According to Wikipedia, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world.

Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of God or some gods. It usually involves devotional and ritual observances, and often contains a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that try to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

Most religions have a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

Each religion claims to be true with some divine revelation from God who gives instructions how to best live life and relate to Him. But which is true?

As most of them contradict one another, they cannot be all true. How does one know which to believe?

There are 4 possible scenarios for divine revelation:

1. God reveals Himself to an individual and this person tries to convince others.
2. God reveals Himself to a small group of people and these people try to convince others.
3. God reveals Himself to a whole nation and this nation tries to convince the whole earth.
4. God reveals Himself to the whole earth and everyone is convinced.

Divine revelation on a national level is the second strongest of all possible scenarios. No other religion has this encounter except Judaism. In this, Judaism stands uniquely apart. It is the only religion in the history of mankind that is based on divine revelation on a national level and not the plain words of an individual or a group of people.

But there will soon come a time when divine revelation will move up to a higher level to be on a global scale! Every living being will see God, receive divine revelation at the same time and hear God in his own language!

Before we go to the global scale, let's take a look at how God revealed Himself on a national level!

The whole nation of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai on the third month after their Exodus from Egypt. Before they could meet God, God gave instructions through Moses how to prepare the people of God through consecration and sanctification. Moses went up and down the holy mountain thrice to receive those preparatory instructions from God and to deliver those messages to the people of Israel.

On the first Pentecost at Mount Sinai, God the Almighty spoke to the whole nation of Israel and gave them the Ten Commandments. Every man, every woman and every child in Israel heard the voice of God as He came down from the Holy Mountain! 

The first month in the Hebraic calendar was Aviv. However, since the Babylonian captivity, this month of Aviv has been renamed Nisan. Aviv also means spring, one of the four seasons. Thus Tel Aviv, the major modern city in Israel, means "Spring Hill."

Exactly 50 days after the crossing of the Red Sea (Aviv or Nisan 17), God gave the Ten Commandments to the whole nation of Israel. All of them heard everything as the LORD uttered His voice. 

Exodus 19 (Israel's Arrival At Mount Sinai & Preparation To Meet God)

1. In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.

2. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain.

3. (The First Ascent) And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

4. ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

5. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

6. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

7. (The First Descent) So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.

8. Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” (The Second Ascent) So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

9. And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.” So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.

10. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.

11. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

12. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

13. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”

14. (The Second Descent) So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

15. And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.”

16. Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

17. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

18. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

19. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.

20. Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. (The Third Ascent) And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

21. And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the LORD, and many of them perish.

22. Also let the priests who come near the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.”

23. But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’”

24. Then the LORD said to him, “Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.”

25. (The Third Descent) So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

Exodus 20 (God gave them the Ten Commandments.)

1. And God spoke all these words, saying:

2. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3. “You shall have no other gods before Me.

4. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

5. you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

6. but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

8. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9. Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

10. but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

11. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

12. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

13. “You shall not murder.

14. “You shall not commit adultery.

15. “You shall not steal.

16. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

18. Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.

19. Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

20. And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”

21. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

22. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

23. You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.

24. An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.

25. And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.

26. Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.’

On the third day, the LORD came down and gave them the Ten Commandments. At Mount Sinai, God spoke to all the people of Israel. They heard the voice of God but were greatly afraid. They then asked Moses to become their holy representative. They said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

Moses could have fabricated the entire story and tried to convince the Israelites. But the Jewish people were a stiff-necked people. They were strongheaded in their own opinions. Ask two Jews anything and you will get three opinions. They did not trust or believe anyone or anything easily.

If God revealed to Moses only, the Israelites would question and doubt Moses' personal revelation from God. Thus the only way for the entire nation of Israel to believe Who He truly was, God revealed and spoke to all of them at the same time and place.

It is impossible to invent a fairy tale of a national occurrence. They all received divine revelation on a national level! They were all eye-witnesses of their divine encounter with God! This was clearly recorded in:

Deuteronomy 4:32-35
32 “For ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.
33 Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
34 Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.

From the beginning of time, no other nation had ever heard God speaking from the midst of fire and yet survived. No other god had ever miraculously come to take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation by great signs and wonders. Only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! He is the Almighty God! There is none besides Him!

On the First Pentecost, God revealed Himself to a whole nation. But in the Pentecost in Acts 2, God revealed Himself to devout men from every nation under heaven. Everyone heard the wonderful works of God spoken in his own language and tongue.

Acts 2:5-11
5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 
7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 
8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 
11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 

Our roots of Christianity are from Judaism. Our Old Testament is their Holy Scriptures! Our Lord Jesus is from Israel!

When Jesus Christ came, many Israelites witnessed His preaching with power and authority, full of grace and truth.

Matthew 4:23-25
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
25 Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

The whole city of Jerusalem was moved when He entered into the holy city, riding a donkey.

Matthew 21:9-11
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

But why didn't the Jews believe in Jesus their Messiah? Simply because it was God's plan of salvation - not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. God had blinded their eyes as they believed in a terrible lie told by their chief priests and elders after the Resurrection of Christ. They believed that the disciples of Jesus came at night and stole Him away while they slept.

Matthew 28:11-15
11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.
12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,
13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’
14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.”
15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.  

One day, the whole nation of Israel will mourn for the One whom they had pierced.

Zechariah 12:10
And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

One day, the whole nation of Israel will witness the return of their Messiah and King!

Acts 1:10-11
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Zechariah 14:4
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.

One day, all Israel will be saved!

Romans 11:25-27
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

One day, when Christ reigns in Jerusalem, all Israel and all the nations will worship the King.

Zechariah 14:16-21
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.
18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
20 In that day “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the LORD of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

Micah 4:1-3
1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow to it.
2 Many nations shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
And rebuke strong nations afar off;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.

Divine revelation will then ascend from a national level to a global scale! All nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues will lift up their voices and sing, Alleluia! Alleluia! Hosanna in the highest!

Revelation 7:9-10
After these things I looked,
and behold, a great multitude which no one could number,
of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
and crying out with a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

From the least to the greatest, everyone will know and worship the Lord!
 

Written on: 21 April 2015