Religion

In an effort to maintain the right way, people have created standard ways of teaching correct behaviors. Over time, loyalty to these religious institutions has overshadowed the very principles and religious practices these places were created to teach. Competition, isolation and exclusion amongst these institutions has created a, sometimes, very dangerous way of approaching the practice of faith.

To use my referee analogy, religion has “moved the ball” of faith. In football, the referee is responsible for spotting the ball on the line where the previous play ended. This gives the ref great influence because they can decide, by their placement of the ball, critical aspects of the games’ progress.

Some religious leaders have prioritized the maintenance and well-being of their particular institutions over the people they’ve committed themselves to. As a result, our knowledge and ability to apply spiritual concepts is crippled. In many cases, we’ve learned how to judge others and didn’t learn how to govern ourselves. 

Christianity

Knowledge and ignorance of revelatory truth can have profound effects on peoples’ lives. In this way, deceit and cunning can be devastating when used to manipulate peoples’ philosophies of life with the purpose of altering their behavior, especially with malice. This is what has happened.

The influences of Alexander the Great and Constantine on how the religion of Christianity developed is undeniable. There is an intersection of many religious practices from different faiths in the theology of Christianity that is puzzling in light of Christ’s own words.

Warnings about Christian colonialism are given in just one statement by Christ! Furthermore, the church of Christendom has created a set of rules, canonicity, that ignore the things that Christ taught while overlaying the Church’s point of view, in many ways, doing exactly what the scribes and Pharisees did that Christ admonished.

Consider this:

“Woe unto you! ye scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

Matthew 23:15

“Woe unto you! ye scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”

Matthew 23:23-24

The Priest

The priesthood has changed dramatically over time. There was no Holy Bible to memorize and quote scripture from originally. Each priest or servant had a specific job, including the Levites who did not serve in the sanctuary. Consider the following passage:

“And the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: though and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.”

Numbers 18:1

Here, the Lord describes the work of the sanctuary as iniquity. Still, the work of the sanctuary was sacred, and the servants of the Lord inherited him. Using the priesthood as a profession to get rich and famous is contrary to its purpose. Many “ministries” like this have led many people astray while building a huge following of men not God.