Seeking Unity among Christians

There are some essential things Christians must believe to be Christians.

If a so-called Christian does not believe these primary things, Paul says their faith is in vain, or worthless. Paul goes on in 1 Cor 15:1-8 to tell us what these are.

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"

Great problems occur when Christians do accept as believers others who deny the essentials. Problems also occur when Christians fail to accept in their church other believers due to disputable matters.

This is why Jesus himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying to his Father, for the unity of his disciples: "That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, . . . so that the world may know that you have sent me."

A denomination is a group of churches united in some way. Even good denominations can have some bad tendencies though. They can cause pride and reinforce extra-biblical beliefs as scripture (1 Cor 4:6-7, Prov 30:5-6). It is an error to equate an organization with the one body of Christ (Eph 4:4).

Denominations can also divide, confuse, and perpetuate error. Some groups may call themselves denominations, but even ones that do not may be just as divisive.

Some Christians think that denominations are a good and useful means to work together for the Lord. Other Christians do not see a need for them. Regardless of what a believer thinks though, 1 Cor 10:17 and 12:12-31 show we are all members of one body, and we should work together.

Paul said in 1 Cor 1:10-12, "I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? .Even a group that divided under the name of Christ was equally as bad as the other divisive Christians !!!!

We need to look at one another and decide that we will stand on the essential doctrines of the faith and that we will be united against the enemy.

Those of us who are united by the blood of Christ are not enemies with one another whether we be Catholic or Baptist or Protestant . It may be difficult for many of us to look lovingly into the eyes of those of a different denomination without thinking in our hearts that they are wrong about this doctrine or that doctrine. But, we need to be reminded that there is neither a Baptist nor a Catholic nor a Protestant on the throne of God !!

Lack of unity is a serious obstacle to the witness of evangelization. Division contradicts the truth of the Gospel, an essential element of which is the call to unity, so that non-believers who meet missionaries each preaching different versions of the Gospel will think it to be a source of division, despite its presentation as a way of love.

Rom 15:7 says, "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

To summarize, we are to accept as fellow believers those God wants us to accept, and we are not to try to have unity apart from unity in the real Christ . The whole point is that we need to be united, not bickering. We need to move beyond the denominational barriers of what separates us into the common ground of what unites us: Jesus!

The Self and The Ego 1

The Ego is the part of the Self that most people present to the world. The Self whispers while the Ego SHOUTS . When I refer to the "self," I am referring to the "higher self:" , Your soul, Your center. The ego and the Self stand at two opposite ends of our spiritual journey. Our inquiry begins with the ego and culminates in the realization of the Self.

Man is afraid of aloneness. He becomes afraid of aloneness because in aloneness he will find a reflection of his real state, he will come across the reflection of his own face. And it will be very frightening, very scary. So, from getting up in the morning till going to sleep at night, he uses all kinds of methods to escape from himself so that he doesn't have to face himself. He is afraid that he may see himself.

We want to forget the state which is inside; we don't want to see it. It may be possible to convince our mind that something which is not visible is not there but that does not mean that it has gone away. There is no relation between not being visible and being non-existent. If something had been visible then perhaps we could have been able to change it, but as it is not visible, change is not possible. It will go on growing inside like a wound, like an ulcer which we have hidden and do not want to look at.

What people are hiding inside and what they say on the outside are very different. What you see outside on their faces is completely different from what is going on inside them. It is possible that outside they are talking about love but inside they are full of hate. They may be saying to somebody, "Good morning! I am pleased to see you. I am happy that I met you this morning," but inside they are saying, "Why do I have to see the face of this stupid person first thing in the morning?"

The image formed in other people's eyes deceives us and we become afraid to look within. We want to see the image people have of us, not ourselves. What are people saying? We become very interested in knowing what people say about us. There is nothing else behind this curiosity to know. We think we can recognize ourself through the image formed in others' eyes. This is very surprising! Even to know ourself we have to look into another person's eyes.

