GODLINESS AND RELIGION ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
Throughout this website we have identified many indicators of the disconnect between God’s expectations for his people and they way they actually function in their religious activities. The following table is a brief summary of those disconnects.

STUDY TIP: An in-depth investigation of God’s ways compared to religion’s ways reveals more and greater contrasts than those mentioned in the above table. Basically, the differences are summarized as Old/First Covenant and New Covenant. Nevertheless, the table is useful to identify the contrast between God’s spiritual works and the man’s religious works.

See Covenants Comparisons for detailed discussions of the differences between the two covenants.

See Religion for a critical analysis of factors commonly associated with religion, especially American style religion. There we see that what is seen as religion is inconsistent with God’s commandments. In fact, we will go so far as to say that the public face of religion, specifically Christianity and Judaism, is totally contrary to what God has commanded. Indeed both religions have a lot of form that looks good to religionists because the form is cloaked in language and ritual that seems Godly and has been accepted as Godly through generations of religious practice. The problem is that it only seems Godly — there is no power in either kind of religion.

When we bother to investigate the differences, we see that being Godly and being religious are totally contradictory concepts. Godly people are not religious as we define “religious.” Godliness does not have a clear, visible, public face like religions do. And Godliness does not consist of various rules of conduct, traditions and physical things (i.e. clothing, buildings, artifacts, symbols, etc.) that create unique identities for individual religions.

Pure Religion (i.e. Godliness) is obscure and spiritual — not visible and tangible like religion. After all, if God lives in a cloud, it should also be true that his followers also figuratively live in a cloud — not out in full public view for all to see their comings, their goings, and all their religious works. New Covenant disciples should do their good deeds in secret as Jesus commanded. This is fully consistent with “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts” and with the spiritual principle of not looking at outward appearances.

Godliness has powerful effects for good in the world, but religion has only weak, ineffective religious form.  Religionists try to spin that empty form in ways that make it seem spiritual, but no amount of spin can generate real spiritual power. No matter what people do to embellish their religion with rituals, symbols, or clothing, it is still just a form of godliness, but it has no spiritual power.

STUDY TIP: See MAGIC, SORCERY, DIVINATION AND WITCHCRAFT for understanding of how religion deceives people into believing that religion is what God wants.

The only real power that religion has is to control those who subscribe to and submit themselves to the rules and regulations of a particular religion. That is why it is always conducted in public view. If it was conducted only privately, out of sight, and if there were no boasting about those religious thoughts and activities that are not in public view, no one would notice and there would be no recognition or affirmations for being religious.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is Injustice, Slavery, Oppression and Affliction for more about religious control.

Pure Religion is never meant to be on display — except in and through the lives of people who represent God’s character by virtue of the fact that his laws are written on their hearts (i.e. New Covenant).  It does not happen at particular times in special locations like Defiled Religion.  Some religious people will boldly put their religiosity on display whenever they see and opportunity to show the world how spiritual they are.

One popular way people publicly display their religion is through engagement in public quarrels and controversies between themselves and the world at large. Consider current public issues like abortion and gay marriage. Religious people on both sides of these issues have vocally represented their views. However, they do not speak the same religious language. Not only do they not agree with respect to the issue of the day, they also do not agree on theological issues. To each denominational stream the language of another stream sounds like babbling gibberish. The only thing that they really share is the name “Christian” which they have loosely and wrongly appropriated as a kind of appendage to their other names which identify the distinctive tradition by which they are known.

These religionists are all practicing Defiled Religion and have totally missed Pure Religion. Contrary to their fervent claims of piety,  scripture shows that, despite their claims, they did not and do not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Rather, they worship other gods and idols (both tangible and intangible) that suit their need for some sort of religion as they create and follow their unique religious traditions in ways that fit their respective cultures.

Christians think that because they believe in Jesus they are New Covenant disciples. But believing in the man Jesus is not enough. Jesus is not just a man. He is not just the Son of God. He is the embodiment (i.e. fulfillment) of the spirit of the Law of Moses. If Christians and Jews understood this truth, they would not continue to practice their own forms of False Religion. They would rest (i.e. cease/stop) their visible, public religious works with full confidence and trust that the Spirit of God was alive and at work in them secretly to practice True Religion when and where God himself chooses to use them. The fruit of the Spirit would be present and visible in them 24/7 as they live their lives in peace and harmony with others.