WHAT RELIGION IS (2nd segment)

(This segment is dedicated to a genius, Ogo’luwa Ojewale, on his birthday today, 25th January, 2015. Many blessed returns.)

Shintoism

Shinto myth has it that, far back in time, the god Izanagi washed his left eye, and so gave birth to the great goddess Amaterasu, goddess of the sun. Shinto has no definite doctrines and detailed theology. Evergreen sakaki tree or water is used in purification, so as to be in union with the gods, in Shintoism. This Japanese religion is animistic, and according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, consisting chiefly in the cultic devotion to deities of natural forces and the veneration of the Emperor as the descendant of the sun goddess.

Shamanism                                                                                                                     Spiritism

magic

Shamanism, Spiritism and magicians do consult elemental spirits to aid adherents’ course of life; and like Ifa it is always the gods’ call, involving sacrifices to the unknown, and what is more, the future, to them, is darker than bleakness; and these, no doubt, are what to expect of religions; and like every religion there must be a particular code of dressing, physically, at one time or another, to distinguish the adherent practitioners. Not even the crucifix is an accepted outward symbol of a Christian worship, “Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree;” Galatians 3:13. The Christian distinguishing logo is Jesus (not His painting! It is of Gnosticism); He resides on the inside of the believer. We do not have to wear our faith physically, and if we need to wear anything at all, I agree with Rev. Chris Okotie that, it should be the ‘cave’ (the tomb of His burial) because in the cave He rose up (the Greek calls ‘rose’ ‘anistemi’ – a standing up again) for our justification, giving us victory over sin, and forever!
Hindu has its own trinity of Brahma ‘the Creator’, Vishnu ‘the Preserver’ (aka Krishna) and Siva ‘the destroyer’. Each has wives and consorts. Krishna is said to have incarnated eight times and at the eighth time (he was very playful) he left at age twelve (Jesus?). It is said of the Hindu gods that they live an insatiate sex lives among themselves as deities, and also with single and married female humans. Hindus use water early morning for purification and the Ganges River is their spiritual purification, protecting the tribes from thousands of earthly dangers. They have an unshaken belief in karma and that at death one reincarnates as another person, an animal or other objects. Piety to the gods, to them, is the solution to salvation of the Hindustan.

Hinduism                                                                                   Buddhism
Buddha was conceived in her mother, the queen, in her dream, by a white elephant. It was foretold that if he remained in the palace he would be a great king but if he should retire from the world he would become a Buddha (an enlightened one) who would roll away the sin of the world (read John 10:8). Tao simply means ‘way, road or path.’ Taoism began more as a philosophy than as a religion. Its founder, Lao-Tzu, as a prominent library keeper of esoteric books of the palace, was said to be dissatisfied with the chaos of life and decided to shun society. He wrote books to discuss the concept of the way (Tao). Lao-Tzu wrote on ‘the way’ thus:

The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.
The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of myriad creation.
Hence always aid yourself of desires in other to observe its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.
These two are same
But diverge as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries;
Mystery upon mystery-
The gateway of the manifold secrets.”
‘Words’, it is made clear by Taoist, ‘cannot explain Tao. It must be grasped intuitively. And when grasped it cannot be explained.’ What is this if not plain philosophy of the internality borne out of the likes of esotericism of mythology and Gnosticism?
Mythology is simply the fantasizing tickling of the mind with heroic phantoms who are consequently deified. Does history date heroism of Hercules, Thor or Krishna? But, make no mistake, some of these entities could have had physical, earthly existence like Orunmila, called the father of Ifa, with the aid of the old, Cainish, human agency. This is a quote from Britannica, “The designation gnosticism is a term of modern scholarship. It was first used by the English poet and philosopher of religion Henry More (1614–87), who applied it to the religious groups referred to in ancient sources as gnostikoi (Greek: those who have gnosis, or “knowledge”). The Greek adjective gnostikos (“leading to knowledge” or “pertaining to knowledge”) was first used by Plato to describe the cognitive or intellectual dimension of learning, as opposed to the practical. By the 2nd century AD, however, gnostikoi had been adopted by various Christian groups, some of which used it positively as a self-designation, though others criticized this practice as a presumptuous claim of exclusive access to truth.”

