Religious but Godless

Recently I watched a TV program about the work of hospital chaplains as they minister to sick and dying people. This comment struck me: this isn’t about Catholic teaching or Jewish teaching, it is about what’s in the person themselves, making their own spirituality express itself in however that needs to be. Another comment: our chaplains are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist. Regardless of their faith, they all meet the same challenges. The comment of one chaplain: we don’t have any solutions, we don’t have answers, but we try to help. The comment of another: what I’m trying to do in any room I go into is find the love that is there, that’s the God bit.

A young married couple said that they had recently become Christians and gave witness that they were trusting the Lord in spite of the wife’s recent breast cancer operation and the gross underweight of their newborn baby. The demonstration of their biblical faith was notable, not so, the faith of the middle-aged chaplain who assigned herself to them. There was no room in her theology for a real, live, created being, commonly known as ‘the devil’. The Romanist chaplain spoke about love; he blessed and sprinkled what he called ‘holy water’ on his dying patient and family, but that was the extent of it … all of it a far cry from anything a true Christian could remotely call biblical.

“Religious but Godless” was my only thought with regards those two chaplains ministering under the banner of Christianity. In spite of their efforts, they clearly demonstrated that they certainly did have no solutions or answers for people in need. Neither one had the Lord Jesus Christ within, therefore they had no Lord Jesus Christ to share nor introduce. Such people are a curse of this age in the church, “having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” 2 Timothy 3:5. The following day I read the first few verses of the Gospel of John and I wanted to shout them from the rooftops. Why? Within them are the solutions and answers for everybody.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, (Jesus) and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God.  An astounding revelation that either the church takes for granted today or, it doesn’t take it at all. I suspect the latter is more accurate than the former.  John 1:2-3 – same beginning, same God, same Creator … same silence from much of the church!  John 1:4 – life in Christ only, light in Christ only – no exceptions.  John 1:5 – it has been said that this verse gives proof to the reality that spiritual blindness is a universal human condition. In other words, apart from the Man Jesus, there has never been a person born that wasn’t born in spiritual blindness. How sad that most people want to keep it that way.

Many a time down through the years I have heard someone spoken of as, “a very spiritual person”. The self-proclaimed are the worst. “I’m a very spiritual person,” some have told me … denying Jesus Christ and the gospel at the same time. Truth is, there’s no such thing as a ‘very spiritual person’ if he/she has not bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ; they are living in complete darkness and blindness with no light within them at all. Whatever spiritual insights they claim to have do not come from the light of the world John 8:12; 9:5, they come from the rulers of the darkness of this world Ephesians 6:12. The same applies to all religions other than biblical Christianity.

This, I believe, is the biblical Christian’s greatest challenge to be faced as we see the end of this age winding down. Every religion and every Secret Society makes claim of holding keys to doors that open to the spiritual world, but every one of them lie. They do not. The same goes for all types of occultists, so-called professional spiritualists, so-called transcendental gurus and so-called ascended masters of spirituality. All liars with no exceptions. There is no spiritual awakening nor spiritual insight for anybody outside of Jesus Christ – only a black, deep darkness which includes a deeply profound blindness.

As I once heard it put, “It (spiritual light) doesn’t come within the framework of an unaltered life.” This is what was so evident with those chaplains … each person demonstrated an unaltered life. In other words, they were not born again, as Jesus said they must be, and as a result, had not entered into the kingdom or the spiritual realm of God John 3:3-7. Both of them spoke of God in vague terms, but not definite terms.  That’s always a quick indicator of where such people are at spiritually; I ask myself, “Is this person speaking about God or are they speaking for God?” If it’s the former, then they’ve got nothing to say and nothing to offer. If it’s the latter, then they have something to say and something to offer … big difference!

How common it is today for the loudest voices in Christendom to speak of God in vague terms rather than definite terms. So many have bought and sold the lie, “we all worship the same God.” The late Derek Prince taught years ago that there are only two kinds of religion in the world – Abel’s religion and Cain’s religion. He said that they were both manifested at the beginning of human history, they have continued through human history and they will come to their culmination at the close of this age. His quote: Abel’s religion at the beginning produced a martyr; Cain’s religion at the beginning produced a murderer. And at the close, Abel’s religion will produce the Bride; Cain’s religion will produce the Harlot.

