[Please, if you would, take a moment right now to pray for a special intention of mine today. Thank you so much!]
This video was making the rounds on my Facebook news feed yesterday. You may have seen it:
Now I was a fan of this guy’s last video. And in this video, he does say some things that are right, and I get that his heart is in the right place. Where I take issue is that he is not merely saying that Jesus is greater than Religion (which, by the way, I agree with). He is saying that Jesus hates religion. And while it may be tempting to play the, “yeah, I think religious people are lame, too” card in an attempt to get more people to hear our message, we need to be careful that our message does not fly in the face of the Gospel. I don’t have time to cover everything misleading in the video here, but I will try to hit the main points.
What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion?
…Then I’d say you probably haven’t read the New Testament very carefully. Jesus is pretty clear in Matthew 5:17 when He says,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”
The Law, of course, being the Law of Moses, i.e. The Old Covenant, i.e. RELIGION.
In the Old Testament, God actually calls religious people whores
Yes, God called some religious people whores in the Old Testament—when they were being unfaithful to the Law (in other words: when they were disobeying the laws of their RELIGION—their religion given to them by God, by the way)
In the New Testament, Jesus refers to the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites an awful lot, but remember the definition of a hypocrite: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. Jesus actually told the disciples that they should DO what the scribes and Pharisees tell them.
“…practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:3).
“Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven…For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19-20)
Doesn’t sound like Jesus hates religion to me. In fact it sounds like He takes it pretty seriously.
When individuals use religion as a mask or for personal gain? Yes, Jesus hates that. But only because religion is not (and never was) meant to be a mask. It’s meant to be an aid.
If I’m sick, knowing the doctor is definitely going to be important. I’m going to need a relationship with him in order to let him know what is hurting me so that he can heal me. But the fact of the matter is, if there’s no hospital, I’m not going to be able to find a doctor. If I don’t go in for regular check-ups (even when I don’t feel like I’m sick), I’m not going to remain healthy. If there’s no medicine when I am sick, my relationship with the doctor isn’t going to be enough to make me well again. There’s a reason the doctor prescribes medicine, just like there is a reason God gave us the rules of religion.
Great job Mary!
I believe in that guy’s video he was adressing FALSE religion. That’s what it said in the info box under the video. Either way, his message is clear. Religion doesn’t save you…Jesus does (by his work on the cross). Just like every other religion teaches you have to to good things in order to get to Heaven and hopefully God sees all the good things you do and grants you eternal life even though the Bible says our good deeds are like filthy menstrual rags. That’s why we need the cross so badly and that’s why we need to be “born again”. Also, the guy mentions “One is the work of God (The Law, Jesus) and the other is the work of man (every other religion). Great post 🙂
-Your sister in Christ
so then what is “True religion”? I agree that God’s grace is what saves me, and that I can only do good because He has given me the grace to do so (that’s what my religion–Catholicism– teaches 🙂 ). But like I said, I don’t disagree that Jesus>Religion. I disagree with the statement that Jesus hates religion…which this guy says a lot.
Why as the question what it “True Religion?” We should ask “Who is Christ?” He saves. Not religion (any form of it).
Because “Someone” above made the distinction between false and true religion. If Jesus didn’t hate religion, but only false religion, then that implies there is such a thing as true religion. And I’ll say it again: I am in 100% agreement with you that Jesus is the one who saves. He did establish rituals through which He does it though.
I think by false religion they mean religious people who do not practice what they preach.
Yes, Jesus saves us, but religion tells us how he does so. That is why Jesus built the Church and instructed her to make disciplines of every nation.
Which doesn’t mean religion is “bad” or “false”. Jesus established his own religion… the Catholic church.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THE VIDEO HAS GONE VIRAL. ARE YOU INDICATING THAT JESUS CAME TO ESTABLISH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? IF SO WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER RELIGIONS? READ 1COR 1:10-20 . OUR JOB AS THE BODY OF CHRIST IS TO EXPAND HIS KINGDOM NOT BE DIVIDED BECAUSE OF WHO WE FOLLOW. CHRISTIANITY IS THE ONLY RELIGION ESTABLISHED BY JESUS. NOT CATHALOCISM, BAPTIST, LUTHERN OR ANY OTHER RELIGION. GIVE GLORY TO THE ONE WHO STARTED IT ALL. CHRIST!
James 1: 26 If anyone[j] thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27Pure and undefiled religion before our[k] God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
yes which religion helps to do. for the kingdom that Christ created starts with his church. where we are all heirs and no one is an orphan or widow or in distress. where it helps us to stay on the path and be unstained by the world. in his one body in communion with him for in Matthew 16: 18 it says”I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Religion is living out your beliefs. But your beliefs can be dead wrong. Jesus didn’t hate religion but He did condemn the religious leaders of His day who’s hearts were evil, even though they did a lot of outward traditions to make them look holy.
Yes Jesus is the one who saves, that’s why I am part of the religion and church that He started…Catholicism. Get it??
Saul before he was Paul was a religious man who killed true believers in Christ. The Catholic church has killed many millions of people who loved Jesus and knew he was the way to God. Believing In Jesus shed blood alone to save from sin really ticks off the Catholic leaders. Only Catholic leaders teach that Jesus started the Catholic church. That’s how they keep you in it. Open your heart. Seek God with all your heart. If you really want to see truth, He will show it to you. And the Truth will set you free from all those rituals that you are a slave to. Please read Galatians chapter 3 to help you understand how you have been bewitched.
Radicallamb, Catholics are not “bewitched” thank you very much
Please read John 20:23. Why after His death on the Cross and after His resurrection from Death He appoints REAL people to forgive sins. As the Catholic Church teaches, the Blood of Jesus Saves us but not alone. We must participate in it as He prescribes in His teachings of the Father’s Law which He came to fulfill NOT abolish.
fauthority @de hecho, Jesfas dice a los apf3stoles en varias ocseionas para ir a predicar la Buena Nueva de su palabra. Y, tambie9n les dice que el alma-ganador sere1 recompensado. Es por eso que muchos de los cristianos testigos para tratar de convertir a los no creyentes. No me siento cf3modo tratando de obligar a alguien a cambiar de opinif3n acerca de Cristo. Todo lo que podemos hacer es decirle a otros lo que Cristo ha hecho por nosotros, y decirles acerca de Su palabra.
He generalized, he made no distinction. You’re misinterpreting his words.
Thank you, Mary.
the term ‘Religion’ doesn’t have the same meaning as it did back then. Religion NOW is MAN’S-LAW. God didn’t give us rules on religion, He have us rules on LIFE & how to live, how to SPIRITUALLY live. it’s MAN’S laws on religion that has turned people AWAY from Christ….and #1 Catholic LAW’s, satan is a mighty trickster isn’t he?
the term ‘Religion’ doesn’t have the same meaning as it did back then. Religion NOW is MAN’S-LAW. God didn’t give us rules on religion, He have us rules on LIFE & how to live, how to SPIRITUALLY live. it’s MAN’S laws on religion that has turned people AWAY from Christ….and #1 Catholic LAW’s, satan is a mighty trickster isn’t he?
I challenge you to spend some time reading my past posts. I think you’ll find that you see eye to eye with Catholicism more often than you think.
Peace in Christ.
Funny Catholicism calles the Anglican church and the Episcopals heretics because we support gays and gay marriage. This is why the Bible is confusing and the Bible was written by man in the OLD TESTAMENT it says that all are welcome in God’s kingdom but in the New Testament it says that gays are abominations which is false. Catholicism thinks its the only organized relgion out that matters. When that statement is false because every “religion” is the same religion but just culturally different. Go ahead tell me Im wrong because I can totally give you an example you can’t deny.
You’re simplifying a bit. Our theological differences go way beyond the gay marriage issue. And the Old Testament definitely spoke out against a homosexual actions as well (Sodom and Gomorrah, for one).
And I’d like to hear the example.
God Bless!
For example Mary, the book of Genesis wrote about the Garden of Eden and its Location, while ancient Sumerian texts several thousand of years older than the Bible and Christianity listen the same coordinates of a said Garden.
Mary, please listen to this with an open mind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6yDuxzjpxE
When you have time maybe you could expand this post. I’m really interested in what else you have to say. Personally, I think that the video has some very good points, but mixed in with the good points is some really false logic. Jesus also spoke against heretics in the new testament, and some of the things in the video could be classified as heresy. I personally believe in the Church and in God. What people don’t realize, however, is that the church isn’t and never can be perfect until the end of time. Like the video said, it’s a human institution, run by the race of MEN. The problem is that everyone expects religion to be perfect. Men are always imperfect. Yes, Jesus established christianity, but he gave it over to men for safekeeping until he comes again. Jesus doesn’t expect us to be perfect, in fact he expects us to mess up and get things wrong. The important thing is that we try our very best to live our lives in the best way possible.
http://jacobhbaugher.wordpress.com/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/
he doesnt expect us to mess up. he expects us to be guided by the spirit and make better choices as we walk with him. if we do mess up than we can get up. but he doesnt expects us to fall. The church was handed down by Jesus himself through guidance of the spirit. will it falter at times yes the same way even the apostles who walked and ate with him have. The guy in the video needs to see things out side of the evangelical box for a second. But he does have some great things to say as well things we should all pray on. this sparks discussion i love it!
praise be Jesus Christ!
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That’s exactly what I was thinking. At some point definitions are dissolved by date. In which case anything produced betwixt 1914 and 1920 that doesn’t qualify as dada live in limbo. (but these above do feel more Nouveau than Deco to my ignorant eye)
Dag Hans, Jullie hebben een bijzondere dag gisteren gehad! Die afdaling met het busje…ik kreeg er wel de kriebels van! En dan ook weer omhoog!Want u weet: ik vind het al spannend in uw busje als we de Dijk op gaan!Fijne dagen nog!!Groetjes Tamara Molenaar
“Man’s way to reach God is by religion. God’s way to reach man is Jesus.”
ummm no mans one and only way to reach god is through Jesus
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” -John 14:6
We reach God thru Jesus and we reach Jesus thru Mary and the Church.
Jesus is self fulfilling. Mary might have been his earthly mother, and that was great, but Jesus alone died and rose again for us. Mary is not in the redemption equation, and he never says pray to Mary and go to church.
But to be the Mother of God must mean something, why would
God have chosen an earthly mother when he simply could have just come into the
world? This is the Women of Genesis and Revelation the one who would (and have)
crushed the head of the serpent! That’s why we pray to her and Jesus, Jesus is
God but Mary is a great aid for protection and growing closer to Christ.
God had to choose a woman so that Jesus would be man on earth. If He merely would have appeared we would not have a chance to follow Him in His love and righteousness. Mary was special because she was chosen, not chosen because she was special.
Then why does he say to John at the Cross, “Behold your mother”? Obviously, he gave his mother to not only John, but to all of the human race as he was dying on the cross. Yes, Jesus is fulfilling to our needs, but we turn to Mary to pray for us because she is in direct line with Jesus, and her prayers for us are stronger.
As for going to church, Jesus did say, “He who does not eat my body or drink my blood will not have life in him.” We receive his Body and Blood through the eucharist, and where do we receive eucharist? At Church.
First, where in the Bible does it say that we should pray to Mary and that her prayers are stronger?? She was a sinful woman just like the rest of the earth. Jesus is the only righteous one, why would we pray to any one other than the One who saved us from death?
-“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” -Hebrews 7:25-26
-Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.-Hebrews 4:14-16
The Bible clearly states that Mary was “full of grace”. If one is “full” of something, there is not room for anything else, so, mary was without sin. Why would God choose a common sinner to raise his son? He would only have chosen the best of the best, ie., Mary.
Grace dose not mean absence of sin. Learn your vocabulary.
You can’t have grace without first having sin….
Read 1 Timothy 2:5 and tell me what u think about that verse.
It says there is one mediator between God and mankind. Since Mary is a part of mankind, we can ask her to pray for us too. It is the same as when I ask my family to pray I travel safely or don’t get sick. I am sure you have asked for other to pray for you before – it is the same things.
Talking to Mary is a form of Necromancy. That is forbidden in the Bible. Please listen to the videos by Richard Bennett who understands Catholicism and loves the Catholic. He can explain these things better that I.
This great blog post addresses this issue. Check it out!
http://www.allyoucaneatcatholics.com/2012/01/communion-of-saints-ii-is-anybody.html
Read 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul tells us to pray for each other and to intercede for one another. Since we are not separated from God in death or life Saints in Heaven as well as on earth can pray for us, per command of St. Paul.
Shado wolf said “Jesus is
God but Mary is a great aid for protection and growing closer to Christ.”
How can someone say that in light of what 1 Timothy 2:5 says. Yes we can pray for another and God hears our prayer. But That’s ppl here on earth! Mary is in heaven she cant hear our prayers nor does she intercede for us! Our aid and protection comes from God alone!
What makes you think people in heaven can’t hear our prayers??
Yes, excellent question. I’ve often wondered, if we truly believe our loved ones are with Christ in Heaven, well, why wouldn’t they be able to see and hear us? Wouldn’ that be a limitation of Heaven? I don’t think there are any limitations in Heaven. Of course they can hear us and we can us and we can still pray for their intercession. s in Heaven. I’m sure they
Asking one person to pray for you in no way violates Christ’s mediatorship, as can be seen from considering the way in which Christ is a mediator. First, Christ is a unique mediator between man and God because he is the only person who is both God and man. He is the only bridge between the two, the only God-man. But that role as mediator is not compromised in the least by the fact that others intercede for us. Furthermore, Christ is a unique mediator between God and man because he is the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 9:15, 12:24), just as Moses was the mediator (Greek mesitas) of the Old Covenant (Gal. 3:19–20).
The intercession of fellow Christians—which is what the saints in heaven are—also clearly does not interfere with Christ’s unique mediatorship because in the four verses immediately preceding 1 Timothy 2:5, Paul says that Christians should interceed: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Clearly, then, intercessory prayers offered by Christians on behalf of others is something “good and pleasing to God,” not something infringing on Christ’s role as mediator.
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/praying-to-the-saints
I understand that when you are raised Catholic it is hard to see the deception. But if you begin to seek truth, ask the Holy Spirit to show you through scripture alone, not man or his traditions, and if you are really hungry for God and His righteousness, He will reveal truth to you. Don’t just believe what you have been told. Seek God with all or your heart, not rituals, and you will find Him. Your quote about how to reach Jesus is truly heretical. Read John 14:6 Go directly to the Father and fall down at the throne where Jesus is now King, not a little baby or a bloody corpse on the cross.
Radicallamb – I ask you to begin to seek the truth by asking the Holy Spirit to show you through scripture alone, not man or his traditions or his teachings, where the truth reveals that only scripture can teach the truth.
u misunderstood what i’m saying. Man tries to get right with God through Religion which means good works and deeds, rules etc. But that fails to save us from our sins. But God responds by sending Christ to die for our sins. Jesus is the only way.
Can I just give an ‘amen’ to this? Seriously, though! To me, this pretty much sums up what he was trying to say in the video.
amen!
i like puddin and stuff
“No one comes to the Father except by Me.”
