Why I Hate Religion

A slick new department store opened a few blocks from where we live in the suburbs of Taipei a few months ago, and I remember the first day my wife and I went over to check it out. It's a medium-sized department store that features the usual range of stores selling clothes, sporting goods, cosmetics and so on, and as is usually the case there is a bookstore located on one floor.

Naturally, I wanted to see if they had much of a selection of books in English. Here in Taiwan, most bookstores have at least some, but it varies widely. And as you might guess, I instinctively check any bookstore to see what they have in the area of religion; but as a Christian living in a Buddhist/Taoist country, I have learned to keep my expectations hovering between zero and low.

But this wasn't just any department store in any city—this was our department store in our city. Our first and only. So, hoping for the best, I struck out through the rows of shelves to see if I could find something worthwhile, and my hopes sprang a bit higher when I spotted the word Religion along one wall.

As I drew near, I noticed that the section labeled Religion was combined with another, and that this section was to the immediate left of another section of books, all apparently in alphabetical order for added convenience:

|  Philosophy & Religion  |  Self-Improvement  |

Philosophy and Self-Improvement. First of all, philosophy (literally "the love of wisdom") could be defined as the intellectual pursuit of wisdom by means of moral self-discipline.

Self-improvement is self-explanatory.

As I looked at the signs, the Holy Spirit gave me a nudge. He reminded me that that's exactly where the world keeps religion: neatly ensconced between philosophy and self-improvement, as if aching for a hip new portmanteau, like Selfosophy, or Philoprovement. In the eyes of the world, that's precisely where religion belongs, because to the world that's essentially what it is.

Many people tend to think of religion as a body of human wisdom enshrined in a code of moral principles that are to be espoused and adhered to in order to help us live exemplary lives, gain the favor of whatever we choose to perceive as a Supreme Being, and ultimately be rewarded by attaining an enhanced or elevated spiritual state after we die.

So, you might say religion boils down to a process of making oneself better and wiser in this life and more deserving of a celestial promotion in the next.

Sort of a do-gooders code of conduct with a tip of the hat to The Man Upstairs.

Simply put, religion is the process of making oneself more godlike.

Well, who wouldn't love that?

Many religions, in one form or another, take this idea to its logical extreme. They teach that if we faithfully follow their precepts and perform their rituals with sufficient ardor and diligence, we can ultimately become as gods, or maybe "one with God" in some nebulous way. Of course, it might take us a few dozen lifetimes to get the job done, but that's the general thrust of it.

There have been countless variations through the centuries; however, the theme of making oneself more godlike runs through virtually every religion on earth in one form or another. It always has, and it continues to this day. Satan has never changed his lies—why should he? They have a proven track record that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Satan's not stupid.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

His lies do, however, get occasional makeovers to keep up with the times.

The latest installment in Satan's Hit Parade of Deception is the New Age religion, which says you have a God-consciousness within you, and through trendy, repackaged meditative techniques you can tune into that God-consciousness and awaken it. As you do so, you can raise your spiritual vibration levels and better prepare yourself for the "ascension," or the next big step up in man's spiritual evolution.

Not quite sure how that's supposed to work, but it sounds like a real hoot.

The point is that from the book of Genesis to the Age of Aquarius, religion stands out as one of Satan's greatest inventions, and, in spite of its outward appearances to the contrary, it has served him well in his tireless effort to steer people away from the cross, blind them to the simple truth of the gospel, and hijack, derail, sabotage, or otherwise subvert their efforts to have a spiritual relationship with God.

The anti-religion

Let me clarify one thing. First, as the title of this article suggests, I hate religion, at least religion as I have defined it.

Once more with feeling: I hate religion!

Any religion. All religions.

The idea that people can be so deceived and spiritually blind that they believe there is something they can do in their own power and wisdom to justify themselves or make themselves more acceptable to a holy God or to become more like Him...I'm sorry, but I can't conceive of anything any more insulting to God. It breaks my heart, and it makes me sick.

It makes God sick, too:

A polluted garment. I love what the King James Version calls it: filthy rags.