Man is afraid that people might say something bad about him. He feels happy if people say something good about him because his knowledge of himself depends on their opinion. He doesn't have immediate knowledge of himself; he does not have any direct experience of knowing himself. This experience can happen, but it doesn't because we try to escape from it.

The first thing in encountering the mind is not to bother about what others say or how one appears to others; rather, one has to have a direct encounter with what one essentially is. In one's aloneness one has to open one's mind totally and see what is there.

A young monk lived in a village in Japan. He was very famous, and had great reputation. The whole village loved and respected him. Songs were sung all over the village in his honor. But one day everything changed. A young girl in the village became pregnant and gave birth to a child. When her family asked her whose child it was she said it was the child of the young monk. How long does it take for admirers to become enemies? How long? It does not take even a short while because inside the mind of an admirer condemnation is always hidden. The mind just waits for a chance, and the day admiration ends, condemnation begins. Those people who show respect can change in one minute to being disrespectful. The people who are touching a person's feet can within a moment start cutting the same person's head off. There is no difference between respect and disrespect, they are two faces of the same coin.

The people of the whole village attacked the monk's hut. For a long time they had been showing respect to the monk but now all the anger that they had suppressed came out. Now they had the chance to be disrespectful, so they all ran to the monk's hut and set it on fire and threw the tiny baby at him.

The monk asked, "What is the matter?"

The people shouted, "You are asking us what the matter is? This child is yours! Do we have to tell you what the matter is? Look at your burning house, look within your heart, look at this child and look at this girl. There is no need for us to tell you that this child is yours."

The monk said, "Is it so? Is this child mine?"

The child started crying so he started singing a song to make the child silent, and the people left him sitting by his burnt-out hut. Then he went to beg at his usual time, in the afternoon , but who would give him food today? Today every door he stood in front of was slammed shut. Today a crowd of children and people started walking behind him, teasing him, throwing stones. He reached the house of the girl whose child it was. He said, "I may not get food for myself, but at least give some milk for this child ! I may be at fault, but what is the fault of this poor baby?" The child was crying, the crowd was standing there, and it became unbearable for the girl. She fell at the feet of her father and said, "Forgive me, I lied when I gave the name of the monk. I wanted to save the real father of the child, so I thought of using the name of this monk. I don't even have any acquaintance with him."

The father became nervous. This was a great mistake. He ran out of his house, fell at the feet of the monk and tried to take the baby from him.

The monk asked, "What is the matter?"

The girl's father said," Forgive me, there has been a mistake. The child is not yours." The monk replied, "Is this so? Is the child really not mine?"

Then the people of the village said to him, "You are mad! Why didn't you deny it this morning?" The monk said, "What difference would it have made? The child must belong to somebody. And you had already burnt one hut , you would have just burnt one more. You had enjoyed defaming one person, you would have enjoyed defaming one more. What difference would it make? The child must belong to someone , it could also be mine. So what is the problem? What difference does it make?"

The people said, "Don't you understand that everybody condemned you, insulted you, humiliated you very much?"

The monk answered, "If I had been concerned with your condemnation, I would have been concerned about your respect also. I do as I feel right; you do whatever you feel to be right. Until yesterday you felt it right to respect me so you did. Today you felt it right not to respect me so you didn't. But I am not concerned with either your respect or your disrespect. The people said to him, "Gentleman, you should have realized that you would lose your good reputation."

He replied, "I have dropped this idea of seeking to be good and bad in people eyes. I have dropped all concern in becoming good because the more I tried to become good, the more I found that I became bad. The more I tried to escape from badness, the more I found that goodness was disappearing. I dropped the very idea."

The journey of a seeker is not one of becoming a good man in others eyes ; the journey of a seeker is one of becoming a sage or wise.