Man’s way to reach God is by faith. He tries to reach God but futilely through religion. I know that is what you are really saying Tim as you explained in a later post. Religion gives many immoral people the false hope that they are right with God when they are just doing a few religious and traditional things to make them feel righteous. Then they are self deceived.
Religion is the scourge of the Earth.
lol, it’s lovely how people seem to be saying that religion is hurtful, or wrong, or bad…but they don’t really define what religion is. I think most people believe that Religion is a set of ideals that men hold and try to force on other people. In the confusion, people tend to hate people trying to educate, to share, to speak. A man is happy in his own ignorance sometimes, and even when he knows he’s wrong, he doesn’t want to be shown it. I know…because I feel that way a lot lately. I use the world’s arguments to justify my actions, but I still know in the back of my mind, that what I’m doing is wrong. I’d rather have Jesus’s forgiveness, and forget that He would want me to stop. You know what I’m talking about…seeking forgiveness, but never repenting. I think that’s what this guy in the video is trying to say…that it’s okay to seek forgiveness and not have to worry about all the rules, convicting you of your wrongdoing. We all know that repentance is hard, and nobody likes to be told they’re wrong… But we need to admit we’re wrong, educate ourselves, and stop doing what we’ve been doing wrong.
Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems that you are insinuating that the only reason that people would say that religion is hurtful is because they are unwilling to accept rebuke.
I personally know that that’s a very ignorant thing to insinuate. I have been and I have seen multiple people who have been deeply wounded by leaders in the church. And that’s what I would define religion as and I think that’s the definition that a lot of people are going by. The organization of the belief. The structure of the church. Leaders in the church have done a lot to personally hurt me and my loved ones. Because of this I naturally resent the church. I still love Jesus, but I do have some trust issues when it comes to the church and that’s what I think the original video is about. Yes, it’s vaguely worded and very wrong at some points when you consider that the widely accepted definition of religion isn’t the real definition. But he’s talking about the widely accepted definition. He’s talking about the hypocrisy. I think it’s a good point that he makes. However, I think it’s a good point that Mary makes too. Religion isn’t the problem, it’s the hypocrisy within the religion. Men are fallible and people are people. People will do stupid and hypocritical things, but that doesn’t mean that religion is bad. It’s just what religion has turned into that’s bad.
Mary
I think you may have miss the underlying message in the video. You have analyzed it with bias and preconceived notion and only perpetuated the problem he spoke of.
Everyone has their own opinions on the interpretation of the words and their meaning, but that misses the point entirely.
Instead of arguing about a specific way to view God let’s all just leave each other to praise God in the best way we know how. The man obviously believes in God and Jesus. He just may not adhere to you’re perspective of principles.
Who are we to speak on behalf of God and what he or Jesus ‘really meant’?
I think you, sir, missed Mary’s message entirely. Mary isn’t arguing a specific view of God? She ultimately shares Jeff’s love for Christ. She is just offering vital clarification, one that Jeff does not clearly specify. Christ does not hate religion, which Jeff repeats many times. What Christ “hates” is hollow ritualism, but hollow ritualism is NOT religion. It is simply religion misused. This is also Jeff’s intention to communicate this Truth, but he has simply confused his terms and in turn targeted the very organism Christ instituted: His Church.
We are entitled to speak on behalf of Christ by the mere fact that he has communicated Himself to us. First through His Incarnation, then by His handing down the faith to the Apostles which lead to their traditions, then that which lead to Scriptures. We are not only entitled to speak on His behalf but we are commissioned by virtue of our Baptism to bring forth the Gospel and all that is communicated within it, including both Christ’s “principals” and love. They are intrinsically connected, to separate either would degrade their very substance.
I was not saying that what Mary said was ‘wrong’ or her message was ‘misconstrued’ I was merely stating from the mere interpretation of her rhetoric on where she stood as opposed to Jeff’s view was entirely misinterpreted.
Who are we to speak on the valid of another man’s most inner spiritual beliefs in God or Jesus Christ. I understand where both of them are coming from and accept the beauty of each viewpoint.
If we are all entitled to speak on His behalf why then do others claim to be more righteous in their interpretations of God than others. Find me one person in the microcosm of God’s great universe who has even the most subatomic understand of what God is really thinking then we will let his judgement be of any merit.
According to your logic, a man could interpret from the bible that the best way to worship God is through ritual orgies and it would be just as viable and “beautiful” as any other person’s expression of worship.
If logic doesn’t work in the extreme, it doesn’t work in the mild. God is the Truth, not the Relativism.
About our ability to “speak on His behalf,” if we are genuine and selfless when we speak, He said ”
do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,
for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” -Matthew 10:19-20
His fruit. What he said is wrong and heretical. He said Jesus hates religion…Jesus fulfilled religion and made it more clear…made it more strict (yet simpler).
We are the church. That’s what Christ instituted. Not the modern day buildings that people call church. People thinking they have to go to church, vs being the church, is an adulteration of what Christ instituted. Yes, Paul said not to forsake gathering. He wasn’t talking about one person speaking while everyone else sits and listens. That is a relatively new development in worship.
Hi…. I had no intention of replying to any of these posts and I don’t want to get into any debates. However, when I read this comment that ‘one person speaking while everyone else sits and listens…is a relatively new development in worship’, I had to offer this comment. If you read documents from the very early church, 1st and 2nd century, you will clearly see how worship was celebrated even back then. I’m not sure if you are Catholic or have ever been to a Catholic Mass. If you have, you will clearly recognize what Justin Martyr is talking about here. This was written in the early part of the 2nd century by one of the earliest Church fathers. So, none of what we do today is just ‘made up’-it is most clearly based on what was done in the very earliest time after Christ-done by those who knew Christ on this earth or by those who were followers of the apostles. This is what Justin Martyr writes in the early 2nd century
No one may share the Eucharist with us
unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in
the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and
unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ.
We do not consume the eucharistic
bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been
taught that as Jesus Christ our Savior became a man of flesh and blood
by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and
blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the flesh and blood of the
incarnate Jesus by the power of his own words contained in the prayer
of thanksgiving.
The apostles, in their recollections,
which are called gospels, handed down to us what Jesus commanded them
to do. They tell us that he took bread, gave thanks and said: Do this in memory of me. This is my body. In the same way he took the cup, he gave thanks and said: This is my blood.
The Lord gave this command to them alone. Ever since then we have
constantly reminded one another of these things. The rich among us help
the poor and we are always united. For all that we receive we praise the
Creator of the universe through his Son Jesus Christ and through the
Holy Spirit.
On Sunday we have a common assembly
of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying
districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the
prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has
finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone
to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we
all stand up together and pray.
On the conclusion of our prayer,
bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers
prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give
assent by saying, “Amen”. The eucharist is distributed, everyone
present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.
The wealthy, if they wish, may make a
contribution, and they themselves decide the amount. The collection is
placed in the custody of the president, who uses it to help the orphans
and widows and all who for any reason are in distress, whether because
they are sick, in prison, or away from home. In a word, he takes care of
all who are in need.
We hold our common assembly on Sunday
because it is the first day of the week, the day on which God put
darkness and chaos to flight and created the world, and because on that
same day our savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead. For he was
crucified on Friday and on Sunday he appeared to his apostles and
disciples and taught them the things that we have passed on for your
consideration.
Catholics answer with Catholic answers they have had to look up on the internet or ask their teachers. Why don’t you look into the Word of God and see that the RCC is full of the traditions of men and false doctrine? Get into the Book and not the Catholic Bible. Baby baptism is not
Biblical , The Eucharist is not
Biblical , praying to Mary is not
Biblical , Priests not marrying is not
Biblical , Nuns being cloistered is not
Biblical Non Catholics being tortured and killed is not right. Not eating meat on Friday is not Biblical. I Timothy 4:1-3
then why did this video come out then?? If you say who are we to speak on behalf of God and what jesus actually meant then why is this guy trying to tell us what Jesus truly meant. I can understand that he believes in God and Jesus but where does it say Jesus hated religion?? Is he trying to say that all religion is bad? or just not worth it? whats his true stance on religion?? was this just to get hits or what?? “Religion puts you in bondage, but Jesus sets you free” sounds like to me that when Jesus came down and established religion i don’t think he wanted to put people in bondage but rather set them free through religion. In my opinion if you believe in Jesus you take on a part of religion
I don’t believe they guy is trying to tell you what to think. He expresses his feelings thru his talent. You can agree or not… Freedom of speech.
When I listened to the video my mind thought of Religion as today’s church where people are being judge and condemnd – and that Jesus does not like.
He is talking about that religion , that church we see nowadays that “…Museum for good people ” Jesus does not want that church.
And that’s what I got out of what he said… And can’t agree more.
I’m pretty sure Jesus likes us to use our intellect to properly judge one’s actions. Otherwise, why did man get an intellect. Let’s not be ridiculous.
John 4:21 Jesus told her, “Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
1 John 2: 27 The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as He has taught you, remain in Him.
There is Truth, I think May just added to my faith and love for Christ because she brought forth the points that were missing. The biased perception doesn’t seen to come from Mary, but from the guy in the video. And if we were left to Only interpret subjectively, than some of the things he was bashing would be right depending on who read it. There is nothing wrong with taking a message and clarifying some points, it’s how we learn, and in this case it’s how we learn more about Jesus Christ, which is whom she quoted the while time.
Because God himself command us to go and make disciples of all Nations. Let’s not be ridiculous.
God created a system where everyone was born a sinner.. After realizing the mistake. God came down, sacrificed himself to himself.. To create a loophole in the system.
God did not make a mistake when he created the earth and filled it with sinners. It was his plan all along. We aren’t able to be holy and righteous. That’s God. He sent his son for US so that we can even have a relationship with Christ and spend eternity in Heaven with him. It was his plan, he knew what he was doing. He is almighty,
I thought Jesus was god?!
Jesus is God. Jesus is God in man form. He is one of the three parts of the Holy Trinity. (Father Son and Holy Spirit) All of which are God, just in different forms
Just because it was his plan all along doesn’t mean it wasn’t a mistake. Any way I try to look at it, god is a selfish and jealous god… How else could he send someone he loves unconditionally to suffer eternally unless they bow down to him? Sounds like unconditional love* to me.
*with conditions.
It seems you misunderstand how things work. If I’m a father and my kid (who is an adult and can legally do what he wishes) decides that he hates me and never wants to see me again, it would not be love if I forced him to stay with me. Love allows him to do as he freely chooses.
God doesn’t condemn those in hell. Those in hell have attempted to condemn God from their lives. Make no mistake that we have the opportunity to choose hell. God will never force us to take it.
God even loves those people in hell. They just chose to not love him back.
God created a perfect world and we, as humans, decided to allow sin to be part of this world… not God. Because of this sin, we had no way to be cleansed of this sin until God sent his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us.
I really think it would be awesome if you do a few more blog posts going in depth to more of his comments! but thank you for this!
religion is man made. the “law” is God made. religion is man made method of getting to God. that is different from “the law” that God created for men to follow. Religion is bad, the Law is good, however those who are in Christ Jesus are not under the law but the law naturally flows out of them. 🙂
Judaism and Catholicism are both created by God and taught by God.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6yDuxzjpxE
Most religions are man made, but most people commenting on here seem to be forgetting one thing. Jesus DID establish religion, and that religion would be the Catholic Church, which has the promise from Jesus that it will always be guided by the Holy Spirit, and that “the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”
Just wanted to thank you for the response. I don’ t think the guy who made the video is really TRYING to diagree with the Bible – he is open about just being a guy trying to find his way. My issue with his video are statements such as “what would you say if I told you Jesus hated religion”. I think a lot of artistic license was taken to do his “lyrics”. Probably my biggest beef is that there’s just enough in his video that resonates with CHristians today that are fed up with the burocracy of religion and are making the video “viral” and not examining the actual content more closely, then passing it along while appearing as an endorsement of the whole thing. It’s recently come up under a couple facebook friends with no reservation about comments the video claims Christ made (or at least alluded to) that he, in fact, did not (as you point out early).
Dont forget the Bible was made by man not by God or even jesus himaelf… So to quote the Bible is to quote man and all men are flawed…
Yes, but the bible is God breathed. And everything that is in the bible is God inspired. The bible is not flawed, its the only book to withstand 2,000 years.
The bible was made by the holy spirit entering into the men when they wrote it. The bible was written by God through man.
I just saw this on my fb feed and was hoping to find some kind of inspiring catholic youth video or at least something to show some of the great works of the church to post in response. Any suggestions?
http://youtu.be/Vs6qZd_xP1w
This is a fantastic article. You can’t just separate Jesus from the Church or the Church from Jesus. The Church is based on the teachings of Jesus, and Jesus gave his life for His Church. Of course there are always people who use religion as a false front for something (we can see it in all eras of history), but they were not living as their religion would truly have them live.
Thank you for the article, I pray that more people who watched this video read this article.
His main point seems to highlight God’s desire for us to pursue an honest and raw relationship with Him that often seems a bit chaotic to the people around us rather than pursue a life of works and deeds that are ultimately meant to be put on display and filled with inauthenticity.
However, disagreement is certainly allowed and sometimes encouraged because healthy conflict makes us better.
What we should focus on is that this brother in Christ is being bold and we should consider him a blessing instead of identifying every flaw in his human words. Praise the Lord for his courage!
Mary,
Thank you for this delightful response to the video. Is there a chance you make a video about it, so we can help spread the news?
I just think that alot of his motivation may have come from the fact that Christians are always chopping down on other religions…like they do it ALOT and he’s just saying here that Religion is not important, its the relationship that YOU yourself has with God. Religion harms alot more than it helps. This I see everyday…
Wow. This said it perfectly. I actually really liked the initial video because I interpreted it as him using the word”religion” in terms of the politics that too often creep into the definition and how quickly people will see only that, not the actual faith itself. However I did find he took a little too much poetic license in quoting some text. Still, I believe his heart is in the right place – but the word “religion” has become so bastardized and he unfortunately left himself dangerously close to being (perhaps) misrepresented by his words.
Your post here though tidies up the message I believe he was going for and for that I can only say “Thank you”!
You can clearly tell he is talking about religion without substance, not religion in general. He is point out the religious people that are hypocrites. Jesus hates that. Psalm 11:5
JJJJJJJ,
YOU are saying that very clearly, he did not.
Here is a conversation a friend and I had about this video:
Bekah: ok i freaking love this video and the main message it brings of grace and it being DONE. and i love he makes his point about stil loving the church and the bible. Awesome! BUT i have to say, there’s something in it that I’ve been thinking about for awhile and it’s just this: I think our generation has jumped on the “I hate religion” bandwagon. And I completely and wholeheartedly agree that man-made religion is worthless, a list of rules and has no power in changing the heart (Col. 2:23) BUT I also see the Bible refer to Christianity as religion, now it isn’t a list of do’s and don’t’s, it is about the relationship but it is still a religion in terms of it is a set of beliefs, beliefs that personally impact and change who we are. James 1:27 “RELIGION that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. i think that it’s true that Christianity is a completely different type of religion, when Christ said “It is DONE” he meant that God’s redemptive work for man has been made complete, that man can now come to the Father in full assurance of faith by the blood of His Son. Unlike any other “religion” there is nothing we DO that saves us. It has been done for us. BUT there are works that proceed from our life, fruit, as a result of the inner change. For “faith without works is dead.”
