Question asked.
Question Asked...Why are you so critical of Religion?
Questioned answered.
I realize the position I take and the opinion I share regarding religion is not religiously correct, religiously popular nor religiously comfortable, and I am aware that it may cause me to be religiously despised, but share my belief I must or I will be unfaithful to myself and to God.
Stephen understood the truth about the temple thus, one of the reasons he was stoned was the religious leaders did not like it or condone it. He said to them; "It was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High DOES NOT DWELL in houses and temples (buildings) made with hands; as the prophet says" (Isaiah 66:1,2). "Heaven is My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What kind of house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest? Was it not My hand that made all these things?" Acts 7:47-50.
It is not the "buildings" themselves that causes the harlotry, it is peoples allegiance to the man-made-structures of the religious system, rather than Christ Himself. That allegiance is spiritualized by religious terms and the twisting of scripture, God, and the name of Jesus which convinces people that religion is the genuine avenue to God, all the while taking away the freedom from the people that Christ provided for them!
I firmly believe that religion is to be destroyed because of Jesus' accomplishment on the cross and the implementation of Grace because of His resurrection. Religion is an hindrance to our relationship with God and the unifying of the Body of Christ. Our believing affects our living, the religious gospel is an hindrance to the fulfillment of the plan of God for humanity because it is in opposition to the Grace Gospel.
Religion has people believing that performance based Christianity is the way to God and that living authentic Christianity is understood to be how church life is practiced today. Plus, the entertainment for the audience and the applause for the performers is exhilarating and addictive. People do not have to move out of their comfort zone to experience the daily grind as to where and how people live life. Their lives are orderly, and they are firmly convinced that they are deriving real satisfaction from their christian performances, and are pleasing God. They believe that they are engaged in genuine and sincere biblical righteousness. This is exactly how the Pharisees felt.
But Jesus Christ, a was-carpenter, a nobody as far as they were concerned, stands up and declares that they are wrong, deceived, insecure, and blind leaders of the blind.
Please understand I am not looking for an argument with the people involved in religion, what I am trying to do is expose its toxic roots thus the rottenness of its fruit and the futility of its performances. It is nothing more than as an extension of the law based gospel that was unable to provide righteousness for man.
My rejection of religion and acceptance of Grace plus nothing is not an excuse to sin as most law gospel people accuse Grace as.
I desire the freedom wherein Christ makes me free. When I do sin, I do it without excuse because the nature of sin is to sin and sinning needs no excuse. But I've been told that all sorts of things are sinful, supported by out-of-context scripture, shot out of the law-keepers mouth saying: “the Bible clearly states.” Now I am realizing that many of those “sins” simply wasn't sin. Remember that story in the Bible, when the Apostle Peter had been told all his life that eating unclean food was a sin, but then God told him to take it and eat it? That’s often how it is for us, when we apply the law as a measuring stick for spiritually.
When I reject religion, I am not rejecting the Gospel as some would believe...religion is NOT the Gospel, nor is it the way to Christ.
Because of my freedom from religion I am just beginning to glimpse what the Gospel is really about, and it’s "gooder"news than the good news of religion. Now when I see a performance based, moralistic law-keeping religion marketed as the Gospel, smothered in tradition, politics and rule keeping my heart is saddened. I remember all too clearly the bondage of that "another" Gospel.
Because I reject religion does not mean that I do not afford Scripture its rightful place. What I don't value is religious people's arrogance in saying that: "what I believe is right and what you believe is wrong." That is a bigoted approach to the interpretation of scripture.
Scripture is used as a weapon by religion to keep people in bondage, instead of as good news to set us free. Because of not finding spiritual life in religion, I questioned much of what I was taught. That does not mean that I got it all right, I get some things wrong, but that’s not because I have “a low view of Scripture”; it’s because I am still looking through a glass darkly.
So when I reject and criticize religion, please understand I am not rejecting or criticizing the people caught in its deceptive trap.
Religion usurps the headship of Christ and veils the awesomeness of God's grace and His plan for the community of humanity from being fulfilled by His community of the redeemed. Christ dealt religion its DEATH BLOW...it saddens me to realize that people have resurrected it by mixing grace and law together and calling it grace and preaching it as the Gospel.