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People are not Basically Good

Many present day philosophies and worldviews claim the people are basically good and that bad or immoral behavior is the exception. The Bible states quite the opposite - that people are selfish and sinful as soon as they are able to express that kind of behavior. Because of this fact, people need a Savior in order to be acceptable to God. In contrast, the implication of the "people are good" worldview is that good people don't need a Savior. This paper will show that the biblical worldview and not the "people are good" worldview matches reality.

Human atrocities

If you examine the atrocities perpetrated by people within the last century, you find a huge number of murders. Adolph Hitler killed 6 million Jews prior to and during the second World War. Joseph Stalin killed 20 million Soviet citizens between 1929 and 1939 because they were not politically correct. Mao Tse-tung killed 34 to 62 million Chinese during the Chinese civil war of the 1930s and 1940s. Pol Pot, the leader of the Marxist regime in Cambodia, Kampuchea, in the 1970's killed over 1.7 million of his own people. These do not include all the people killed in "legitimate" wars.

Many would object to this analysis, since they could claim that these atrocities were perpetrated by only a few individuals. However, these individuals could not have done anything if they were not backed by others, who agreed with their "values." The vast majority of Germans willingly followed Adolph Hitler and gave their consent to his policy to get rid of the "Jewish problem."

Communism

A great experiment was performed in the last century that definitively demonstrated the sinfulness of entire generations among an entire people group. The experiment was called Communism. I am not referring to the attempt by Communists to spread Marxism throughout the World through civil wars. What I am referring to is the reaction of the Russian people themselves to the "equality" created under Communism. The basic tenet of Communism is that all people would share equally in the resources of the country. On the surface, that sounds good. In fact, this is what was practiced by the Christian church during the first century.¹ The problem with Communism was not the philosophy per se, but the realization by the people that they would not be rewarded for hard work. It didn't matter how you worked, you got the same reward. At this point, the sinfulness of man stepped into the picture and everybody in the Soviet Union became lazy and indifferent to their responsibilities. This lack of accountability has led to an alcoholism rate of 40% and an abortion rate of over 50%! The sinfulness of all humans was definitely demonstrated in an entire society, so much so, that it led to the eventual economic collapse of the Soviet Union. Communism failed because humans are basically sinful, lazy, and self-centered. The only reason why "Communism" succeeded in the first century Christian Church was that the people had been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

People in the U.S.A.

You might counter that we in the United States are not like the Russians. After all, we are industrious people who work hard. I would agree that we are not generally a lazy people. However, sin can be expressed in a number of ways. Let me give you a couple examples. I am the backup driver for one of the vanpools at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Last week, I drove the van every day. In order to get to the carpool lane, we must cross four lanes of heavy, rush hour traffic. The primary vanpool driver uses the "stealth" approach to changing lanes. He doesn't use his turn indicator, since people almost always will not let you in if they think that you are going to take the place in front of them. I use the turn indicator, just to get an idea of what percentage of people are kind enough to let you into "their" space. In the entire week of driving (48 lane changes), there was only one instance where a driver intentionally let me go in front of him. Now, being rude and selfish is not what most people would consider to be a great sin. However, the rudeness is an indicator of the hearts of the people. It is obvious from this example that the vast majority of people in Los Angeles are not "basically good," but sinful and selfish.

On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorists, killing thousands of innocent people. The attack on the United States was about human greed, desire for power, hatred and sinfulness. The idea that "people are basically good" is a humanistic fallacy of monumental proportions. Yes, religion is the surest way to hell. Relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the only answer to manmade religion that preaches hatred and violence.

Experimental evidence of human depravity

A number of psychologists have performed controlled experiments that demonstrate the level of depravity that people can stoop to. In the age of human subject's rights and human subjects review boards, none of these experiments would be allowed to be performed today, because of the extreme stress placed upon many of the subjects. However, at the time, most of the experiments were reproduced by other investigators with similar results, so we know that they represent true human reactions and capacity for evil.