Me: I completely agree with you Bekah. I think that this video might be in response to the way that the world perceives religion and that as Christians, we are constantly hearing from people, “oh your religious? religion has caused war. religion has caused separation.” Those people are right, but what they don’t understand is that the heart of Christianity is unlike any other religion out there. When we receive Jesus we are deeply moved and changed and we get to have a genuine relationship with God. People also think, “Oh you’re religious? So like you can’t drink, you can’t lie, you can’t cuss, etc.” While yes, we are Christians, we are part of a religion, we are not religious the same way the world defines religious. I’d say we are more of responders. Responders to the grace we have been freely given, even though we surely did not deserve it. Responders to the greatest act of sacrificial love done for me personally. Responders to great story God has revealed to us about His creation. Responders to the way that God tenderly guides us and blesses us. When you love someone all you want to do is to serve them, to know them, to bless them. That is why we follow Christ and why we are set apart from the world. Not so we can modify our behavior or have a bunch of dysfunctional people to hang with 😉 Just like this gifted handsome poet man said, the church is a hospital for the broken.
While I do appreciate your points, I feel like I should point out that in the video, he never once said “Jesus hates religion,” I listened to it 12 times to make sure I didn’t miss it.
But the video does say “Jesus hated Religion.” Assuming that Jesus is still alive, and that He doesn’t change his mind about things, then it’s reasonable to for someone to take the aforementioned statement in the present tense.
She missed the point completely. The whole point is just that
we should love Jesus above all else. Religion like every other man made
thing can detract from our relationship with God. Not that it is bad but that it can be abused. The video description
explains this poem is about the difference between Jesus and false
religion. The fact is religion is of this world. Do not love this
world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 1 John 2:15 That is all the video is trying to explain!Take it or leave it, the video served its purpose, it got people passionate about their beliefs!
And Mary’s point was that clearly Jesus says that true religion is neither man-made nor of this world! Eg. Baptism is a ritual of religion, but instituted by Jesus who is God for the salvation of man.
But Catholicism isn’t man-made, so not all religion is man-made, except in the sense that Jesus was 100% man, but he was also 100% God.
I’ve seen this video being posted a lot. It is definitely well-made in that it captures your attention & gets the point across in an artistic, convicted, and passionate fashion. But he misses the train so to speak & I would urge all you Christians posting this to reconsider what’s actually being said here. While the video obviously has some aspects of truth in it, it is also largely unfounded on many levels. The problem is NOT religion, but hypocrisy. The pharisees were evil because they were hypocrites – NOT because they practiced religion. Look at Jesus himself! He didn’t just abandon his Jewish faith – he taught in the temple & was a great teacher of the faith, he was well versed in all the scriptures. The whole reason why the ‘cleansing of the temple’ incident occurs when Jesus shows his righteous anger in the temple among all the money changers is BECAUSE he cared about the temple! He specifically said this is a “place of worship”! So religion in itself is NOT a bad thing – rather, within any group we create (because humans are sinful!) there will always be traitors & hypocrites. Look at Jesus himself when he chose the twelve apostles, was not Judas a betrayer? Even among that small circle who were closest to the Son of God there was a traitor/hypocrite. So all of you bashing ‘religion’ are essentially throwing the baby out with the bath water so to speak. Jesus did not come to ‘abolish religion’ that’s ridiculous… he came to (among other things of course, but in regards to this specific topic) call people out who are pretending to be religious and people who claim to be followers but do not show it in how they act. What do you think the Last Supper was??? This was the Jewish ritual of the Passover Seder! It doesn’t get more “religious” than that.
And yes calling someone Republican doesn’t automatically make them Christian – but the assumption is there for GOOD reason you nitwit. You cannot claim to be a Christian and support obvious sins such as abortion. So yeah obviously God isn’t so concerned with how we structure our political systems or how we label things within that – but when it comes down to actual decisions within that system that will affect how everyone will live under that law with regards to issues He says are wrong, you better bet He cares.
And why does religion start so many wars? Well that is pretty straightforward and obvious – any time a group of people have a strong stance and opinion on the meaning of life there is bound to be conflict because there will always be other people who don’t agree. Don’t get me wrong, war is a horrible and evil thing – but sometimes it’s necessary to stand up for & protect the things we believe in. I would rather have a war because we’re fighting for something that’s right than to sit back and have a war upon us because evil people are taking advantage of no one doing anything to stand up for what’s good/right.
Why does it build huge churches but fail to feed the poor? Oh my gosh talk about an ignorant thing to say. This an obvious attack on Catholicism as most of the many beautiful cathedrals/sanctuaries/chapels that have been built are usually within the Catholic church. But this statement is totally unfounded, first of all he fails to recognize the fact that the MAJORITY of charity money/relief in the world comes from the Catholics! The Catholic church has donated more and helped the poor more than any other organization in history! Secondly, he fails to recognize the whole intent behind constructing such places of worship. The whole point of the huge cathedrals is so they DO amaze us and lift our spirits & minds to heaven – so that we are reminded of the spiritual truth that we were not created for this world but for something much greater in heaven. And the cathedrals help capture a little glimpse of that for us. If you’ve ever been in one you can attest that it’s feels like a ‘little bit of heaven’ with the huge/tall ceilings and beautiful stain glass windows. Because after all, we are human – we are physical beings – and so using physical reminders helps us focus our spiritual vision. This also goes along with the reason the Catholic church uses incense and other physical things but that is beyond the scope of this conversation. Another key concept though is that this is where we go to worship God – it is to honor Him! By building something that is in human eyes truly magnificent, we are trying to give Him our BEST. Why would we use a wooden cup in church if we have a gold one? Use the more beautiful one to glorify the King! But what if all we have is a wooden one? Then in that case that is just as good, it’s about giving Him our best!
The church is “not a museum for good people but a hospital for the broken”. I would agree that yes, the primary concern for the church is to be a refuge for the sinners and broken-hearted, for Jesus said “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” Luke 5:31. But I also sense the first statement in this is mocking the veneration of saints – in other words the whole rational behind honoring the Godly men & women who have been declared ‘saints’ over the ages by the church is to show respect for how they lived as well as to inspire us! Many of the saints are martyrs who died willingly for their faith! I don’t think it’s out of the question that as Catholics we build statues to honor them and help remind us of the Godly lives they lived. This is NOT worshiping. We worship God alone. But that is another topic as well.
Tells single moms God doesn’t love them because they had a divorce? This is a total misquote & misunderstanding. And if some church leader actually said this they would be wrong & have their theology mixed up.. but I have a feeling in this case it’s probably a misunderstanding of what the person actually said. It’s not that God stops loving someone – that is an obvious basic trait of Christianity that God loves even our enemies (NOT what they do, but for who they are as still being part of his creation). But rather in the case of a divorce it’s emphasizing the seriousness of sin and that the sacrament of marriage should not be taken lightly – it is a commitment for life! So when we get a divorce or partake in a serious/grave sin like that it hurts our relationship with God. WE are the ones pushing Him away when we engage in sin like that. HE doesn’t move from where He was loving you – but He also won’t force Himself upon us, we have to be the one’s to take the first step towards Him. This is not to say that God cannot forgive that person (of course He does!) but it DOES mean it will take more for that person to make their relationship right with God because they have moved further away from Him. God WILL repair & heal someone from that hurt if they are truly repentant of their sin – but it will be a more difficult process because of the seriousness of the sin. Think about Hitler, if he at any point had a conversion & repented of his sin then yes, God would right in that moment forgive him & welcome him – buttttt God is also not dumb – if we say we’re sorry but then do not even show it by our actions? How can God consider that legitimate repentance? It is NOT that our works gain God’s approval but rather it shows to God a reflection of the state in which our heart is in. In other words, you can say ‘by faith alone’ all you want – but if you’re not even recognizing that it’s THROUGH that faith that one should WANT to do good works, then you’ve missed the point. At the end of the video it posts Romans 4:5 …but you can’t “pick & choose” verses – we have to take into account the whole Bible. Paul also said “Work out your faith with fear & trembling” Philippians 2:12. So like I said before, it’s a combination! Yes it’s through our faith we’re saved – but if we actually have that faith we will naturally show it in our works as well.
I did not read your entire post, but I take serious issue with your Republican = Christian is a good assumption claim and that you cannot call yourself Christian while supporting an “obvious” sin such as abortion.
First of all, nothing about ethics or sin is “obvious”. Thousands of men much smarter than you have never and likely will never discover a perfect system of ethics. The rules laid out in the Bible are not comprehensive and you WILL come across situations where the correct course of action is not clear. Quite frankly, people like you who think ethics is black and white are ignorant and dangerous.
On to the issue of abortion itself, I may support the LEGALIZATION of abortion without condoning the act itself on the practical grounds that outlawing abortion will not prevent it. Instead, it will simply cause abortions to be carried out in back alleys or just across National lines with coat-hangers and staircases instead of in a more controlled and safe environment. The simple fact is that banning abortion is essentially unenforceable. What are you going to do, investigate every alleged miscarriage? That’s entering into invasive territory I doubt even you would like to go.
Secondly, abortion is far from an “obvious sin”. I’m not sure what flavor of pro-life justification you subscribe to, but I can easily believe in the spirit and the sanctity of human life without believing that spirit or life is endowed at the second of conception. That idea is wholly subjective and has little basis in scripture. I think it’s ludicrous to claim something without so much as a brain is endowed with any form of consciousness or human spirit and even more ludicrous to claim the same of a fresh zygote. At that point, they’re human cells with the potential to develop into a human being, just as any sperm or egg has the potential to develop into a human being. But the fact of the matter is that potential does not equal existence. Someone may have the potential to do great things, but until they actually do those great things, nothing has happened or is realized.
Before you go around calling people nitwits I suggest you look in the mirror and reflect on your own intellectual shortcomings before you fall off self righteous horse. I do hope you realize the people the man in that video was criticizing are people strikingly similar to yourself. Thick-headily religious, sermonizing, and dangerously ignorant.
there are some things that are objectively evil – things that are evil all of the time – and abortion is one of those things. To say that you could support the “legalization” of an act that is intrinsically evil because you personally feel that there would be no way to prevent it is unbelievable! Talk about thick-headed…
You seem to be ignoring the paragraph where I argued abortion is not necessarily intrinsically evil..
Have you ever met a women who has actually had an abortion? You will never know the kind of pain this leaves, a pain that even sleep can release you from, your spirit cries out in the night, you wonder how God can forgive you when you cant forgive yourself. Are you one of those people who say I WOULD NEVER, I DONT BELIEVE IT’S RIGHT, but yet you heroically defend the choice. Talk to someone who has actually had an abortion. You will be hard press to find any gratitude for your part in what is now their life. YES YOU ARE PART OF THIS.
I was your vote that made it so easy,easy to believe that it can all be over in an hour,its a lie.
Well, I’m not a woman, so it would be difficult to say whether or not I personally would have an abortion. I think if the circumstances made it necessary then I would, considering I don’t think an abortion is wrong if it’s done before a brain develops.
While I recognize having an abortion can be a traumatic experience for some, that doesn’t really speak to the morality of the act. Going to war and killing people can be a far more traumatic experience and cause your spirit to “cry out in the night” (I think this is a reasonable thing to say). Does that mean defending yourself in a warzone is morally wrong? I don’t think so.
did you just compare having abortion to defending yourself in war zone?
Yes, in order to show that your argument that abortion is wrong because it can be traumatic is not a good or persuasive one.
You really don’t get it ,do you ? It’s just about winning an argument.
Your most recent comment adds nothing to the discussion. And no, I don’t care about “winning” any argument. I wanted to show that your reasons/reasoning was not good on that point. If your reasons for believing something are bad, you should not hold that belief. The point of discourse is to find out what reasons are good and what reasons are bad so our beliefs are well founded and we have good reason to believe them.
Do you really not understand that your vote ends the life of babies into the third trimester ,intrinsically evil ,do you not thing so?
First of all, not once have I spoken of supporting current abortion laws, I have only given you my own view on the morality of abortion. Second, assuming I do support it, what you said is straightforwardly false. Any abortion carried out in the third trimester is not legal and not condoned by current abortion law.
I think Guest 3 meant that abortion UP TO the 3rd trimester is legal. And, well…that’s pretty far along.
And if you vote for a pro-choice candidate who will support pro-choice legislation, you’re supporting current abortion laws. Simple logic.
Face this one simple fact although as a follower of God I do not support abortion I do realize in this world there will be evil everywhere. I have lived in this world. And abortion has its moments where I believe that with God it is ok I worked in a woman’s Christian pregnancy clinic. And in walks a 16 year old girl who was faced with a choice either abort your baby or run the risk of dying. What do you say to her. Politics are politics your never gonna like all the grounds every canidate stands on but voting republican just because of one issue I thinks is bias and almost stupid. Just because we are christians doesn’t mean we are republicans and God says we must HONOR our leaders. Even if it means we don’t fully agree with them. We must PRAY for them. Not that we pray for them to completely change to our views I.e. God help him to see abortion is wrong and make him suffer with all these babies innocent blood. But God bless them give them wisdom and strength. That’s all I have to say
Alli, thank you. Your commentary just gave me a little hope. With an attitude such as yours–that those who disagree with you are not necessarily the enemy and may even have some kernels of truth–perhaps the discourse in this country can stop being a shallow grappling match free of any intellectual substance and start being a cooperative journey in search of the truth. If more people had your ability to shift perspective and reflect on your own views, we’d all be in a much better place.
Also, I thank God you don’t base your vote entirely on any candidate’s stance on a single issue. Sadly, a whole lot of people don’t do the same.
Mary, if you want to start talking about “simple logic” in regards to abortion in politics, then the abortion position of an executive candidate DOES NOT matter. The supreme court has made their decision and the only thing that can change that is a lawyer bringing the case to them again and convincing them to overturn that decision, or for 3/4 of the states or legislature to pass a constitutional amendment. The President has little to no power.
As far as the third trimester being pretty far along, I agree, but I also don’t agree with the mainstream Republican position on abortion more than I disagree with the current laws. And I disagree with essentially everything else Republican candidates support. In fact, even if I were “pro-life” as many of you like to put it, I would still vote Democrat (although they are far from perfect or ideal) because I find the vast majority of Republican positions wrong and misguided.
1. If the executive candidate is going to sign into law acts that make abortion easier to access, it most certainly does. And the President appoints Supreme Court Justices who, as you say, have a lot of power in these issues.
