Does The Bible Talk
About Any Right religion?
Joe-St.
Louis, Mo--Taken from Forum
You are right when you
say we should give up on religion. Religion
is man reaching up to God in desperation
to please Him by devising his own systems
and "spiritual" nuances. The religion
of God can be summed up by the last
verse of the book of Ecclesiastes: 13
¶ Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: Fear God, and keep his
commandments: for this is the whole
duty of man.
Each religion has an
element of truth attached to it. But
over time, men have added to that truth
and that is what creates "religion".
Man bends over backwards to try to please
God in any way that he can, often oblivious
to the fact that God has already told
us how to please Him. The religion of
man says the same thing that the serpent
said in the garden, "God didn't really
mean what He said when He told us how
to live and worship Him. As long as
we are sincere, surely He is a flexible
God that will accept this form of worship
or that..." The religion of God has
this line of thinking: "I will attempt
to find out how the Almighty wants to
be worshipped and regardless of how
I feel or the consequences, I will run
to that end, even if I be alone in my
offering."
So, is there a true
religion? Yes. But it is the religion
that is from God's perspective and not
ours. To often we try to please God
in ways that we THINK He will appreciate
because it has the appearance of being
"spiritual". True love loves someone
in the way that THEY want to be loved.
True love and devotion is putting self
aside for the sake of another. In the
same way, true religion is putting our
selfish ambitions of servitude aside
and seeking what the Father alone desires.
Proverbs 30:6 says,
"Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke
you, and you be found a liar." The religion
of God gets twisted into the religion
of man when man adds to or takes away
from the already written Word. This
was the problem in the first century.
The religious leaders of the day had
added so many rules to the Law of God
that the people could not bear them.
Jesus spent most of His time tearing
down the man-made "fences" so that the
people could serve God with no burdens.
Today, man spends most of his time putting
those fences back up without even knowing
it. It is my opinion that it is high
time that we step back and evaluate
all that we DO and BELIEVE and find
out what is of God and what is of man.
As far as what you mentioned
about the Jews not believing in hell...you
are right. They do not believe in it
the traditional way that the Christian
church teaches it. And that is because
the traditional Christian view is incorrect
and needs to be adjusted in the light
of scripture. If you have read the article
"Where Do We Go When We Die?", then
you are familiar with the biblical teaching
on hell.
So, what is the conclusion
of it all? "Fear God", and seek to know
how HE wants to be worshipped and served.
That is "whole duty of man".
Jim
Staley
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