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The Bible shows us that there are two different kinds of worlds. The term the world usually refers to the universe composed of the heavens and earth created by God for His purpose and corrupted by Satan to oppose God. Everything created by God has been utilized by Satan to frustrate God’s purpose. After man became fallen through Satan’s corruption, God came in to call a people unto Himself, and He gave them His holy Word, the Bible. However, Satan utilized the Bible to form another kind of world. Most people, even many Christians, do not see this second kind of world. Yet the Bible clearly reveals that in addition to the secular world there is another world—the religious world. The secular world has fallen away from and even denies God. The religious world tries to worship God and even please God, but it does so without Christ or the Spirit.
When Christ was incarnated, He came first to the religious world (Mark 1:21; Luke 4:16). However, the religious world did not receive Christ but instead rejected Him. Eventually, the Sanhedrin, which was the supreme court of Judaism, the religious world, sentenced Christ to death (Matt. 26:59, 66). Then they demanded that the Roman Empire, the secular world, execute their sentence (27:1-2, 20). This shows the nature of the religious world.
I recently went to speak at a conference in Germany. While abroad, I took the opportunity to visit several religious centers in Europe and the Middle East with a group of saints. When we went to Rome and saw all the religious tradition, superstition, and falsehood, we were stirred up to stand against religion. In Saint Peter’s Basilica we saw that the foot of a statue of Peter had been worn down by people kissing it. Then we went to Switzerland, which has Protestant religious centers in cities such as Zurich, Neuchâtel, and Geneva. Protestants initially rejected the images of Catholicism, but now in these centers there are large statues of John Calvin and other reformers. Then we went to Israel. No other part of the earth is as religiously dark as Jerusalem. In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is said to have been buried and resurrected, under one roof there are separate sections for the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Egyptian Coptic, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox Churches. I sensed that many demons were dwelling among all the superstitious things in that building. In Jerusalem we also visited the Dome of the Rock, which is the third holiest site in Islam. In both Rome and Jerusalem we saw nothing but darkness and falsehood. Even Bethlehem and Nazareth were full of superstition.
God gave man only one Bible. After seeing all these religious centers, I considered how many different religions man has made from one Bible. There is Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Furthermore, today in Protestantism there are many small “daughters.” Another religion, Islam, is based on the Koran, which is a counterfeit of the Bible. The earth today is filled with religion. Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam are the same in principle—they worship God, yet they lack God, Christ, and the Spirit and are instead full of forms, traditions, and superstitions. For those who fear God and seek God, the religious world is a much greater problem than the secular world.
The book of Galatians deals with the religious world. Galatians 1:4 says that Christ “gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.” The religious world has different sections, which are different ages. There is the ancient age of the religious world, the present age of the religious world, and the coming age of the religious world. Thus, when the apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Galatians, he called the religious age in which he was living the present evil age.
In 6:14 and 15 Paul says, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters.” The word for at the beginning of verse 15 indicates that what follows will explain the previous verse. Thus, the mention of circumcision in verse 15 means that the world in verse 14 is the religious world. The present evil age in Galatians 1:4 and the world in 6:14 both refer to the religious world.
The Gospels show that Christ came first to the religious world and that the religious world opposed Him and sentenced Him to death. Following this, Acts and the Epistles show that it was mainly the religious world that persecuted the apostles. Paul preached the pure gospel, but the religious world brought in mixture through the Judaizers. The churches in Galatia were troubled and frustrated by the confusion brought in by the religious world. Therefore, Paul wrote the Epistle to the Galatians to deal with the religious world.
When the Lord Jesus was thirty years of age, He came out to minister. One day He went to a little house in Bethany, where He had intimate fellowship with His disciples (Matt. 26:6-13). While He was in that house, the priests were offering sacrifices and burning incense to God in the temple. According to Jewish history and the Scriptures, the temple was the house of God and the location of the altar, the priesthood, and many other things ordained by God. To most people at that time, it would seem that God was in the temple. However, Christ, who is God incarnate, was in a little house in Bethany.