Filthy rags. That's God's view of man's religion in a nutshell.

My point is that anyone who believes that Christianity is just another religion may know a thing or two about religion, but knows absolutely zilch point nada about Christianity.

It literally makes me grimace in pain when I hear someone blabbering on about "the Christian religion." I mean, talk about two words that don't belong in the same sentence...

As a point of fact: Christianity is not a religion, and hearing people call it one is music to the devil's ears. In fact, it is the antithesis of religion.

It's religion ripped inside out and flipped on its head.

It's the anti-religion.

Religion takes people on a dead-end journey toward the illusory goal of self-improvement and supposed spiritual development—a journey couched in human wisdom and philosophy that is doomed to end in failure because man is born with a sin nature that has separated him from God, and there is nothing man can do about it.

Which is where the anti-religion begins.

God doesn't start until we end.

• It's not until the Holy Spirit can convict us of our sin to the point where we finally come to the inner realization that we can do nothing to save ourselves or to make ourselves more acceptable to God in any way that His grace can penetrate our hearts.

• It is only then that we can come to God with a broken and contrite spirit, and ask for the forgiveness of our sin that Jesus purchased on the cross and believe in faith that His death paid our penalty in full, and that because He lives, so shall we.

• It is only then that we are reconciled to a holy God, and His Spirit is sealed within us as a guarantee of our eternal future, which is with God in a place He has prepared for us.

• It is only then that we are born again, or born of the Spirit, and have restored our spiritual relationship with God, who loves us and created us so we could spend eternity with Him.

• It is only then that we are permanently adopted into God's family.

• It is only then that God can look at us and no longer see the sin that separated us from Him, but instead see the righteousness of His own Son, who died in our place to satisfy the Father's justice on our behalf because we were utterly incapable of doing so.

And it is only then you will begin to understand why I hate religion.

Oh yeah?

Now, don't get the wrong idea. Obviously, I understand what people mean when they innocently talk about Christianity as a religion, and I don't get all bent out of shape, or go off ranting and raving (sort of like what I'm doing in this article). I'm not that big a jerk. At least I try not to be. In my more lucid moments I realize there is nothing inherently wrong with calling Christianity a religion. I'm not trying to be obtuse.

I'm just trying to make a point and communicate to you some of the basic problems with some of the world's concepts of religion. I just want you to see clearly some of the fundamental differences between what man's religion says and what God's Word says.

Here are just a handful of examples of how man-made religion is totally at odds with the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in God's Word.

• Most religions say you have to do good deeds and follow certain rules and rituals to earn and/or keep your salvation and work your way to heaven.

Oh yeah?

That is, He did it all because we couldn't. There lies the simple, naked essence of the gospel—and it just jams people's gears. This is the one people can't wrap their heads around, and the reason is simple:

It makes no sense!

It simply doesn't compute in terms of human logic or wisdom. How can you expect any intelligent person to believe that God sent His Son to earth in the form of a man to die to pay the penalty for our sin and satisfy His Father's justice on our behalf?

It's nuts!

The apostle Paul agrees:

Foolishness. There is absolutely nothing logical about the gospel from the standpoint of human reasoning or intellect. It utterly confounds the wisdom of men—because it's the wisdom of God.

• Some religions say there are many paths to God, and all are equally valid.

Oh yeah?

But hey, if you hear about someone else who was born of a virgin and so didn't inherit a sin nature from Adam, lived a sinless life, died and was resurrected—all in accordance with Scripture, and as a result paid the penalty for our sin and made it possible for us to be reconciled to a holy God and live in His presence for eternity, please contact me immediately on the Redemption Hotline at 1-800-MESSIAH.

• Religion says that man can become like God.

Oh yeah?

In other words, it's the other way around: God became a man.

This is another one that makes people cough up a hairball: the idea that Jesus was literally God in the flesh. People have written truckloads of books about this, and I'm not going to write another one here. But let me share one quick thought that I hope will be illuminating:

When man sinned, he offended an infinitely holy God. Man had to be punished, and the punishment was death. It was a judgment placed upon man, because a perfectly just God had to judge sin. No exceptions.

