brother Felmar Serreno: There were millions of people who lived during biblical times, but only a few were chosen or elected according to God’s will. The right to serve God and to attain salvation, therefore, is not determined by the size of a religious organization, but by election or the setting apart by our Lord God (Psalm 4:3). About those elected by God in the Christian era, the Bible pronounces: But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by ...