2. Who said I was only referring to executive candidates?
Mary, what does that even mean? What laws could the president sign that makes abortion easier to access? If you’re talking about federally subsidizing abortions then that doesn’t really matter when talking about Republican vs. Democrat. Contrary to what many conservative pundits claim, no federal money given to planned parenthood or any other organization is permitted to go toward abortions, and I don’t know of any mainstream Democrats that would support such a thing. The supreme court justices thing is a fair point, but presidents don’t choose their nominees solely based on their position on abortion, so you can’t say a vote for a democratic president is a vote for an abortion supporting justice (assuming the president will even have such an opportunity).
Secondly, you’re right, I assumed you were mainly talking about Presidential Candidates. However, as I said before, the abortion issue is not more important to me than everything else (nor should it be) and because I don’t agree with essentially any Republican position, I am forced to side with the Democrats.
Also, if the effects of outlawing something are worse than the effects legalizing it, I think it’s reasonable to support legalization regardless of the morality of the thing your legalizing.
The end never justifies the means…
I agree with you, although I ‘d like to point out a lot of people wouldn’t. Regardless what you said doesn’t go against what I just said, or at the very least it would require more than a six word sentence to do so. Soundbites and catchphrases do not amount to substance.
HAHAHAHA I didn’t see this one… Ok – so lets legalize Killing because it’s difficult to enforce… Lets legalize marijuana since people like smoking it and truly damaging their bodies in tremendous ways… we can’t stop the smugglers…. How about all drugs… lets just give it away to people…
Yeah – you really won me over on this idea… real smart!
I think it’s rediculous that “killing” something that isn’t even “human” yet is such a disgrace but war for religion is okay…. Kill thousands just so people see your way
Do you not think that bacteria or other single cell organisms exist? If they do how can’t a zygote? If they have the potential to develop into a human being who are we to say that they can’t. You had the “potential to do great things” but I don’t think you have done anything “great” in your life time so should your mother have aborted you? And you seem to be sermonizing and think headed yourself. You may need to look in the mirror as well before you start throwing stones.
I agree bacteria and single cell organisms exist. That’s why I specifically said I think a zygote can not be said to have HUMAN spirit/be a live human. You kill millions upon millions of bacteria and single celled organisms everyday. Establishing a zygote is on that same level does not demonstrate we should treat it the same as a fully developed human.
To more thoroughly flesh out my view on abortion, I ask, why do we think killing a human being is wrong (generally speaking)? I think most would agree because you are ending another COMPLEX form of consciousness–a being that knows it’s alive, that has a life, and that fears dying, among other things. This complexity is important because it explains why we think it’s permissible to kill chattel or any of the other multitude of animals for food. It seems clear to us that cows do not have the complex level of self awareness that we have, so we think it’s ok to kill them to benefit ourselves.
Because consciousness is the important factor (specifically, complex human consciousness), I think it’s reasonable to say the zygote/fetus does not posses human spirit/is not a human until it posses said consciousness. I think it’s reasonable to say that the zygote/fetus is not conscious until it develops a brain. Therefore, I think it is permissible to have an abortion as long as it is before a brain has developed.
Before that, you’re just stopping the potential for a human being, which occurs every second you’re not conceiving with someone. (I know this is a little abstract and perhaps hard to follow/I’m not explaining it very well.) At every window of opportunity you don’t conceive a child with someone, that’s a unique individual that you’re preventing from coming into existence. Because it’s absurd to call this “potential” destroying morally wrong or murder I think it’s equally absurd to call destroying a zygote murder or morally wrong. (Again, this was poorly worded and I realize it probably won’t be that persuasive considering my audience on this site.)
In regards to your abortion comment-
Even if you don’t agree with banning it, it’s still vital to understand that there is significant scientific evidence that it is in fact a child- If it wasn’t a child then the woman wouldn’t be pregnant. Simple as that. Within two weeks of sex(that’s right, conception) doctors can hear a heartbeat..yes a tiny, steady heartbeat from a very, very small child. And if you disbelieve that comment then understand this- abortions performed by doctors are well after 2o weeks, when the baby is full recognizable with all of its toes, little hands, functioning lungs, a heart and all of it’s organs. Video imaging has allowed us to see inside of a mother’s womb while an attempted abortion was being made- the baby moved to the other side of the womb as the syringe was injected. The doctor was attempting to suck out this tiny baby, but she moved away. Now that, my friend, is incredible and shows true evidence for a baby’s true being before she’s even born. Don’t believe me? Just look it up- you will be utterly amazed at the evidence for life before birth.
As I said before, I do not believe a heartbeat (or any other organ development besides the brain) is enough to claim the fetus is human–my belief is development of the brain is the proper criterion (for reasons I’ve already discussed)–which develops around the fourth week. And yes, it’s true SOME abortions are done well after 20 weeks and those abortions I do not support. However, I also do not support banning abortion before those first four weeks and certainly don’t support the recent “life begins at conception (as in fertilization, I don’t know about this within two weeks of sex you were talking about–sperm can only survive in a woman for no longer than a week)” nonsense.
Also, as heartless as this may sound, a fetus showing survival reflexes does not prove it has complex human consciousness. Single celled organisms and bacteria also have survival reflexes and we have no qualms about killing them.
People! We look like fools to the rest of the world quaraling among ourselves just to get even more angry and lash out! Stop arguing!!
I’m not angry. And Ariel’s comment was definitely one of the more level-headed commentaries. However I do agree that a discussion like this one becomes pointless when one side gets angry and starts making personal or other attacks that don’t add anything. Discussion is good–it lets us hear the best case (hopefully) on both sides of the issue.
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nationsResolving the question of when human life begins is critical for advancing a reasoned public policy debate over abortion and human embryo research. This article considers the current scientific evidence in human embryology and addresses two central questions concerning the beginning of life: 1) in the course of sperm-egg interaction, when is a new cell formed that is distinct from either sperm or egg? and 2) is this new cell a new human organism—i.e., a new human being? Based on universally accepted scientific criteria, a new cell, the human zygote, comes into existence at the moment of sperm-egg fusion, an event that occurs in less than a second. Upon formation, the zygote immediately initiates a complex sequence of events that establish the molecular conditions required for continued embryonic development. The behavior of the zygote is radically unlike that of either sperm or egg separately and is characteristic of a human organism. Thus, the scientific evidence supports the conclusion that a zygote is a human organism and that the life of a new human being commences at a scientifically well defined “moment of conception.” This conclusion is objective, consistent with the factual evidence, and independent of any specific ethical, moral, political, or religious view of human life or of human embryos
I’d like to read the full report on this study your referring to, but I don’t most of what you’ve said. What I take issue with however, is the conclusions you draw (based on all the interesting characteristics a zygote possesses) and I seriously doubt those were the conclusions drawn by people who carried out the study. Just because the zygote is radically different from a sperm or egg or is destined to undergo a series of complex developments does not necessarily mean that zygote is a human.
When a star is beginning to form, a protostar is radically different from the gasses that formed it, and it is destined to go through some very complex changes that are characteristically and uniquely that of a star. However, does that mean this protostar is a fully fledged star? No. This isn’t a perfect analogy but I think it at least demonstrates your conclusion is not as obvious or as sweeping as you have presented it to be. This problem of “when do classify something as human” is complex and involves both scientific and philosophical issues. For example in the process of destroying a building, when do we get to the point where the building is no longer a building and is instead rubble? Is it when we remove the first brick? Certainly not. What about the second? The problem is that there’s no clear line of demarcation as to when the building ceases to be a building and turns into rubble. I’m sure you can see we have a similar problem here. When does the zygote cease to be a simple collection of cells and start to become a human? I have suggested development of the brain as that line but there are certainly others.
All in all, I appreciate your response and think it was a relatively good one, but your conclusions were far too sweeping and not justified from the information you provided. It just isn’t reasonable to call an entity as simple as a zygote a fully fledged human. Regardless of the interesting characteristics it possesses, it is not conscious.
Meant to say, “I don’t disagree with most of what you’ve said,” in the first sentence.
Annon –
Your words: “The rules laid out in the Bible are not comprehensive and you WILL come
across situations where the correct course of action is not clear.” I totally agree! that includes abortion – no where in the bible does it talk about abortion. It doesn’t outline any scientific fact of when a fetus becomes a human. In fact, back then they didn’t even know how it all worked. They only had the capability of understanding what they’ve already learned. You also made the comment ” That idea is wholly subjective and has little basis in scripture. I
think it’s ludicrous to claim something without so much as a brain is
endowed with any form of consciousness or human spirit and even
more ludicrous to claim the same of a fresh zygote.”
First off, by your first statement – that the rules laid out in the bible are not there – so this makes your second statement of “it has little basis in scripture” outlines that your proposal of it being “ludicrous” is just as subjective as the pro-life stance.
Scientifically, a baby is a baby at the moment of conception. It may not be a big baby… it may just have 2 cells, but that’s exactly what a baby is supposed to look like right after the moment of conception. You could say that a baby isn’t a human because it doesn’t look anything like an adult – but at that moment of it’s development, that’s exactly what a baby is supposed to look like.
You said it’s just like a sperm or egg has the potential to develop into a baby… I’m not sure how much science you took – but a sperm cell can’t become a baby. An egg can’t become a baby. There is no “potential” for them to become a baby until they are together. It only has the potential once they’ve met up. It only becomes a baby once replication begins. If your argument is when a baby becomes a human – then you should just stick with that argument. So which is your stance? When does it become a human baby? when it has a heart beat? when it’s actually born? can you draw a line? After all, that line is subjective… so what makes your line right and a pro-life moment of conception wrong?
Your idea that every woman is going to stick a coat hanger up their “hoo ha” to preform their own abortion – yeah…. that’s not going to happen.
In your last paragraph, you are probably worse of a hypocrite, and defensive than the original post you were arguing with. You sound like you’ve got your own issues to be working with… sounds like some deep resentment, anger and confusion to me… Good luck – I think you have a pretty poor credibility for any of your thoughts…
lost respect for you’re reply here “but the assumption is there for GOOD reason you nitwit. ”
Really name calling? thats how you roll? So thats what people in organized religion do? Call names when they disagree? See this is why this video came to be.. You organize yourself and act in this way then people see the whole organization in a negative light. It’s about god not about you.
Jaysal, I lost respect for YOUR reply at the misspelling. “you’re reply” – really?
really? I know proper applications of you’re and your.. sometimes if tired I don’t really think about which one I’m typing..
However, that is all pointless defense of myself because regardless of if I misspell every word in my argument if you still undersand it, then it shouldn’t matter.
You said absolutely nothing to counter my claim or question its validity.
Ever heard the term “red herring”?
Actually, I didn’t even read the rest of your brief post so I wasn’t interested in countering anything… did I mention I lost respect for you? We all know you criticize Benjamin for such a small detail because you know you couldn’t counter each one of his brilliant arguments.
More insulting behavior only gives steam to my original comment.
lolllllll Bella edited all her posts. If you’re going to be an insulting prick at least own up to it.
+1 for this catch annon
I think you may not be open-minded about what Benjamin has to say. You jumped on his VERY FIRST fault. Yuo probably didn’t even read the rest of the post. After jumping on his first fault, you then proceeded to judge an ENTIRE RELIGION on one word, one fault, one mistake! Are YOU perfect?Do you never make a mistake? And Who ever said that this is about us?
I make lots of mistakes on a daily basis.. Tons in fact.. I didn’t set out to make him look bad I set out to illustrate one possible point to the youtube video posted here. And that is when you front something as a religion and not god it’s easy to have people misrepresent the group as a whole. If I mess up its my problem.. If I walk around with a christianity t-shirt on and mess up it makes everyone look bad.
why is god not Capital is He not important or do you have a different god?
probably because I don’t try to have perfect grammar online.. why didnt YOU capitlaize it? clearly the first time was quoting me but at the end you were using the word yourself. So far my experience with everyone on this site has been that they attack me for agreeing with the video. And you wonder why people don’t like religion?
See this is exacttaly what it’s talking about! Christians, we are our own worst enemy! Stop bashing each other!! Can we not unify? We’ve turned church into a building, it’s ONE body all unified! And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. (1 Corinthians 12:16 TNIV)
I know it was like a month ago when you posted… and you will probably never read this comment… but as a 15 year old girl who has been a Christian for only a year and 5 months… I have to agree with you. I have experianced people bashing other people… Saying the first thing that comes to mind, but honestly, we need to stop and think before we speak… Let God tell us what to say. Religion is crazy but if we all come together we could be on fire for God. Yes, humanity will get to us…we all sin. Before I was a Christian I went to sevral churches and because of the way I dress the people there judged me! I hated it… but as I found the right church I realized that no matter where you go people always judge and are hypercites… I live in a very small town and when something happens in our church word gets around.. and bam, the whole church has a bad name… but I’ve learn over the past year that it IS about GOD and not us… God uses us… so even if we dont go to church or have a specific Religion… we can always live for HIM! He will use each and every one of us for His glory, Through our actions and words… I fast so that I can grow closer to God, to recieve answer to my prayers, for humility, and for spiritual disipline/ obedience…. People sit in churches and wear a mask… it kills me the Bible says in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform 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.”
If every Christian turned from the world and turned to God, life would be awesome! and once Jesus is in our heart the human side needs to die so that Jesus will live through us as it says in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith and the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
As a girl who wants to be a missionary all over the world and give my testimony and change people to Love and strive for God, I shall live like Christ everyday, even if I fail at it. No one is perfect as you said in the comment below, no one was made perfect.
I pray that I never send out a negitive light about our God, I want people to look at me and be like “wow, she has a strong relationship with God.” I wouldn’t care if people hated me for being a Christian at least I know people know that I am for God. That’s how religion should be. Someone needs to look at a religion and be like wow they really love God!!!
I honestly don’t think people should hate religion just because of people, live like Christ and that will be your religion…
Thank you.
When you state “Oh my gosh talk about an ignorant thing to say. This an obvious attack on Catholicism…” on the subject of ‘Why does it build huge churches but fail to feed the poor?’, I would like to say that even though your are partly correct in which you say that cathedrals and such are very beautiful (which they are)…you sound like you jumped the gun a little bit by saying that. Almost vain, because cathedrals (and such) are not the only big churches around here. Maybe it didn’t come to mind to think of all of the other HUGE, and beautiful churches that people go to that aren’t necessarily Catholic. He isn’t attacking the Catholic Church, because if he was, he would make it more clear. He is saying in general and also as a figure of speech (let’s not forget this is a poem). If you think about it, ‘big churches’ could be inferred also as someone how claims to be a very strong follower of God, but chooses to make the wrong decisions. In this case, not feeding the poor. I just wanted to point that out because this is a well written article but by stating something like that makes me doubt your ability to even relate the subject. It also makes you sound like you’re a dolt about it all.
Even after reading this and understanding that there are some flaws, I still love that video. It really makes people think about what they truly believe in. There is a possibility that Jesus actually did not hate religion, but another good question that he says is “But if Jesus came to your church, would you actually let him in?”
The question lingers because it makes you think about what religion has come to today. Even though we try to keep things like the they have always been, ‘religion’ is not one of those things. Its always changing and being altered…some more than others, but if you deny it, then you would be a fool.
