THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION DOES NOT CHANGE
So, what does God say about religion? He says that his people (i.e. spiritual Israel) must not follow the customs and practices of other nations. It is hard to think of these scriptures about following the customs and practices of other nations (i.e. religions) as  commandments from God, but that is exactly what they are.

To fully appreciate these commandments, we must recognize that the reference to “nations” is to religions, — not to sovereign, corporate, political entities. If nations were only corporate, political entities, God would not have warned Israel to avoid following their customs and practices nor would he have punished them for mingling with the nations to learn their practices and serve their gods. He takes this hard position with religions/nations because they are in competition with God for the hearts and minds of people. Thus it can be said that religion is God’s enemy.

It is easy for Christians and Jews in these modern times to dismiss God’s commands about following the customs of other nations. They can accept that Israel might have some tendencies to adopt and replicate features of Egyptian religion into their own religious practices since they were slaves there for over two hundred years. Moreover, it is relatively easy to accept that Israel might have been influenced in some small way by the religious practices of their enemies (i.e. Amorites, Hittites, Per’izzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jeb’usites) as they lived side by side with them in the Promised Land. What is not well understood, however is that ancient Israel and Jews and Christians then, and ever since, have been strongly influenced by those same religious practices.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: God represents adoption of these practices as Harlotry, Prostitution and Adultery. He also represents the potential for religious pollution in warnings about intermarriage with these religious nations.

Jews and Christians cannot accept that they have always heavily borrowed from other religions when forming their own religions. In their religious pride and self-righteousness, Jews and Christians are blind to the fact that they have both added and subtracted from God’s words. This is a clear indication that the leaven of religion has thoroughly infiltrated both religions.

While we must admit that the forms of religion have changed somewhat down through the ages, we must hold to the truth that the principles of religion have not changed. If they had changed, there would be nothing for any generation to learn from scripture. Solomon’s truth that there is nothing new under the sun applies to religion just like it applies to every other aspect of life.

The main point we want to stress here is that religions of all eras have common features (see list above) even though they do not have common beliefs. In other words, the doctrines, rituals, clothing, buildings and history may have different forms, but they are still all religions. And it is religion in all of its many forms that God wants to drive out.

It is very important for Jews and Christians to recognize that their respective religions share these common features with other religions even though God commanded that Israel should not following the customs and practices of other nations (i.e. people.) This command makes sense, of course, only when we recognize that God symbolically uses the terms nations to refer to religious people that were not like Israel. That means that God’s people should not follow any customs that are like the customs of other religions — past or present.

The command to not follow the customs and practices of other religions applies to us today just as it did to ancient Israel. Just like Israel, we live in a hostile religious environment — no matter where we live in the world. And at the time of this writing (2015) it is becoming increasingly hostile for all religions. This fact helps make the point that religion is the enemy of God and his people.

One of the consequences of failing to follow God’s command to not follow the customs of other nations (i.e. religious people) is that their recognizable public identities (i.e. clothing, buildings, habits, etc.) make them visible targets for persecution by other religions.  In God’s view, all these visible religious activities are elements of Old/First Covenant religion which  emphasizes external appearances while God emphasizes the attitudes of the heart found in New Covenant disciples.

But even New Covenant disciples ((i.e. people born of the spirit) can expect to be persecuted by Old/First Covenant religionists (i.e. people born of the flesh. It will be a different kind of conflict, however, because  a man’s enemies will look like friends and family. This is exactly the kind of conflict that people who are breaking away from religion can expect to encounter.