Darkness has descended upon Ghana and we are stuck in a poky line of traffic streaming into the capital city, Accra. The stop and go driving leaves me pondering two signs I saw earlier in our travels to the Cape Coast.
This morning, as we cruised along the George Walker Bush Highway (named for the U.S. President that brought financial aid to this West African nation) I saw a billboard that I really liked. It said, “Behold, I am coming soon.” And the quote, of course, is attributed to Jesus.
“What a great sign,” I thought, as we rumbled down the highway.
But less than one minute later, we encountered another billboard. This one featured the large photo of a bearded man wearing a turban. The caption identified him as “The Promised Messiah, Mahdi.”
While I support free speech, and the rights of other religions to express their views, I was angered in my spirit by the deception. The true Messiah, Jesus, has already come. Already given His very life for us paying for our ticket to heaven with the signature of His own blood. Yet in the second billboard, Jesus was essentially being assaulted by a fake messiah.
God has given us the choice to believe whatever we want. We are welcome to worship whatever god we like. But we do NOT get to choose the consequences of our choices.
The Bible says, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that does not believe the Son will not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”
The truth is the penalty for rejecting Jesus is Hell.
So when I see a billboard promising a different Messiah than Jesus, it makes me feel the same as if I saw a doctor prescribing chocolate to cure cancer.
Our enemy loves nothing better than to quickly counter truth and beauty with lies and ugliness. Let's not be fooled.