Does It Really Matter What You Believe?
Many people say that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. But to believe this is to believe a lie of Satan. If it doesn’t matter what you believe, then it doesn’t matter if you believe at all. God’s word tells us "he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." God’s word tells us we must believe in Him. To believe in God is to believe and obey every word He has given us.
If it doesn’t matter what you believe, are Hindus, Muslims, and others, who are so sincere that they will even die for their false beliefs, lost? But Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). The only way to God is through Jesus. Jesus says, "For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). Hindus, Muslims, and other false religions do not believe in Jesus. They have no real hope. By not believing in Jesus, one will die in his sins and be lost in the burning fires of Hell. So it does matter what you believe.
What about the false beliefs of those who are in denominations? The reason denominational people are so divided is they want to pick and choose what they want to believe, reject the parts of God’s word they do not like, and add the things they want. Does it matter what they believe as long as they are sincere? But what does God say about this? "Because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).
People in the denominational world are going to be condemned because they do not believe and obey all the truth of God’s word. Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Just because people call Jesus their Lord does not mean they are going to be saved. But people must believe and obey everything God says, in the way He says, how He says, when He says, and for the reason He says. Many people who believe they are all right have not done this. Jesus says, "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness" (Matthew 7:22-23). These people believed in Jesus and called them their Lord, but why are they lost? They have not believed and done all "the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). There will be many surprised but lost people on the Day of Judgment who thought that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere, but they will be sincerely wrong. If a person ends up in Hell fire because he believed a lie, he will only have himself to blame.