BAD RELIGION Whoa… hold on a second. Before you get all bent out of shape over this little statement, we know that proclaiming “The Death of Religion” is controversial and is bound to offend some people. Our hope is not to needlessly offend folks but is to cut through the noise out there and make a strong statement. So we want to make very clear what we mean and what we don’t mean because there is GOOD RELIGION and there is BAD RELIGION. Let’s start with what we don’t mean. We don’t mean that all organized religion is bad. After all, we are part of organized religion. We are a church, and we love the church! We believe Jesus loves the church! We believe church can be the best place to grow your love for God and serve the world around you. We don’t mean that our version of organized religion is good and all other versions of organized religion are bad. We are not so arrogant to think that we have everything right. In no way are we saying being Catholic or Baptist or Non-Denominational or whatever is necessarily wrong. No, we are quite confident that there are many folks in these groups that have a vibrant relationship with God through Jesus. We don’t mean that rules and rituals are wrong in and of themselves. Jesus followed rules and performed rituals, and encouraged His followers to do the same. We all need guiding principles and values and even rituals that help connect us to God and draw us close to Him. So what do we mean? What is our problem with religion? Our problem is not so much with religion itself, but with what religion has become. Our problem is with “man-made” religion as an attempt to impress God. Our problem is with self-righteousness, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy. Our problem is with rules and rituals as an attempt to control and manipulate people. Our problem is when religion is used to condemn rather than to love. Our problem is when human effort takes the place of the grace of God. Our problem is when following rules becomes a substitute for a relationship with God through genuine faith. Jesus did not come to condemn, control, or manipulate people. He came to love them and save them and to show them how to know God personally. Jesus taught that none of us is better than anyone else. We have all sinned. We all need a Savior. There is only one way to be acceptable to God, and it’s not by following any form of organized religion. It’s by putting our FAITH and FAITH ALONE in the Son of God who loved us, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. It is through God’s totally underserved GRACE that we are saved! This is the message of the Holy Bible. So we say LONG LIVE any religion that proclaims that message! And DEATH to any religion that distracts from that message! We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. There are lots of great churches that stir this kind of faith in people. We’re just tired of the lifeless drudgery that so much ofn ‘religion’ has become. We’re tired of people living in fear rather than faith. We’re tired of religion that does little more than condemn rather than lift up. We’re tired of religion that judges by mere appearances and seems to miss the very heart of God. We just tired of people thinking going to church, or being religious, in some way saves them or changes them or makes them better than others or makes them right before God. I guess we’re just saying that we want to make sure people understand the difference between having a religion and having a relationship with God. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6). “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel –which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:6-9). “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 12:04:26 +0000
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