Stanley Morgan's electrocution study

Following the atrocities of Nazi Germany during World War II, psychologist Stanley Milgram designed an experiment to examine the degree to which people would comply with immoral commands from authority. A teacher (the experimental subject) and a learner (a confederate of the experimenter) were supposedly examining the effect of punishment (electric shock) on learning. The learner was strapped into a chair on the other side of a barrier (but within hearing distance). The teacher was instructed to read a list of two word pairs and ask the learner to repeat them back. If the learner got the answer correct, then they moved on to the next set. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher was supposed to shock the learner, beginning at 15 volts. The simulated shock generator consisted 30 switches in 15 volt increments, up to 450 volts, along with a rating, ranging from "slight shock" to "danger: severe shock". The final two switches were labeled "XXX". The teacher was instructed to automatically increase the shock setting each time the learner missed a word in the list. To make add to the authenticity of the shock generator, the teacher was given a real shock from a 45 volt battery prior to the start of the experiment.

No experimental subject hesitated to give shocks up to 300 volts. However, at that point, the learner pounded the wall between the himself and the teacher and refused to answer. The teacher was instructed that no response was to be considered a wrong answer and to increase the voltage and administer the next shock. If the subject hesitated or complained, the following prods were given to attempt compliance:

1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires that you continue
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.

Twenty-six of the 40 subjects continued to "shock" the learner up to the maximum setting of 450 volts. Although Dr. Milgram's colleagues had predicted that only 3% of subjects would continue to the maximum voltage, 65% actually did so, even though they believed that the shocks they had given were extremely painful.

Some people have protested that people would not react this way in today's world. However, 46 years later, Jerry Burger partially replicated Milgram's experiment, finding that 70% of subjects would shock the learner up to the maximum voltage.

Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment

Following the Attica and other prison riots of the early 1970's, Pyschologist Philip Zimbardo embarked upon an examination of the effect of simulated prison conditions on normal human subjects. Comparable groups of students were randomly assigned to be either "guards" or "prisoners" in Stanford University's simulated prison. However, to make the experiment seem more real, those assigned to be "prisoners" were "arrested" by the Stanford Police Department, cuffed and booked before being turned over to the Stanford jail. Within a day, there were conflicts between the "prisoners" and the "guards", which resulted in the beginning of harsh treatment of the "prisoners". Some of the "troublemakers" were put into solitary confinement or stripped of clothing and made to sleep on the floor. The "prisoners" eventually became compliant, even though they could quit the experiment at any time. The treatment by the "guards" continued to deteriorate to the point that the experiment had to be ended on the sixth day. None of the "guards" protested the evil actions of their "coworkers".

Solomon Asch's conformity experiments

Psychologist Solomon Asch performed a number of experiments to determine the degree to which experimental subjects will go along with the majority - even if they know the majority is wrong. The setup was simple - an experimental subject, along with a number of the experimenter's confederates, was to look at two cards and determine which line on one card matched one of three lines on another card. The lengths of the lines were sufficiently different that there was no question what the right answer was. Even so, one third of subjects lied about which lines matched just to go along with the group.⁵ Although the "sin" committed seems pretty innocuous, conformity to the majority has resulted in the support of human atrocities by some pretty evil regimes throughout history.

Moral hypocrisy

In another set of experiments, subjects were asked to assign two different tasks - one to themselves and another to another (nonexistent) participant. One task was interesting and resulted in a reward, whereas the second was boring and unrewarded. Predictably, most subjects assigned the interesting task to themselves. When told that they could use a coin flip to assign the task, only about half used the coin toss. However, of those who used the coin toss, the majority still assigned the better task to themselves - even when they lost the coin toss.

Conclusion

The unending human propensity for hatred, violence, and evil will continue as we, the "righteous" haters will seek out and kill the "unrighteous" haters. An underlying spiritual cause of all this hatred is the only reasonable explanation of human depravity. Evolution does not account for the extremes of our violent behavior, but the Christian worldview fits the data exactly - humans are basically evil until transformed by the renewing power of Jesus Christ.

