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Dear Friend: Catholic, Protestant, Christian

Dear K,

Thank you for the help you gave me.

Although your mother was Catholic and your father a Jain, you intimated that you had grown up neither. You may not be interested, or you may be interested but are concerned about what your parents think.

The attached explanation was written with you in mind, but I realize that content applies to everyone. Along with this letter, I recommend that you read How to Read the New Testament in 67 Days, the story of how I became a Christian when I was 20, Olinda Britton’s testimony. (This is her story written about six months before she died. She was born, lived, and died a Catholic.)

This may be hard to believe, but most religious Protestants and devout Roman Catholics do not have the characteristics that the Bible describes of people who have been saved from their sins and are going to Heaven.

The three things I recommended are full of quotations from the New Testament. As you read the New Testament, you will realize that the quotations are not out of context but represent what the rest of the chapter says. In any case, I recommend that you read it all. It may be very different from what you think. Whether or not you take any of these suggestions, I would be pleased to follow your career.

What I believe does not make anything true. If something is true, it is absolutely true independent of anyone's belief. There are a million beliefs in this world. Each believer holds that it is true because they believe it is true. They certainly are not all true. They might all be false. I cannot study all of them. What is the solution?

All non-Christian religions and most "Christian" religions are complicated and demanding. There is one, not a religion, that is simple and free, and you can know now. There are people, Catholic and Protestant, who have come across this simplicity and have had their life changed in an instant. My life was changed on October 18, 1947. Most Catholics and some Protestants have not come into this simplicity. They are still following the rules and consequently are missing the life. People who follow rules do not know that they have made it to Heaven until they die. That is too late to find out. Besides being simple, this life is also free and is experienced now.

Your friend and patient,

Jim Wilson

P.S. I would encourage you again to read the New Testament. If you read four chapters a day, you will finish it in about two months (four chapters would take around 15-20 minutes). You could also join this summer Bible reading challenge.

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