I stand strong in my faith, and the Lord. I do not think religion will ever be the same as when Jesus walked the Earth, but I can tell you this: Christian is Christian. And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Mark 9:23
there are many faiths that have beautiful churches /temples not just the Catholic church. he mentions he loves the Bible but doesn’t say which one since there are several interpretations of the Bible, and each religion has their own bible. so while this man might not belong to a religion or go to a church he does by reading their bible.
Good intentions, but I think it’s pretty clear you missed the original video’s point. Part of the issue is his ambiguous use of “religion” but nevertheless it’s fairly obvious he’s talking about institutional religion–which does not include the “rules” and “prophets” you described, making your critique irrelevant.
He’s saying he hates the (I’m assuming modern-day) religious institutions and the people that run them who proclaim they represent/spread Christianity while being hypocritical, self-righteous, deceitful, harmful, etc. (i.e. Pat Robertson, or according to some, the Republican Party). Sounds just like like those pharisees that Jesus obviously wasn’t fond of.
Nice try but please think a little more before you write a poor opinion piece that lots of people are going to read and be confused by.
Hi!
I happen to belong to a “religious institution,” and I resent false claims that Jesus hates religion–yes institutional religion.
Thanks for your comment. I assure you plenty of thought went into my reaction. But kudos for your spirit of Christian charity 🙂
You may be interested in this post which goes into a bit more depth http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/01/why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-smackdow.html
I (nor do I think the original guy in the video) wasn’t talking about ALL religious institutions, only the ones that exhibit the characteristics I listed. So, if your catholic church or whatever particular institution you subscribe to doesn’t fit that description, then there’s nothing to resent. Sadly, many religious institutions these days DO exhibit the characteristics I listed and I don’t think there’s anything you or anyone else could or should do to defend them. What they’re doing is wrong and misguided.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the guy in the video presented a poem–a vaguely worded one–which is prone to misunderstanding and misrepresentation.
And I apologize for claiming you didn’t put thought into the post. I was in a bad mood when I read your piece. I strongly disagree with some of the things you’ve said, but that doesn’t mean you’re not thoughtful.
Because “the guy in the video” did not distinguish between which religions he was discussing it must then be assumed that he is talking about them all. I would like to point out that religion is not at fault here, it is the people who misuse religion for their own gain and those who are hypocrites (like the pharisees in Jesus’ time). There are people who are like this in ALL religions, not just a few. What these PEOPLE are doing is very wrong and misguided. Religion is not a bad thing. It promotes community, faith, love, growth in Jesus Christ, etc.
Once again, the problem is defining what we mean by “religion”. I agree that it is the people who are to blame, but religious institutions are also run BY people, and they are therefore an extension of those people. If the people that make up the institution are bad the institution itself is also bad. This does not mean that ALL religious institutions are bad, but you’d be a fool not admit that some, if not many, are. Take Westboro Baptist Church and their “God hates fags” nonsense. Promoting community and love? Not in this case.
Well formed and stated argument! I agree with your point but in many cases it isn’t so black and white. Just because the religious institution says that something is right does not mean that the people follow it. For example, the Catholic Church teaches that contraceptives are bad but the majority of Catholics do not adhere to that teaching.
There is a distinction between the people and the institution in many cases and so how are you to determine if a religious institution is bad or if it is just the people? I think the distinction is in what the religious institution is teaching, so their doctrine, and not what the people are saying or doing. Jesus made the distinction between religion and people when he said to do as the Pharisees say but not as they do (Matthew 23:3).
So then how are you to determine if a religious institution is good or bad?
Its not such a black and white thing. Most institutions have doctrines that hold truth and others that do not.
That may be true, but he didn’t make that distinction. So you’re misinterpreting what he is saying by stretching the meaning of what he says.
What the video is being used for is to show that “all religion” is false. He also uses a false dichotomy that is commonly used against the Catholic Church: the true Religion.
Sorry, Buster, but no. Your move from “he didn’t make that distinction” to “so you’re misinterpreting what he is saying” makes no sense. As I said before, this was a poem in which he used ambiguous language and you therefore cannot expect him to be precise and spell everything out.
On top of that, in a deliberation or any productive discussion, you’re supposed to interpret your opponent’s argument in it’s most powerful/persuasive form in order to get out whatever truth/insight there is to be had. Otherwise, you’re just playing a juvenile schoolyard game of who can make everyone think they’re right (which is unfortunately what most American discourse has degraded into) and is pointless and not helpful.
Also, you’re claim that the video is being used to show that all religion is false is absolutely ludicrous. That’s obviously not what he was trying to say and I’m not going to even bother addressing that.
Aside from that, judging from your other posts and your page, your a thick-headed ideologue who won’t listen to reason anyway and I won’t waste my time responding to you further.
I apologize in advance for all those typos.
“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not overcome it. ” -Matthew 16:18
Jesus said HE built HIS church upon Peter, the rock. Jesus founded Christianity and wanted us to go to Church. He was not against religion.”For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” -Matthew 18:20He tells us that where we are gathered in His name He will be there, so the grace of others is necessary in our faith. What better way to find this grace then through church and religion?
“If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. …For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.” -1 Corinthians 14: 23-30
Here Paul explains why church and the grace that is shared in church is absolutely necessary. He states that an organized church is needed to reach out to unbelievers because when they will see the faith of the church they will realize that love is ingrained on their hearts. Basically, he explains religion and why you cannot simply worship in your home and have it be enough.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her”
Ephesians 5:25So in fact Jesus did love the church as a man loves his wife. Jesus was not at all against religion, but He adored it.”So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church”
Ephesians 3:9 The church is necessary to keep the wisdom of God known to all. God guides the church through the Holy Spirit and we are made knowledgeable about our faith through the church.”For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church”Ephesians 5:28-30The Church is one body, the body of Christ, and because of this no one stands alone.
God surely did not create us, make Himself man for us, die for us, and then leave us! He gave us the church so that He may continue to reveal his mysteries to us, so that we may learn from each other, and so that we may teach and do great works. Yes, it is most important that we love God, but that is not all we must do! We must act on our beliefs together! Church and religion are very important and wonderful things that God has blessed us with.
[…] it’s a video that has gone viral. But like always, there is opposition, take Mary at Young and Catholic, for example, she states “There’s a reason the doctor prescribes medicine, just like there […]
[…] it’s a video that has gone viral. But like always, there is opposition, take Mary at Young and Catholic, for example, she states “There’s a reason the doctor prescribes medicine, just like there […]
I enjoyed this, thanks!
A note on your second point: I think it is important to keep in mind the context of the sermon on the mount. The beatitudes, Jesus’ command for us to be holy as God is holy, telling us that our righteousness must exceed the pharisees is all calculated to demonstrate man’s inability to measure up. The disciples would have viewed the Pharisees as very religious and righteous people, but they had to be even more righteous to enter the kingdom of heaven? I believe that this section of scripture should be viewed in the context of Galatians:”But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” Gal. 3:23-24.”But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Gal. 4:4-5.
Even the most righteous Pharisee still required the sacrifice of a sin offering. Christ became that final offering for the sins of all men. He was the fulfillment of the law.
Yes and He commanded us to “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19)
You cannot love both.
http://accordingtojan.com/2012/01/12/an-era-of-anti-religion-no-need-for-religion/
God sent his son to be an example of what we should strive to be like. He also gave us rules to keep us on track. And, He also sent his son to save us, so that our sins are forgiven when we mess us, just by asking for forgivess, and that way Jesus became the WAY to God.
I think the point is, is that us loving Jesus is about pursuing a RELATIONSHIP with God; letting God rule our lives, not the rules. Doing ‘good’ by merely following (or doing our very best to) Jesus’ example. Our purpose in life is not to ‘do good’.
Our sole purpose is to GLORIFY God, and to further his kingdom. not worrying so much about what is ‘right and wrong’, rules or rituals, but to just have a relationship with God, love Jesus, and to live for him, fulfill his will.
the video is trying to say, dont let the rules be the dictator of your life, dont let THAT be what defines your faith. let it be the RELATIONSHIP.
Faith is important, yes, but is our faith complete? Is it enough to just “believe” in Jesus, or is there more to it than that? People may have good intentions to help people, but without good actions, those “good intentions” are meaningless in the perception of the other. This is the same with believing in Christ. Are we to have good intentions saying that we believe in Christ being the Son of God, but not follow through with good actions? If I want to say “I want to be a good Christian” but do not know how to be a good Christian, CAN I be a good Christian? If I do not know how to do or be something, is it possible for me to do or be that? This is the purpose of religion: it is “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”, and it helps instruct us on how to be good Christians, and since there are thousands upon thousands of different interpretations of the Bible, religion was structured so that people would know which interpretation is correct. People may have the claim that religion is corrupt, but, didn’t Jesus send down the Holy Spirit to the very Apostles? Is the Holy Spirit among us now? Is the Holy Spirit not with us in the Churches? Or has the Holy Spirit abandoned us? It is necessary to believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding our religious leaders in what they teach, for it was evident that the Holy Spirit was doing that in the early Church, and so it is necessary to believe that the Holy Spirit is doing that now. Corruption and sin cannot stop the mission of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit was sent to help the Church.
Also, God is the perfect blend of Justice and Mercy. Without Justice, Mercy means nothing, and without Mercy, Justice is tyranny. All of us tend to gravitate to one over the other, for many different reasons. Most “non-denominational” Christians tend to gravitate towards the “Mercy” side, and “die-hard Catholics” tend to gravitate towards the “Justice” side. We, to be more complete in our faith, need to encompass that right blend of Justice and Mercy. We cannot fully forgive the sins of anyone, nor can we fully condemn the sins of anyone. We can tell people the consequences of doing right and wrong, but we have no control over their actions. We have a loving God, but we have a Just God. Only He has the power to forgive and condemn sins, and this is one of the main reasons why an established Church was created, so that there would be a way for God to formally forgive and condemn sins. He uses the Rightful Authority of those religious leaders that He Himself called to forgive and condemn. As Jesus said to Pilate: “You yourself have no power. Your power comes from above.” The religious leaders themselves have no power over us, but their power comes from God above, and so we need to respect the fact that God is using them to fulfill His Will. Without this structure and hierarchy, we would be scattered and divided, even more so than we are right now.
Another thing: Do not judge a religion based on the people. As the guy in the video said, just because I wear a Lakers jersey, doesn’t mean I play for the Lakers. There are many Catholics, and even Christians, who are “self-proclaimed” Christians. Only 33% of Catholics believe in the true Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Only 25% of Catholics attend church every week. Is it the religion to be blamed? Or the people? How was it that nearly everyone in the early Church believed in the true Presence of Christ at the Eucharist, but now, close to say, not even 10% of all Christians (non-Catholics included) in the world believe in it now? Has the Church changed, or have we changed? And if we’ve changed, have we changed for the better, or for the worse? Are we just “wearing the jersey”, or are we playing for the team?
One last point: It is best to believe that there is a right religion, and that right religion is truly from God. God wants to unify His children as one, and though we are many parts, we are all the Body of Christ. God wants us unified. Find the religion that most unifies it’s people, and chances are, that religion is closer to being from God than any other religion. Every aspect of God should be encompassed in this religion. The reason why people don’t understand religion is because they don’t understand, or know, who God is. God has several, undeniable, unchangeable, traits about Him that we must know in order to make sense of “who God is”. People worship religion, because they do not know who God is. However, this I will guarantee, when people start understanding who God is more on a deeper level, they will realize that religion is a perfect tool to help worship Him more. God is like a dearly loved friend who lives far away. Religion is the phone, or Facebook, that will help us connect with Him more. Just like how every form of communication needs a medium to travel, religion is that very medium. Religion is calling God’s number. Religion is looking God up on Facebook. Religion is us going to heaven, rather than God constantly coming to us. God will come to us, as He always will, but, for once, why don’t we go to Him? Go to the very place He is? This is worship; not just us calling God to come down to Earth, but us, ourselves, going up to Heaven to meet Him. He came to us, now lets go to Him.
This is why I love Jesus and Religion…and I am a Catholic.
From a non-believer stand point, I appreciate that he calls out the fakers and imitators. I see the “masks” every single day. He has a very good flow, and is a talented young man. I hope he continues to nourish his gift.
‘Religion’ is just Latin for a binding relationship between God and man. There is a lot of confusion going on in this discussion because no one is even defining what religion is. That’s why people are making all these silly claims like ‘religion is made by man.’ God initiated a religion, ie a binding relationship, the moment he made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants; hence Judaism. He glorified and perfected the relationship with the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. All of our rituals are the ways that we foster and perpetuate the beautiful relationship we find ourselves in. To say that ritual is somehow evil and ineffectual is like saying that celebrating wedding anniversaries is detrimental to marital health.
I think people are mistaking ritual for religion. And if you denounce ritual as somehow denigrating to our spiritual lives you had better ask Christ how he was able to perfectly glorify his Father living as a Jew who observed the Torah perfectly.
What about when doctors made house visits? You can have a relationship with doctor without having a hospital just as you can have a relationship with God and Jesus without going to church
The metaphor doesn’t follow. Man didn’t put the Church and Mary between you and Jesus, Jesus did. He did so by giving the great commission to make disciples of all Nations and choosing the BVM to be his Mother. He put Mary between him and the world, he had to come through her to get to us, we have to go through Mary to get to Him.
Yes but the doctor will still provide medicine. And you likely wouldn’t know the doctor if there was no hospital (i.e. structure of religion).
He was not speaking against the Church but religion. All I see of most the churches in America is a “which religion is more popular” contest. These religions are too concerned on bringing people in to hear the message rather than taking the message out to the people to grow the Church. By all means have a Church but religions are man made and therefore flawed.
Let people go to Church to hear the gospel. There is no need to give them the title: baptist, catholic, methodist, presbyterian, etc these are all mans opinions of the bible; Christian is all that they are needed to be called.
Hooray for Mary!
[…] fine counter-culture answer to the old and wrong assumption that religion and God do not mix. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike […]
I think Mary makes some strong points that I think this guy overlooks. I think he is so focused on the corruption which can come with religion that he forgets why religion is instilled in the first place. If there is no institution where we receive the truth from, then truth becomes open to anyone’s interpretation. The Truth then becomes a matter of how you interpret the Bible as opposed to what God truly asks of us. Mary sums this up perfectly with the doctor/hospital analogy, and that is something we must remind ourselves about the Church.
It is true that corrupted individuals within the Church have led to some of the most terrible events in history, but that is because they allowed themselves to replace God with other things (power, greed, lust, etc.). Besides, God did tell to Peter “and upon this rock (Cephas “Peter”) I will build my church”. Apparently, this has much bearing on the fact that Jesus supported religion and knew its importance in the long run.
Excellent observations! Well done!