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The Misunderstood Church

"How baffling you are, oh Church, and yet how I love you! How you have made me suffer, and yet how much I owe you! I would like to see you destroyed, and yet I need your presence. You have given me so much scandal and yet you have made me understand what sanctity is. I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity, more compromised, more false, and yet I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful. How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face, and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you, because I am you, though not completely. And besides, where would I go? Would I establish another? I would not be able to establish it without the same faults, for they are the same faults I carry in me. And if I did establish another, it would be my Church, not the Church of Christ. I am old enough to know that I am no better than anyone else.

The Church has the power to make me holy but it is made up, from the first to the last, only of sinners. And what sinners! It has the omnipotent and invincible power to renew the Miracle of the Eucharist, but is made up of men who are stumbling in the dark, who fight every day against the temptation of losing their faith. It brings a message of pure transparency but it is incarnated in slime, such is the substance of the world. It speaks of the sweetness of its Master, of its non-violence, but there was a time in history when it sent out its armies to disembowel the infidels and torture the heretics. It proclaims the message of evangelical poverty, and yet it does nothing but look for money and alliances with the powerful.

Those who dream of something different from this are wasting their time and have to rethink it all. And this proves that they do not understand humanity. Because this is humanity, made visible by the Church, with all its flaws and its invincible courage, with the Faith that Christ has given it and with the love that Christ showers on it.

And what are bricks worth anyway? What matters is the promise of Christ, what matters is the cement that unites the bricks, which is the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit is capable of building the church with such poorly moulded bricks as are we.

And that is where the mystery lies. This mixture of good and bad, of greatness and misery, of holiness and sin that makes up the church...this in reality am I .

The deep bond between God and His Church, is an intimate part of each one of us. To each of us God says, as he says to his Church, "And I will betroth you to me forever" (Hosea 2,21). But at the same time he reminds us of reality: 'Your lewdness is like rust. I have tried to remove it in vain. There is so much that not even a flame will take it away' (Ezechiel 24, 12).

But then there is even something more beautiful. The Holy Spirit who is Love, sees us as holy, immaculate, beautiful under our guises of thieves and adulterers. It's as if evil cannot touch the deepest part of mankind.

He re-establishes our virginity no matter how many times we have prostituted our bodies, spirits and hearts. In this, God is truly God, the only one who can 'make everything new again'. It is not so important that He will renew heaven and earth. What is most important is that He will renew our hearts. This is Christ's work. This is the divine Spirit of the Church."

~Carlo Carretto

Salvation by Grace through Faith

There are probably few students of the scriptures who are not familiar with the controversy surrounding the definitions of faith that are sometimes gleaned from the writings of Paul and James. Some feel that James presents a doctrine of justification based upon works; a position that contradicts Paul's doctrine of justification based upon faith.

This article will defend the position that there is no such contradiction between the two author's viewpoints and present the common doctrine that is the product of these positions and defines the relationship between faith and works.

A. Faith and Works in the Old Testament

If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name--the LORD your God -- the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses" (Deuteronomy 28:58-59, NIV.).

This caveat is so complete, that "If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible" (Leviticus 5:17, NIV.) Consequently, it is impossible without God's grace for any man to attain righteousness under the law. Our sin nature constantly gets in our way, and as a result all people, without exception, come short of true righteousness based upon the law alone. "Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him" (Daniel 9:11, KJV.)

The law by itself cannot save, and works of the law have no redeeming value. God has "seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14) and God will "bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil," (Ecclesiastes 12:14, NIV) exposing the righteousness and works of man that will serve as no benefit to him (Isaiah 57:12.) "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (Isaiah 64:6, NIV.)

B. Faith and Works in the New Testament

The Apparent Controversy of Paul and James.

