Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
You are changing the subject ... again ... to save yourself.
W. Lee made his ministry out of the attack on RELIGION. Read his book Christ v. Religion. He clearly states that religion has been the enemy of God for ... ever. He claims that religion killed the Lord Jesus. But the Bible never says that. The Bible identifies characteristics of the heart such as unbelief, hypocrisy, stubbornness, hardness of heart, un-repentance, man-pleasing, loving the glory of men, idolatry, etc. as the ingredients that oppose God and His people. The Bible has long lists of these evils in verses like Mark 7.20-23 or Galatians 5.19-21.
Religion is never mentioned in one of these lists. That is Lee's construct. He widened the Biblical definitions of evil to include all those outside of his little club. He called them all religion, claiming that all religion was against God and Christ. But the Bible never claims this. In fact James defines religion in 1.27: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained."
In other words, James defines religion as keeping one's self from evil and devoting one's life to good works. I could list a thousand verses in the Bible which support James' definition of religion as positive. Religion is not our faith, but is the Christian's proper living in response to a healthy faith. Religion is not our personal relationship with the Lord, but is the fruit of our personal relationship with the Lord. Religion describes the daily living of a child of God walking in newness of life. There is nothing about religion which is evil of itself, as the Lord told the Pharisees, the brood of vipers, "The good man out of the good treasure brings forth good things, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things." (Mt 12.35)
It is Lee's pitifully poor exposition of scripture which makes religion evil, not the Bible. Lee used this self-serving construct to isolate his movement from the Body of Christ. Perhaps it's now time for you to reconsider your views about religion in general and about the greater body of Christ.
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As I said before, this idea of Christ versus religion, that Lee wrote about, is a common one in Christianity. See the gotquestions article I posted.
I don't think the authors of that apologetic ministry would agree with your views on religion not being a problem:
Most religion, theistic or otherwise, is man-centered. Any relationship with God is based on man’s works.
If you disagree with this then clearly you don't believe that Christianity is a personal relationship with God and is not a religion. We cannot get to heaven by belonging or following to a religion, even the very best Christianity can't save us.