Beyond Religion Conclusion

Concluding Remarks: The Christian Faith vs The Christian Religion

This manifesto would like to conclude by emphasizing that the battle for the future of the Church lies in understanding the past, present and continuing influence of religious humanism.  Again, this is a worldview issue that will not go away.  It is essentially the Garden Problem reoccurring over and over.  While certainly all of God’s people each day face the dilemma of whether “God will be God” or whether “I will be God” in their life choices, we can only agree with Jesus in laying the primary blame squarely at the feet of those who serve in places of leadership.  Again, it was against the leadership of God’s people in His day that Jesus targeted His greatest anger.  It was a leadership that continually justified itself by continually holding to traditions that legitimized its authority in pressing the people into obedience, threatening them with the notion that if people opposed them or their theological interpretations, they would be opposing God Himself.

We must never forget that “religion” is Satan’s counterfeit continually trying to find a footing in the Church whenever and wherever it can.  Religion is relentless because it feeds our carnal hearts with deception at every corner.  It is a roaring lion seeking to devour us by turning us away from the haven of Truth.  It comes to us as a wolf in sheep’s clothing speaking lie after lie.  Truth always trumps religious tradition in that the only valid theological tradition of God’s people is that which is solidly grounded in the Truth of God’s Word.  This is the only legitimate apostolic tradition that can truly be called “sacred”.

Satan seeks to cause disunity and alienation in the Church, beginning with the Christian family.  Let parents never forget that the chief reason for having children is to raise “Godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15) in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) carrying the hope that when they are old their children will not depart from how they were raised (Proverbs 22:6).  Let us pray that we heed the words of the prophet Malachi that the hearts of fathers will turn to their children and the hearts of children will turn to their fathers (Malachi 4:6) who have sought to remain true and raise their children in the Christian faith.  If this does not happen, as was foretold, destruction will certainly follow.

As my thoughts come to a close, somehow I would like to believe that there are enough followers of Christ still out there somewhere who would have the courage to join together to make a real difference toward finding true unity, peace, and purity among ourselves with hearts of humility before God and one another by praying and seeking His face, turning from our sin of division and asking for forgiveness and the healing of His Church.  May we be instruments of His peace, remembering that “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9).

“… that they may all be one”Jesus Christ

Epilogue

Spanning the past millennia, the battle continues to rage between Good and Evil, between Truth and Falsehood, between Life and Death – ultimately, between God and Satan.  As one more clearly understands the history of God’s people, parallels become more evident between the history of God’s people before the Advent of Christ and the history of God’s people afterwards.  During the time of the old covenant, God divinely spoke to His people regarding the Faith.  The Faith was presented in a form very concretely and tangibly as a foreshadowing of the eternal aspects of the Faith as was later revealed in the new covenant.  The New Testament letter to the Hebrews discusses this matter. 

Even though God’s people before the Advent of Christ started well in closely adhering to the divine revelation of God in His Word; as time passed, the people of God turned the Faith of the Jewish people into a religion, eventually adding their ideas as equally authoritative as God’s revelation, resulting in Judaism.  After the Advent of Christ, God’s people again began well in adhering to the Scriptures as completely sufficient in understanding the Faith and how it is to be lived out.  Yet, with time, the Christian Faith began to drift as God’s people sought to make this Faith into a Christian Religion as people increasingly believed either that the Scriptures were not completely sufficient or that the Scriptures were not reliable in determining the content of the Christian Faith.  Again, God’s people turned to their own ideas as being as authoritative as God’s revelation.

To begin to understand why the Church has come to a place of disunity, lacking peace, and holding to various degrees of purity, one must come to grips with four important elements in this development.  The first is the tendency throughout the history of God’s people to drift toward the world and its influences.  This is the carnal nature of Man resulting from the curse of the Fall.  The second element is the Garden Problem, resulting in a choice between two opposing worldviews: that of Humanism and that of Theism. The third element is the awareness of Satanic activity within the Church and the continual spiritual battle that Christians face.  It is Satan’s deceptive ways that have continually sought to divide God’s people.  Finally, human pride blinds God’s people from seeing past themselves and their traditions, denominations, or movements failing to move beyond the present and press toward a more promising future.

A practical way of seeing the dilemma before us is to understand that various traditions, denominations, or movements find themselves somewhere on a spectrum representing a rather simple organic Christian Faith underpinned by Theism at one end to a highly institutionalized Christian Religion underpinned by Humanism at the opposing end.  Consequently, those of us who identify with one of these expressions are likewise “caught” along this spectrum trying to make sense of it all.

It is the ardent prayer of God’s people to increasingly cry out for a way forward beyond the forces that have so long divided the Bride of Christ.  May we be bold enough to risk confronting the institutionalized church, the usual culprit in resisting change, with the challenge of being able to see beyond the fortress walls of the present and creatively gain a glimpse of the larger future landscape for the glory of our Lord.  Surely, it has become evident that the status quo is no longer viable.