"that since faith alone is necessary for salvation, one is free from the moral obligations of the law. While it is true that obedience to the law will never earn salvation for anyone (Eph. 2:8-9), it is equally true that those who are saved are expected to live a life full of good works (see, for example, Matthew 7:16-20; Eph. 2:10; Col. 1:10; Jas. 2:14-26). Since we have been freed from the dominion of sin through faith in Jesus, we have also been freed to practice the righteousness demanded by God (Rom. 6:12-22)."

Paul teaches that this "righteousness demanded by God" cannot be attained by works of the law. Since no person has ever been able to live a sinless life, breaking no part of the law, then all people are unrighteous and in need of God's grace (Rom. 3:23.). Unlike Paul's writings that run the entire scope of Christian doctrine, the book of James "addresses the outward expression of inward faith.

Paul: Faith is complete trust in, and obedience to, Jesus Christ. Works are outward acts of ritual and adherence to a code to attain merit.

James: Faith is belief in Jesus Christ, the resurrection, and salvation. Works are spontaneous acts of love that spring from the fruits of the Spirit.

When we consider these presuppositions, we find that there is no conflict in doctrine between James and Paul. A common denominator between them is found in John, Chapter 15. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:1-2, KJV.) Jesus is the source of works for those who have faith, and those works are presented in this chapter as "fruit." One would not expect an apple tree to bear figs, or an orange tree to bear potatoes. An apple tree bears apples because it is the nature of the tree to do so. Likewise, a Christian bears fruits of the spirit because it is the nature of the spirit within all Christians to do so. This is how James can say, "I will show thee my faith by my works" (2:19, KJV.) James is not referring to the keeping of Sabbath laws; he is referring to works that are fruits of the Spirit. Consequently, James can say that "faith without works is dead" (2:20, KJV.) For some believers, the understanding of this principle can be the difference of salvation. Belief in Jesus Christ is not sufficient for salvation:

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22-23, KJV.)

Works of the law that are outward acts of ritual for the purpose of receiving merit are of no value for attaining salvation. However, those who trust in and obey Jesus Christ will produce works that are motivated by the Spirit that will serve to build up the Kingdom of God by through the evangelism of the lost, the edifying of the saints, and the Glorification of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God, the Father. If those works are not evident in the life of a professing Christian, their level of trust and obedience in Christ is suspect.

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Christianity is not a Religion

The World's View of "Religion"

Some of those who call themselves "Christians" have been unable to differentiate between Christianity and religion. As they participate in the counterfeit of "Christian religion," they mistakenly think it is Christianity, and are blinded in the belief that religion is an admirable pursuit.

On the other hand, there are many who are not Christians who view the activities of the "Christian religion," and who likewise fail to differentiate between religion and Christianity. They in turn reject Christianity, believing it to be equivalent to the "Christian religion" they have observed.

Many abominable activities have taken place under the guise of "Christian religion." Man-made religion always seeks power and will revert to militaristic warfare to achieve that power. The history of religion, including "Christian religion," is but a succession of religious wars wherein religionists slaughter one another under the flag of "religion," usually with political overtones. The Crusades of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries are but one historical example among many.

Religious bigotry has been evident in every century as religious leaders engage in racial, national, sexual, ideological and denominational exclusion, ostracism and persecution. There are always the religious attempts to purge those who disagree, and to punish those who do not conform to legislated morality. The period of the Inquisition is a sad example in the history of "Christian religion."

People of the world observe the big religious organizations with their huge ecclesiastic superstructures. They are often rich, powerful, tax-evading, and political in nature. They observe the religious fanatics who try to justify any activity from bombing an abortion clinic to murdering a doctor who works therein. Any means seems to be justifiable if it achieves their religiously deified end-cause. They observe the seemingly endless and meaningless religious activities of church services, ceremonies and programs which seem to be just "pomp and circumstance."

