God Kills Us Off … He Executes Us!

I recently read an article on guilt, written by a popular leader of a church here in Melbourne.  The sub-heading read: For many of us, a church and the symbols of religion merely remind us of where not to venture.  A smaller heading within the article: Guilt and Religion have long been bedfellows.  It is time to get these two apart.  This man has spent many long years working at getting “these two apart” – his area of expertise being in the psychological treatment and prevention of emotional and psychological difficulties.  As such, he’s well known and highly respected across the world for his work.

With regards to guilt being “deeply ingrained into human thinking and behavior” he asks the question of people, “Were they born with guilt – was it imposed by parents, schools, religion? Why do they hang onto it?”  He answers his questions by telling us that the fault lies with “some religions” because, “they pronounced that all people were necessarily and inescapably sinful because of the “original sin” of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The story is fiction, but the churches have taught it as a fact.”  I immediately thought of the infidels in my post: They All Have One Thing In Common Now  and the fact that one day this man’s death-bed experience will be exactly the same as theirs.

Before giving his solutions for the ridding of guilt, his article tells us that, “we need faith in ourselves, in other people, in the process of healing,” and “in the spirit of goodness.”  A remarkable statement really, given that God was not mentioned … even though he’s been a church minister for over fifty years, is the Executive Minister of a well-known inner-city church, and holds a Doctor of Divinity.  I keep asking myself why does such a man hold to those things if he denies the very God and Bible that explained and set me free from all my guilt?  The only answer I can come up with is in the form of another question – where else but a church could this man guarantee himself a weekly, ready-made audience?

The man is a humanist, not a man of God; but this doesn’t stop him from quoting the book of God to support his argument.  Example: He quoted the Lord Jesus in the article, calling Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.”  It is biblical to do so, but ever since I’ve been a seeker of truth, referring to the Lord as Jesus of Nazareth has always set off alarm bells in my spiritual warning system  Why?  Because it has nearly always been my experience to discover people do not mean Him to be the Son of God – God manifested in the flesh, the one and only Savior and Redeemer of the world and Lord God Almighty of the Universe.

If it were otherwise for this man, he would not have finished his article with, “The Old Religion has had its day – emphasizing our sins, a God up there in judgment, a need for a religious rescue.  We can live without that kind of religion. Millions of people do.” I have not been privileged to speak with millions of people, but I have with hundreds of them. Here’s what I’ve discovered.  People can stand on their heads and look sideways to Sydney as often and as long as they like in their denial of original sin, but it changes nothing.  Each human being has inherited it and has added lots of their own sin to it, making it the root cause of all their problems.

To deny this reality is to live in denial.  How can any psychological treatment possibly bring any release to a person who’s living in denial?  It doesn’t make sense.  I’m not a psychologist but I always thought that their deal is to help their clients to come face to face with what’s real in their life, not fantasy.  Here’s what else I’ve discovered. It doesn’t matter how good, true and noble the psychologist is nor how effective he/she is in ministering psychological treatment; when sin is the root cause of a person’s problem, it can only ever be a band-aid job … about as effective as putting a band-aid on a melanoma cancer!

Sin – original or otherwise – is not a psychological problem, it is a spiritual problem and nobody except the Lord Jesus Christ is qualified to bring release to a person’s spirit.  And when He does so, it is only ever because He has been invited by that person and acknowledged for who He truly is, what He truly said, what He truly did and what He truly continues to do for him/her on a moment by moment basis.  The one released from such guilt knows that it was not by the application of anything humanistic, but only that which is divine.  In other words, spiritual release came by way of the supernatural, not mental release by way of the natural.

There were statements in the man’s article that were true.  Some churches do play on their people’s guilt.  Some teach of a God who could well be schizophrenic … angry with you one moment, happy with you the next – all based on how well you’re measuring up in the eyes of the leaders and the inaccurate or over-emphasized doctrines they spew forth from their pulpits and home-group meetings.  Such people are very sin-conscious indeed.  They speak of Jesus as their Savior, Redeemer and Lord, but their actions imply that one has to be on their best behavior at all times, otherwise He might come down on them like a ton of bricks!

