WHAT RELIGION IS. (1st segment)
A simple, straightforward definition of religion is, ‘man’s own way of reaching out to God.’ If man’s spiritual degeneration as seen of God’s ventilation in Genesis 6:5, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” is considered, man is incapable of fashioning out a way to Jehovah. To the religionist the religion is the aggregate of his true person. Man in his fallibility, though sincere, will only add to God’s instruction, polluting God’s intention with his carnal ideas, in his sincerely wrongness. It is the externalization of the vanity of internality.
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary religion is: “the belief in a god or a group of gods; an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods. The origin of this word is the Latin religio: supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare: to restrain, tie back.” This reminds one of the strictness the Pharisees place on ceremonial creeds. Paul had to jettison Judaism to embrace the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:2. Religion received its first salvo from the first Woman in, “….neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Genesis 3:3), while it received its full fermentation in the hands of Cain who left his father unlike the prodigal son. Cain left, for good, to erase his name from the genealogy that effected the Incarnation.
Religion is full of taboo impediments. ‘Do’, ‘don’t do’ are the stock in trade of taboos and religions. The Woman conceived it first before conceiving a real child, when she uttered, in Genesis 3:3, “Ye shall not touch it lest ye die,” in conferment with Genesis 2:17. With that little deviation she veered man’s destiny which we have not recovered from even till this day, after over six thousand years. The Woman exemplifies the church. The incunabula of religion is seen in the Woman’s taboo, the Man’s (Adam’s) acquiescence (resulting in the toga of shame i.e. use of fig leaves) and culminating ultimately in Cain’s building (Masonic architectural insistence) of a city to flag off the flourishing business of Satanic religion, when you look at his genealogy. Lamech’s (meaning destruction) religious eyes saw the use for polygamy: to teach an aberrational marriage (his first wife, Adah, means ‘ornament’ and the second, Zillah is ‘shadow’) which teaches another form of union; murder: to perform a sacrifice to elongate his life span and the promotion of his fame. Religions delve into cultic initiations. Cain’s first child, Enoch, means initiation. Religion gives false hope of rest when Jabal (stream) a man of tents and cattle (this is hoteliering – where immorality reigns); it celebrates falsehood in Naama (‘pleasantness’) together with his half-brother, Jubal (stream) a musician (is the commencement of show business and prostitution). There is the use of force and punishment to maintain their enclave in Tubalcain (meaning ‘offspring of Cain’) who is the first worker in metals (fashioning of armaments) is the father of war mongering. All these are seen in Cain’s city of religion.
The word ‘religion’ cannot be found even in the Old Testament of rituals. ‘Religion’ and its reflective ‘religious’ show up only seven times in the N.T. and are we to believe that since 7 is of God and emblematic of perfection then religion is truly of Jehovah? No, it is rather of the perfection of Satan. He sinfully muted the idea in heaven and paid dearly for it. He showed up in Eden to lure them to sin, in order to bring man under his subjugating worship. ‘Religion’ is found in Acts 26:5; Galatians 1:13 & 14; James 1:26 &27 (five times). ‘Religious’ is in Acts 13:43 & James 1:26 (twice). In Acts 26:5, James 1:26 & 27 the Greek word for religion is threskia (thrace-kee-ah) meaning: ‘religious worship, especially external, that which consist of ceremonies, ceremonial observance.’ In Galatians 1:13 &14 we have religion as Ioudaismos (ee-oo-dah-ee-is-mos) which is: ‘Judaism, the Jewish faith and worship, religion of the Jews.’ In Acts 13:43 it is sebomai, meaning: ‘to revere, that is, adore. James1:26 has religious as threskos (thrace-kos): a) ‘fearing as worshipping God b. tremble, trembling, fearful and ceremonious in worship (as demonstrative, that is pious).’ I am wondering which of threskia, Ioudaimos, sebomai or threskos contextually promises heaven? Judaism was suspended on the cross. It will not be operational until after the rapture of Christians, making Christianity intercalary between the dispensation of the law and the millennial kingdom. Jesus did not tell the religious woman at the well (John 4:5-42) about any (not even Judaism – as a man of Jew) religion. He told her in verse 24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In this you see that the externalization is not what makes you a citizen of heaven and its inevitably attendance bliss.
Ifa oracle
Some religions of the world are Ifa, Shintoism, Shamanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Tao, Islam, mythology, spiritism, magic, Kabala, Gnosticism, the grandmother of them is Freemason and its great affiliate Illuminati. Only a form of Christ will you find in all religions. You may be feeling uneasy at the exclusion of Christianity. The fact is: Christianity is not a religion. What is it then? It is the way of life, life eternal. It is the way of Jesus, the Christ, very God of very God! None of the world’s greatest religions can solve the sin question! It definitely can not, try as it may. Ifa worship, predominant in Nigeria and Brazil says, “Orun l’omo eni ti yo la”, in Yoruba, of Western Nigerian, language, and is interpreted as “Only heaven knows who will be saved!” This implies that God does not show or has no known blueprint formula for human salvation. Then how come Paul said, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “(7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” If we cannot know it, how did Paul know it? He simply got born again!
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