WHAT RELIGION IS. (1st segment)

gnosticism

A simple, straightforward definition of religion is, ‘man’s own way of reaching out to God.’ If man’s spiritual degeneration as seen of God’s ventilation in Genesis 6:5, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” is considered, man is incapable of fashioning out a way to Jehovah. To the religionist the religion is the aggregate of his true person. Man in his fallibility, though sincere, will only add to God’s instruction, polluting God’s intention with his carnal ideas, in his sincerely wrongness. It is the externalization of the vanity of internality.
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary religion is: “the belief in a god or a group of gods; an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods. The origin of this word is the Latin religio: supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare: to restrain, tie back.” This reminds one of the strictness the Pharisees place on ceremonial creeds. Paul had to jettison Judaism to embrace the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:2. Religion received its first salvo from the first Woman in, “….neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Genesis 3:3), while it received its full fermentation in the hands of Cain who left his father unlike the prodigal son. Cain left, for good, to erase his name from the genealogy that effected the Incarnation.
Religion is full of taboo impediments. ‘Do’, ‘don’t do’ are the stock in trade of taboos and religions. The Woman conceived it first before conceiving a real child, when she uttered, in Genesis 3:3, “Ye shall not touch it lest ye die,” in conferment with Genesis 2:17. With that little deviation she veered man’s destiny which we have not recovered from even till this day, after over six thousand years. The Woman exemplifies the church. The incunabula of religion is seen in the Woman’s taboo, the Man’s (Adam’s) acquiescence (resulting in the toga of shame i.e. use of fig leaves) and culminating ultimately in Cain’s building (Masonic architectural insistence) of a city to flag off the flourishing business of Satanic religion, when you look at his genealogy. Lamech’s (meaning destruction) religious eyes saw the use for polygamy: to teach an aberrational marriage (his first wife, Adah, means ‘ornament’ and the second, Zillah is ‘shadow’) which teaches another form of union; murder: to perform a sacrifice to elongate his life span and the promotion of his fame. Religions delve into cultic initiations. Cain’s first child, Enoch, means initiation. Religion gives false hope of rest when Jabal (stream) a man of tents and cattle (this is hoteliering – where immorality reigns); it celebrates falsehood in Naama (‘pleasantness’) together with his half-brother, Jubal (stream) a musician (is the commencement of show business and prostitution). There is the use of force and punishment to maintain their enclave in Tubalcain (meaning ‘offspring of Cain’) who is the first worker in metals (fashioning of armaments) is the father of war mongering. All these are seen in Cain’s city of religion.

The word ‘religion’ cannot be found even in the Old Testament of rituals. ‘Religion’ and its reflective ‘religious’ show up only seven times in the N.T. and are we to believe that since 7 is of God and emblematic of perfection then religion is truly of Jehovah? No, it is rather of the perfection of Satan. He sinfully muted the idea in heaven and paid dearly for it. He showed up in Eden to lure them to sin, in order to bring man under his subjugating worship. ‘Religion’ is found in Acts 26:5; Galatians 1:13 & 14; James 1:26 &27 (five times). ‘Religious’ is in Acts 13:43 & James 1:26 (twice). In Acts 26:5, James 1:26 & 27 the Greek word for religion is threskia (thrace-kee-ah) meaning: ‘religious worship, especially external, that which consist of ceremonies, ceremonial observance.’ In Galatians 1:13 &14 we have religion as Ioudaismos (ee-oo-dah-ee-is-mos) which is: ‘Judaism, the Jewish faith and worship, religion of the Jews.’ In Acts 13:43 it is sebomai, meaning: ‘to revere, that is, adore. James1:26 has religious as threskos (thrace-kos): a) ‘fearing as worshipping God b. tremble, trembling, fearful and ceremonious in worship (as demonstrative, that is pious).’ I am wondering which of threskia, Ioudaimos, sebomai or threskos contextually promises heaven? Judaism was suspended on the cross. It will not be operational until after the rapture of Christians, making Christianity intercalary between the dispensation of the law and the millennial kingdom. Jesus did not tell the religious woman at the well (John 4:5-42) about any (not even Judaism – as a man of Jew) religion. He told her in verse 24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In this you see that the externalization is not what makes you a citizen of heaven and its inevitably attendance bliss.

Ifa oracle

Some religions of the world are Ifa, Shintoism, Shamanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Tao, Islam, mythology, spiritism, magic, Kabala, Gnosticism, the grandmother of them is Freemason and its great affiliate Illuminati. Only a form of Christ will you find in all religions. You may be feeling uneasy at the exclusion of Christianity. The fact is: Christianity is not a religion. What is it then? It is the way of life, life eternal. It is the way of Jesus, the Christ, very God of very God! None of the world’s greatest religions can solve the sin question! It definitely can not, try as it may. Ifa worship, predominant in Nigeria and Brazil says, “Orun l’omo eni ti yo la”, in Yoruba, of Western Nigerian, language, and is interpreted as “Only heaven knows who will be saved!” This implies that God does not show or has no known blueprint formula for human salvation. Then how come Paul said, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “(7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” If we cannot know it, how did Paul know it? He simply got born again!

