| RELIGIOUS FORM IN AMERICA |
RELIGIOUS FORM COMPARED TO BIBLE |
| Stories, sometimes written, document the origins, history and doctrines of the religion and create a sense of timeless unity with ancestors who practiced the religion. Most Christians will say that the Bible is God’s word and that they trust it completely. |
- The main story for all Christian religions is the Bible. However, different denominations emphasize different parts of the Bible when framing their choice doctrines. This lack of agreement on what is most important is evidence that denominations are not in the Kingdom of God which is not and cannot be divided.
- Christians have added to God’s word with non-canonical writings and subtracted from it by ignoring much of it — mainly the Old Testament. There is crossover of some doctrines among some denominations, but there is no general agreement among all denominations about doctrinal issues. This division indicates that denominations are illegitimate pretenders to membership in Kingdom of God.
- Individual denominations show great affection and loyalty for their preferred doctrines and non-canonical writings, but there is a lack of evidence that all denominations agree on even the basic doctrines. These clear divisions represent a fractured view of God that discredits the doctrinal leanings of all denominations.
- Lack of agreement indicates that no denominations have a realistic, much less comprehensive, view of the Bible or of God. This discredits all religious organizations.
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| Religionists within a religious organization have their own language (e.g. code words, symbols, terms, etc.) to describe their religious history, activity and experiences. |
- Although all religious organizations use Biblical language, there are differences in religious terms and concepts between denominations — especially regarding salvation, sacraments and worship.
- These differences make it nearly impossible for denominations to communicate with each other on anything deeper than the most fundamental level.
- Lack of understanding between religions is evidence of the confusion that God created when the Babylonians tried to build a tower to reach God.
- It is evidence that denominations are trying to connect to God through Old/First Covenant religious works — not by the Spirit. Thus God has frustrated their efforts and divided their language so that they cannot communicate effectively with each other.
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| Prescribed sets of ceremonial actions and postures are used in public and private worship and prayer to create distinct religious experiences that differentiate one religion from another. |
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| Prescribed sets of moral principles define acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for member religionists |
- Basic moral standards are similar for most denominations. Some are more rigid regarding personal habits like smoking, drinking and dress.
- Big differences exist between denominations regarding social issues like abortion and gay marriage. These differences discredit all denominational religions and clearly indicate that each religion has used the Bible to justify its own rational, worldly positions.
- God’s Kingdom is not divided. Since these religions are divided on moral issues as well as other issues (i.e. worship, doctrine, etc.), they show that they are illegitimate pretenders to membership in the Kingdom of God.
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- Each religion has its own unique (more or less) forms for buildings, clothing, icons and sacred ritual objects are used in public and private worship and prayer.
- Big differences exist between old and new denominations. Older denominations tend to employ physical objects in worship more than newer denominations.
- Most new religions (e.g. Charismatics, independents, etc.) rigidly avoid ritual objects and clothing associated with older denominations (e.g. Catholic, Episcopalian, etc.) because they want to avoid being legalistic.
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| Each religion has its unique liturgy, sacraments, language and rituals that provide unifying worship experiences that strengthen and unite the religious community. |
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| Ritual activities (i.e. dance, music, singing, processions, etc.) generate physical and emotional responses that affirm that worshipers have established a relationship with God. |
- The Bible mentions singing, dancing and instruments, but those are in the context of Old/First Covenant religion.
- All commandments are satisfied fully for New Covenant disciples who are no longer under the written law of Moses.
- Therefore, all forms of religious worship constitute religious works which are no longer necessary for those who are at rest in Jesus. Religionists who seek these experiences sincerely believe that they are connecting with God but are deceived because they do not distinguish between spirit, soul and body.
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- Religious services (e.g. baptisms, funerals, weddings, sacraments, education, counseling, exorcism, etc.) are provided by trained leaders to members of the religious community.
- All denominations provide basic religious services (e.g. baptisms, funerals, weddings, sacraments, etc.) to their religionists. Larger religious communities may provide additional services.
