Religion - Man's Way And God's   

 Isaiah 2:17

 

     The religion of the world is calculated and conducted to make men and women feel good about themselves. Preachers everywhere call upon those who hear them to "stand up and be counted." One popular preacher likes to stir his audiences by getting them to chant loudly, "I am somebody!" Churches and preachers bow and scrape before men to make them feel important, valuable, and needed.

     People like to be recognized, so they give them recognition for just about anything. Churches devote entire "worship" services to "Mother's Day", "Father's Day", "Women's Day", "Men's Day", "Youth Day", "Deacon's Day", etc. And the most abominable of all is "Pastor Appreciation Day"! Can you imagine the Apostle Paul sitting on a platform before a congregation while they extolled his virtues, magnified his name, and showered him with gifts? Men and women are even recognized, applauded, and honored for being first time visitors in the house of their god! What kind of god bows to his worshippers?

     People like to be honored, so churches and preachers invent some way to honor people every week. People like to have a good time, so they co-ordinate activities, organize ball teams, and build gymnasiums, to show everybody a good time. People like to be pampered, so preachers spend most of their time wiping noses, washing wounds, pacifying enemies, and mending fences. They call it "pastoral counselling". But the job is really that of an expensive baby-sitter for immature, peevish men and women whose god is too small to lean upon and too weak to help.

     Even the doctrine of the religious world is calculated to dignify the flesh and give man a sense of power, goodness, and self-worth. The will of man is made to be sovereign and omnipotent, to the point of controlling the will of God! The works of men are made to be meritorious, earning rewards from God! At best, salvation is set forth as a co-operative effort between God and man, with man having the upper hand!

     THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE IS EXACTLY OPPOSITE TO ALL THIS. This is God's way: "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and THE LORD ALONE SHALL BE EXALTED!"

 

Don Fortner