The Story of Other Religions

Deuteronomy 13:1-17

In the newspaper, Beth saw the picture of a man who was in charge of a country somewhere called "the middle east." This man said that people should follow a prophet named Mohammed, and that if they didn't they were bad.
This troubled Beth so she went to her mother and said, "Mother, what if the man in the newspaper is right? What if we really do have to follow Mohammed or go to hell?"
"Don't trouble yourself, Dear One," said Beth's mother. "The Bible tells us how to deal with those who ask us to worship false Gods. Here, let me tell you a story about that."
And this is the story she told:

One day, Moses was talking to the Israelites and he said, "If one of you says that he is a prophet or that he has special dreams and he says that something is going to happen and he says, 'Let's go worship gods that you've never heard of before. Let's be their servants,' don't listen to him. God gives you everything you need to tell whether you love him completely.
"Follow God, be afraid of him, obey his laws, do what he tells you to do, be his servant, stick with him. As for the prophet or the person with special dreams, kill him because he asked you to reject God who helped you get out of Egypt, got you out of slavery, and showed you where to go. That's how you should get rid of evil people.

"But Mother," said Beth, "what about Saint Paul? Didn't he tell people to follow Jesus? Wasn't Jesus a god that the people had never heard of before?"
"That is very clever of you, Dear One," said Beth's mother. "Can you tell me what happened to Paul?"
Beth knew this from other stories that her mother had told her. "Yes," she said, "he was put in prison by the Romans and Nero had him killed."
"There you are, Dear One," said Beth's mother.
"I get it!" said Beth. "So the Romans did what they should have done when they killed Paul. But what about the man in the paper? His whole country wants people to follow Mohammed."
"Listen to the story and learn, Dear One."

"If your brother, your mother's son, your son, your daughter, the wife of your chest, or your friend who has the same soul that you have, comes to you in secret and says, 'Let's go be servants for gods which you have never head of, and which your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and earlier grandparents never heard of either. In particular, the gods of people in other countries,' don't do what he says, don't listen to him, don't take pity on him, don't save his life or hide him. Instead, kill him. You should try to kill him first, and after that everyone can try. You should throw rocks at him until he dies because he tried to turn you away from the God who got you out of Egypt and stopped you from being slaves.
"All Israel should listen to what I am saying and be afraid. Nobody should do nasty things like this around you. If you are in one of the cities that God gave to you and you hear that some men, followers of the god Belial, are going around saying, 'Let's go and serve other gods which you've never heard of,' then you should ask around and if it really does turn out that people are saying these things, then you should stab everyone in the city. You should completely destroy the city and everyone in it, including the cows, with the side of a sword. Get all the nice stuff you can find and burn the city for God. That city should be in ruins forever and never put back together. Don't keep anything from that city because it's cursed. This way, God won't get mad at you but will be nice instead."

Beth thought about this for a moment. "Wow," she said, "I guess we should nuclear bomb those bad people so nobody ever lives on their land again!"
"Only after we've killed them all with swords as God commanded us, Dear One," said Beth's mother. Then she smiled and hugged her daughter. If only all the world's questions could be so easily answered.