Religion

Over the centuries Christianity has developed an expansive library of Church traditions and theology with which to control the activities of believers in the various denominations that exist within the orthodoxy of organised religion.This has involved a bevy of catechisms of which examples range from the Roman Catholic Catechism, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Confession of Faith and various other religious documents including Books of Church Order, Bible Commentaries etc..

Now it can be said that there is some very good teaching in many of these documents and some great merit in adhering to many of the religious traditions. Christmas and Easter are a lot of fun but how did jolly old Saint Nick get attached to the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ or where did the Easter bunny come from and why doesn’t the church call out the error of this extra Christian distortion of the celebration of the Resurrection. Lent, Advent and Holy Week as seasons of the Christian Christian cycle? Books of Church Order and Catechism, veneration of saints and objects, and various other extra biblical anomalies. Ah! Religion, now I see it.

It could be said that Christianity is swamped with Church tradition and that this situation results in the frustration of most of the most basic intentions as outlined by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. It results, in the Churches, and believers, being confined to a worldly approach to Christian objectives. Instead of living by faith and in the Spirit. We rather live by sight and in the flesh.

When we should be coming together as a congregation and prayerfully seeking God’s will for our future. We come together as church members attending a business meeting where instead of searching the bible we peruse books of church statutes and do what is right in our own sight. It hi-lights what happens when we Christians lose focus on walking daily with Jesus Christ and living in the Spirit.

We proceed through life living in the flesh and as the apostle Paul put it “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:5). Could this be why Jesus jousted with the Pharisees and was the center of so much opposition from them? To the point that they conspired to murder Him and carried that plot to its conclusion on the Cross. Ah! Religion, now I see. Religion is power!

So, what is Religion and why is it so destructive to the Christian walk. Well for what it’s worth this is my take on the whole distracting, disruptive business that is Christian Religion. I have personally never taken a label for who I am and what I believe other than calling myself a Christian. I have always felt that others who believe on and love Jesus Christ are my brothers and sisters, in Christ.

In the first century, before the followers of Jesus became known as Christians they were known as “The People of the Way.” I really like that description of the Christian as follower of Jesus and I would accept it myself. Christianity is a way of life and is entirely based around our belief and faith in Christ Jesus and the relationship that we have with Him.

It is a moment by moment relationship with Him through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and religion has no part in it. It is a living thing where we are so close to God that He is a part of us. Religion only happens when we live a fleshly life with some spiritual connections. If we walk by sight we allow Satan to begin speaking into our hearts.

If we do all the outward features of walking in the Spirit only people who know us really well will know we are actually just faking it. If every Christian in our church is faking it except one or two then Satan has a way into the church administration. When important decisions are taken and don’t seek God because we aren’t closely connected to Him then we do what is right in our own sight. Having a quorum doesn’t make it right. After a few disasters we all decide we need to write a few things down.

We call it a Church Book of Order or if we’ve been doing this for a century, or two, we write the scripture interpretations we like into something we call a Confession of Faith. Now you may say that those type of documents are actually really necessary and if we are going to keep operating with a shallow relationship with God then you are probably right.

A friend was asking me what I thought about the place of women in the Church? I said to him look at the example of Lydia in the bible. No one appointed her to be the leader of the Church in Thyatira. She simply became Paul’s first convert there and started a church in her own home. No one seems to have opposed the idea just because she was a woman. Paul seemed happy enough with her and God seems to have appointed her and they were walking in the Spirit with a powerful relationship with God. No church book of order required.

You see the Holy Spirit writes God’s law in your heart and puts it in your mind but if you don’t stay connected to God then you start having to write down your own laws in a document somewhere. It is not as good as God’s because its Man’s Law not God’s but in the absence of the real thing it fills a gap. The reason Satan likes it is because as it did with the Pharisees using Man’s Law consolidates power with the Church leadership in the hands of a few powerful people. The locus of control moves from the people into a church hierarchy that becomes an amalgam of church and state and ultimately doesn’t even resemble the organisation that God intended His Church to be. Check out Revelation seventeen.

So Satan’s attack on Christianity and the Church as an organisation is four fold. First, get the Christians focused on themselves and to walk by sight instead of faith. In the flesh not in the Spirit. Instead of seeking God in continual prayer they spend most of their time living in their own power. Instead of miracles they seek solutions. The result is they drift away from God and their faith begins to wain. Instead of a vibrant spiritual life they become spiritually dead.

Secondly, because, they no longer commune with God they need rules to enable the solutions they seek. So, they start to write guidelines for the Christian life and the functioning of the Church. Next, they start to write commentaries and catechisms filled with their best guess interpretations of God’s Word. Soon, those writings take on a kind holiness and become of a higher status than the Bible. Because there is error in them they begin to have and impact which is visible, and measurable, when compared to the Bible and the voice of the Spirit in our hearts. If we are honest we know this nonsense is not right but when has the sure knowledge of error ever stopped men walking in error.

Thirdly the enemies next step is to set up a hierarchy among the leaders of the Church and among the congregants. The hierarchy among the congregants is especially useful because it can be used to control those who would seek to steer the Church back in the right direction. The hierarchy amongst the leadership goes from deacon to Bishop and is theoretically based on God’s word but it rapidly becomes and old boys club and it is not what you know but who you know that determines the outcomes. With this structure Satan usurps God’s control within the Church and establishes a culture that at its root is Antichrist. This is by no means universal in its control but there are elements of this hierarchy in every denomination.

Finally, having lulled the believers to sleep; Having instituted rules and theology; Having instituted a dominant leadership hierarchy; Then the enemy capitalises on the fact that the believers are not communing with God and not obeying the great commandment. Jesus said “You will know them by their fruit.” The reality is they don’t have any fruit not in the mainline Churches and none that is good in any case.

So, what has to happen to turn all of this around? The same thing that usually happens when the Almighty quickens the flock. Probably, some persecution followed by a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The impact will most likely be stronger among the lost although it will certainly start among the Churches and the Christian folk who wake and begin to walk in the Spirit and commune with God once more.

Dear Friends,

Your personal relationship with Jesus Christ is everything and is paramount. Your walk in the Spirit depends on it. To actually achieve the will of God you need to commune with Him all of the time. When you do things for the Church you need to do it as a whole and prayerfully seeking God’s will.

Remember what Jesus said...

John 15: 4-5

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ESV

In Christ,

Bruce