He wrote of the need of a faith that will not seek to cripple people in a sense of guilt, inferiority, inadequacy or low self-worth.  What a great shame that he can only speak of, but limit the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ to that of Jesus of Nazareth – the good man who went about doing good.  He fails to see that it is through his lack of faith or insight or experience (or whatever) in the Lord that holds his hearers back from experiencing the ultimate in guilt-release.  The truth is, if we do have a sense of guilt, inferiority, inadequacy or low self-worth after having our sin washed by the blood of Jesus then we devalue the Lord just like he’s doing by his rejection of Him.

The Bible doesn’t call our Adversary, Satan, “the accuser of our brethren” for nothing Revelation 12:10.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Satan’s nature and character it is this; the things he accuses you and me of doing or not doing are the very things he’s doing or not doing himself.  If we can allow the Holy Spirit to regularly remind us of this truth we will not suffer his lies, guilt and condemnation for too long when he dumps them on us. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony….” doesn’t follow the above verse for nothing either Revelation 12:11. Satan says, “So what?” to the psychologist, but not so to the anointed proclaimer of God’s word.

If most of the solutions suggested for guilt-release in his article were undertaken, they would consume more of a person’s time and energy than anything God has on offer.  He says, “You are in charge of your guilt.”  If only that were true.  Firstly, every human being comes under the conviction of the Holy Spirit at some point in their lives.  It is His job to convince us of our sin so as He can point the way for our release from it John 16:8.  The longer we ignore the Holy Spirit’s conviction the longer and greater do we experience our guilt … we know we’re guilty and, we know God knows we know.  But, if we fail to deal with it, God will move on and then Satan takes charge of your guilt, not you … and eventually he will kill you with it John 10:10.

Although he has never been a disciple of this church leader, I know a man who embraced a very similar philosophy over twenty-five years ago.  He came from an oppressive religious background but he was enabled later to reject Adam and Eve, original sin, and the Bible as God’s revelation of Himself to man.  For many years he gave the word that his learned philosophy was the ultimate answer to life’s problems and he became a great advocate for its international cause, promoting and helping with tremendous passion in his spare time.  Guilt-release was the major message from his group too, but it continued to show up in him in other ways.

He remained a driven man, heavily into looking good for his friends and peers, he had a number of diet fads and was restless in mind and body.  The last time I spoke with him at any length he demonstrated his latest “discovery” for me – Tai Chi.  Presently he is a very sick man physically and it is my firm belief that the reason he is so sick is because his real problem – original sin, plus his additions to it – continues to dwell in his spirit, but now it’s destroying his mind and body.  He’s always denied the devil’s reality too but this has made not the slightest difference to the devil’s program for him … he’s dancing to his tune, regardless.

As a gospel messenger in the community for three and a half years I met all kinds of people holding to all sorts of belief systems and as they stood or sat talking with me they would say something like, “how wonderful life is for me now that I know who I am.  I am a new person; I’ve left my old life behind.” Their eyes gave them away however.  Deep down within, each one new that they were not new people and had not really left there old life behind, but they kept up the pretence – trying to stay on top of it all through the practice of yoga, Tai Chi, keeping fit, changing jobs, homes, motor cars, and saddest of all, changing husbands/wives or sexual orientation.  They were no less driven than the man above.

Nearing the end of his article, the church leader says, “The task is to leave the guilt behind and feel good again.” Sounds good, but it is a task impossible unless repentance for sin before a holy God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ takes place.  If it does take place one’s guilt is removed immediately.  Not only that, but so are we removed.  How come?  God kills us off … He executes us! Romans 6:3-11; Galatians 2:20.  That’s what separates biblical Christianity from man’s religions.  God has never offered religion, only ever a relationship … with Himself. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. “And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”Ephesians 2:1.