by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom From MEdom Project
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 1:27 (NLT)
For three groups of people: those wounded by institutionalized religion to one extent or another; those praying for family and friends lost in their stuff and resistant to spiritual TRUTH; and those who are self-righteous enough to presume who is going to Heaven and who is not; this is for you. Whatever the truth is, truth is truth, and it is what it is. Whether we believe it or not, does not change what is absolutely true, and therefore real. May you pursue revelation from God: that which is true from His perspective.
There are scores of people that are opposed to Christianity. If you mention the word “God”, or speak of things such as church, Jesus Christ, or religion, some folks that are opposed to anything remotely “Christian” or religious tend to cringe. Many of these folks may tell you that they are spiritual, but in their own way. These folks that are adamantly opposed to religion are also known by their Sympathetic Savior. Even Jesus Christ had big-time concerns with the manipulative hold corrupt religious groups had on so many of those he loved in his days as a man on the earth, and those he continues to love today.
Oscar winner*, Trent Reznor, heads up the band, Nine Inch Nails. Mr. Reznor has earned millions of dollars anointed by a devout subculture into believing that ‘all things God’ is one big lie. The following are lyrics to Reznor’s song, “Terrible Lie” that I would not have known had my younger thirty-something brother not implored me to sit down and view a concert video of Nine Inch Nails singing this anthem for tens of thousands in attendance.
Hey God, why are you doing this to me?
Am I not living up to what I’m supposed to be
Why am I seething with animosity?
Hey God, I think you owe me a great big apology
Terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie!
Hey God, I don’t really know what you mean
Seems like salvation comes only in our dreams;
I feel my hatred grow all the more extreme
Hey God, can this world really be as sad as it seems?
Terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie!
Don’t take it away from me. I need someone to hold onto
Hey God, there’s nothing left for me to hide;
I lost my ignorance, security and pride
I’m all alone in a world you must despise.
Hey God, I believed your promises and lies
Terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie!
You made me throw it all away
My morals left to decay; How many you betray;
You’ve taken everything
Terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie, terrible lie!
My head is filled with disease; My skin is begging you please;
I’m on my hands and knees; I want so much to believe.
I need someone to hold on to, I need someone
I give you everything, my sweet everything;
Hey God, I really don’t know who I am.
Upon reading these lyrics would you be willing to venture a guess what the band name “Nine Inch Nails” is referring to? I am bringing this to light because your sons and your daughters, or your husbands or wives, or your mothers and fathers, might believe this about Jesus Christ. You get a sense that they live in a world that is dark and lonely, full of anger and bitterness. Maybe their friends are angry and bitter. The enemy of God is definitely hard at work to drag your loved ones down into the sorrow of shame and the depths of despair. Or perhaps this is your struggle with faith. However, for Reznor faith is a struggle. His problem, really, is with religious culture and institutions.
Reznor said this in an internet interview about his own experience in the culture he promotes, stating, “Yes, oddly enough, that album (Downward Spiral, 1994) began my own personal plummet into the depths of addiction and finding out that my way doesn’t work…After a while, you get too far down in the quicksand. You do loathe yourself because you’ve lost all self-respect. I remember thinking, ‘What is the point? I’ve had everything I’ve ever wanted in my life and I’m vomiting in the sink again. How did that happen?’ I had become a terrible addict. I hated myself. Every aspect of my life changed. I felt my whole life up until that point I had been swimming against the current. I came to realize what I was fighting for didn’t make sense anymore.”
The man who many say speak for a generation or two over the past twenty years admits that his way doesn’t work. He acknowledges that he was driven, even controlled, by a spirit of addiction. In his lyrics, it is clear that the spirit of Trent Reznor is confused. I have a hunch that in his unhappiness he doesn’t want to believe the lie and does not want to be controlled by it.
We all know people who are just plain angry and bitter. We know people who are disgusted with who they are, what they are, where they are, and why they are all those things. They cannot find their way in and they cannot find their way out. They are stuck where they are and it hurts real badly. Mr. Reznor, in his song “Closer” wrote,
You can have my isolation; You can have the hate that it brings
You can have my absence of faith; You can have my everything
Help me become somebody else.
God does help us to become different. He does help us to be transformed. He does so by renewing our minds (Romans 12:1-2). The Bible tells us that when we let go and give ourselves over to the care of God, he creates a new life within our life.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
There is a terrible lie at work within the “church” of religion in America and throughout the world. The church of religion is promoting a “god” religion that is not God at all, but is an idol in the name of Jesus, but made by man in man’s image of Jesus. This god of religion endorses principles of shame, fear and punishment to make its point.