Is it any wonder that many of the people of the world speak derisively of religion? They have read their history books and have heard of the atrocities perpetrated in the name of "religion." They hear of the vast gold reserves and corporate holdings of religious conglomerates gained through tax-exemptions and unfair advantage. They can see the exploitation of the populace through superstition and fear. They see through the ecclesiastic politicizing and cultural manipulation. They see the people going through their meaningless motions of religious ritual to try to appease God. Often they have come to the conclusion that they do not want anything to do with "religion," and I, for one, do not blame them! The world has a right, even an intellectual obligation, to reject the religious folderol that is so prevalent, and to demand reality.

Was Marx correct in his appraisal that "religion is the opiate of the people"?

Christianity is not "Religion"

Religion emphasizes precepts, propositions, performance, production, programs, promotion, percentages, etc. Christianity emphasizes the Person of Jesus Christ, and His life lived out through the receptive Christian believer.

Religion has to do with form, formalism and formulas; ritual, rules, regulations and rites; legalism, laws and laboring. The "good news" of Christianity is that it is not what we do or perform, but what Jesus has done and is doing in us. Jesus exclaimed from the cross, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). The performance is hereby accomplished! Jesus has done all the doing that needs doing for our regeneration, and continues to do all the doing that God wants to do in us. "God is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).

Some have tried to explain that "Christianity is not religion; it is a relationship." Such a statement is too ambiguous, for it is possible to have a "relationship" with religious peoples and practices. Although Christianity does involve a personal relationship between an individual and the living Lord Jesus, it must be pointed out that this is effected by the ontological presence of the Spirit of Christ dwelling within the spirit of a Christian who has received Him by faith, and the Spirit of Christ functioning through that Christian's behavior. It is not just a casual relationship of acquaintance with the historical Jesus or with the theological formulations of Jesus' work. Perhaps it would be better to indicate that "Christianity is not religion; it is the reality of Jesus Christ as God coming in the form of His Spirit to indwell man in order to restore him to the functional intent of God whereby the character of God is allowed to be manifested in man's behavior to the glory of God.

Christianity is not religion! Christianity is Christ! Christianity is "Christ-in-you-ity." Jesus Christ did not found a religion to remember and reiterate His teaching. Christianity is the personal, spiritual presence of the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ, manifesting His life and character in Christians, i.e. "Christ-ones." Paul explained, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20)

The Battle is in your Mind

1) Mental Strongholds

The Stronghold is an area that is dominated by an enemy. If Satan dominates your attitude toward yourself, God, food, or money, etc., he is in control in that area.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not physical, but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds." (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Satan relentlessly seeks to build strongholds in our minds. He is a liar and he only lies or twists the truth, which is lying. He deceives. We are deceived when we believe things that are not true.

we see that the whispered voices within that we often times hear echoing in our mind which most deem as merely their own thoughts COULD be an angel or even the God Jesus or the Holy Ghost. We also find in God's Word that satan talks to souls too. Satan can cause THOUGHTS to be planted in our mind. Generally, His best method of communicating with God's people as to plant his seeds of deceit is by using human whisperers.

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2) A Deceived Mind Produces A Deceived Life

Eve was deceived by the lies of Satan. He attacked her mind.(Genesis 3:1-6). Adam and Eve were both punished for hearing and believing his lies......

Judas became victim of satan's whispers ...In ( John 13:2) "And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;"

Eve and Judas should have checked their hearts !

Jesus told us "Watch out that no one deceives you." (Matthew 24:4)

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3) The Renewing Of The Mind Is A Vital Necessity.

while Satan cannot read our minds, he can influence our thoughts. Thus, the Bible instructs us to "put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes" (Eph. 6:11).

Our mind must be renewed if we want to experience God's good plan. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)

The Fruits of Satan whispers are Hatred , Anger , Pride.....etc , The enemy of your soul is trying to change your spirit so you would not "inherit the kingdom of God" so WATCH OUT !!

It is time to move on. Because Where the mind goes, the man follows.

Set your mind and keep it set on what is above (high things), not on low earthly things. It is a process, so don't give up!

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