After the Lord had been ministering for some time, He took His disciples far from the holy temple and the holy city, close to the border of the Holy Land, to a place called Caesarea Philippi, to give them a revelation of Christ and the church (16:13-18). Then the Lord brought three disciples to Mount Hermon, where He was transfigured (17:1-2). After visiting Jerusalem on my recent trip, I went with a group of saints to see the Sea of Galilee, Mount Hermon, and Caesarea Philippi. We all agreed that the Lord was right to bring His followers out of the heavy, dark religious atmosphere in Jerusalem. When I was young, I was taught that Jesus ministered in Galilee because He was despised and of no fame. But during my recent visit to Israel, I saw that the Lord chose to minister in Galilee because it was far from the religious atmosphere of Jerusalem.
In John 3 a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus came to the Lord. His speaking was full of religion. In chapter 4 the Lord went to Samaria, where He spoke with an immoral woman. Her speaking was also full of religion. Then in chapter 5 the Lord healed the impotent man. Here again, the argument came from religion: “The Jews said to the one who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your mat” (v. 10). In chapter 6 there was no religious debate, for the Lord and His disciples were at the Sea of Galilee, far from religion. Nevertheless, after the Lord revealed that He is the bread of life to be eaten by His believers, the disciples said, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (v. 60). In John 7, as the Lord was teaching in the temple, the opposition again came from religion. In chapter 8 it was again in Jerusalem that the Pharisees brought a sinful woman and questioned the Lord according to religion. Then in chapter 9 a blind man was healed, and the religionists again argued about the Sabbath. Whenever the Lord went to Jerusalem, He was always met by religious arguments.
When the Lord visited Jerusalem the last time, He remained in the city only during the day, and every night He left to stay in Bethany (Matt. 21:17). The Lord faced all kinds of religious arguments while He was in Jerusalem (chs. 21—22). For this reason, He chose to lodge outside of Jerusalem in Bethany.
Those whom the Lord called were not from Jerusalem. The first apostles were Galileans (Acts 1:11). All the one hundred twenty who gathered in Jerusalem after the Lord’s ascension were identified as Galileans (2:7). Religion was a terrible opposition to the Lord. Thus, the Lord had a new start by calling a group of young Galileans.
Religion and Christ are two different lines. Religion is to try to worship God but without God, Christ, or the Spirit. Christ, on the other hand, is God Himself, and He is also the Spirit. He told His disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He also told them, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality,...you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you” (vv. 16-18). These verses indicate that Christ is the Father as well as the Spirit. First John 2:23 says, “He who confesses the Son has the Father also.” This also indicates that the Son and the Father are one. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” When we call Jesus, we get the Spirit. This implies the oneness of Jesus and the Spirit. As One who is God, Christ, and the Spirit, Christ is altogether different from the religious world, which lacks God, Christ, and the Spirit.
Religion is prevalent throughout the earth today. In addition to the major religions of Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam, there are hundreds of other Christian “isms.” Argument among Christians concerning the form of baptism is a matter of religion, just as circumcision was in the early church. Many Christian groups have a schedule of everything that takes place during their meetings. This also is religion. When Christ was in the house in Bethany, there was no scheduled order of events. First Corinthians 14 speaks of certain principles related to functioning in the meetings, but it also speaks of functioning in the spirit. If a meeting proceeds according to fixed principles but lacks the spirit, it is like a room full of light bulbs and electrical wiring but without electricity. This is religion. To be the church is not to follow certain regulations. We need to see that the church is simply Christians in the spirit and in oneness. If we are not in the spirit and are in division, we are through.
If a sinner is persuaded to repent so that he will be saved from going to hell, he receives only a religious salvation. Real salvation, which is a living salvation, occurs when a sinner contacts, receives, and believes into Christ. It is not an outward, formal, religious matter but a living relationship with Christ. I am afraid that many Christians today have received only a religious salvation; they have never contacted Christ. Some may have contacted Christ at the time of their initial salvation, but they do not experience the living Christ day by day.
Our salvation is the living Christ. If we have Christ, we have forgiveness, the cleansing of sins, justification, and salvation. Any experience that is apart from Christ, even trying to reckon oneself dead to sin, is of religion. The way to overcome sin is not to reckon ourselves dead but to contact the living Christ. When we function in the meetings of the church, we must be careful not to do so in a religious way. Anything that we do without Christ or not in the spirit is religion.