- There are usually no absolute fees for service — except for people who are not members of the local religious organization — but there is a common practice of giving honorariums to clergy and musicians who participate in the religious service.
- Adherents to specific denominations have strong feelings about the importance of these services and the authority of their particular religion to deliver them to people.
- Hard core religionists for each denomination will not cross denominational lines to receive these services from another denomination. Nor will they receive the services from anyone who is not certified by their preferred denomination. In effect, the denomination and its religious leaders have ascended to the level of gods and idols for those religionists.
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- The practice of professional religious leaders is inconsistent with the concept of the priesthood of all believers.
- Most religious ceremonies and traditions are not based on Biblical commands.
- Payment for religious services is not commanded in the Bible.
- This all is evidence of division that clearly shows that the various services are remnants of traditions within each denomination and not part of a unified kingdom.
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| Various types of ministries (e.g. prayer, education, healing, financial assistance, small groups, missions, evangelism, hospitality, etc.) are provided by professional clergy and trained lay volunteers. |
- The practice of creating programmed ministries to be delivered at regular times in specific locations is not Biblical. Neither Jesus, nor his disciples, nor any of the Old Testament prophets fulfilled their ministry duties in a specific location at scheduled times.
- Old Testament priests did fulfill their duties in the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple, but these were only symbolic Old/First Covenant manifestations of spiritual New Covenant worship.
- Programmed religious services offered by corporate religious organizations are traditions made by men to strengthen the importance of religious organizations and to provide a recognizable structure in which ministry can be performed. They are part of the Commercial Religion business structure.
- The Biblical model of ministry is “on the go” when and where it was needed. That is how Jesus ministered and is how his followers should minister also.
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| Routine collections of financial offerings and fundraising events for special financial needs occurs in all religious organizations. |
- The only Biblical examples of financial collections are for the creation of the Tabernacle of Moses and temple taxes to maintain the temple. Both of these are symbolic Old/First Covenant practices that were fulfilled by Christ. They ended when the Temple was demolished by the Romans in 70 A.D.
- The practice of collecting or raising money for religious purposes violates God’s prohibitions regarding Commercial Religion.
- The practice of giving tithes and offerings is the Old/First Covenant model of spiritual New Covenant sacrifices tithes and offerings.
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| Routine participation in weekly worship events, special festivals, small groups and volunteer ministry activities. |
- The Bible does not prescribe regular attendance at church or any other kind of worship event. Nor does it prescribe the formation of programmed ministry events to be held at particular times and locations.
- A review of the life of Christ reveals that all his encounters with people were while he was moving about through cities and the countryside ministering when and where needed — not by appointment or schedule.
- Scheduled religious events are traditions established by men to strengthen corporate religious organizations by creating structure and security (i.e. church, synagogue, ministry institutions) for their respective religionists.
- By providing these functions through a man-made, corporate structure, they usurp the role of the Holy Spirit who can deliver needed spiritual services at any time in any location through any New Covenant disciple who is recreated in the likeness of Christ.
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| Events designed to provide supernatural experiences where religionists can have a direct and powerful connection with God through prayer, fasting, worship music, Holy Spirit anointings, etc. |
- All religions try to connect people to God. Basically they use tried and true ceremonial rituals, music and community events based on Old/First Covenant principles to foster emotional/psychological feelings of well-being and security for religionists.
- Physical buildings are touted as the “house of God” where he and his healing/comforting services may be accessed whenever a worship service is held there.
- Charismatic and Pentecostal religions have made a fine art of elevating the religious experience from security and good feelings to powerful, supernatural, God encounters.
- Prophets evangelists, teachers, apostles and professional worship musicians have also tapped into this market for a “touch from God” by traveling around the country to provide teaching/worship/prophetic/evangelistic events for which ignorant, naive people will pay in terms of time and money to touch God.
- These so-called “spiritual” experiences have become the primary reason people attend these religious events. For them, it is all about experiencing God in a way that they consider to be highly spiritual, but is really only their flesh at work.
- These events may have an aura of spirituality, but they are really about Commercial Religion and Defiled Religion.