Read the next 2nd segment here

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE CHURCH (the concluding 5th segment)

Satan was wise enough to choose to approach the Woman in the Garden of Eden in his quest to take over the world. At the creation when, Adam, the man took dominion steps, he represented Jesus, but when the Woman was made we see Jesus the Christ, the mystical body of Christ, the Church! “Where two or three are gathered in my name….” It was the one who constituted the Church Lucifer attacked, so that he too could have his own church – if he should succeed. He did. Eve, the Woman, did not follow Lucifer but she helped Satan to prevail, how? By uttering, in the Garden (of God), words which were not of God. She added to God’s word. God did not say, “You should not touch,” in Genesis 2:16-17. Probably thinking that she was defending God, like some of our church people are, these days: sincere, but sincerely wrong. Cain also got briefed by Satan. Cain got totally hooked but unlike his parents he decided to work assiduously for the cause of Satanism. He built a city (the first in biblical annals). Religions commenced!
Many church worshippers do not know that they are doing the bidding of an individual, with all these unscriptural teachings and practices. The germ of unchristian churches was incubated in the Woman. Satan knew he must needst use the Woman: for in her dwelleth the fecundation triggering the proliferation of propagation. Adam’s taciturnity stupidly fertilized the evil egg that the serpent placed in his wife; and in Cain we behold the engendering of the fruitfulness of its devilish propagation. Satan is using men to erode the significance of the Church. This brings to mind a fast growing church in Nigeria.
It is Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, which stock in trade is the vehement hurl of fire at perceived enemies. “The man or woman disrupting my progress, fire on you! Die! In Jesus’ name!! The officer sitting upon my promotion letter! Die! In Jesus name! Witches and wizards who are ganging up against me die, die, die, die….. .” Mountain of Fire people pray this prayer with such fervency such that anyone who prays without a vigorous shaking of his head is not seen as praying hence not one of the praying group or congregation. When disturbing questions were raised, they back-pedalled, saying that it is actually to the possessing demon, in the enemy, the imprecations are meant. Yet, to that, I laugh because it makes their matter worse. It paints a vivid picture of the scriptural naivety of the church’s leadership. Demons just do not die! The one who will suffer the death may be the human tool of demonism (where is the love in your Christian heart?) If someone has to die let it be God to decide and not you (Matthew 7:3). God is, in these last days, in the business of reconciling sinners to Himself. You decide to snuff out the life of a one causing spiritual harassment in your life not knowing that at the demise of one evil doer, demons will always have ten new, more eager, humans to replace the dead antagonist to exacerbate your spiritual predicament. So, if God has decided to reconcile the evil doer to Himself, and you say, “DIE!” are you not working against God’s intension? Your opinionated stance keeps you reasoning, “But the enemy will likely get stronger; what if he kills or destroys me?” “Let me knock him off!” you conclude. This is most definitely the faithless stand of an unbeliever. David ever admitted the foray of the enemy but hear him in one of his famous Psalms, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” David knew that God is always in charge. Do be careful of testimonies. An M.F.M. lady shared a member’s testimony: “A man in our office did everything to thwart my promotion. We had a prayer session in church. The following week, after we prayed in agreement for his death, we just heard that he died and I got my promotion!” Tell me, would anyone who does not know 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 not say, “Eureka! I’ve got the antidote to take care of my own enemy,” with a testimony like that? And there abound several testimonies of this kind shared in their churches. Testimonies become the source of God’s word and less of the infallible Bible. Of late, among several others in their spiritual arsenal is the use of ‘dust against their enemies!’ T. B. Joshua of Synagogue Church of all Nations is the worst anomaly. Who called this ‘man of God’ (or rather ‘man of ‘god’’) to the altar of regeneration? He is the one to watch in the bastardization of the Church. The chant of ‘EMMANUEL!’ rents the atmosphere in his eulogy and to receive, providentially, in his church. Worshippers buy his image for domestic and office protection. How dissimilar is this from Revelation 13:14-15, tell me, please? Like many of his satanic ilk, he is very philanthropic, because they have been taught, in their esoteric covens, to be doing a lot of good deeds to balance their evil propensities.

Worshipping the skull of a dead saint

Empiricism, rationalism borne out of human philosophy and experience (from which Gnosticism finds strength) are the bane of church backwardness. There is an unbelievably acute dearth of scriptural information choking the spiritual progress of the local assemblies. That notwithstanding, there are some churches that still teach the truth, and nothing but the truth of the word of God, straight from the Bible! I prayed hard, many years ago, asking God to give me a church, my church where I can worship, devoid of the religious straitjacket; and which will take absolute care of m
y spiritual needs. I got it. Do the same, sincerely, if you are not well fed spiritually by your church; you will get it! Amen! Praise the LORD!

