RELIGION

AN EXPANDED DEFINITION OF RELIGION
Many readers will be surprised to learn that the words “religion” and “religious” are relatively rare in the Bible — depending on the Bible version. In the King James version, for example, neither religion nor religious can be found in the Old Testament. And they appear only six times in the New Testament. The Greek word “Sebomai”  that is translated as both  “religion” and “religious” is also translated as “worship” and “devout in four additional New Testament scriptures, bringing the total in the New Testament to ten.

The way we see it, the frequency of the words “religion” and “religious”  in the Bible is exceedingly small relative to the use of the words in society and in religious circles within the larger society. As we observe in the dictionary reference to “religion,” the concept of religion has taken on meanings much different from what we find in the Bible. This becomes further evident when we consider words that are listed as synonyms (i.e. credo, creed, cult, faith, persuasion) and as  words related to religion  (i.e. church, communion, denomination, sect; doctrine, dogma, theology; deism, heathenism, monotheism, paganism, pantheism, polytheism, theism).

A more comprehensive interpretation of the modern usage of “religion” is found in this Wikipedia posting from which we extract these points:

The main points we want to extract from all these definitions are these:

  • All religions have organized systems of beliefs, cultural systems and world views (i.e. doctrines).
  • Unique religions have unique scriptures, narratives, myths, symbols and histories.
  • All religions have rituals which are repeated often
  • All religions have religious leaders.
  • All religions define what constitutes adherence or membership
  • All religions have dedicated holy places, temples and places for worship built according to more-or-less uniform standards prescribed by the religion.
  • Religious practices include: ceremonial rituals, sermons,  sacrifices, festivals, feasts, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service and other aspects of human culture.
  • Religion always assumes that all of the above features must be in place before people can have a relationship with God.
  • Religion always assumes that God, who is spirit, is unable and/or unwilling to relate to people unless all of the above physical, man-made features are in place to mediate the relationship.

The above features apply to all religions past and present. Most people, including Jews and Christians, will look at these lists and say, “Yes. So what?” I know all that and I see no problems here with respect to my religious view and practices.” To that thinking we say read your Bible closely. God has much to say about his people engaging in the same kinds of religious forms as other religions.

It is very important to recognize and compare common aspects of Judaism and Christianity with religions past and present. The names of the gods are different, and many of the beliefs and practices are very different, but they all share the features found in the lists above. This means that Jews and Christians have disobeyed God’s commands regarding following the kinds of religious customs that other religions follow. This is one of many good reasons for abandoning religion of any kind.

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