Genuine Imitations
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
- 2 Corinthians 11:13-14
Awhile back, I was talking with someone about God at a Harley store. He asked me, "Why are there so many different religions out there? How can one belief be true and not all of the others?"
As I was thinking about what to say, a very loud Harley rode by with that familiar Harley rumble. So I said, "Hear that sound there? That is the sound of a genuine Harley Davidson motorcycle. The fact of the matter is there are a lot of other bikes out there. A lot of them look like Harleys and sound like Harleys. But they are not real Harleys. And just because there are imitations out on the road doesn't mean there isn't a genuine. Because there are imitations, you can be certain there is a genuine."
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Whenever there is the real thing, you can be certain the devil will come along with his imitation.
Jesus told a parable about the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13), which is a picture of the real and the unreal growing up next to each other. It is the story of a farmer who planted a field of wheat, but his enemy came along during the night and planted tares, which looked exactly like wheat. In fact, as they are growing, it can be difficult to tell the difference between the two-until much later. Then the tares actually begin to uproot the wheat.
The Bible tells us that in the last days, there will be genuine Christians and fake Christians. These fake Christians will be very convincing. In fact, they might even convince the real Christians. But it is not necessarily our job to identify who the fake Christians are. We just need to be sure that we are genuine followers of Christ.