My rejection religion is NOT a rejection of Christ!
Questioned answered.
I realize the position I take and the opinion I share regarding religion is not religiously correct, religiously popular nor religiously comfortable, and I am aware that it may cause me to be religiously despised, but share my belief I must or I will be unfaithful to myself and to God.
Stephen understood the truth about the temple thus, one of the reasons he was stoned was the religious leaders did not like it or condone it. He said to them; "It was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High DOES NOT DWELL in houses and temples (buildings) made with hands; as the prophet says" (Isaiah 66:1,2). "Heaven is My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What kind of house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest? Was it not My hand that made all these things?" Acts 7:47-50.
It is not the "buildings" themselves that causes the harlotry, it is peoples allegiance to the man-made-structures of the religious system, rather than Christ Himself. That allegiance is spiritualized by religious terms and the twisting of scripture, God, and the name of Jesus which convinces people that religion is the genuine avenue to God, all the while taking away the freedom from the people that Christ provided for them!
I firmly believe that religion is to be destroyed because of Jesus' accomplishment on the cross and the implementation of Grace because of His resurrection. Religion is an hindrance to our relationship with God and the unifying of the Body of Christ. Our believing affects our living, the religious gospel is an hindrance to the fulfillment of the plan of God for humanity because it is in opposition to the Grace Gospel.
Religion has people believing that performance based Christianity is the way to God and that living authentic Christianity is understood to be how church life is practiced today. Plus, the entertainment for the audience and the applause for the performers is exhilarating and addictive. People do not have to move out of their comfort zone to experience the daily grind as to where and how people live life. Their lives are orderly, and they are firmly convinced that they are deriving real satisfaction from their christian performances, and are pleasing God. They believe that they are engaged in genuine and sincere biblical righteousness. This is exactly how the Pharisees felt.
But Jesus Christ, a was-carpenter, a nobody as far as they were concerned, stands up and declares that they are wrong, deceived, insecure, and blind leaders of the blind.
Please understand I am not looking for an argument with the people involved in religion, what I am trying to do is expose its toxic roots thus the rottenness of its fruit and the futility of its performances. It is nothing more than as an extension of the law based gospel that was unable to provide righteousness for man.
My rejection of religion and acceptance of Grace plus nothing is not an excuse to sin as most law gospel people accuse Grace as.
I desire the freedom wherein Christ makes me free. When I do sin, I do it without excuse because the nature of sin is to sin and sinning needs no excuse. But I've been told that all sorts of things are sinful, supported by out-of-context scripture, shot out of the law-keepers mouth saying: “the Bible clearly states.” Now I am realizing that many of those “sins” simply wasn't sin. Remember that story in the Bible, when the Apostle Peter had been told all his life that eating unclean food was a sin, but then God told him to take it and eat it? That’s often how it is for us, when we apply the law as a measuring stick for spiritually.
When I reject religion, I am not rejecting the Gospel as some would believe...religion is NOT the Gospel, nor is it the way to Christ.
Because of my freedom from religion I am just beginning to glimpse what the Gospel is really about, and it’s "gooder"news than the good news of religion. Now when I see a performance based, moralistic law-keeping religion marketed as the Gospel, smothered in tradition, politics and rule keeping my heart is saddened. I remember all too clearly the bondage of that "another" Gospel.
Because I reject religion does not mean that I do not afford Scripture its rightful place. What I don't value is religious people's arrogance in saying that: "what I believe is right and what you believe is wrong." That is a bigoted approach to the interpretation of scripture.
Scripture is used as a weapon by religion to keep people in bondage, instead of as good news to set us free. Because of not finding spiritual life in religion, I questioned much of what I was taught. That does not mean that I got it all right, I get some things wrong, but that’s not because I have “a low view of Scripture”; it’s because I am still looking through a glass darkly.
So when I reject and criticize religion, please understand I am not rejecting or criticizing the people caught in its deceptive trap.
Religion usurps the headship of Christ and veils the awesomeness of God's grace and His plan for the community of humanity from being fulfilled by His community of the redeemed. Christ dealt religion its DEATH BLOW...it saddens me to realize that people have resurrected it by mixing grace and law together and calling it grace and preaching it as the Gospel.
My rejection religion is NOT a rejection of Christ!
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