Religion is the Enemy

THE BUMPY ROAD TO SALVATION FROM RELIGION
We reported in Kings, Queens and Princes that religious leader are to be interpreted as Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists  and other charismatic leaders of personal religious kingdoms (e.g. churches, synagogues, denominations, ministries, businesses, etc.) occupied by and supported by people who reject God in favor of a human king to rule over them and fight their battles for them. Although God does not want his people to follow these religious leaders, he allows them to have such a human king when they want want one. We learn this interpretation in 1 Samuel 8 where we find that God yielded to Israel’s demand for a king because Israel’s people had always had a desire for a king to rule over them ever since they left Egypt. In Biblical language, the kings Israel served functioned as gods and people who followed them are idolaters.

We might wonder why God gave Israel a king when he knew what would happen. God knew that his people would not be satisfied with him as their God until they had experienced first hand how demanding and oppressive human kings would be. He understood the reality that people need to compare the failings of human leadership with God’s loving kingship over them before they can fully submit to him. Or, putting it another way, they needed to be slaves before they could be free.

God communicates this lesson to us through the history of Israel and the Jews. Even though Israel had over four hundred years under a king in Egypt, and had been rescued from religion several times, it had not yet learned that it was better to live under God’s authority than a King (i.e. religious leader). And even though Israel had been in exile for four hundred years in Babylon, and was under the rule of Rome when Jesus was born, the temple religious system headed up by the scribes and Pharisees still flourished.

Despite the fact that they had been rescued/delivered from religious enemies many times, God kept reminding Israel that he was the God who took them out of Egypt and slavery. He also warned them not to return to Egypt and follow its religious customs. In all of these reminders God was essentially reminding his people, then and now, that he — not any human king or religious leader — was Israel’s God and that he would punish them with more time in servitude to religion if they did not repent of idolizing human leaders, return to him, and listen to his voice only.

In order for us in this modern age to learn from Israel’s history, we must first accept the fact that Israel symbolically represents Jews and Christians in all ages. Israel was, and is, a religious nation that fears God, which is what Jews and Christians claim to do. Both religions claim the Bible as their source of inspiration and aspire to righteousness based on Biblical teaching. Since all scripture is useful for training in righteousness, it is imperative that both religions learn from Israel’s history.

Evidence of a desire to be obedient to literal scripture is found in Judaism’s devotion to the written law of Moses. Similar evidence regarding Christians is found in the fact they recognize parts of the law of Moses (i.e. Ten Commandments) and accept as truth many other parts of the Old Testament (e.g. creation, Noah’s ark, deliverance from Egypt, prophecies about the Messiah’s birth, Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). Moreover, Christians have formulated most of their doctrines out of the literal words of the New Testament which is a continuation of Israel’s story. Thus, if we identify with Israel, we confirm that Israel’s story is our story and open the way to learning from it.

However, if we do not identify with Israel’s experiences regarding warfare, and recognize Abraham as our father, we have not yet understood the experience of being held in bondage to religion (i.e. Egypt) nor of being delivered from religion (i.e. Egypt). We have lived in bondage but have not understood that religion is slavery. If we do not understand Israel’s bondage and deliverance, we prove that we are still in the season of seven years of plenty that religion offers. We have not yet become hungry enough for the kind of spiritual food (i.e. God’s voice) that only God can give us. We have not suffered in bondage enough to cry out to God for deliverance/salvation.

Another lesson we should see in all of these stories is that God allowed Israel to have kings even though he knew what kings (i.e. religious rulers) would do to oppress Israel. He did this, however, knowing that someday Israel would cry out to him for deliverance and that he would then rescue/redeem/deliver/save them from bondage. In other words, he would bring them salvation from their enemies.