You have a good point. It’s slightly idealistic when you consider the fact that on multiple occasions church has actually messed up my view of God and my relationship with him severely. But it’s not religion in and of itself that is the problem. It’s the hypocrisy that is within religion that is the problem. Yes, I’ve been hurt by the church on multiple occasions, but that doesn’t mean that the church as a whole is bad, it just means that man is fallible and people are people. Good job, you pointed out something that I had lost sight of. The way the church is laid out in the Bible is good, it’s just all of the things that have gotten screwed up about it that aren’t. However, it is also true that religion has become a whole different creature than what it started out as. So I think both sides of the story are pretty legitament. While there are a lot of people who have been hurt by the church and would be very apt to love the original video out of anger and bitterness (me being on of those people) you bring a lot more grace into the picture, and isn’t grace and love what God is all about?
I think you’re taking
Matthew 5:19-20 out of context. The way to be as righteous as the Pharisees is not through good works or through religion (The institution of the church) . Righteousness comes through faith in Jesus and by accepting him as our savior he makes us righteous in his eyes. He tells them not to do what the Pharisees do because they’re hypocrites. He tells them to do what the Pharisees say to do because there wasn’t anything wrong with what they were saying to do it’s that they weren’t doing what they said to do.
“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone…so faith apart from works is dead.” James 2:24
You’re putting a false dichotomy. It is not works or faith, it is faith and works, specifically faith and works through grace.
Accepting “Jesus as our Savior” is a work. It does not save us, we have to ask for saving grace to have faith and to do works that merit salvation and justify us.
Did you know that the work of believing is not ours? It’s God’s! – John 6:29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the One He has sent.”
Phil. 2:13, “For it is God who is working in you, enabling you to will and to act, according to His good purpose.”
This is a terrible blog
Says the dude who won’t post a URL or name or picture from his blog.
thank you 🙂
Wow…I hope to clear this up for you all….I just read through all of the comments and only one person gave the definition of what true Religion is James 1:27..I think maybe people have confused the word religion with an organization or community (unified body of individuals)… so it should sound like this…I am with the catholic organization or community…”what religion are you?” I’m of the religion of taking care of the widows and orphans and staying undefiled by the world….does this make sense?…Great Blog Mary I found this just bc I’ve been seeing this video all over facebook today and I just made my status update Why I Love Religion and Jesus…and just googled it and found your blog…great minds…;)
I think the guy meant it in the “I think maybe people have confused the word religion with an organization or community (unified body of individuals)” way, which is more the common knowledge idea of the word. When looking at this video from the perspective of “True Religion” I am sure he would agree that Jesus is not against that. If that was his true argument I would have to agree with Mary as well.
Allow me to explain why this video is flawed.
He says we build
churches while people starve. How can that be when we have Catholic
Priest Nuns and missionaries feeding the poor everyday with their bare
hands.
Our greatest saints are that way because of the work they
have done to feed the needy. Saint Jeanne de Chantal, St Vincent de
Pual, St John of the Cross, St Augustine, St Boso , St Lucy I could go
on and on. The church in Nigeria contributes to 99% of the charitable
work to feed the poor.
Religion started war? Religion would
have avoided war had we listened to the message of our Lady at Fatima?
Instead our blatant ignorance led to world war 2. Do not blame Religion
for our own wrong doing.
Religion does teach grace, and those
who listen carefully do live that grace through the gifts of the holy
spirit. Thought part of me thinks this kid has never heard of the term.
His talk about the old testament is true to an extent, yet Jesus who
came to renew and fulfil the prophecy of the old testament. He accepted
one by his side in Mary Magdalene
God doesn’t love mums if they have a divorce?? If God didn’t love us we wouldn’t exist… period!
John the baptist was ridiculed but again, prior to the coming of Jesus.
John the baptist died the death of a martyr for his beliefs. Beliefs
based on RELIGION.. He gave his life happily for that sake which shows
the incredible power of religion. He truly believed Christ was the Groom
and his church the bride.
He even said it himself
“I am
not the Messiah, but I HAVE BEEN SENT AHEAD OF HIM”. He who has the
bride is the BRIDEGROOM. The ‘friend’ of the BRIDEGROOM, who stands and
hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridgegroom’s voice. FOR THIS REASON
MY JOY HAS BEEN FULFILLED. HE MUST INCREASE, BUT I MUST DECREASE’
Religion does get to the core, you just need to allow it to. Books such
as Theology of the body and love and relationships can help from a
psychological and theological point, and the BODY OF CHRIST received
through mass literally feeds your soul.
He says our sin relies
on Jesus! offcourse it does it relies on Jesus and the sacrament of
Confession which he left for us. He appointed his disciples the common
day bishops and Peter the first pope to heal and cleanse the sick
casting out demons.
Church isn’t a museum for Good people? Then
tell me what is heaven? For I believe in order to reach heaven one must
not fall into a state of mortal sin. IN order to do that one must
attend mass on the Sabbath.. soooooo kinda doesn’t make sense.
And as for Jesus coming to our church? JESUS IS ALREADY IN THE CHURCH!!!
He is alive in the tabernacle! IF anything he is to let us in.
This
is the kind of typical bullshit that will lead you further away from
Christ because it sounds easy… News Flash, being a catholic isn’t
easy. But anything worth having requires perseverance. If you believe
what this man says to be true then you are in simple terms a Pagan.
If you’re not sure and this sounds attractive then please for the sake
of Christ on the cross speak to a catholic that knows their stuff and
they can highlight the wrong in this.
The Living God bless you.
“Religion started war? Religion would
have avoided war had we listened to the message of our Lady at Fatima?
Instead our blatant ignorance led to world war 2. Do not blame Religion
for our own wrong doing.”
Read up on your history to find out how the position of Pope came up and how exactly the position gained the power it has.
So if I am just a Christian, not Catholic, does that mean I am going to hell?
Not by virtue of the fact that you’re not Catholic. Only God knows your soul.
I want it to be clear that since Christ didn’t come to conquer but to redeem, that I want to do the same in debates. Not so much “redeem” as “speak the truth in love”. So please don’t confuse my passion for anger or trying to “vanquish” anybody =)
With that being said, I think there are two things that are critical to understand:
1) Religion does not equal Church or faith in Christ. These are three separate things. Read #2 and this will make more sense.
2) We need to properly define Religion, because the muddiness of this word is causing a lot of unnecessary conflicts and confused teachings.
-Religion is addressed and defined in Luke 11:33-36. It is the result of people closing their eyes to Christ, putting the Light “under a basket”, so to speak. People do this because there is something in their life that they don’t want Christ butting into and looking at, so Jesus goes off to the side. They don’t want to see their own sin. And when they do this, the problems just escalate, “Their body is full of darkness.” They want to replace God and compensate for His absence by making rules in addition to the ones He made (which is in contradiction to Proverbs 3:5-6) to fill the void. It’s these extra rules God has a problem with. He wrote the book, it’s got plenty of rules in it. How holy do we think we are? We don’t have that kind of authority to add to them! Besides, if we believe God’s Word is perfect, then why would we even want to add to them?
So that’s what the context of this term “religion” is. It’s this notion that, “I don’t want God butting into this or that area, so I’ll shut him away and try to fill the void with rules and get lost in my own self-righteousness.”, which explains why God would hate it. Go back through the video with this definition in your mind and see if it makes more sense. I know that after it made much more sense to me.
There is a definite place for the church and the body of Christ; it is truly a hospital of grace, a meeting place for the broken. But to say that “you need to let Him know what’s wrong with you so that He can heal you” is wrong, and creeping pretty close to blasphemy. To say that God NEEDS us to achieve His purposes is irreverent, He CHOOSES us. What, the Almighty and Omniscient God DOESN’T know what’s wrong with me unless I tell Him? How prideful to say that God cannot move without me! He created everything, He already knows what’s wrong with us and He sent Himself to pay for it; He wants our HEARTS. We should approach God with the desire of our heart to be that He will make our desires the same as His desires and our joys to be the same as His joys, for that is how He receives the most glory and is how we receive the most satisfaction.
“What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion? Jesus is pretty clear in Matthew 5:17 when He says,Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.The Law, of course, being the Law of Moses, i.e. The Old Covenant, i.e. RELIGION.”
1. The problem with this statement is that the law does not equal religion. The purpose of the law is to increase our trespass and to reveal the magnitude of the Father’s grace.(Romans 5:20, 7:1-25). The law is not a religion but a measuring stick for righteousness. A measuring stick which we all fall short of. “Religion” is trying to measure up, or trying to add on our own righteousness to the righteousness we have been given freely in Christ.
“In the Old Testament, God actually calls religious people whoresYes, God called some religious people whores in the Old Testament—when they were being unfaithful to the Law (in other words: when they were disobeying the laws of their RELIGION—their religion given to them by God, by the way)”
2. The Problem with this is that
EVERYONE IS UNFAITHFUL TO THE LAW
None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Roman 3:11-12
“We have all become like one who is unclean,and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Isaiah 64:6(A literal interpretation is “minstrel rags”)
The entire point of the book of Hosea is that the God loves the whore!!
The gospel is opposed to religion because instead trying to fulfill the law through our flesh, our flesh is killed on the cross with Christ. Not only does he take our sin, but we also gain his righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
If Christ has taken my sin and given me his righteousness what in the world could I do to become more righteous? Nothing. That is the point of the gospel and why it is opposed to religion.
The law has not been abolished, it’s sentence has been fulfilled. We are murderers and thieves and the penalty has been paid. We can walk out the door as free men and women. Abolishing the law would mean no cross.
If you think you can faithful to the law then I would say that you probably have’t read the old testament carefully.
On my own account? No, I cannot be faithful to the law. I can absolutely be faithful to the law through the grace of God (and ONLY through the grace of God).
I love the book of Hosea, and I’m glad you brought it up! God loves us all despite our sinfulness, but that does not mean we are free to live as we please.
Mary and Benjamin-
You are both missing the boat on this one a little bit. The point of the video is to point out the fact that there are two religions in the world. The religion of human achivement (all religions in the world besides Christianity) and the religion of divine accomplishment (Christianity).
All other religions focus on what men can do to earn heaven and Christianity is about Christ imputing his righteousness on undeserving sinners. All other religions think that in order to earn favor with God, they must do good deeds. That is what the video is speaking to. He hates the human achievement system (all religions in the world besides Christianity) that is void of God’s undeserving grace. The bible is clear about this one. Isaiah 64 says our good deeds are like filthy rags to God. Living a life like the pharisees lived however should not be confused with living a godly life. When a person is truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit their life bears fruit. They love the Lord and love His word. They defend it His word and desire to honor the Lord with their life. This is different from living a hypocritical life in order to “earn” your way into heaven which we know that no person can do. (Rom. 1)
-Jesus + anything(religion)=Nothing!
-In reference to the Matthew 5:17, the righteousness that Jesus is referring to that we need is His!
-Galatians 2:20-21, specifically, “if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing”.
-We do not need religion for a road map or guide. When Christ left earth, He sent His Spirit to be our guide and His Word to be our truth.
-“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” John 1:17
-“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” -Romans 3:21-26
Yes also about Matt 5: 17….since when does the old testament law = religion. The OT law is God’s standard of perfection that a regenerated Christian will desire to obey. Christ was making the point that if you are truly saved you will want to obey the law even though you can’t.
Read Galatians 6 11-16 to understand how Paul feels about a human religious system
Leviticus 23 sounds pretty religious to me. I agree that Christ’s point was that, by His grace, we will desire to obey the law and that grace will allow us to accomplish it. But to try to assert that the Old Testament Law was not religious is dishonest.
Haters gonna Hate.
If we look at the history of the early Church, it is far more ‘religious’ than modern Christianity on the whole. There were Bishops, 7 sacraments, Mass, communal prayer, public penance etc.
John Henry Cardinal Newman once said, “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” Everyone should read the early Church Fathers- many of whom were/are great saints (St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St Philip etc.). Such holy and learned individuals will help lead us to the Truth, which is Christ, whose mystical body is the Church (as stated in Scripture).
A little reading can go a long way! Many don’t even know that Christ founded a Church, that the early Church had Bishops, that the Church always accepted that Christ’s words about the Eucharist are to be taken literally (a truth He reinforced) etc. etc.
God bless!
not saying i disagree with basis of her argument, but note: when Jesus said he came to fulfill the Law and the prophets, he means that He is fullfilling what was foretold in the OT. He fulfills the promise of the Messiah. Nothing to do with the establishment of the church…
Matty-that is why we had the reformation in the late 1500’s. Great men like Martin Luther and John Calvin broke away from that ritualistic system and preached only Christ and Him Crucified. Before the reformation the Bible was suppressed. let’s not add anything to God’s perfect word. (Sacraments, penance, rituals of the mass)
[…] OK, so I can safely assume that the majority of people on the internet have seen the “Love Jesus, Hate Religion” video that has been circulation social networking sites. If you haven’t, the video can be found here. Now, fellow Catholic bloggers have already done a spectacular job on rebuking this video, so I won’t bore you with another post that will most likely result in anger from non-Catholics. If you’re interested, however, BadCatholic and YoungandCatholic have superb arguments. They can be found here and here. […]
[…] […]
I agree with what your saying to the extent that the religion in which the video was talking about was today’s religions in which all the masking and hypocrisy takes place. Not the religion of 2000 years ago in which the church and it’s leaders we’re doing what they were supposed to do.
Is the pope not a false prophet? or any of the other Saints, or mary for that matter whom the catholic church prays to and worships?
I think we can all agree that in the point of view of “True Religion” no Jesus is not against that. Also, I do not believe this guy is approaching this from that perspective. He is approaching it from the “Man made Religion”. All men are hypocrites. Therefore, a man made establishment can be no better than who created it, hypocrites. In the “Man mad religion” POV modern day churches are flawed in the sense that, yes building a multimillion dollar church with top of the line sound systems, light shows, TV cameras, etc. Is a waste of the churches money when it could be used to help the community and open up all sorts of opportunity to share the gospel. Church is not meant to be a circus of, “come see the biggest show in town” and who can gather the biggest crowd competition. Only the message needs to be spread. Church is the gathering of people who are all sharing in the word and in Jesus. No building is needed for this (ex. SYATP) How can a church leader pretend to understand the suffering of the homeless; when most church leaders have never been in that position and are in fact living in a several hundred thousand dollar house provided by the tithes of the local church?
Yes, modern day “mad-made” religion it is flawed.
I think we can all agree that in the point of view of “True Religion” no
Jesus is not against that. Also, I do not believe this guy is
approaching this from that perspective. He is approaching it from the
“Man made Religion”. All men are hypocrites. Therefore, a man made
establishment can be no better than who created it, hypocrites. In the
“Man mad religion” POV modern day churches are flawed in the sense that,
yes building a multimillion dollar church with top of the line sound
systems, light shows, TV cameras, etc. Is a waste of the churches money
when it could be used to help the community and open up all sorts of
opportunity to share the gospel. Church is not meant to be a circus of,
“come see the biggest show in town” and who can gather the biggest crowd
competition. Only the message needs to be spread. Church is the
gathering of people who are all sharing in the word and in Jesus. No
building is needed for this (ex. SYATP) How can a church leader pretend
to understand the suffering of the homeless; when most church leaders
have never been in that position and are in fact living in a several
hundred thousand dollar house provided by the tithes of the local
church?