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| A system for training leaders and placing them in local religious communities.Each local religious community has a professional leadership team, including a lead pastor or rabbi, that is responsible for spiritual direction, teaching and public relations. |
- This practice is an important part of the Commercial Religion system. It is the beginning of the cycle of paying for religious education and places leaders in professional positions where they must be compensated for the education they deliver to others so that they can recoup the investment they have made in their education.
- In most denominations leaders must purchase and expensive four-year education (typically in a college called a seminary) in order to be eligible for ordination to serve as a leader (e.g. pastor, priest, etc.) in a local religious community.
- Like other college educated professionals, these “seminarians” often go into debt for their education. Because of this debt they are forced to teach for pay when they secure a position in a local religious community.
- The seminary institutions and their professors are integral to the cycle because they must charge for their services in order to stay open.
- They all teach from the Bible but they violate all the Biblical principles regarding Commercial Religion.
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| Evangelism programs for recruiting, qualifying and receiving new members into the religious community. |
- Religious organizations have policies and procedures that they implement programmatically to protect and advance the organization. They preach a doctrine they call the good news, promote themselves as spiritually special, hold evangelical events, and conduct many other public, programmed activities to attract and keep visitors whom they hope will become member religionists.
- While these activities are couched in religious language and symbolism that was birthed in man’s traditions — not in God’s commandments.
- Although lay people are encouraged to be evangelistic, these activities are generally conducted by leaders in the organization, but the most aggressive evangelism programs (e.g. crusades, conferences, worship events, etc.) will bring in (i.e. hire) an outside evangelist to direct it and run it.
- Public events require that the evangelists, both lay and professional, must publicly display their righteousness to strangers through public prayer and testimonies which are always a part of such events.
- This system of evangelism is all man-made and is not based on the Bible, except that they will use Biblical terms to justify their program and attract candidate religionsts. What the events are really evangelizing for is the advancement of the religious organization — not the Kingdom of God.
- Even though professional evangelists claim to have the spiritual gift of evangelism, they are paid to use what they received for free. These events look spiritual on the surface, but it is the religious organization, especially the leaders, who benefit.
- All such events are examples of Commercial Religion. In the guise of evangelism, they usurp God’s role in bringing in the harvest.
- While these programs claim that the purpose is to lead people to God, they are really leading them to the local religious community with hopes that they will become members and support it with time and money.
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| A system for welcoming, educating and integrating religionists into the local religious community. |
- Religious organizations are very aware of what it takes to attract and keep new members. Competition for religionists is very keen and all have their own programs based on the latest theories and concepts on how to effectively grow a church.
- An important part of this program is making people feel welcome, wanted and necessary to the mission of the organization. It is a programmed human work designed to integrate candidate religionists into the local religious community so they will maintain loyalty to it and support it with time and money.
- The promise of a deeper relationship with God is the hook that gets them in the door, but ultimately the goal is financial security of the religious community and preservation of the leadership. The hidden message to candidate religionists is this: “If you are a part of our organization, we will teach you and your children and provide all the religious services (e.g. baptism, confirmation, weddings, funerals, sacraments, opportunities to serve God, etc.) that you will need. We are your one-stop source for all things religious.”
- This hidden message puts all the focus on what the local religious community will do and effectively places it ahead of God as the source of all things religious. It wrongly implies that people cannot have meaningful access to God independent of the local religious community.
- This attitude effectively makes the religious community a God and an idol to those who buy into the religious system.
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| Hierarchical leadership that monitors and provides direction, correction and other services to lower level communities within the larger religious organization |
The Bible warns about worthless shepherds, false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, Jezebel and the nicolaitins. Religious leaders fall into one or more of these categories for one or more of the following reasons.
