Ever since the Tower of Babel man has been trying to achieve what can only be received.
Genesis 11:1-4 KJV – “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
Today we live in a world of thousands of religions, and while all claim to be true – and most offer a way to access the afterlife – they all share the same basic defect that was true at the Tower of Babel. Religion makes the follower the primary focus and not God. The desire of the builders of Babel was to make a name for themselves. This is what religion does. It makes people feel better about themselves. They did their duty, they kept the ordinances, they observed the rituals, and thus their name can be listed among the faithful adherents of what they believe. But among the religious is not where we want our name to be listed.
Revelation 13:8 KJV – “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Religion replaces truth with sincerity, faith with feelings, and relationship with rituals. During the tribulation, the earth dwellers will worship the Dragon and the Beast through the religion of the world’s most sinister false prophet. They only way to escape the deception and delusion of false religion is to have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
John 14:1-6 KJV – “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Jesus did not give Thomas a list of rituals and observances in order to go to where the Lord was heading. He simply told His disciple that “He” was the way to get to the Father’s house and there were no others. No phrases to repeat, no foods to avoid, no days to observe, just believe that Jesus is God like His Father and you will also wind up where He is. (That is not to say there are not things to obey and do after becoming followers of the Way).
The futility of religion is best demonstrated by the truth that if religious observances could save us, they would be equal to the blood of Christ in value. They would essentially eliminate the need for Jesus to come and die for the sins of the whole world. Again, that is if heaven could be had through the rituals of religion.
James 1:26-27 KJV – “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
James 3:8 KJV – “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”
What James is saying is that religion, if it could make you right with God, would be manifest by never saying or doing anything wrong. He follows this by revealing a truth about us all – no person’s tongue has always been kind, only told the truth, and never said anything wrong. Nor has any person ever lived a spotless, or sinless, life before God. Thus, all religions are useless.
We should all rejoice in the fact that Jesus is the way, truth, and the life, and that means He is the only one who can take us to the Father’s house so that we may be where He is. Religion, rituals, and self-proclaimed righteousness can never do that.
The reality is this, and we have all sung it many times as saints, “What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.
