Leaving the System~Bon Voyage

How many times have I heard someone refer to the “system” as being synonymous with the institutional entity erroneously called the church? I don’t know. All I do know is that it is way too confining a definition, too small a picture for me. Why? It’s because “we know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one”. This control is in actuality the matrix of religion, otherwise known as the world system, and it has completely saturated our beliefs, outlooks and thought processes.
This matrix of religion exists within and is entrapped by our soul and is what fuels beliefs, philosophies, creeds, etc. There has to be an impetus, otherwise all such ideologies would be a house of cards. Satan, being the father of religion, is both the impetus and the instigator.
I want to make it clear that Satan operates from within the arena of the soul. That is the location from which not only evil emanates but also where truth wishes to reside, (be fleshed out) contingent upon our choices. Our spirits (if we have been born-again) are pure and perfect forever, having been indwelt by the spirit of Christ.

“Leaving the system” is usually interpreted as making an exodus from a religious or institutional setting, and yes it is, but it is only a very miniscule part of the departure. Everything outside of being ‘in Christ’ is religion. This includes our moral conduct, how we choose to live our lives, our definition of right and wrong, etc., and it doesn’t matter one whit whether one is a believer or an atheist. Religious organizations may be flavoured differently but are but one expression of the father of lies’ intent to draw Christians away from the simplicity of the gospel - which is there is NOTHING we can do to earn God’s favour. Our good works, our ‘holiness’, our right living are all based on Satan’s deceptive assertions that by our ‘doing’ or being a good person we can be ‘like God’.
So, leaving the “system” does not/cannot extricate us from Satan’s influence in terms of the religious bondage he has intertwined within the strands of our soul. This may come as a surprise. Many who have left institutional Christianity blame their former religious leaders for duping them and leading them astray from the truth. That may be partly true, but it is essential to remember that these religious leaders have been lied to by the same enemy that exists in everyone’s soul. In other words, these leaders are just as deceived as you and I who have begun to see the truth. Our anger is misdirected; it’s not the leaders or the system that is responsible for the deception: it is the Father of Lies himself. In gratitude to Christ for opening our blind eyes, our response should be to pray for those leaders still enslaved within the chains of religious bondage.

Rich