Religion: What’s the Point?
I hope today finds you all well. If not, everything will get better if you accept the idea that God sent His Son to do all the things that you can’t. I want to make a distinction between can’t and won’t. Jesus’ suffering is not for those who refuse to change and have no intention of trying. However, those who accept the salvation offered by Christ by confessing that they recognize their fallen state and ask for divine help, will obtain the promised blessings.
The ideas I want to elaborate on today are various tangential concepts derived from reading Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians. The first seven chapters of 2 Corinthians have the themes of optimism and redemption in relation to opposition and sin. Paul tried to help the early saints understand the new Christian religion he and others preached to them. The former parts of the Corinthian epistles contain powerful doctrines and ideas meant to help us understand what sin is and how it is overcome, and the godly attributes and motivations that, if practiced, reveal our true potential; in short, the purpose, and point of religion.
Another source for my thoughts, today, was a debate between apologists for religion and secular humanism. Of course, my bias was on the side of religion, but I worked hard to see the points and counterpoints of each party. What I came away with was that secular humanism falls so short of anything of value as to be laughable because it is a moving target. The man arguing of it even made the claim that its manifesto was constantly in flux and is amended as better ideas come along. The apologist for religion argued that there must be a transcendent ideal which is embodied in Christ that is fixed so that we have only one unmoving target on which to focus.
Another thing I saw was someone explaining how to speak in tongues. I watched that because my new daughter-in-law had never seen or heard how the evangelical types do it. Part of the explanation included that for a person to speak in tongues, they had to be saved. That process was described as confessing and accepting Jesus; another idea, that while true, is childish on its face.
But that is how religion is; it has to be simple enough for a child to conceptualize, and simultaneously unfathomably deep and mysterious. Some may argue that the depths are not meant to be understood or that they are incomprehensible and can’t be understood. That notion is not true and leaves a person in the same camp of the secular humanists or even atheists because that makes God a moving target in some sense. Paul mentioned the evolution of childish thinking which is epitomized by simply saying you accept Jesus as Lord, and boom, that’s it, you’re saved; nothing more to see here.
Another beautiful concept that is childish if not explored to its ultimate depths, is saying I am a child of God and leaving it at that. In the first place, a child has a very limited concept of God, and when we start out in life we have no idea who we are. Again, there is a concept that is absolutely true and stunningly beautiful that changes when we “put away childish things.”
The point I am trying to make is that the point of religion is to put us on a path of discovery and give us an ideal to strive toward. But why do we need those things? The answer is that life is hard for any number of reasons. And not just hard; we have to face things that push us to the very brink of non-existence (I thought of saying death, but there are things worse than that).
Churches suffer from the same challenges as religion in general because most are incomplete or have a narrow focus. I would say the narrow focus is caused by a sort of competition between sects that claim to understand scripture one way or another. Claims that one is true or not are generally all based on doctrine that they, by their admission, say is a mystery or unknowable. Critics of religion or churches then find easy pickings to discredit and discount their validity and, I might add, are right in their criticism.
So what makes a religion or church true? For one thing, it can’t claim that God is incomprehensible or unknowable. Another, is that the mysterious doctrines, require putting away childish notions and going through a doctrinally maturing process. It requires faith, sacrifice, obedience to unchanging principles and laws, repentance, or as Paul puts it, the death of old ways and a rebirth in Christ. This process repeats itself over and over again as our understanding increases.
True religion is not casual. It is not arbitrary salvation decided by a one-time confession of belief. It is not coercive or manipulative. Furthermore, it is not easy. It is the full set of doctrines, rites, ceremonies, ordinances, and covenants that transform a person into the image of God through the proper use of moral agency. It is work; but not the work by which salvation comes (Christ did that), but the work of faith, repentance, understanding by the power of the Holy Ghost, and then walking the undeviating path back to God through Jesus Christ.
The beauty of true religion is that we all are entitled to the grace (or divine help) offered by Christ’s atonement. Accepting Christ as our Savior and Redeemer is not done by word alone, but is followed by untiring mental effort and actions that emulate Jesus. Knowing about God and Christ is different from knowing them, which is what Jesus’ mission was all about. Believing in Christ is different from believing Him.
The point of religion is to provide us with instructions, examples, tools, pure motivations, and support to navigate our mortal probation. None of those things make a difference if we don’t take advantage of them. The point of a true church is to provide us with access to places of worship, sanctuaries that take us out of the world, saving ordinances backed by the same priesthood power and authority that Christ gave to his apostolic servants.
Is religion a mind game? Yes! Is it all in our mind or a construct of human imagination? No! Reality and consciousness are formed in our minds, but are not a product of them. Religion puts us in a position to discover reality, whether that reality is objective or abstract. It is the means by which God develops his children into what we can become. If you have ever considered abandoning religion, you put yourself at risk of never knowing what is real and who you are. Any belief structure that is incomplete or constantly shifting will fall short of the mark that all such structures seek to achieve.
My suggestion today is to take what you believe and try to take it to the next level. If you discover that it falls short of your ultimate goals, make the necessary changes that will allow you to move forward on the path. From what I have observed and experienced, if you think things through to a logical conclusion and follow your heart, you will arrive at God and see Christ as the ideal embodiment of truth and power.
Have a blessed day.