Religion

2 Timothy 3
Godlessness in the Last Days
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

These people are in the world today and they are called religious people.
They are lovers of themselves and their religious beliefs. They have massive egos. They are proud and conceited.

They are very pious. They go to Church early and leave late. They have a denominational mentality. They love their Churchianity more than Jesus. They deny the power of God and should be avoided.

Jesus had much to say to the likes of them.

Matthew 23
Seven Woes
1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'
8"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.[b] 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

But how religious people like their robes and fancy prayers. How they like being called ‘father’ or ‘reverend’ or ’spiritual’ and it is all for show.

13"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

They shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces!

They are a hindrance to the gospel

They make Christians depressed. They stop God being God . Religion wants you unmotivated it hates zeal. They make you ashamed of the gospel and wraps truth round untruths.

At one time these people wouldn’t read the bible in a language the people understood.

They shut the kingdom out!
They don’t enter the kingdom themselves and shut it out for others. It is religion that they serve and not God.

15"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
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These religious people will do anything to make non-religious Christians like them. After all they are always right. The put God in a box and try to stop God being God. Religion is of Hell and their godless doctrines are of Hell.

1 Timothy 4
Instructions to Timothy
1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving

Satan is a religious fanatic!
Religious demons preach doctrines that forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

Those filthy demons don’t stop there.

They have invented lots of weird doctrines and superstitions regarding the sacraments. They have made the Eucharist something that it isn’t and they deny some of it. Why? Because desecrating the covenant meal is as close as they can get to desecrating the covenant.

They also have invented much about baptism which is the sign of the covenant. They do not want Gods covenant people to know what And who they are in Christ.

16"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.'
19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

Such trifling matters matter much to religious people. The difference between Jesus being Gods eternal son and the Eternal son of God is a great matter to them. They could bore people for hours about such a trifling matter. How many angels can stand on the head of a pin or the colour of the holy virgins eyes are great matters for debate. The light of Christ is hidden from them by religious nonsense.

They confuse people with their mind numbing ’theology so they can make other Christians like them. People who are not Christians after being around these people tend to look into other religions instead. (Which is what the devil wants.)

23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

How religious people can be formulaic to the point of emptying their message of grace is astounding!
How everything religious has to be correct to the point where it takes up all their time so that secular society can rot in peace is even more astounding.
Then when society goes to hell they whinge and whine about it still not doing anything to stop the rot!

25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Religion is just a show. It is worthless.

27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Religion kills people.

29"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

33"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

At this point religious people start screaming religious phrases like “That’s not in love.” and “Jesus gentle, meek and mild.”

I’d rather be like Jesus than be like them.

34Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

Religious people like being in control. They will cast you out of the synagogue to control. They will threaten with excommunication to control.
Religious people are total control freaks!
Everything has to be done according to their specification. They are obsessed with the detail. Yes you may share a prophecy but not during the Eucharist and you can speak in tongues but only at home if at all. Yes you can feed the homeless but first we must discuss this amongst the elders and then we‘ll decided who can do what. Religious people like to control what Gods does..

37"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

I am not ashamed of the gospel. Religion is ashamed of the gospel.

If you like what I’ve written here feel free to comment ‘Amen and if you don’t I pray you get free from religion in Jesus‘ name.