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By Neal Griffin
One writer avows that religion should be done away with altogether, while another argues that we should never say anything bad about another’s religion. Religion should be done away with if it is an attempt to appease an angry god. Our God is not an angry God, and if He ever was Jesus appeased Him once and for all at Calvary. The true God is love personified.
But, as for saying nothing bad about another’s religion, I have collected more than twenty-five pages of documentation that features atrocities committed in the name of religion so, suffice it to say religion is good and bad----mostly bad. From a Scriptural point of view the word is used only a few times and mostly in a negative sense.
True religion has no resemblance to what is being foisted off on the public by today’s religionists. Cloaked under the umbrella of Islam, Catholicism, Buddhism, Church of Christism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Mormonism, and several other isms, it is altogether the creation of men. Jesus did not authorize religious organizations. T. Austin Sparks agreed when he wrote: "If we all had a greater concern for the Lord Jesus than we had for religious things what a different thing it would be in the world". Vladimir Lenin was correct in one point when he said, "Religion is the opiate of the masses". It is the puppet of paid propagandists who hold their subjects in intellectual and financial bondage. Religion and faith have no connection. It presents itself as an arbiter between God and man, presided over by lamas, politicos, pastors, paid pulpit ministers, priests, bishops, popes, archbishops, arch deacons, canons, rectors, vicars, deans, curates, and all sorts of cult leaders. In many cases it is presided over by so-called "evangelists" who, in every case, extract money for their own use and for the support of their particular religious system. Many there are who, in the practice of their religion, give so much to their religious organizations that they are not able to practice true religion when confronted with real cases of need.
Without money neither they nor their systems can prevail. This alone should open our eyes, for if you take away the money their religious institutions will certainly and quickly collapse. Money can certainly prevail against every last one of them but, even the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Way of Jesus. His Way does not depend on financial contributions.
His Way is true religion. It concerns itself with our attitudes toward our neighbors and those in need. It has nothing to do with the performance of religious rituals. It has nothing to do with organizational membership. It has much to do with the conduct of men and women who are motivated by Jesus living in their hearts. It is lived out in the daily lives of those who are born again of the Spirit of God. It manifests itself in the expressions of free men, allowing us to think for ourselves and to be persuaded in our own minds. Bad religion makes no such claims. Give it some thought! Yes, religion is good and bad----mostly bad.
Please consider these thoughts. I believe them to be in keeping with the Word.
Neal Griffin
10514 Bar X Trail
Helotes, Texas 78023
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