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| A policy of collecting tithes, offerings and volunteer service that supports the religion’s physical and corporate infrastructure and compensates its leaders. |
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God’s purpose is to build corporate religious organizations. When God says that his people are the temple in which he lives, he means individuals — not religious institutions or buildings. In Jesus’ time there was a religious institution: the temple. The leaders of the temple were the religious leaders of the day. Jesus had many strong words against those leaders and he tried to put them out of business because they were all corrupt. Today’s religious institutions, both large and small, are modern day examples of the old temple system with its corrupt leaders. Then and now, tithes and offerings keep religious leaders in business. It was Commercial Religion then and it is Commercial religion today. Just as Jesus challenged the old system, his follower will challenge the modern religious organizations. |
| An elected board of directors establishes policies and procedures for conducting the business of the religious community.Bookkeeping systems, policies and reports designed to ensure that all financial transactions conform to government laws and sound accounting principles and to demonstrate fiscal accountability to cash donors. |
Democratically elected leadership is a strong feature of western society. It is also an integral feature of religious organizations — at least in America. Religious organizations cannot become legal non-profit organizations unless they have a leadership system that includes a board of directors that is elected from the general population of the religious community. Members of this board tend to run their organizations much like a business. First they must become legally organized as a corporation with state government. To do that they must adopt written articles of incorporation and bylaws that will govern what the organization does how its goals will be accomplished.These are all laws created by men that effectively supersede God’s laws written on the hearts of men according to the terms of the New Covenant. Candidate religious organizations must file a lengthy, detailed application process with the Federal Government. Once legally organized they must establish policies and procedures for the handling of money. The federal government watches religious organizations closely to ensure that they follow all appropriate laws.These laws also supersede God’s laws.If government regulations are not followed, religious organizations can lose their non-profit status. If the organization loses its non-profit status, religionists who give tithes and offerings to the organization will not be able to claim tax deductions for their gifts. If religionists do not get that financial kick-back from the government, financial gifts will likely decrease. If giving decreases, the organization will be in financial trouble, and the organization would be at risk. For all those reasons and more, boards of directors must run the organization according to the rules that the government has established for non-profit organizations. The clear implication of this situation is that the laws of the land and good business practices are the most important facts considered when making corporate decisions. When that happens, the government trumps God and in effect becomes a god for the boards of directors to follow.See Religion and Government for more about this relationship. |
| Teams of volunteers are authorized to conduct the nonprofessional work of the religious community |
Of all the factors included for analysis, this one comes closest to being Biblical. There is still a problem here, however, in the fact that whatever happens is under the direction and supervision of the leadership of the religious community. For the most part, whatever is done by volunteers is the result of a conscious deliberative decision to create a programmed volunteer activity. If the leadership designs the program, appoints and supervises the volunteers, and provides the resources (e.g. building, finances, etc.), and schedules the activity into the organization’s activity structure, it is clearly the organization’s program — not God’s. We see in this model of how religious organizations sponsor programs a situation where the organization usurps God’s role as the director of his people. The volunteers may be working in God’s name, but they are really working for the religious organization. The organization functions as a god for the volunteer if it controls all aspects of the activity. This kind of control is totally contrary to the way God moves through the Holy Spirit. |
| Contract support is provided from a wide array of organizations (both religious and secular) that specialize in religious and technical services that the local religious community cannot conduct on its own. |
- Church is big business. Most churches have staff, equipment and buildings to take care of day-to-day business, but all churches must contract for services they cannot conduct themselves. The same is true for other religious organizations that are not technically churches.
- All these activities comprise what we call Commercial Religion. It takes resources that could be allocated to the poor and directs them back to the people who fund the activities with their tithes and offerings. Since the people who give financially to pay for all these services, they are also the ones who benefit from the services that keep the doors open and the organization running.
- People who contribute financially to churches and other religious organizations justify their participation with the thinking that they are helping God do his work in the Kingdom. What they are really doing is paying for the religious services that they consume. Perhaps some money does go to people outside the organization, but it is a small percentage.
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| Pubic activism by corporate religious organizations and individuals on contemporary issues and movements (e.g abortion, gay marriage, politics, creationism, etc.) |
Jesus said that his disciples should not get involved in civilian pursuits.He also told his disciples to give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. Furthermore, Romans 13:1-8 argues against such activism on the basis of the fact that God establishes all governing authorities. Thus to try to change the policies and practices of those authorities is the equivalent of trying to change God. |