Man sinned, man had to pay. That's the way justice works.

That's why God had to send His Son—part of Himself—into the world as a man. Jesus didn't become an angel to redeem sinful angels. He didn't become an orangutan to redeem sinful orangutans.

God sent His Son into the world as a man to redeem sinful men.

• Some religions teach that we live many lifetimes, and as we do we grow and learn life lessons and steadily perfect ourselves (and maybe resolve a little karma along the way) until we reach the point where we don't have to come back again. At that point we become one with God or get to move on to a higher plane of existence.

Oh yeah?

OK, listen up: The Bible makes quick work of the satanically inspired idea of reincarnation, or transmigration of the soul, or whatever they call it these days:

I'm not trying to sound like a smart aleck, but I've often wondered which part of "die once" is confusing to people.

"Well, what about people who remember past lives? I've read about people who have been hypnotized and remembered lots of details about their past lives, and it all checked out! What about that, Bible Dude?"

I'm so glad you asked. Here's the thing. Once you start playing around with stuff like hypnosis and altered states of consciousness, you are stumbling around on the outer edges of the lowest realms of the spirit world with a big "KICK ME!" sign on your back, leaving yourself wide open to all manner of demonic deception.

Although Satan and his demons cannot see the future clearly (which is why the accuracy of so-called fortune-tellers is so spotty), knowing the past is a walk in the park.

Yeah, I know. "Satanically inspired" is pretty strong language. And no, those are not words I toss around lightly. But let's put on our thinking caps. Ready? OK, here's the $64,000 question:

Q. Who would inspire and promote a concept that demolishes God's plan of redemption, discredits God's Word, denies everything Jesus taught, and dismantles everything that Jesus did for us by virtue of His death and resurrection, all while dangling under our noses the tantalizing notion that we can become as gods through our own human efforts?

Take your time. OK, here's a hint:

That's right, Satan. We've got a winner. And full credit if you said Lucifer, Beelzebub, the devil, the adversary, the serpent, the dragon, the evil one, the father of lies, the prince of the power of the air, or the god of this world.

• Many religions have revered books and writings they claim are just as valid as the Bible.

Oh yeah?

You can take the Qur'an, the Buddhist sutras, the I Ching, the Apocrypha, the Book of Mormon, and all the rest of what various religions consider "holy writ" and put them on the shelf along with all the other books of man-made philosophy and fanciful moral tales and leave them there to gather dust. The Old and New Testaments of the Bible in their original form stand alone as the self-confirming Word of the Creator. But how on earth can anyone make such a brash statement?

Two words: FULFILLED PROPHECY

God doesn't expect blind faith. He gave us a brain, and expects us to use it. God confirms His Word through fulfilled prophecy. That's His authenticating signature. Only God knows all events for all time with absolute accuracy, and it doesn't take long to discover that the Bible is bursting at the seams with prophecies that have been fulfilled to the letter.

Even if you are already a born-again believer, if you have never really studied the Bible enough to see this for yourself, you need to do a little homework. Once you do, your walk with the Lord will never be the same.

You won't have to settle for merely believing the Bible is God's Word—you'll absolutely know it is beyond the shadow of any doubt.

It'll pour cement into the foundation of your faith.

You will never have to worry about falling victim to the slippery arguments of secular scholars who dismissively disparage a book they haven't actually read and certainly don't understand as being full of "errors" and "contradictions," every single one of which can be dispatched with a nominal amount of common sense and competent Bible study.

On the other hand, of course, if you can find some passages in the Qur'an or some section of the Buddhist sutras that predict the coming of a Messiah and then give precise details concerning His genealogy, birthplace, life, ministry, the manner and circumstances of His death and subsequent resurrection many centuries in advance, and also accurately describe the geopolitical events and machinations that would herald the general time of His return millennia before we see them begin to unfold on CNN, then you will most definitely have my undivided attention.

But you'll have to forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

• Some religions have you worshiping the earth, something in nature, or even yourself because, after all, God is in everything.

Oh yeah?