Many Christians pray in a religious way. I know this because I was in such a situation. When I was studying at a Christian college, at the conclusion of a daily gathering, the students would say the so-called Lord’s Prayer. Even though we do not recite the Lord’s Prayer in the churches today, our prayer is still religious if we do not exercise our spirit, contact the Lord, and pray in the spirit. We may use our religious mind, knowledge, and vocabulary to pray religious prayers.
When we see that we are full of religion, we may want to do something to correct the situation. However, we do not need to do anything. We simply need to realize that Christ today is not doctrine or religion but the living Spirit. In Galatians 5:1-4 Paul tells us that if we are in the religious world, we have been separated from Christ and have fallen from grace. To be separated from Christ is to fall from grace, because grace is Christ. Grace is not a matter of religion but altogether a matter of Christ, not in a doctrinal way but in the living way of the Spirit.
The Lord has no way to accomplish His purpose with religion. The earth today is filled with darkness and falsehood. The Lord must have a new start. Today the Lord needs to call some young “Galileans.” Even the older ones need to learn to be young. To be young means to know nothing of religion.
If we ask questions in our mind, even about spiritual matters such as the way to have proper meetings, we are in religion. When the Lord called the disciples, He only said, “Come after Me,” and “Follow Me” (Matt. 4:19; John 1:43). They did not ask anything but simply followed Him. Nicodemus came to the Lord at night (3:2); he did not follow Him openly, probably because of his religious concepts. The Lord did not call anyone who was older or from Jerusalem, because such ones were drugged with religious concepts. This forced the Lord to go to the uncultured, unlearned Galilean fishermen.
We need to drop every kind of religion—old religion, new religion, and self-made religion. Recently, I received a letter from a lady who knew the Bible well. In her letter she argued concerning the rapture. After reading her letter, I was reminded of the pitiful situation of many Christians today. Our ministry publications are not for doctrine but for life. However, because of religion, people pick up many concepts concerning certain so-called spiritual truths. In order to give the Lord a way to accomplish His purpose, we must drop all religion. We should care not for doctrine, knowledge, regulations, or forms but only for Christ, who is the living Spirit. We need only to love Him, walk by Him, live with Him and in Him, and allow Him to live in us.
In the beginning the believers practiced the church life in the spirit. However, the church soon fell into organization. In the New Testament the words bishop and elder are synonymous and are used interchangeably, but Ignatius, an early church father, began to teach that the bishops are higher than the elders. Now in the Catholic Church there are archbishops above the bishops, and the head is the pope. We reject such hierarchy and organization. In the centuries leading up to the Dark Ages, the church gradually lost nearly all the truth. Then Martin Luther was raised up to recover the truth of justification by faith. Eventually, the Lord raised up others to recover other items of the truth. Now at the end of time the Lord has raised us up and caused us to care for and know only Christ. We drop all religion and come together in the spirit as the church.
The earth is full of religious darkness, falsehood, and superstition. Some people may be saved in religious Christianity, but it is impossible for the Lord to fulfill His purpose with religion, because it is full of falsehood and mixture. Therefore, the Lord must take a new step; He must cut off the old current by gaining a group who will reject anything of dead knowledge, doctrine, or religion. To cooperate with Him in this, we need to be those who care only for the living Christ. We need to love Him, contact Him, fellowship with Him, and take Him as our life, our person, and our everything. We need to be one with Him, living by Him, with Him, and in Him. When this is our life, our living, and our testimony, we will come together as the church that the Lord desires. We need to be rescued from any kind of religious consideration. We must avoid continuing in religion or forming another religion. We need to make a decision to have nothing to do with religion. This requires a radical change in our concept, our daily life, and even our church life. My burden is that the Lord would have a new start among us by our knowing and caring for nothing apart from the living Christ as the life-giving Spirit. We must not be separated from Christ or fall from grace. Instead, we need to be attached to Christ, always enjoying Him as our grace and rejecting any religious forms, dead knowledge, or traditions.
