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

Lifestyle

Those who don’t know the Lord are often contemptuous of those who do. They think believers are stupid at best or brain-washed at least. They don’t realize that they, too, have been totally duped by the enemy of their souls.

EVERY person alive exists within the confines of his/her own personal matrix, custom-designed to keep him/her blind from seeing the truth. What is this matrix? It’s religion, pure and simple. But how can people who don’t pretend to believe in God be entrapped in religion? It’s because we typically think of ‘religion’ as being something which goes hand in hand with one’s particular faith, when actually religion is one’s lifestyle. It’s how people choose to live their lives. “I may not be the best person in the world”, they say, “but at least I don’t abuse my sick days at work”. “I don’t claim to be religious, but I am kind to others and give money to charity.” “I don’t believe in God but I consider myself to be a moral person” etc. etc. etc. In this sense, even atheists are religious, because they live their lives according to their own personal moral code.

Religion was instituted by Satan in the garden as a means to circumvent having dependency on God. Merriam-Webster defines religion thus:

- a personal set or institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs and practices
- a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

What better temptation could Satan have contrived than one that would persuade humankind we don’t need God? That we, by virtue of our own ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’ could decide for ourselves what is an acceptable code of conduct, or what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’? What people don’t see (because they have been blinded) is that apart from Christ, there IS no ‘morality’. Why? It’s because at the moment when Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, a cataclysmic event disfigured their souls, and Satan has been able to replicate himself in the flesh of every person born since. That’s what the scriptures mean when humankind is described as having been ‘born in sin and shaped in iniquity’.

The truth is, without knowing Christ as our life, we are eternally, totally lost and without hope - and no religion or religious set of beliefs is going to alter that fact one whit. Non-believers (and many believers) have absolutely no concept as to the utter depravity of their own souls. They blissfully live their lives in utter ignorance, endeavouring to be ‘good’ people by following the rules, playing nicely with others and adhering to social mores.

This religious veneer, however, is incredibly thin. No one has any idea what s/he is capable of when backed into a corner. When consumed with fear, rage, jealousy or hunger, people have done horrendous things (check out the daily newspaper). It’s at those moments that people come face to face with the evil inherent in the core of their very beings. “I would have never thought she was capable of murder!” Oh, really? We are ALL capable of the most horrific, despicable acts. There is not one of us better than any other.

This is the good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that we are irreparably flawed, depraved and rotten to the core. The good news is that we are irreparably flawed, depraved and rotten to the core! It’s bad news for those who live their lives according to their own moral code, who don’t recognize that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the only hope. It’s good news for believers, because it testifies to the fact that we can do NOTHING to measure up or to try to attain to God’s holy standards. It sets us FREE from trying (and failing) to keep the rules and agonizing over our total inability to change ourselves – because HE HAS DONE IT ALL FOR US (but that’s another blog entry)!

Rich