Worshiping the creation instead of the Creator really rubs God the wrong way. God is separate and distinct from His creation: Even though He can exist everywhere, that doesn't mean His essence is "in all things." It's apples and oranges. This concept is called panentheism, and it is not biblical, no matter many Avatar sequels Hollywood cranks out.

Sweet, smooth, slippery and subtle, yes. Biblical, no.

You can get into some fairly thick theological stew digging into this, but in the end panentheism comes up short. Some careful Bible study blows it out of the water and exposes it as a fanciful misconception. The real problem is that if you believe that God's essence is actually in everything, then He must be in you, too. But if He's already in you, then what's all this business about people having a sin nature and needing a Savior to be reconciled to God? Hmm...

Suddenly the entire New Testament is at best meaningless mush, and at worst a cacophony of contradictions.

Hello, New Age religion.

It sounds great on the surface, but if you buy into it you may as well run your Bible through a shredder.

And then go channel your friendly neighborhood Ascended Master.

• Most religions say that Jesus was merely a great moral teacher (right up there with Buddha, Krishna, Muhammed, et al.) who, rather than being God in the flesh, simply came to deliver God's message, or maybe to show us how to manifest our God-consciousness.

Oh yeah?

Someone should lend Oprah Winfrey a Bible to read, because apparently the empty spot on her bookshelf where it used to sit has been filled by The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle.

Jesus was God's one and only Son—God in the flesh—who left His position as the second Person of a triune Creator to be born into the world as a man for one reason: to die to pay the penalty for our sin so that we could be saved from eternal separation from God, be reconciled to Him, and receive His gift of eternal life.

It always fascinates me to see how various other religions often bend over backwards to shower Jesus with accolades. They praise Him and hold Him in the highest esteem and tell imaginative stories about the wonderful things He supposedly came to do.

They all want Jesus Christ Superstar on their team...as a mortal man, that is. And I know why: because down deep they all know Jesus was the real deal. Rather than try to deny what Jesus did, which is difficult to do in light of the overwhelming amount of documented historical evidence, they reinterpret it, which is far easier, and effectively water it down to the point where it's philosophical mumbo jumbo.

The divinity of Jesus—the fact that He was born of a virgin as God in the flesh, fully human while fully manifesting the essence of God—is the part that sticks in the craw of all non-Christian religions.

However, it is the single greatest truth and the single greatest hope in the history of mankind.

Ultimately, it is the only hope we have.

It's a family affair

The point I want to leave you with is that, in a very real sense,

Christianity is not a religion—it's a relationship.

It's a relationship with Jesus Christ, as our Savior and the Lord of our lives. That's the basis of our relationship with the God the Father, as His adopted sons and daughters.

It's by grace through faith that we are born of His Spirit and when we are, His Spirit is sealed within us and we are adopted into His family.

There isn't a religion on earth that can do that, and there never will be.

Yet millions—I'm sorry, billions—continue to slave away under the delusion that they can work their way to heaven by being good, helping others, giving to the poor, or performing religious rituals. Or that they will get as many lifetimes as they need to get it right. Or that God is already within them, so they've got nothing to worry about.

And still others, who look through the stained-glass veneer of religion and see it as a hopelessly contradictory tangle of airbrushed make-believe and pious wishful thinking, reach the point where they just blow it off and go their merry way, whistling in the dark. They try to convince themselves that God doesn't exist, or, if He does, that it will all work out in the end, because, you know, God is love and all that.

The truth is that religion cannot get you one millimeter closer to God, much less adopted into His family. Besides, you don't go to God—God comes to you, in the form of His Spirit convicting you of your sin. But it's up to you to open the door of your heart and respond to Him by acknowledging your sin, turning from it in repentance, and asking for the forgiveness that Jesus has already purchased for you with His blood.

It's that simple. You're in.

But religion keeps you on the outside looking in—and not to belabor the point, but eternity is a really long time to be on the outside of anything, especially the presence of a loving Heavenly Father.

Religion cannot save you, and the reason is as simple as it is disturbing:

It's skillfully designed to make sure that never happens.

And that's why I hate religion.

Greg Lauer — MAR '13

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