EXPECT RELIGION TO DECREASE AS FAITH GROWS
How the law (i.e. religion) functions as a tutor that leads us to faith is an ongoing theme of the Bible revealed symbolically in stories about conflict between organized people groups (i.e. nations), kingdoms and kings who try to subdue and control one another.

It is instructive to learn about this principle (i.e. law leads us to faith) by looking at the lives of the Biblical heroes mentioned in Hebrews 11. Applying a little common sense, we observe that none of the characters mentioned in Hebrews 11 had Bibles to consult to learn what God expected from them. Some had the written Law of Moses, but none of them had the New Testament in written form. Even though they did not have a written New Testament, however, they had the full spiritual content of it available to them because, as people of faith, they could hear God’s voice. Just as important, they also had faith to act on what they believed God told them. In other words, they applied what they learned when God spoke. All Bible stories confirm that what God wants above all is that we obey God’s command to obey his voice spoken to our hearts by his spirit.

Another thing we notice about these heroes of faith was that they all had intense, even violent conflict with religion. They all lived in religious environments (e.g. Egypt, Babylon, Canaan, Philistines, etc.). Their struggles against the world of religion teach us that Religion is the Enemy with which all of God’s children must contend. The war is symbolically represented in the temptations to break covenant with God by having relationships with religions and adopting their practices.

Religion is the enemy, however, only for New Covenant disciples who do not identify with any religion. People who identify with a recognized religious community (e.g. Christian, Jew, etc.) are on friendly terms with that community and pose no threat to it. But God’s people, when they are in a New Covenant relationship, do pose a serious threat because they are commanded to destroy all traces of religion. God reinforces this command by saying that those who are friends with the world of religion are God’s enemies. New Covenant disciples will be hated and persecuted because they love God and are not part of the world of religion.

In the Bible, conflict between religions is represented as bloody warfare between religious kingdoms and between God and all religions symbolically represented as Egypt and Babylon. These wars symbolize the fact that God is at war with all religions for the hearts and minds of his children.

In God is Calling People Out of Religion, we see the present reality of these stories in the fact that God is winning this ongoing war as individuals leave religion. One by one, he is turning the hearts of Old/First Covenant religionists to himself. He is saving them from further slavery and destruction by religion and returning them from exile where they have been in bondage to religion.

Old Testament stories are not the only place where God’s people are in conflict with surrounding nations/peoples. In the New Testament, we read that Jesus and the apostle Paul (after his conversion) were also in constant conflict with Jewish religious leaders. Beyond those biblical reports, legend reports that most of the rest of Jesus’ followers died tragically at the hands of religious enemies.

Old Testament stories report that whenever the heroes themselves or any of the kings of Israel made treaties with the religious nations, intermarried with them, worshiped their gods, or adopted their religious customs, God punished them for intermingling with those other religions. When they were faithful to act on what they heard God say, however, they overcame the toxic, deadly influence of the world of religion through active faith.

The message that we should find when reading these stories is that God warns us just as warned Israel we should not follow the customs of any religion. That means no buildings, not clergy, no public worship, no sacraments, and so on. Furthermore, he clearly told Israel and us to utterly destroy those religions and all of the physical elements (e.g. altars, idols, temples, etc.) that are found in the high places that God told them to destroy.

The need to entirely destroy religion in our personal lives is found in the “two masters” and “double-mindedness” principles. Several kings did some things right in the sight of God but did not demolish all the high places. Because they were double-minded, God did not excuse them for their disobedient failure to demolish the high places and sent them into exile.

God brought this judgment on Israel, and will bring similar judgment on us if we are double-minded. He is a jealous God who wants us to love him with all our heart, soul and strength and will punish us when our double-mindedness leads us to following the multitude of gods found in religion. And God has consistently punished (i.e. disciplined) people who claim to love him because they continue to worship at their religious high places. In doing this, they prove that religion is their master, not God. When he says “all their heart soul and strength” he means “all their heart soul and strength”.

People who read these stories with a mind to apply them to their own lives will sooner or later begin to recognize that they have been deceived, enslaved, used and misused by religion in general and religious leaders in particular. Most will not have suffered bodily persecution or death even though research says that persecution still does happen and is on the increase in these modern times. But this research does not report the subtle kinds of persecution found within a specific religious community. While this kind of persecution is usually not reported in the news, it is nonetheless tragic for those who experience it first hand at the hands of religious people who were once considered to be friends and family but God considers to be enemies.

Religion Detox Network forums, especially Toxicity, provide places for victims of religious abuse to report on the many overt and subtle ways that persecution occurs. Everyone knows about sexual abuse in the church because it is well reported in the news. There are many other kinds of abuse, however, which are not reported in the news but which are evidence of the damage that religion does to people it claims to love and care for. Personal stories of such abuse will help others who have not yet escaped from religion recognize that their own experiences are examples of persecution from which God will deliver them when they reject religion. See Religion is the Enemy for more about religious persecution and rejection.