Yes, modern day “mad-made” religion it is flawed.
Perfect and very well said!!!
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The church is Jesus’ bride and he is the Bride Groom. Jesus loves His Bride!
Rose
Since you deleted my original post, I guess you really don’t want open conversation that differs from your opinion. However, if you post something online, you should be able to defend it.
I did not erase your post. I just checked; it’s still there. I actually replied to it.
Religion is man made. Jesus was both God AND Man. And He established the church with his ministry.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. 26 If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I appreciate the Catholic’s attempt to save their religion, but this article quotes scripture incorrectly. Matthew 5:17 refers to the law of the government, and Moses’ law doesn’t say to “practice religion.” This is what happens when you take scripture out of context. God does actually hate religion, or the bad that comes out of it at least.
I’ve never heard anyone claim that Jesus is referring to the law of the government in Matthew 5:17. It seems especially unlikely, since He is speaking of the Law and the Prophets. God gave the Israelites Law, customs, religion. Sure Moses never says the words, “practice religion,” but the book of Deuteronomy outlines the way in which Jews are to worship the one true God—through sacrifice, through custom.
Don’t steal my name, I was here first. >_<
Here is another good article:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/badcatholic/2012/01/why-i-hate-religion-but-love-jesus-the-smackdow.html
What you are saying doesn’t make sense to me. Ask any religion, even Catholicism, and see if any of them have any ironic rules in them. Almost every one of them has something ironic about them!
For example, in the Catholic Church, beaver, a mammal, is classified as a FISH! I don’t know about you, but saying that a beaver is a fish just so you can eat it during Lent is bending the laws of religion! so, according to the Roman Catholic Church, the Chincoteague Pony is a fish, even though it is clearly a mammal!
Now, what I personally believe, is that Jesus Christ is a personal Relationship, which has no ironic parts about him!
If you love Jesus like you Love religion, you would not love him that much, I mean, sitting down for at least two hours a week talking about the same things over and over again, it can take a toll on you. But if you treat him like he was your significant other, then do you truely love him!
Religion isn’t entirely bad, but so much of the rules of religion are bent to suit those who are in power, that it seems more like joining a club rather than accepting eternal salvation!
I am proud to be a Christian, and i believe that i have a relationship with him, not religion! I believe that i don’t have to confess to someone about my sins so they can confess to God, but i can do it myself. I treat Jesus like a best friend, not like a hassle like religion puts on people.
That is why i believe that Jesus is a relationship, and how HE IS GREATER THAN RELIGION, NOT THE SAME!
Hi! There’s actually not much solid evidence behind the beaver-fish legend. Could you find the name of the Pope that said that? I couldn’t! But regardless, the Pope is only infallible when he speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals. We don’t have our own science textbooks 🙂
It’s interesting that you bring up giving up meat though. We do that as a Church to remind us of Christ’s sacrifice for us. He fasted–so we fast. It’s not an “ironic” rule…it’s a practice meant to be coupled with prayer to bring us closer to the person of Jesus Christ.
God Bless you!
This reminds me of the chapter I just read in Fearfully and Wonderfully Made (a book that compares the structure of the human body to that of Christ’s Church). This chapter was on bones; how if the body would be useless without the structor and support of its bones. How, if the bones were to be soft and pliable, or fracture at just one point, the body would be effectively immobilized.
The Law is the bones of the Church. The bones do not make up the entire body, but the body is built upon them. The Christian Church on Earth is built upon the Law and the Gospel.
Saying that Jesus came to abolish the Law quite frankly defies the very reason He came: To fulfill the Law for us because we could not. Not just chuck it out the window.
Unlike Allah (and various other ‘gods’, I’m sure) God does not set down a law and then cancel it a thousand years later as an after thought. God does not contradict Himself. The Law is still vary much the Law. But thanks be to God and His eternal Grace for sending His only Son to fulfill it and pay our debt that we may live in Him eternally!
*Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Philip Yancy & Dr. Paul Brand
clearly dont have a clue behind the history of catholicism.. do research on the original purpose of that religion and mayb ur perspective on it will change.
I challenge you to do the same. But your research should start with the accounts of the early Christians. They sound awfully Catholic 🙂
It actually requires humility and obenience to follow the laws that Christ commands in Scripture. To follow in Christ’s example and humbly submit yourself to the service of the Church. And if the Church is an infection and it’s religous are “whores”, then how do we explain Mother Theresa, Padre Pio, and the saint’s and mystics who so beautifully exemplify the love of Christ and commit their energy to serving the Church he established.
This artist lacks any sense of humility or even good understanding of scripture or Church History. I would say that the viral video he has put together is the real infection. And the cure would be a dose of humility to heal his pride, the root of all evil.
Thank you thank you THANK you for posting this- it’s encouraging to see a young catholic fully understanding what the Church teaches and noticing this guy’s flaws! He is very mislead and I’m glad you’re spreading the word! I also prayed for you & your intention! God bless. <3
“If I’m sick, knowing the doctor is definitely going to be important. I’m going to need a relationship with him in order to let him know what is hurting me so that he can heal me. But the fact of the matter is, if there’s no hospital, I’m not going to be able to find a doctor. If I don’t go in for regular check-ups (even when I don’t feel like I’m sick), I’m not going to remain healthy. If there’s no medicine when I am sick, my relationship with the doctor isn’t going to be enough to make me well again. There’s a reason the doctor prescribes medicine, just like there is a reason God gave us the rules of religion.” ……….
So what you’re saying is the doctor is God/Jesus. And the hospital is the Catholic religion, right? Like the gateway to get to Him? This is a flawed analogy…. How can you say that a true relationship with Jesus Chris can’t heal you without a bunch of extra stuff attached? The Divine Physician doesn’t need medicine to heal you….. you just have to get close to him.
Well said Kristin. Anyone can have a relationship with God, if they just give their heart to Him. It doesn’t take the Catholic religious to get you to Him or Heaven!
Thank you so much for this post.
Thank you so much for writing about this topic. This video or poem is just an avenue for non-denomination organizations to feel justified.
Here is a quote form the guy who made the video’s facebook. I think you and him are saying the same thing just using different language. I think when he says “religion” he means what religion has become for a lot of people not the church. He is attacking the use of the veil of religion as a forum for judgment and riotousness. Hes not saying going to church is bad. hes saying we should go to church for the right reasons…
“If you are using my video to bash “the church” be careful. I was in no way intending to do that. My heart came from trying to highlight and expose legalism and hypocrisy. The Church is Jesus’ bride so be careful how you speak of His wife. If a normal dude has right to get pissed when you bash His wife, it makes me tremble to think how great the weight is when we do it to Jesus’ wife. The church is His vehicle to reach a lost word. A hospital for sinners. Saying you love Jesus but hate the Church, is like a fiancé saying he loves his future bride, but hates her kids. We are all under grace. Look to Him.”
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/13/does-jesus-hate-religion-kinda-sorta-not-really/
http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2012/01/jesus-was-religious.html
two good articles put out by the gospel coalition.
Also, James 1:27 gives a good hint about God’s thoughts about religion.
Thanks for your post! I shared the link on my blog as well, hope you don’t mind!
Okay. What I got out of this video, is that he’s talking FALSE religion. Which is hypocrisy…enough said.
The word “religion” has different connotations (good or bad) for different people. MANY see it as just a list of rules and things you HAVE TO (not wanting to) do on certain days.
Personal note: Unfortunately, that’s what religion was for me, raised in a Catholic family, going to Catholic schools 12 years, trying to “be a good Catholic’ as I was told. Always feeling like I was not good enough, guilty, & God was big and distant. That’s what happened to me…and I continually find other people with similar stories.
What went, or is still going, wrong???
new testimate,was rewritten to feed a lie.
This man speaks the truth.1st testimate is very very different, but funnily enough cannot be found.
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Luke 10:16
He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.
The very title of this video contradicts the teaching mission of the Church that was given to her by God incarnate.
Nice job with the post Mary!… as always!
Doug
P.S. I apologize in advance to the English majors critiquing posts here… just in case I missed a comma to some other grammatical sin.
Galatians is a good book to read on this topic. Saint Paul who wrote most of the New Testament explains the purpose of the Law and how we are to live now when he says things like, “Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘the man who does them shall live by them.’, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…”(Galatians 3:12&13) And Saint Paul also adds speaking very strong to the religious people who try to tell people to live by the law, “I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! For you brethren have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Galatians 5:12-14) So the law was a tool for us to use as our “school master” to guide us in better living. However, people in their sin have used it for leverage or a form of control. But, we can praise God for making our burden light again, sending us Jesus for our complete atonement and giving us revelation in His word by saying things like, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”(Galatians 5:1)
His video is really good I believe because, if you fight the atheist fight, you know they are calling religious people B-A-D because look at all the bad they have done lately in the name of religion. Mainly Islam right now and 911. So what this man does is saintly as far as I am concerned. He shows that not ALL religion is good but don’t call ALL religion bad. he does well to point out the religion of Jesus is good, connect your own dots. He is uniting Christians because our fight against the upcoming atheism and paganism is coming on strong. Excellent video. Don’t read into it so deep you cannot see the forest because of the trees. He is saying a lot in little time and that in and of itself is H-U-G-E. I hope he is one of God’s people sent to make a difference in this highly confused and immoral country.
Galatians is a good book to read on this topic. Saint Paul who wrote most of the New Testament explains the purpose of the Law and how we are to live now when he says things like, “Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘the man who does them shall live by them.’, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…”(Galatians 3:12&13) And Saint Paul also adds speaking very strong to the religious people who try to tell people to live by the law, “I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! For you brethren have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Galatians 5:12-14) So the law was a tool for us to use as our “school master” to guide us in better living. However, people in their sin have used it for leverage or a form of control. But, we can praise God for making our burden light again, sending us Jesus for our complete atonement and giving us revelation in His word by saying things like, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”(Galatians 5:1)
Galatians is a good book to read on this topic. Saint Paul who wrote most of the New Testament explains the purpose of the Law and how we are to live now when he says things like, “Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘the man who does them shall live by them.’, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…”(Galatians 3:12&13) And Saint Paul also adds speaking very strong to the religious people who try to tell people to live by the law, “I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! For you brethren have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Galatians 5:12-14) So the law was a tool for us to use as our “school master” to guide us in better living. However, people in their sin have used it for leverage or a form of control. But, we can praise God for making our burden light again, sending us Jesus for our complete atonement and giving us revelation in His word by saying things like, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”(Galatians 5:1)
Thanks for the comment!First of all, I want to say that my heart breaks a little bit every time a theological debate boils down to “Bible ping-pong”, so I’ll try to refrain. I know we’re both Christians who believe that the entire Bible is inspired by God, and while there may be apparent contradictions within it, truth cannot contradict itself, and it also doesn’t change. This makes things tricky sometimes, but it just means that in those times we have to roll up our sleeves and do a little digging (all rooted in prayer and love for Christ, of course). Praise God for a searching heart that seeks His truth!
Isn’t the story of our salvation beautiful? I love how Saint Paul describes the Law that God gave us in the Old Testament as our tutor or schoolmaster, preparing the nation of Israel to receive the Messiah in Jesus Christ. And I’m sure you share in my love for the Old Testament in seeing how this story unfolds. The nation of Israel cannot ascend to God, so God comes down to their level, giving them laws to help them live more holy lives. The law banning pork (and other unclean animals)? Many scholars argue that it was because the Egyptians, and other nations, offered those animals as sacrifices to their pagan gods. It was one of the many ways God required His people to be “set apart,” and to help them not fall into pagan idolatry. But no, I don’t think we are required to follow the kosher laws, largely because of what you point out in Galatians.
In Galatians, Paul is writing (to the Galatians of course) because there is confusion about whether the followers of Christ need to be circumcised. Jesus was a Jew, after all; He came from God; the Jewish people had been recognized as God’s chosen people…and they had laws that required circumcision. So we can only imagine that it must have been a little confusing for the early Christians trying to figure out what it meant to be a follower of this Jewish Messiah (who, though He had issues with some of the people of the Jewish religion of His time, Jesus never renounced His faith as a Jew. We see Him holding the feasts of the Jewish year throughout His ministry—Passover, Tabernacles, Pentecost, etc).
We see in Galatians 2:11 mention of a “circumcision party”…and it seems that Peter (Cephas) was also trying to figure out how to reconcile this, “…I [Paul] had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles)” (Galatians 2:7-8). Of course we know the story. After Christ comes and offers salvation not just to the Jews but to all the nations, it makes no difference to God whether you are circumcised or not. “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Galatians 5:14).
What I find fascinating about Galatians (and all of Paul’s letters) is the larger context. Paul has authority. So much authority, that when a debate arises among the Christians about how they are to practice their faith, it’s not: “Here is what the Gospels say…everyone interpret it for himself.” Paul settles the matter (it helps that he had the Holy Spirit writing with him, of course). Paul had authority within whatever structure was set up at that time. It seems odd to me that once Paul passed on, no one would take up his office–especially given Acts 1, where pretty much the first thing the apostles did after Jesus ascended into Heaven was fill the space that Judas left among them. Why? Couldn’t they have just had the 11 of them leftover that Jesus Himself appointed? Apparently not. “For it is written in the book of Psalms…’his office let another take'” (Acts 1:20).
“And they put forward two…and they prayed and said, ‘Lord who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:23-26)
(This is where the Catholic idea of Bishops come from, FYI)
Finally, I want to point out that, while Galatians concludes that circumcision is not necessary for salvation, there is one act it mentions which sounds pretty essential to being initiated into the Christian faith. I bet you could guess it because you’ve probably received it. It’s baptism!
“…So that the law was our custodian [schoolmaster] until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:24-29)
What do you make of this? Because it seems to me that structure and hierarchy within the church were important to the early Christians. And while we’re no longer required to be circumcised according to the law of Moses, Christ did not do away with customs in general, because works like baptism seem to be required to be a Christian.
Thanks for reaching out. I look forward to continuing thoughtful and prayerful discussion.
Christ’s Peace,
Mary
Religion is important to our culture. However just like the government and every other human endeavor it needs to watched over, judged and scrutinized. That is what Jesus and John Baptist did right? They didn’t fall in line with the Jewish theory of the day. They asked questions that led to a new way of thinking and achieving salvation…eventually reaching Paul and the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholicism was started by a bunch of rebellious people asking questions about our existence with God. It was not perfect then, it is not perfect now. I think this video is good not because of what it says, but because it raises questions about religion just like John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul did. That is my two cents (By the way I had to borrow the two cents from the bank:(
MARY & OTHERS, I think that a lot of what God meant to be good has been twisted because of all of the evil in this world including religion. I think saying that “Jesus HATES religion” was a poor choice of words on this guy’s part. I think that Jesus hates when religions turn into not what he has called them to be. He has called us to have real relationships with him by being his disciples, to be engulfed in His Word, to not be taken over by this world, to be in fellowship with other believers, and to be a light to those who do not believe. Even in Christianity, there are many branches and denominations that argue against each other on “theory” and forget what’s truly important.