Jesus was in serious conflict with the religious heads of state that essentially governed and lorded over the citizens. The Pharisees and scribes used religious policy to take advantage of the people legally, monetarily and morally. They used their heavy club of self-righteous legalism against the people for the purpose of tearing them down and diminishing their quality of life. Jesus, the week before he would be arrested and killed, called them out. He made it a point to bring down the “church” of religion. 
Jesus opposed organized religion as it was constituted at that time. He called the Pharisees blind guides, hypocrites, vipers and white-washed sepulchers full of dry bones. Anytime Jesus said “Woe” concerning the Pharisees, the meaning is that they were wretched and miserable, the lowest of low bound to hell.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Matthew 23:13 (NIV)
Jesus Christ directly accused the institution of religion in his day of a “terrible lie.” He stood before the Pharisees in front of thousands of people during the Passover Week, shook his fist and cried out, “They believed your promises; your promises and lies. Terrible lie! Terrible lie!” Jesus said about anyone using the guise of religion to manipulate the vulnerable:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)
So many individuals and families have bought into the terrible lie perpetrated by the ideology of religion. This whole subculture that is anti-Jesus has embraced an image of Christ cloaked in the uniform of man-made religion. Since religious denominations and sects have shrouded Jesus Christ in their various colors of religious “doctrine”, he is perceived by the anti-religious subculture of society to wear their symbols. Anti-religious logic then dictates that those seething with animosity toward religion tend to discard Jesus as merely the mascot of the institution of religion.
I wonder how Jesus must feel about how institutionalized religion has built this idol that looks like him but on so many levels betrays what Jesus Christ is all about.
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)
Jesus Christ died for the guilty. What is malicious is that through the ritualization of religion we have minimized the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Rather than imitating the lifestyle of the man, Jesus, so many of us feel threatened, that having to live as Jesus lived is a violation of our “right” to live whatever way we want no matter the cost to ourselves or anybody else. We don’t want even God telling us or showing how to live, even though he wants only good for us out of his bounty and love for us. Unfortunately, this mindset is prevalent in anyone not in relationship with Christ. A relationship with Jesus Christ is too often perceived as a threat to one’s quality and quantity of life. But when properly understood, a relationship with Christ is an incredible opportunity to upgrade one’s quality and quantity of life.
Jesus is sympathetic to those of you who have struggled over the years with the problem of religion. Christ wants for you to be driven by choice to have a relationship with Him. Religion favors a regimen of self-righteous rules and dutiful obligations so that you are driven by shame and intimidation to have a connection to a religious institution of some kind. Jesus extends grace to you. Recovery in Christ is promised to all who embrace a relationship with Him. There is life in relationship with God in recovery without the regret of religion. We do and give for each other from a place of love in healthy relationships because we want to, not compelled by obligation and duty from a place of fear of punishment.
LIFE in Relationship versus REGRET of Religion
Choice: “Want to” versus Duty: “Have to”
Giving (mercy) versus Earning (works)
Forgiveness versus Condemnation
Affection versus Punishment
Build Up versus Tear Down
Fearless versus Fearful
Joy versus Shame
Compelled by Love versus Compelled by Law
Family—Inclusive versus Institution—Exclusive
Reconciliation versus Regret
When you live to give your spouse and your children the best of who you are and what you have, is it merely because you have to out of a sense of obligation, or is it because you want to because you love them so much? Do you make it a point to condemn your children and hold them captive in their shame, or do you forgive them out of love for them with a desire to teach them the concept of forgiveness? Religion trends toward promoting punishment over reconciliation and mercy. If you don’t do it right you cannot be forgiven and shown mercy. If you don’t do religion right God’s grace cannot be extended to you.
That brings me to another point. We need to be careful not to judge others who believe that Jesus Christ is in fact their Messiah and Redeemer, but might not always be on the same page you are doctrinally. Jesus said he is the way to the Father and that no one comes to the Father except through him. Yet there are groups of people being judged who believe that about Jesus, because they know Jesus to be of God, but not necessarily himself God. They believe Jesus suffered and died for their sin; they believe he arose from the dead; and they believe he sits at the right hand of the Father; but may not fully comprehend him to be one with God as the visible manifestation of the person of God. Yet they do know Jesus Christ to be their Savior from their sin.
My question is this: What did the thief on the cross know about the deity of Christ? All the thief really understood was that Jesus represented hope that he wanted to share in. The thief recognized that he was wrong and that Jesus was right. The thief wanted in with Jesus in his final hours but didn’t know really where they were going together when Jesus said to the thief, “Today you’ll be with me in Paradise”.
