DIVIDED RELIGIONS DO NOT REPRESENT GOD
Because we live in America, our perspective on religion is based on what we see and read about American religion. To the degree that American style Christianity has been exported throughout the world, we may also represent the face of religion globally scale as well.

The way we see it, this subject deserves our attention because the majority of what passes for “religion” in America, indeed in the world, is false, Old Covenant religion. When we say “false,” we mean that it does not agree with what the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob says is true and acceptable to him.

Readers who do not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will probably not agree that our findings are relevant to their religious beliefs. But, even if readers are not personally interested in what this God has to say about religion, they might be interested from a cultural perspective. Hardly anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs, can deny that this God’s followers have historically had a lot influence, both good and bad, around the world. For this reason alone, it might be educational to read about religion to better understand history and current affairs as they have been influenced by religious Christians and Jews. Whatever the motivation, we think that readers will be interested to learn that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not the god that Christian and Jewish religionists have historically presented to the world.

Realistically, we do not expect much better acceptance from people who do say they believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is to be expected because Old Covenant religionist’s eyes are blinded to the truth about the New Covenant. Nevertheless, we trust that the eyes of a few will be opened just as Saul of Tarsus’ eyes were opened on the way to Damascus. Saul, who was later known as Paul, experienced a radical change in perspective on the Old/First Covenant in which he was so deeply invested and which he worked so diligently to preserve by persecuting Jesus’ followers. The story of Saul/Paul encourages us to trust that if God was willing and able to convert a hard core religionist like Saul from Old/New Covenant religion to New Covenant faith, he can and will effect that conversion for others — even those who initially resist seeing and hearing with spiritual eyes and ears.

Christian readers readily accept that Saul needed converting because he was Jewish, but they reject that they need converting. In their pride that they “have Jesus,” they think they have all they need. They fail to realize that they have the same problem that Saul had: They are religious. They practice an Old/First Covenant kind of religion that differs only in its form from the religion that Saul and his fellow Pharisees practiced.

In their pride, Christians fail to see that they are just as legalistic as Saul and his religious colleagues before his conversion. Here are a few general ways that they are similar:

To Christians, Saul had the wrong kind of religion and they have the right kind of religion. This kind of thinking is a dead giveaway that they do need converting from Old/First Covenant religion. It is a dead giveaway that they are not New Covenant disciples. This way of thinking is identical to the prideful attitude of the Pharisees who had the Law of Moses and the Temple.

Once reader’s eyes are opened to the differences between Old/First Covenant and the New Covenant, they will find is that this God is not interested in various kinds of religious activity as Christians and Jews represent. They will learn that what has historically passed for religion was, and is, nothing more than man’s traditions and refined from generation to generation. If they follow the many links we make to scripture, they will discover that this God actually abhors these religious traditions and the pious, religious show-offs who practice them. Anyone who knows anything about God can see that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not a God who is in the habit of showing off for earthly rewards. They will learn that his desire is to display himself as loving, merciful and compassionate to the world — not as a god of religious rules, rituals, and high-sounding language.

What they will learn is that, although hundreds of different religious traditions around the world mention God, claim speak in his name, claim to trust him and claim that his word as reported in the Bible is true, they are in fact hypocrites.  This is no less true for Jews than for Christians. The very fact of their fine, and sometimes not so fine, sectarian religious distinctions disqualifies all of them as being Godly because they collectively deny the truth that God is one  and that there should be no divisions between those who are New Covenant disciples (i.e. in Christ).

We can see clearly from the multitude of denominations around the world that they are not members of a unified body. This is true because they conduct their religious activities with total independence from one another and show no real sense of cooperation, nor mutual caring for one another. Their independence testifies to their illegitimacy as members of the Body of Christ.

All these religionists say one thing (i.e.we are Christians, Jews), but do another. What they say sounds good to them, and they believe what they say is the truth, but they are ignorant and deceived about the true nature of God and what he expects of his followers. In their self righteousness pride they believe that they are Godly, but they are only religious.