Mary, you didn’t agree that Jesus came to abolish religion. In Jesus’s time and now he was/is trying to convey there is more to religion than worshipping false gods to go to an after-life destination, like many people did and do. And now he comes to abolish what religion has turned into. Jesus came to show that there is more to being “Christian” or “Catholic” (or just following God in general) THAN self-gain and that are sins are easily forgiven. Also, the guy in the video wasn’t saying that those who follow religion are whores. He was showing that “religious” people are not perfect either. People in general, in a religion or not, are judgmental and he was illustrating that Jesus himself even showed that even “religious” people make mistakes and sin.
I like that you said that Jesus gave “religion” as an aid. I think what the guy in the video is really saying is that we get so focused on ourselves and on “attending church” and “doing the right things” that we forget what the Bible really says about following God and become more “religious” than God-centered. Have you ever heard the saying, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion”? We were meant to do more than just sit in pews.
I agree with some of your points. I think one of the main issues under his statements is that religion has not lately been about who your serving or healing or saving its turned into a judgemental place yes the bible says the church is his body and through he body he moves but the body of the church does not mean religion. I think we focus to much on what we are religion wise and less on what the bible says. The bible Gods word should be the only focus not that I’m a Lutheran or I’m catholic ect. But more on God. I have been to many churches and and have seen much corruption. Judgemental and unaccepting people. Religion is not the cure or the medicine the cure and medicine is the one and only God and his people. A church is not religion. The church is a body. Religion is rules and God has set his rules but the church has scewed those rules and formed their own that’s religion. So just remeber God is the only cure. Religion doesn’t cure you.
I just saw this video in my church, and I thought it was great! I used to be Catholic, and then my eyes were opened and I realized that God wanted a relationship with me, not through the rules of the Catholic church. I was fed so much crap in my Catholic education; for example, I remember being taught that Jesus wanted us to be Catholic, and if your not then you can’t go to heaven in less you convert!
It’s not about what religion you are, its about GIVING YOUR HEART TO JESUS CHRIST AND PRACTICING HIS TEACHINGS FROM THE BIBLE!
Whatever Catholic told you that you would go to Hell if you aren’t Catholic is completely and utterly WRONG. And JESUS FOUNDED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH when He made Peter the first pope. What is another example of this”crap” because you may have been mislead, or misunderstood something.
I appreciate that you said he was “misleading” rather than wrong. Too many people are quick to jump on his back, accusing him of things. You’re right when it’s a bit misleading. However, I feel that he means most of what you said in a way. He just couldn’t explain it all too well. But you’re right in that it should have been explained.
But I don’t believe God gave us the rules for religion for medicine. I believe we have the rules of religion to give us a pure life. A life to honor God and to be an example to others.
Great blog post!! You’re a great writer and I look forward to reading more posts from you!
I think people are being way over-critical of Jeff Bethke’s WHY I LOVE JESUS BUT HATE RELIGION video. I think it was a poor choice of words on his part to say that Jesus specifically hates religion… however I believe Jesus hates that religion can cause people to act like robots instead of making their faith their own and truly following God. Also, by paying attention to the video Jeff also states, “Now let me clarify, I love church, I love the bible, and yes I believe in sin.” By this line it’s obvious that Bethke is NOT saying that we are free to make our own rules either. By following Jesus (as Bethke says we should be doing instead of following the routines of religion), and in turn following the Bible that was God-breathed.. You’re following God’s words and commands. Also, notice that Bethke is giving GOD ALL THE GLORY in this video. Bethke is not saying we can live how we want, he is not saying that religion is wrong. He is saying he hates what religion can turn us into when we lose sight of the main focus of Christianity: Jesus. Just a few thoughts…
http://esovacool.blogspot.com/2012/01/why-i-love-jesus-and-hate-religions.html
Very well put. Thanks. 🙂
[…] to divide two things that should not be divided: Jesus is opposed to religion. While it is easy to point out that these two things are not opposed, because Jesus “did not come to abolish the law or the […]
Couldn’t agree with you more lol. That video kept popping up in my feed and driving me crazy. There is a couple of video responses that I liked, one by revfiskj and the other by….amazingatheist lol. He’s reasonably unbiased in the beginning, and just points out the fallacies in this guys poem and how unsubstantial it really is. The last 6 minutes are a tirade on religion though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyXIcLixtG4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The man who made the video was referring to religion as man made rules
as practiced by the Pharisees. They were RELIGIOUS. They did not truly
serve God. Jesus called them out on that A LO’T. So I’d say God doesn’t
like religion. He wants our hearts. Not our religion. Matt 9:13
You missed where the speaker said that religion is man made. therefore
the scriptures you referenced about Jesus coming to fulfill the laws and
Jesus placing importance on the commandments is a little out of place.
GOD’S LAWS are obviously loved by the Lord. But God did NOT give us
religion. Man did. Read Matthew 15. Jesus definitely shows that He
disapproves of the religious traditions put in place by man.
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’
The body of Christ is so broken by religions. One sect claims
Catholicism, one claims Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, etc. Instead of
all claiming Jesus and being united in Him. Paul wrote of similar
division when he talked about people saying they follow Paul or Apollo (1 Corinthians 3:4)
It’s ridiculous that we have all of this in the Good Book to show us not to act a certain way, yet we still do.
I think we need to see this video in context of religion as list for behavior modification. What we need is life transformation and that is why Jesus came. The Scripture says, “For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ.” If the Law can transform our lives then why did Jesus have to come? Jesus came to fulfill the requirements of the Law replacing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant for God found fault in the Old Covenant.
[…] Abolishing Religion – Mennonite Weekly Review, Patheos, Young and Catholic […]
I can’t even comprehend how wrong what you wrote is…….. aaaaahhhhh! If you haven’t noticed, the Pharisees/religious people who invent rules to add onto the Bible and expect the people to adhere to them are the biggest enemy of Jesus. He calls them white-washed tombs, where on the outside, their behavior modification and devotion to their rules looks very life-giving, but they are spiritually dead on the inside. And yes, your relationship with the doctor IS everything. God’s “medicine” to use your analogy is Himself. He is the greatest gift of the Gospel. Don’t add onto the gospel! Jesus + Anything is not the gospel.
try a little harder to comprehend, then 🙂
Where did the Bible come from, anyway?
I’ll give you a hint: “a group of bishops walk into a council…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqcPqtfU-eo&feature=youtu.be
[…] more understanding on the Catholic reaction to the video, I suggest you visit these links: Young and Catholic, Jimmy Akin, Bad […]
[…] http://www.marypearsonblog.com/2012/01/why-i-love-jesus-and-religion/ […]
Very sensible and scriptural reply to a very peculiar attack on religion. I found the video to have a nearly violent quality, indeed hateful flavor. Not a great technique to get a point accross.
So, the video was fundamentalism at its worst, incredibly lacking insight and knowledge of the value of religion. Religion guards truth and prevents the errors of heresy and hypocracy, as the history of the church well illustrates.
The premise of the video is ridiculous. Might as well say, “I hate government, but love freedom”. The later exists because of the former. Similarly, we can love Jesus better by the direction that relgion offers.
I think The Bible is more than what you read at just face value.
Even the disciples didn’t really understand Jesus half the time lol
Luke 8:9 and He was constantly criticized for speaking the truth Luke 5:21.
For instance, your first point is that Jesus didn’t come to abolish religion, but to fulfill it right? There are several time in Scripture when Jesus healed people and worked on the Sabbath or didn’t fast and pray how people thought He should.
Luke 13:10
John 5
Mark 3
Matthew 12:1
Luke 6:1
The whole point of having the law was to prove that NO ONE could keep it. In the Old Test. days, the law was strict. Once Jesus walked the Earth, there was more grace and mercy, but the law was not fulfilled until His death. After that we were given the Holy Spirit. That’s why we feel convicted when we do something wrong; the Law lives in us 🙂
What a lot of people don’t realize is that Jesus FULFILLED the law because He was the only one who could keep the law. Therefore He IS the law that He’s talking about. He’s speaking prophetically in this verse. He isn’t talking about the law of Moses. He’s talking about the Himself. That’s why law is capitalized.
That’s what Romans 7 is about.
Jesus became the law, therefore He was the only one who had say over the law. He told the disciples to obey it only because He had not died yet so they were still bound by the law.
This guy isn’t saying that we shouldn’t go to church or hate the rules. Jesus rants about it in Luke 12. He’s saying that we all have different convictions, and if some people weren’t so caught up in telling others what they should wear and do, then maybe they would have time to love as Christ did. Christ never condemned people. He healed them, met their needs, ate with them, and he loved them for who they were.
Now a days all everyone can do is judge each other when they themselves are living on the fence. They go to church, knowing they came from the club the night before thinking that they have time to straighten up. It’s very sad. The Bible speaks about being lukewarm.
Revelation 3:16
In Luke 11:38 Jesus makes it VERY clear that they were too busy worrying about what was happening on the outside instead of the inside.
I hope that makes his point a little clearer to you.
God bless! 🙂
Hey thanks for the thoughtful reply; I appreciate your feedback. I understand what he was trying to do, I just very much disagree with the way he went about it. Setting up a false dichotomy between a personal relationship with Jesus and practicing religion isn’t helpful.
Please understand that we are saved by grace. As gods holy people we are called to live a holy and righteous life. This only comes through Jesus, accepting him into your life and declaring him as your lord and saviour is Justification and then through the power of the holy spirit only then you are sanctified daily. See if the law worked Jesus would not have come. The law is there to show us sin, as it is clearly also stated in the new testament by Jesus. Religion is what the pharisees did, it was an outside change. Jesus brings gives us a heart exchange an internal change. If you live under the law, your saying Jesus’s death was in vain, and if religion could save you then why did god send him!!!
You need to have a relationship with christ cause he lives to intercede to the father on our behalf. He needs to be your bestfriend and your bridegroom. Without Jesus we are nothing, You see even your best works are dirty rags to god, and its not by our works that we are saved lest anyone boast. There is only one name which you will be saved and that is through Jesus. He is the truth, the light and the way.
You are not saved by being good or following the law. We are human and god knows we cannot live by the law, that’s shy he sent his one and only son who paid the ransom for us. See all you need to do is believe and have faith in him and he will do the rest. It a free and everlasting gift of gods love too us.
SO DONT LET SATAN ROB YOU OF THAT.
I pray these words find a way into your mind and Jesus make a home in your heart.
God Bless
Beautifully put. We agree on way more than we disagree. I believe wholeheartedly that apart from Jesus we can do nothing. We need a personal relationship with him; he absolutely needs to be our best friend and bridegroom. Every good work we do is only because of Christ; it is Christ through whom we are saved.
It was also Christ who instituted a Church. It was Christ who said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. It was Christ who said that the Scribes and Pharisees sit in the chair of Moses. For this reason, I do not believe that he destroyed religion, but fulfilled it.
None of our religions have any truth to it. What the guy in the video believes doesn’t make any sense; Just like what people in other churches believe don’t make any sense. No one has the sense to call the man (who was a human being and prophet, not a god – Luke) by his real name even, Isaiah 7:14 was correct.
Stuff to think about.
The Law of Moses, The Ten Commandments, the first five books of the Old Testement …
Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus fulfilled every letter every iota every detail of the Law, both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law when God (the Son) came down from heaven and died for our sins on the cross and then came back from the dead to prove to us that everything has been fulfilled. Jesus then told his disciples to spread the good news of what he did on the cross to every person that exists, so that all would know that it is finished.
He also said this, Jeremiah 31:31-36 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD:for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
The sun, the moon, and the stars are still there and so is Israel.
Its pretty hard to fit religion in there when the fire of the Holy Spirit dwells inside you. Sure many times we don’t want to know or believe that God is in us, but He promised. He works in us and through us. Religion is something for us and for other people to see. I’m pretty sure Jesus doesn’t hate religion, but I’m pretty sure he wanted people to know how that their focus should be on Him, not on religion.
The only deception present is that of the conflict we create amongst ourselves . We all serve Christ be you Catholic or Protestant. Are we that arrogant to even begin to think we have the authority to condemn people to heaven or hell ? My brothers and sisters recognize pride and wrath for what they are , pray for the knowledge to discern good for good and evil for evil. We can argue all day and all eternity over these matters I am a Catholic and recently attende a community church service and found myself feeling out of place and at times boasting silently to myself claiming ” these people had it wrong and I had it right “. Then I reached forward to grb the bible and, recognizing the evil pride bubbling up in me prayed and asked for knowledge and help in my situation . I opened the bible and tea the first passage and lo and behold it was 1 Corinthians 1-10 regarding divisions in the Church , coincidence ? I think not. God be with you all.
Jesus coming to fulfill the laws and prophets have NOTHING to do with religion. jesus coming to do that had everything to do with Relationship! If anything it is God actually saying “see you religious people thought your works will get you closer to me, im sending my Servant who will suffer on your filty rag behalf because I want a Relationship!” God is Jehovah. GOD is personal not about religion.Moses is a perfect example. what Jesus did, that is Grace! its all about Jesus! not about us. I’ve seen people with a realtionship with Jesus help out more than those who just claim to know him. Religion doesnt do anything but make lost people stay lost. Relationships and having a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus help the lost be found. when Jesus was walking with the disciples did he give them rules to live by in order for Jesus to love them? no! he built a relationship! and it is by the disciples love for Jesus through a RELATIONSHIP they obeyed. not out mere force, or Religion or condemnation! Religion is just that…Condemnation. Relationship is just that….Grace.
did Jesus love religion? No. He actually rebuked it. Does he love religious people? Yes he loves everyone. But it’s not a matter of who Jesus loves, it’s a matter of who the individual loves. Is it Jesus? Or religion? Religion can’t save you. religion didnt die on a cross. Relationship did! Jesus never said ” Religion is the way, the truth and the life.” no! Jesus said ” I AM the way, the Truth, and The Life. NO one(meaning no religion, no jew, no gentile) comes to the Father expect through the Son.” ( in order to do that you must have a relationship) So again, you have religion verses Relationship. ” even those who call me Lord, Lord have I not done (acts of religion ) and Jesus’ response is ” depart from me you lawbreakers” . and we all know that unless we have Jesus’ blood covering us, we are ALL lawbreakers! Remember your works a as filty as rags. Jesus said He is the high priest and has authority to forgive all sins!
.He even said ” So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do NOT do what they do, (Religious people)for they do not practice what they preach.” Matt. 23:3 again Jesus is talking about Religious people.
A woman came by Jesus and said ” blessed is the mother who nursed you and Jesus rebuked her and said ” blessed are those who read God’s Word and obey it.”
Today, while I was at work, my cousin stole my iPad and tested to see
if it can survive a 30 foot drop, just so she can be a
youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now destroyed and she has 83 views.
I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it with someone!
[…] Young and Catholic. […]
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I did in fact uncover that particular factoid during my research for this review. I figured Val Verde was a fictional country; just didn’t realize it had been used across several productions.
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