If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. - James 1: 26-27 (NLT)
One of the latest fads in pop Christianity is to turn religion into a dirty word. A disparaging comment. Something to loathe. In its place what is offered up instead is called relationship. We are supposed to be in relationship with Jesus. It is a much more personal offering than the coldness of formulaic religion. Relationship is alive and religion is dead. Consider these quotes:
"We don't use the word religion, because it's hard to get people excited about religion. Religion is dead. I don't know anything about religion; I couldn't help you. Religion has no power. But a relationship with God is a superpower."- Carl Lentz, Pastor of Hillsong NYC
Every denomination is the corpse of a great revival. Religion, cruel and boring, bottles up the creative impulse God has put inside of every person. - Bill Johnson, Pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California
"What if we said collectively as the church, OK God, no more boxes. No more limits. No more we have to control everything. Just give God total control. Yeah, it's scary but I think that's the way we were meant to live." - Meredith Andrews - Christian Music Artist
It sounds so right, doesn't it? Yet it remains so wrong. God does not want you to be creative, excited or unlimited. He wants you to be obedient. Let us start with the basics. Do you know how many times the word relationship occurs in Scripture? Zero. Yet we see in the key verses today that God has specifically delineated between what is worthless religion and what is pure and genuine religion. That alone should end the debate. God has ordained the usage of the word religion and we ought to be very careful about casually discarding what God has ordained. What Lentz, Johnson and Andrews (and many others) are advocating for is not the disposal of religion but rather the removal of all restraint. God is always a God of order though. So much so, that the Bible contains very specific guidelines for how a church service should be conducted. Rather odd if the real intent of God was "relationship." Look closer at these quotes though and you will see what is really at work. Lentz does not use the word religion because people do not get excited about it. As if that is a solid biblical reason. As if his job is to excite people. Just watch a Hillsong NYC service and you will see that is exactly the premise they operate from. Smoke and light shows, rollicking worship, and messages about relevance instead of doctrine. Religion has no power but relationship is a superpower? What Bible are you reading? There is no relationship without religion. Religion is what binds us together beloved. Remember who we are collectively:
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.- Ephesians 5: 25-27 (ESV)
We are the bride of Christ. Not you; we. Plural. The church collectively. Hebrews stresses that we are not to forsake the fellowship. If you read the rationale behind these quotes it is very self centered. It is about creating a superpower for you. It is about our personal creative impulses. The religion thing? Yeah that's just a box designed to hold us back. Except it is not. That box is called doctrine. It is the actual Word of God. It is our guide. It is the guardrails on this highway we call life. No more limits? God is the one who imposes the limits! Taking off the limits is how you end up with nonsense like the holy laughter movement, where Christians rolled around on the ground making animal noises for a decade claiming it was the Holy Ghost. Taking off the limits is how you end up with the false Brownsville "Revival" where people were spasmodically jerking uncontrollably; claiming it was the Holy Ghost. Taking off the limits is how you end up the false Lakeland "Revival"; where Todd Bentley would punch and kick you claiming it was ordered by the Holy Ghost. Taking the limits off is how you end up with the new heretical movie called Holy Ghost, which is most definitely NOT from the Holy Ghost. Taking off the limits is how you end up with the freak show out in Bethel Church, where they think you can go "grave sucking" and leach off residual anointing from the tombs of departed heretics. I can go on and on beloved.
What these Christian leaders want is a subjective form of Christianity. One where what we feel determines what we believe. Don't believe me? Here is a clip from Bethel Church and prophecy night where we see some of the most horrific false displays of the Holy Ghost you will ever see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHrxAg94XU
Randomly calling on people to "prophesy" is completely unbiblical. Do we understand what that means? It is fake. It is false. It is either willfully deceptive or it is demonic, period. Here is another clip of what happens when you teach kids that they can learn the spiritual gifts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryIgncKNHUU
Dragging this poor man around until he is nearly passed out is not a "miracle." It is the end result of thinking you can have relationship without religion. What are you saying preacher? Are we not in relationship with Jesus? Absolutely! But what binds it beloved? What holds it together? Certainly not our personal experience. Certainly not our feelings. It is not a tingling in our toes or goose bumps on the back of our necks. It is religion. It is the understanding that there is something beyond me. There is something beyond my personal experience. It is interesting that the key verses begin with rebuking those who claim to be religious. The point being that the claims of our mouths are irrelevant. Ironically those that denounce religion today have the least control of their tongues. They would claim to be more "spiritual." Anyone who dares to point out the truth is in need of a spiritual encounter. Instead of being led by the immovable truth of Scripture they relinquish control of themselves to a spirit realm they do not understand. They start to try and attach a spiritual dimension to anything that happens. What they fail to realize is there is not Holy Ghost without the Word of God. The Holy Ghost is the Word of God. We are not called to be scriptural renegades in search of deeper spiritual truths outside of the revealed will He has given us in His Word. There is no biblical truth to contemplative prayer, soaking prayer, soaking in His presence, jumping in the river, prophetic worship, drunk in the Spirit, toking in the Holy Ghost, or any of the other new age mystical practices that people are turning to when they revile "religion" so much.
Is there false religion? Absolutely. That is why we have the Bible and the Holy Spirit inside of us to lead us into all truth. Notice the Bible doesn't say to lead us into all experience. No beloved, into all truth. Because it is only the truth that will set us free. When we are truly free we will realize that we do not throw the baby out with the false religion bathwater. The key verse explains that there will be worthless religion and pure religion. Do not be so quick to discard what God has ordained. Catch phrases like "relationship not religion" sound nice and tickle the ears but there is little truth or substance behind it. That path leads to an experiential Christianity where your faith will be driven by spiritual forces that are not from God. How do we end up with the purpose driven lie? How do we end up with false revivals, holy laughter, or any other number of absolutely heretical outbreaks blamed on the Spirit of God? When it becomes all about us and not as much about Him. We have our own personal walk with Christ and that is our relationship. Yet the Bible makes it clear that we are not alone. That we were saved collectively as well. That as the church we are the bride of Christ. We are bound together and bound to Him by pure and genuine religion. Don't fool yourself.
Rev. Anthony