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE CHURCH (4)

The Bible says, in John 10:28, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” He promised, also in John 3:16, to give us eternal life (still, no condition attached after having believed). If after you have truly believed and had got truly born again and you still lose your soul, for whatever reason, then what Jesus promised was fraught with fraud. There are so many scriptures that render the Arminian fifth point unscriptural. Can people just not see that one cannot start in the Spirit and by conational means expect to breast the tape of Christian success? Definitely you cannot fashion out carnal ways to maintain the status quo of the finished work of the cross! The big salient question is: Was it by grace one gets born again or by the works of flesh? If it is by grace will His grace not be sufficient for us throughout the days of our lives? Was it not for this reason that Paul lashed out (in Galatians 3:1), “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Evidently the Galatian conative stance angered Paul, prompting him to ask salient questions like: in Galatians 3:2, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Also in Gal 3:3, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Paul’s Galatian letter teaches us to watch what theological doctrines we believe, making sure that they are scriptural. In John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. Two things: ‘heareth’ and ‘believeth’, as hearing engenders faith, i.e. saving faith, you come to Jesus, believing, and you will have ‘everlasting life’ which separates you from ‘condemnation’. Why? You have (already) ‘passed from death unto life’. Note that there are no further conditionalities applicable to ‘passing from death’!
In Apostolic Faith Church worshippers go there to engage in a weeping competition, as if God has decided to condemn them to hell. I also wonder why I do not see a bona fide member of this church sporting moustache or beard. Apostolic Faith, no doubt, is doing a good salvational work. Deeper Life Bible Church would never hear of the adornment of rings (whether married or not, ‘worldly’, it is!), earrings, neck chains etc. “No strand of a female hair”, I once heard one of their Sunday school teacher, “must be allowed for public sight”. This Deeper Life which an Apostolic Faith adherent believed would not go any length is seriously getting people saved. Throughout the 1950s to 1980s that I was in the First Baptist Church as an active chorister and a member of Royal Ambassadors I was never called to the altar to get born again. We were under the impression that as diligent church goers we were divinely covered to make it to heaven, in fact I did say that to myself, and strongly believing it, as a young boy, while going home from a Sunday evening service (which boasts of scanty worshippers).
White garmented ‘churches,’ with all the rubbish going on there, are definitely not members of the body of Christ (this I say with all scriptural responsibility). Cherubim and Seraphim (these are angels, for crying out loud!) sect go into all kinds of fetish stuffs in their deliverance services. They wear white because angels are arrayed in white, they will inform you, and that heavenly saints don the white. Who sew the clothes of the celestial beings and who sew theirs here on earth? What makes their garments so holy? These days you see lots of them wearing the dread locks on spiritual grounds (like Samson, they will be quick to enthuse). Listen to them when they sing or pray in tongues (quite unHoly Ghostly!). How can you speak in tongues not having been born again? Celestial Church of Christ (are they also congregating in heaven?) like C & S do all kinds of unscriptural deliverance ministration e.g. bathing with raw eggs, special soap, holy water and oil. Where is thy faith, I ask, thou caller on the name of Jesus? Please, do take a good look at the design of their church logo. It has a rainbow, the cultic ‘star of David,’ one eye (whose eye, the LORD’s or that of Osiris?) and the occult cross with the crown. Members of this church must go barefooted the very second they wear their white, church garment, even if they are going on a year’s journey. Why? God told Moses, “Take off your shoes….” The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star sect was founded by a man called Olumba Olumba Obu (they call him O.O.O.). He said he is the Holy Spirit. No doubt, the man is dead and his death is inevitably kept from the public; why not, how can you make an impossible announcement of the demise of the Almighty, Holy Ghost? Testimonies of those who left O.O.O. by the grace of God are that what goes on there, in the place, is nothing short of satanic initiation. White garment ‘churches’ are esoteric invasion of the Church of Christ; quote me any day.
One thing is prevalent in Christ Apostolic Churches and those that break away from them; the priestly leadership is led by prophets. Check the scriptures from the Old to the New Testament and you will not find just one singular occurrence of a prophet leading the Temple, synagogue or church worship. Moses was a prophet, yes, but he was the leader of God’s people, spiritually: their priest! Joshua did not lead them in any worship. Eli was their judge and the priest. Samuel was a prophet, a judge and what qualified him to sit in the temple worship was because he was the priest as well. With all the phenomenal influence and power known of Elijah and his successor Elisha, never even for once, did we see either of them in the priestly office and leading an Israelite worship of Jehovah. Prophets are not teachers of the word. There is a difference between a teacher and a seer. Different kinds of beliefs have been imported into the Christian Church. Something did happen to creation to pollute mankind and his dealings with God.