Anti-Religious?
By
M. L. Wilson
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© 2012 by M.L. Wilson. All rights reserved. No part of this document or the
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Given some of the views
posited in my novel series, "The GOD Principle", one might be
inclined to believe that I am anti-religion. To answer that charge, a baseline
as to what constitutes religion would need to be established. Most would define
religion as a means by which one believes in and worships God. That would
comprise a dictionary definition, but it doesn't begin to cover the
complexities associated with the term.
In the three monotheistic
religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it is believed by its followers
that the god they all worship is the exact same god. If that is in fact the
case, then some legitimate questions can be asked regarding the divergent beliefs
which separate these religions. Then you have to factor in the subsets within
each religion that diverge even further. There is a multiplicity of religious
belief that exists within just these three. Stripped down to its essence, what
we find is not the worship of God, but rather the worship of liturgy. When you
then add in the various other world religions, it soon becomes clear that “God”
is relegated to a mere figurehead with the true focus of worship instead
directed towards the doctrine, laws, and liturgies; the brand of religion
becomes more important than what should be the primary focus of our worship.
Religion—any religion—thus becomes man’s way of understanding God, absent God.
That is not to say that
religions the world over have not had a positive impact on society; it is
difficult to imagine a world over the last two thousand years without religion
having played a part. Too many people who were left destitute due to the wars,
conquest, natural disasters, diseases, etceteras, over the last two millennia
have benefited greatly by those practicing their religious tenants which speak
of helping and loving others. However, I also hasten to add that those same
religions were at times used to inflict untold damage to the cause of humanity.
Stepping beyond the more commonly known instances such as the Crusades and the
Inquisitions foisted upon the world by the Christian religion, one has to also
consider the numerous deaths due to the conflicts and wars between Hindus and
Buddhists, between Islamic Sunni and Shiites, between the Hutus and the Tutsis
of Central Africa.
Japanese Emperor Hirohito
justified his attack of mainland China in the late 1930s and his eventual
declaration of war against the United States based upon his divine right as
their spiritual leader. Though Hirohito’s official name, Showa, translates as
“Enlightened Peace”, the brutal invasion of Nanjing was anything but peaceful
for the three hundred thousand inhabitants there who were massacred. In such a
case, their “religion” exemplified anything but the teachings brought to us by
Jesus Christ.
Christ brought us a
message of hope, peace and love; Christ brought us relationship with the
Creator. When this pure teaching is applied as taught, it has the ability to
benefit all of mankind. When that same teaching is usurped by humans—or angelic
agency, it becomes a heavy, blunt club by which to crush and kill; it becomes a
religion. Consider that in the name of such religions and their gods, men, woman
and children have been brutally slain, raped and enslaved; whole peoples have
been targeted for annihilation, which in certain cases, very nearly succeeded.
Thieves and hucksters of all stripes have risen to the top of this religious
cauldron, threatening the mass populous with the potential loss of their
eternal souls lest they submit. There is little point to highlight one of these
religions over another; they are all guilty of the crimes I have outlined—all
of them.
So what is the answer? Do
we simply declare that God is dead as Friedrich Neitzsche infamously concluded
over one hundred years ago? Do we just hunker down and remain resolute; that
despite the errors in our particular belief, we still regard it as closer to
the truth than other beliefs? That decision is left to the individual, but I
would like to think that it could be at the very least an informed decision and
one based upon the good of all rather than the good of the individual. Christ
died for his beliefs and convictions; most religious hucksters usually convince
others to die in their stead.
Jesus Christ came to this
earth nearly two thousand years ago to point out the flaws of angelic rule to
the angels themselves. Despite their claims of ownership over man and this
realm, Christ reminded these Celestial rulers that such a covenant existed only
so long as their claims remained true; that man was an inferior being and
incapable of the power which God intended to imbue them with. When the
Spiritual Ambassadors of God Almighty - called Celestial angels in the book of
Jude - conspired and succeeded in killing God in the flesh, it was thought by
all of them that they were rid of His interference for good; the realm would
remain in their hands to rule as they deemed fit. However, the moment that
Christ’s Spirit left His earthly shell and descended into Sheol—the abode of
the dead, it became apparent to these Celestial angels that they had
miscalculated badly. Rather than rid themselves of God Most High’s
interference, they succeeded in invalidating the very covenant He had made with
them; the covenant that they relied so heavily upon. It is through this
invalidation which allowed God Most High to legitimately wrest control of this
realm from these Celestial rulers and make a public spectacle of them.
When Christ was crucified
upon the cross, it is important to remember that though He came through the
Adamic line created by the Celestial angel Helel (The Hebrew name for Lucifer)
on his mother’s side, He was conceived by His Spirit on His father’s side. As
such, Christ did not fall under this blanket declaration of failure—what is
regarded in orthodoxy as Original Sin—as are all other human beings. Sin is
defined as one missing a mark; failing to meet a predetermined standard, if you
will. All of humanity fell into this column as a result of transgressions on
the part of their predecessors. To reiterate, Christ’s paternal line came
directly from God Most High and He was therefore not placed under the same
covenantal constraint. It is for that reason that Helel repeatedly attempted to
seduce Christ. When Helel took Christ to the mountain top and showed Him all of
the kingdoms of the earth, offering all to Him if only Christ would bow down
and worship him (read, acknowledge Helel’s lordship over the realm), Helel
would give all that Christ could see to him. This would have been legitimate
Helel’s right as at that point in time, the realm rightfully belonged to the
Celestial angels.
