HomeDiscipleshipHoly SpiritAccused of being religious?

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Accused of being religious? — 3 Comments

  1. Problem is David…you based your defination of “religon” out of a dictionary. I hope and pray that people see me as a “religious” person, because God says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this…to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

    God uses the word “religious” “religion” seven times in the New Testament and every time in a positive manner.

    P.S. and just in case you’re wondering…after reading your blog for the past two years…and by God’s defination…I consider you a religious person. Hope your not offended.

  2. Nope! I’m not offended, but I spend my time dealing with people who cannot or will not come to a saving knowledge of Jesus because their religion tells them they are OK. They obviously are not, but their religion has no room for a personal relationship with Jesus. I’m primarily dealing with Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Assembly of God (and many non-denominational church members). This religious spirit is rampant in the area where I live. Being religious around here is sending huge numbers of people to Hell and I haven’t found a way to break through yet.

  3. Here’s Vine’s definition and as you can see it is mostly external and not positive:
    Religion threseia signifies “religion” in its external aspect (akin to threskos, see below), “religious worship,” especially the ceremonial service of “religion;” it is used of the “religion” of the Jews, Acts 26:5; of the “worshiping” of angels, Col 2:18, which they themselves repudiate (Rev 22:8,9); “there was an officious parade of humility in selecting these lower beings as intercessors rather than appealing directly to the Throne of Grace” (Lightfoot); in James 1:26,27 the writer purposely uses the word to set in contrast that which is unreal and deceptive, and the “pure religion” which consists in visiting “the fatherless and widows in their affliction,” and in keeping oneself “unspotted from the world.” He is “not herein affirming. … these offices to be the sum total, nor yet the great essentials, of true religion, but declares them to be the body, the threskeia, of which godliness, or the love of God, is the informing soul” (Trench).

    2. Religion deisidaimonia primarily denotes “fear of the gods” (from deido, “to fear,” daimon, “a pagan deity,” Eng., “demon”), regarded whether as a religious attitude, or, in its usual meaning, with a condemnatory or contemptuous significance, “superstition.” That is how Festus regarded the Jews’ “religion,” Acts 25:19, AV and RV marg., “superstition” (RV, “religion”). See RELIGIOUS, and under SUPERSTITIOUS.

    Notes:
    (1) Threskeia is external, theosebeia is the reverential worship of God (see GODLINESS), eusebeia is piety (see GODLINESS), eulabeia the devotedness arising from godly fear (see FEAR).

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