Organized Religion and Jesus

It seems that there has been a lot of shouting, screaming and gnashing of teeth lately over organized religion. I am not sure what this term means exactly, “organized religion”. Is it referring to all Christians, Muslims, Hindi, Buddhists, or is it directed at Catholics, Jewish Temples, Presbyterians, Baptists, etc. ?

The latter are more doctrine than “organized religion”. Granted, the Catholic church has been around nearly as long as Christianity itself, and the Jewish religion has been around for far longer than most any other out there, but that doesn’t mean that the religion itself is bad. It just happens to be an old religion. Religions are not bad but some of the people who claim that they practice those religions may be. You can be religious at doing anything that you like, such as fishing or hunting. That doesn’t make it a religion but you get the idea.

Christianity and following Jesus is a different matter from “religion”. Christianity is a state of mind that you have after accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior that you practice religiously. So, in a sense, it is a religion. There have been many “doctrines” applied to it over the past few hundred years but the basics of being a Christian, as outlined in the Bible, are the same. I know that many terrible acts have been done in the name of religion and in the name of Christ too, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus was behind any of it. It just means that His name was used in the commission of the act itself by someone who wanted to stand behind that name.

There have been horrendous acts done by other religions as well but it seems that everyone wants to pounce on Christians these days. Maybe because we are nearing the time of Christ’s return? I am not sure what the reason for the animosity except that it was predicted by Jesus Himself nearly two thousand years ago. Our lives, in service to Him, are forfeit in the grand scheme of His plans. Our spiritual lives will go on no matter what happens to us here. We will serve Him and the blotting out of God or religion will not have any effect on the world or its condition into eternity.

Please, read Romans chapter 8. Pray that you will accept Jesus and I will be praying for all who visit here and read these pages. He is knocking, won’t you let Him in?