Christ’s resistance led
eventually to His crucifixion (“If he cannot be turned, then he will die.”)
which in turn, ironically, led to the end of the Celestial reign and rule. This
event is recounted by Paul in the book of Colossians, “And having disarmed the
powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them by the cross.”(Col. 2:15) The
Powers and Authorities are a reference to the Celestial rulers of this realm.
That singular event began the War in Heaven—an ongoing war which is mentioned
in the scriptures. These Celestial angels will not go quietly into that
goodnight, believing that they are beaten. Quite the contrary, if they can find
some way upon which to invalidate the present covenant, they fully intend to
regain control of this realm.
Interestingly enough, we
human beings give them much hope in being able to succeed in that goal. We are
an easily led people; we are far too malleable, without convictions. This is
because the angels know that we listen first with our fleshly ears and see with
our fleshly eyes. It is easy for them to convince us that The Others are the
ones who are wrong; that to kill them is a Holy, sanctioned act. This is a
tactic as old as humanity and it was as wrong then as it is today. This jumble
of religious belief and thought which pervades our cultures and societies, does
not aid the cause of Christ; rather it blunts it. To be a Christian is to be
the face of God to others; to shine the light of truth into the black void
created by the Celestial rule. When one who claims to follow Christ, but also
believes that God has told him that it is perfectly fine to kill others because
of their beliefs—that to do so is somehow sanctioned or Holy, it is a safe bet
that it is not Christ to whom they are listening or following. Christ does not
tell His children to molest the vulnerable, to kill the helpless, to comport
oneself in a selfish fashion. Christ is the author of life and to kill is an
anathema to a Holy God. What Christ did tell us was that as Christians, we were
to make certain that those who look upon us are able to see God Most High
through us.
The walk of a Christian is
therefore not an easy one as the Christian walk stands in total opposition to
the rulers of the Celestial realm. The Christian is the front-line foot soldier
in this spiritual battle and like in any war, there are bound to be casualties,
but for a Christian to die in Christ is to find themselves present with Him in
spirit. Death to a Christian is not the end of life, but the beginning. That is
not to say that we should court death; God gave us this time on this planet for
a specific reason; the time we spend here is to serve His will. This is not an
easy task as the enemy is well cognizant of the threat we pose to their rule
and reign. The Celestial rulers may have created the body we inhabit, but what
makes us unique is from God Most High.
That we find ourselves
placed into a particular family unit is at God’s direction. That one is born
into a certain time in history is similarly at Gods direction. Once the time we
have here on this planet has passed, it will never come about again. There is a
reason for this construct that has to do more with what Christ is attempting to
teach us individually than anything the Celestial angels are plotting.
I liken our walk on this
earth here to people who go to an automobile manufacturing plant to be given a
new car. This plant has been built by Celestial Motors with the land and
materials provided by Almighty God Inc. The owners of Celestial Motors construct
fairly decent automobiles of all sort, cars, trucks, motorcycles, etceteras,
but they are admittingly a low end car. Quickly, however, problems emerge with
the folks who have been given these cars. The people sent over from Almighty
God Inc. who slide into the driver’s seat like to drive their cars wherever
they desire. To the owners of Celestial Motors, this is a cause for concern.
They would rather that the cars only be taken out on pre-approved roads, driven
a certain speed and driven with the utmost care. Their concern is
understandable. First off, the cars are not indestructible and secondly, not
all the people are driving the cars responsibly. These people are not at all
used to these cars and start off driving erratically. Once they become comfortable
with the car, they tend to be selfish drivers, cutting others off in traffic
and deliberately causing damage to other’s cars. Sometimes it’s accidental, but
often it is on purpose. In response, the owners at Celestial Motors take
drastic measures against the drivers by taking away their cars and placing
those drivers in jail. This goes on for years without any sign that the
situation is going to improve.
Eventually the CEO of
Almighty God Inc. decides to come to the plant. He brings his own car and
drives it around with all of the others. He begins to tell everyone that the
cars they’re driving now are only temporary vehicles. One day soon, He will
provide them with new cars; cars that will never rust or fall apart. These cars
can be driven wherever the driver wants to go, but first they must learn how to
drive properly using these inferior cars provided by the good folks at
Celestial Motors.
This is not a perfect
analogy by any means, but the central point remains: The cars we've been
given—our fleshly bodies—are temporary and extremely fragile. Despite all the
maintenance we perform, they will eventually fall apart and cease to operate.
By contrast, God Most High has created new bodies for us that are eternal and
vastly superior to the bodies we now have. In those new bodies, we will be able
to do things and go places that we can only imagine now in the limited bodies
we presently possess. Of course with such power, must come a greater degree of
personal responsibility. If we cannot learn to navigate with these inferior
bodies in this limited, finite realm—if one continually crashes the Ford Pinto
into other cars trying to push them off of the road, never maintaining the oil
level, running on bald tires, and generally treating the vehicle terribly
resulting is dents and dings, why would one presume to be given the
responsibility of operating a Lamborghini Aventador, an absolutely beautiful
car which has a top speed of 217 mph? We must first learn to care for and drive
the Pinto appropriately, understanding the limits of those around us before we
will be given the keys to the Lamborghini.
The pure truth of the
Gospel is all the “religion” anyone of us needs. “Love the Lord your God with
all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength; Love your
neighbor as yourself.” There is truly no more religion that one needs beyond
that which was spoken by Christ.