Those two hospital chaplains are products of the Harlot – her bastard children, to be more specific. Now, if my motives for having this blog were to win friends and retain lots of readers, I would not have made that comment, but they are not my motives. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him lifted up is my only motive John 12:32. In the Harlot’s house, there is plenty of room for the Liberal Protestant Jesus, the Romanist Jesus, the Ecumenical Jesus, the Muslim Jesus, the Mormon Jesus, the Jehovah’s Witness Jesus, the Freemason Jesus, the Mind-Science Cults Jesus, the Prosperity Gospel Jesus, the Self-Esteem Jesus and the Self-Perception Jesus  … room for all except the Biblical Jesus.

Why so? The biblical Jesus is the only One who is God Almighty Incarnate, the only One who reveals Himself to us through the Bible, the only One who declares Himself to be Savior of the world, the only One who offered Himself up on a cross for a once-only Sacrifice for our sin, the only One who rose from the dead 3 days later, the only One who currently sits at God’s right hand in heaven, the only One who offers every one of us a personal relationship with Himself without the need for a mediator – man or Mary. As well, this Jesus is the only One who will one day return to this world bringing judgment with Him and the only One who will one day rule and reign here as Lord.

People who are limited to speaking only about God rather than for God are useless to God, if the New Testament is any indication of what I’m saying – and it is. In other words, they don’t have any spiritual power therefore, they have no spiritual authority.  But that’s what people are looking for. This is what separated Jesus from the religious leaders of His day. The listeners of both knew who had it and who didn’t, “…..the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes” Matthew 7:28-29. Authority. Biblically it means: ‘ability’ ‘force’ ‘capacity’ ‘competency’ ‘freedom’ ‘liberty’ ‘mastery’ ‘influence’ ‘power’ ‘right’ ‘strength’. So very few Christian leaders speak with such authority today.

Not all of them are religious but Godless, but they are more religious than godly and when that’s the case, spiritual harlotry is the enticement, not spiritual holiness. This grieves God the Holy Spirit; His anointing is lifted, hence no power, no authority, no influence … no nothing!  There’s no doubt that in the natural, both chaplains showed up to be nice people, but ‘nice people’ is not the issue here. The world is full of nice people. Problem is, Satan has nearly every one of them in his clutches doing his bidding. Another problem is most nice people see themselves as nice people. God would rather they saw themselves as redeemed people, in His clutches doing His bidding.

Nice people are quick to say, “I’ll do it my way.” Redeemed people are more likely to say, “Thy way Lord, not my way.” Nice people will pray for others and nothing happens. Redeemed people will pray for others and something happens. The biblical Lord Jesus Christ was/is not a ‘nice’ Person. If He was/is, the world and all other religions would not hate and despise Him. The world and all other religions have always hated and despised Jesus and always will until He comes back to deal with that situation. Every born again Christian needs to come to terms with that reality … and the quicker they do so, the quicker they’ll get delivered of their niceness too. Then God can use them as He sees fit, not as they see fit.

So if the biblical Jesus is not a ‘nice’ Person, what is He? He is a real Person. He is only interested in what’s real, not what’s unreal … reality, not fantasy. For example, back to the comment at the beginning of this post: …..it is about what’s in the person themselves, making their own spirituality express itself in however that needs to be. There’s plenty of room for fantasy for the one who lives according to that statement; plenty of room for deception too. When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” John 14:6, that’s about as real as one can get about things spiritual. God is a Spirit, the Source of all spirituality. Nobody, but nobody can get to God unless they come through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The biblical Jesus is also a compassionate Person, a merciful Person, a loving Person, a forgiving Person, a patient Person, a faithful Person, a holy Person, a humble Person, a pure Person, a peaceful Person, a gentle Person, a strong Person, a powerful Person, a healing Person, a non-compromising Person and an almighty Person … Almighty God in fact, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. No vague terms in that list – only definite terms.

Sadly, none of them were expressed from the mouths of the chaplains to the ears of the patients they assigned themselves to. In fact, Jesus’ name was not even mentioned! “And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” John 3:19-21.