A Great Curse of Society

What is it about a person who thinks nothing of swearing and blaspheming the name of Jesus Christ in the company of born again Christians but who wouldn’t dare do so in the company of a priest or a nun?  I have experienced this many times over the years since turning to the Lord. In fact, among the people who’ve done this are the church affiliated. To me it shows very clearly the natural hatred people carry within them towards the biblical Jesus, but, the great fear they carry within them of the “religious” Jesus.  In other words, the Jesus Whom they should be afraid of, they are not and the one they shouldn’t be afraid of, they are.

What a masterpiece Satan has created with religion!  It also needs to be said that those not church-affiliated and who would claim themselves as non-believers of God are as much trapped by religion as anybody and the harder they work at denying it, the greater it shows up in them.  Institutional Christendom loves to think of itself as a Great Cause, but the reality is, it is a Great Curse.  I visited a religious patient in hospital one time who had known for years about my stand for the Lord Jesus but he always ignored it.  A Roman Catholic priest walked into the room, the patient’s eyes lit up as they had a good-old-chit-chat.

For the first part of the conversation the patient’s words were chosen carefully and religiously but they changed when the priest began to use profanity.  He began to use it too.  The priest wanted to be seen as, “one of the good guys” and he achieved his mission with this man.  When the priest moved on, the patient was feeling on top of the world so to speak.  I made a remark to him about the hypocrisy of it all and in response I got, “Now we must be careful here, Father Mike is a well meaning man and he does a lot for the cause of the church in this place and besides, if we had a few more like him, then people would come back to the church.”  The reality is, it is these types of people who keep others away in droves!

In a hotel barroom one evening directly after a funeral service, I was standing amongst three or four religious people.  As the time went on and their alcoholic intake increased, those who knew me and my (then) twenty-one year stand for Jesus gave no thought to the manner of their speech.  A nun came into the circle and they changed in a split second from the demonic to the angelic.  What brought the change?  Was it the power of the biblical Jesus?  No.  It was the power of the religious Jesus.  The nun had three family members in that gathering and whilst I didn’t hear any profanity from them, it was remarkable to observe their change of manner in her presence as well.

A Roman Catholic priest married a couple.  The service was most religious.  Everyone was on their best behavior – until the wedding reception, that is.  Once a couple of drinks began to go to work on a few of them, enabling them to shed their inhibitions, loose speech appeared to be part of the deal.  No born again Christian would have any influence upon them, but the priest did.  He, with a cigarette and beer in hand was able to change them from devils to angels in a matter of seconds as he mingled with them. As the night wore on, however, he changed from angel to devil and successfully encouraged some of his people in becoming the same.  This priest, like Father Mike, wanted to be seen as a “good guy” too.

So, as he danced with a couple of pretty women he pulled a knitting needle from his pocket and poked it into the cleavage area of their low-cut necklines.  Neither of the women were offended at this, they laughed and joked about it.  I couldn’t help wondering how all would be explained in the confessional the next time each woman went before him there.  The “good Father” was a popular man among some that night.  A school teacher at a religious college had trouble silencing a half a dozen raucous, swearing sixteen year-old boys in his class.  The moment they viewed their parish priest coming down the hallway they shut themselves down in no time at all.  The power of Jesus?  Only the religious one.

Institutional Christendom, whether it be Protestantism or Romanism, is a Great Curse of society all over the world for pretty much the same reasons as those of the Jews whom Jesus rebuked in Matthew 23:4-5. “Religious” or not, people in all societies are crushed with unbearable religious burdens.  These are deeply embedded into all fabrics of society everywhere.  Conscience within tells each individual that he and she is not right before God; but it is this type of Christendom that adds to their burdens and never lifts a finger to ease them.  That is one reason why people reject it but, it is also the reason why many people run to non-Christian religions and the occult – or – get involved with charities and fund-raising clubs of all kinds.

Everyone wants their burdens lifted.  Non-Christian religions have no power and authority to come to their aid.  Some of these too, add to people’s burdens, but compared with these institutions they are never going to be in the race.  Take “sin” for example:  Institutional Christendom (I C) adds to people’s sin burdens by bringing confusion as to what sin is.  The Bible tells us “sin is lawlessness” 1 John 3:4.  I C never mentions that.  It doesn’t express the mind of God, it expresses the mind of religiosity and humanism and grades sin into large, medium and small – or – mortal (severe, dire, grievous) and venial (excusable, trifling, minor).  Every society has bought into that lie!

Added to this, I C has limited the world to think only in terms of what is good versus what is bad, rather than what is righteous versus unrighteous.  I C, therefore, will most certainly be held accountable before God for the sins of all the world every bit as much as each individual non-repentant sinner will be held accountable before God for theirs.  More so in fact, because it was not (unrepentant) sinners who were entrusted with the message of the gospel.  There’s further problems.  I C is filled with weak, compromising, politically correct media darlings (all things to all men) spewing out false concepts of the biblical Jesus all over the world to societies that are intelligent and sophisticated.

But on the other hand, there are just as many within its ranks ruling with iron fists.  In the intelligent, sophisticated societies they rule behind closed doors.  In societies where the people are so-called unintelligent and non-sophisticated – third-world countries, for example, they rule openly.  In each case, Truth is being withheld from their people.  It always has been.  First-world, second, third….it makes no difference, the hearts of people are all the same – religious, whether they think of it in such terms or not.  Every person alone with their own thoughts knows they need to put it right with God.  Some don’t know how to and most don’t want to know how to.

But they will cling to their religious ways.  The problem is however, they naturally turn to religious gods of their own or somebody else’s making – usually somebody else’s.  Why is that?  Unless we are seekers of Truth it can never be any other way because the Bible makes it plain to us that we are natural enemies of God.  “…..the carnal mind is enmity (hostility, hatred) against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” Romans 8:7.  Not one of us is exempt from this and no change can ever possibly take place within until we see our need for God, then humble ourselves to Him in the name of Jesus, get baptized into water and into the Holy Spirit, then (under the Spirit’s direction & power) study and live according to the Scriptures.

That’s not easy to do, that’s hard.  It means you will turn your back on I C and all others that become a hindrance to the work of God in your new life.  Some whom you turn away from will be those closest to you.  More probably though, it will be the other way round – they’ll turn away from you.  The Bible also tells us that our warfare is spiritual in nature. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood…..” Ephesians 6:12.  That means we have no fight against other people, only the satanic beings that energize them.  In other words, born again Christians are energized by the Holy Spirit, the rest are energized by the unholy spirit/s – the very worst of these being religious spirits.

Religious spirits are not hard to discern and cast out, but only if one dies daily to self and lives for the Lord and His truth.  If one should not do that, then in all probability that one will eventually become part of I C.  If that is the case, that one will have lots in common with others in there.  He or she will probably become skilled in the ways of the world, skilled in the countless ways of how to (mis) interpret the Scriptures, or, reject them altogether, skilled at political correctness, cunningness and craftiness, skilled at presenting one’s self as loving and compassionate, but best of all, skilled in the art of presenting one’s self as a holy person whenever the need arises. 

The religious Jesus is, in fact, simply one of the many faces of Satan, the Arch-enemy of the biblical Lord Jesus. In non-Christian circles he goes by any other name – very effectively so. But his masterpiece has always been that of I C.  In there, he has been able to use without question all the same language and terminology that born again Christians use, plus he’s been able to effectively couple that with all the language and terminology that captures the hearts and imaginations of non-Christians, spiritists, pagans, unbelievers, celebrities of all kinds, plus the media – especially the media.  He’s no match for the biblical Jesus, however. “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4.