The following is a very brief overview of Israel’s cyclical seasons of victory, defeat and redemption. New Covenant disciples will also recognize that Israel’s story is their story:

  1. Most people are born and raised to follow one religion or another. Those few who are not raised in religious families will develop/create their own personal styles of religion with gods and laws that are unique to them and others who share their values, world view and philosophy. They may not call what they do religion, but if written or unwritten laws of one kind or another control their behaviors, they are by definition, religious.
  2. The religions, values, world views and philosophies of individuals change as people acquire new information that causes them to change course in some big or small way. Even Jews and Christians will modify their religious views and practices when they become convinced of some new truth.
  3. During their whole lives, Christians and Jews show that they consistently fear God in their attempts to obey all of his laws for as much as they understand them. They also show that they consistently fear religious men/women who are in a position to judge them regarding their faithfulness to obey God’s laws.
  4. At some point, religious people begin to have doubts about all the religious stuff that they do, the laws they follow and the controlling judgment exercised by others that keeps them in alignment with religious laws.
  5. At some point, doubters wonder about the holiness and wisdom of their religious leader(s). They wonder about the efficacy of obeying all the rules religion places on them.
  6. At some point they pray to God (i.e. cry out) for wisdom and knowledge that will satisfy their doubts and instruct them about the wisdom of following religious leaders.
  7. At some point, some will take the risk of sharing their doubts about religion with others.
  8. At some point, some begin to read their Bibles with greater desire for more understanding.
  9. God hears their prayers and begins to open their spiritual eyes so that they can understand difficult scriptures that they did not understand previously. He also begins to open their spiritual eyes so that the begin to interpret scripture according to its symbolic meaning instead of only literally. What is happening is that God is beginning to write his laws on their hearts.
  10. At some point they learn that religion is not what God wants from them and learn that they should not be seeking instruction about God from false prophets. So they drop out of religion and seek to learn from God directly by studying the Bible for its spiritual content — not its literal content.
  11. At some point, God opens their eyes to understanding that he is the only one who can teach them about himself.
  12. At some point, God begins to write his laws on their hearts and they know that what they have learned comes directly from his mouth.
  13. At some point they are willing to resist the control that religious leaders, family and friends put on them to stay faithful to their religion by leaving it.
  14. After they leave their religion, they suffer persecution from religious family and friends they have been left behind.
  15. They enjoy a season of exciting spiritual growth. The Bible comes alive for them. They come to know many of the mysteries of God. They study and share what they are learning with others who dare express doubt about religion to them.
  16. Eventually, they become prideful about their new wisdom and their heightened relationship with God. They backslide into a new form of religion that does not involve following rules made by men but which places them in an exalted position relative to people who are involved in conventional religion. They think that they are spiritually superior to religious people and readily display their knowledge of God and criticisms of religion to anyone who will listen. By openly and readily flouting their newfound freedom, they effectively shame religious people for being religious. In doing so, they enter into warfare in the flesh — not in the spirit. They become religious about not being religious and look down on those who are still religious. And because they have chosen to become religious again, God lets them have the desire of their heart by punishing them with more religion.
  17. Some may eventually choose to return to their old religion, adopt one that is new for them, or create a new one for themselves and any others who would join them. In Biblical terms, they choose to go back to Egypt. God, of course lets them go and gives them another chance to cry out to him for deliverance.
  18. The cycle begins again. Instead of being a friend of God, they become an enemy of God thinking that they are serving God by openly, even aggressively, shaming people about the errors of their religions. They backslide into religion by publicly displaying that they are not religious in the conventional sense. They idolize themselves for knowledge that God gave to them. In doing so, they set themselves up again for bondage to religion and the need to be delivered again.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: This cycle is grossly simplified and very generalized because it is impossible to try to summarize the Bible or our spiritual walk in a few steps. Nevertheless, we think it agrees, in general, with scriptures that also summarize Israel’s cycle of salvation, back-sliding, and salvation again. With all its shortcomings, it is a useful outline of the story of Israel which God gave us as an insight into our own history with religion. The sooner we can understand this history and apply it to our own lives, the better prepared we are to avoid falling into the same cycle.

The Religion Detox Network may appeal to people who recognize some or all of the steps in the process described above. They will finds its various forums useful for reporting their own experiences with religion so that others may be encouraged that the doubts about religion that currently trouble them are normal for spiritual growth and the transition to become a New Covenant disciple.

The reason for reviewing Israel’s history is to recognize that everyone is, at one time or another, a slave to religion and an enemy of God. We are enemies of God during those phases of the cycle when we practice religion. We are friends of God only during the phases when the following is true:

If we want to be friends of God, and most of us do, we do well to recognize that only God’s friends engage in warfare as his soldiers to set captives free. And if we do not understand God’s commands to utterly destroy religion and set religious captives free, we are blind to the fact that we are slaves to religion.

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