If someone you loved and cherished, perhaps your spouse or your son or daughter, broke your heart and left you, went their own way, got into serious trouble, and were about to die in their mess, then finally came to their senses, decided to come back to you. When they come back, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? Are you concerned that they may not fully understand and appreciate the very essence of who you are? Or are you simply thrilled that they found their way back; that they were once lost and now they are found; that they were once dead in their mess and now they are alive?
The sound doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the great news that he sacrificed everything to include even the vilest of sinners who turn away from the ways of addictive sin through a lifesaving relationship with Jesus Christ. I’ll guarantee you this: Christ does not have an ego problem. He is certainly secure in who he is as God. If we engage God in relationship through Jesus Christ, we are saved, period. Christ didn’t suffer and die to exclude a group of his beloved creation due of a “technicality”.
This is not written to in anyway to trivialize the core components of salvation theology. It is written to broaden our perspective and appreciation of the scope of God’s love and mercy. Narrow is the road that leads to salvation, but…as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name. John 1:12 (NKJV)…if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NIV)
Remember that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of salvation is inclusive, not exclusive. Heaven will not consist of Jew or Gentile. It will not be made up of Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, Mormons, or Jehovah Witnesses. Heaven will consist of God’s children. The true Church of Jesus Christ are those who believe that he has forgiven them of their sin, and believe that he is alive to love and care for them. That is the Good News of Christ’s message. In heaven we will not be a family divided. Jesus called for unity of the people of God, and prayed to his Father often for the unity of those who believe in him.
Let’s not be like the brother of the prodigal son who, out of jealousy, became angry that his father would want to celebrate the return of his brother who had thrown his life away until figuring some things out. Let’s not resent it when a thief or a murderer, or a harlot, who upon coming to their senses comes back home and is invited by our Father to rejoin the family. Let’s rejoice that our God is so incredibly loving and merciful that even the “worst” of us can return home having had enough of that life, and choose to let it go for the life God has for all who submit to him.
Let us be careful and humbly examine ourselves; and then, having been purged of the worst that is in us, compelled by love, pray for our loved ones that we are concerned about and encourage them. The twelfth of the twelve steps says that as we are enlightened by the revelation of the mercy of God who blesses us in our recovery walk, we are compelled to extend this mercy and grace to every one of our brothers and sisters, inviting them into the family of recovery. You are not entirely free until this truth is embedded into the fiber of your recovery. God loves each one of us impartially and did not send his son to be sacrificed for a few. So show compassion to your brother and to your sister. Show compassion to your neighbor. Who’s your neighbor? According to the story Jesus told (Luke 10:25-37), your neighbor is the person you don’t necessarily get along with. He might even be the one you don’t agree with doctrinally. But when he hurts, being free means that you are able to help him pick up the pieces of his broken life, no longer bound by religious differences.
Being set free by the love of our Sympathetic Savior, the only one qualified to be our priest (Hebrews 4:14-16), we are no longer pre-occupied with the boundaries and restraints of religious applications and traditions, even though we are free to enjoy religious applications and traditions so long as they are consistent with the truth that Jesus said has indeed made us free. Jesus Christ is our access to God. Feel free to pursue him, even religiously if you’d like. Simply remember that is our relationship that God really desires, not our “religious” sacrifice (read Hebrews 10).
If you are committed to applying the strategy of authentic recovery as laid out in what you have read and hopefully will study, you will experience a relationship with God in the person of Jesus Christ that will change your life from now into eternity. You will also be compelled by love to share the blessing of real freedom every single time you have the opportunity to do so. Once you truly get it, you can’t help but to share it. In this relationship with Christ shared and enjoyed amongst an ever expanding family, we are free to love without reservation or regret. What amazing truth to be experienced by all. Pass it on.
Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up… We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God… The Deceiver of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:1-4
Whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away… For wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:16-17
Oh, one more thing. If you are reading this and you’re not sure how to identify with or relate to God—after all, He is a big God—simply try to talking to God, out loud if you can, and let Him know what you are thinking and feeling. Tell Him what your issues are with Him. Tell Him why faith is difficult for you. Pray for revelation of truth; not just “truth” as you might want to receive it through a preconceived lense, but the real truth of who God is. Then trust Him to reveal His truth to you. Remember that truth is truth whether you are sure about it or not; whether you believe it or not. I believe with all of my heart that if you are open to receiving God’s truth as it is, that at the very least, you will come to “see” God as beautiful; and at the most, this revelation will only be the beginning of the marvelous experience about to come your way.
* Trent Reznor won the 2010 Academy Award for “The Social Network”
