God Doesn't Want Your Religion

GOD DOESN’T WANT YOUR RELIGION

DR. LEE A. BUTTON

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Dr. Lee A. Button

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction- The Case for Religion

Part One- How Religion Leads Away From God

Chapter 1 - Describing the Enemy

Chapter 2 - Denouncing the Enemy

Chapter 3 - Taking the Debate to the Street

Part Two - How the Beatitudes Bring us to God

Chapter 4 - Not Just another Boring Sermon

Chapter 5 - The Path to Exalted Humility

Chapter 6 - Empty but in the Kingdom

Chapter 7 - Comforted or Comfortable

Chapter 8 - How to Stage a Peaceful Takeover

Chapter 9 - Eat Right to Stay Right

Chapter 10 - Merciful or Miserable

Chapter 11 - You Can See Right through Him

Chapter 12 - Formula for a Peacemaker

Chapter 13 - The Celestial Medal of Honor

Conclusion

Appendix- The Religion of James

Postscript

Endnotes

Preface

The Beatitudes have been frequently quoted but rarely applied. Many of us know them but few of us understand them. Some may be tempted to pass them off as a list of mysterious values or religious platitudes not intended for actual practice.

These eight sayings are not some kind of shadowy blueprint for God’s blessing written with colorless ink. Far from being cryptic, these blessings can be fully discovered. Nor are the Beatitudes a list of religious values. Far from being sanctimonious, these eight statements strike at the root of religion. That is because Jesus, who preached these principles, didn’t care much for religion. He preached against it when He taught that we don’t need to practice good deeds, be religious, to gain God’s approval. He advocated that noticeable acts to express religion may actually hinder us in the pursuit of God.

This is a book about how to discover and apply the Beatitudes. If you come here as a ‘religious’ reader: Consider carefully what makes your religion important. Do you believe your outward acts of devotion are your path to spiritual success?

If you are anti-religion and think it to be a charade to cover hypocrisy: Reflect cautiously on what Jesus does say about pleasing God. It is more important than you may have thought.

If you call yourself a Christian and agree that religion is not important: Review your arguments thoughtfully. It is often said that Christianity isn’t a religion-it’s a relationship. Consider that statement. You can have a relationship with your grocer or mechanic. You can be affiliated with a social or fitness club. You might be a member of a political party or a church. Those are all relationships. Is ‘relationship’ really how you intend to define Christianity? Your connection to Christ must be deeper and fuller and less casual than those relationships. This book will motivate you in that pursuit.

Everyone else: Read attentively. It is my hope that every reader will see that Christianity is not a religion and not strictly a relationship; it is more than just a prayer, or arm raising, or a signed card or stated commitment. Jesus Himself defines what it means to be a Christian in eight simple statements called the Beatitudes.

Introduction

The Case for Religion

"I judge a religion as being good or bad based on whether its adherents become better people as a result of practicing it." ~Joe Mullally

It’s humbling to admit this but I am a mortal human being. Don’t get too judgmental here because you are, too. None of us likes to think about it but we are all subject to death. We may take heart, however, because Jesus experienced death and understands our mortality.

On the other hand, mortal may define someone who wants to bring death, as in mortal enemy. That’s not a pleasant thought either, that someone is determined to commit murder. Yet Jesus also knows mortal in this sense; He had mortal adversaries who plotted and achieved His death.

His enemies weren’t military. They weren’t primarily political. Their hatred wasn’t racial. They weren’t criminals, per se. They were in fact, remarkably religious. Is that surprising?

We don’t think of Jesus as non-religious, do we? In fact, Jesus is usually considered in terms of religion. Somehow it just doesn’t seem rational to say that Jesus’ most dangerous enemies were religious. Religious people should be His friends. Why would I say that religion was His rival?

It has to do with the meaning of religion. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. That sounds perfunctory but it is particular in this way. Religion is man’s attempt to understand and explain how he got here and what he is supposed to do while he is here.

Based on that summary, man’s religion could be anything. A ‘ritual observance and . . . moral code,’ is what man believes he is supposed to do. If that code is based on man’s own understanding of how he got here anything could become moral. It is this dependence on man that makes moral religion the mortal enemy of Jesus.

Religion is what man believes and does about his life and purpose. Jesus’ message is what He does about man’s life and purpose. He is the final authority, not man. So as we read and study Jesus’ life we find that there is a religion that offends Him.

The New Testament gospels report that Jesus constantly warned against that religion. He started these warnings in His first message in the Gospels. After Jesus was baptized, the beginning of His public ministry, He was tempted by His first and final enemy, Satan. Then He called his disciples around Him and preached what we call the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Throughout this Sermon on the Mount Jesus warns against religion and its leaders.

The Sermon on the Mount is actually a warning against religiosity? That’s not how most people identify this Message. Many of us, regardless of our ‘religion,’ know something about the Sermon on the Mount. Yet even if we don’t recall the source, what we do know doesn’t sound like an argument against religion.

What do we know?

There are some frequently quoted Beatitudes like blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers. These are encouraging and motivational reminders which sound like religious phrases.

Jesus preaches about the salt of the earth, a city on a hill, and the light of the world. He says recompense for injustice should be an eye for eye. We should turn the other cheek. The Lord’s Prayer is in the Sermon on the Mount. There isn’t much that is anti-religion so far. Don’t judge others, Jesus continues. Ask and it will be answered, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened. Then there is the well-known and oft-repeated Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would like them to do for you. All this is good religious instruction.

Finally, Jesus concludes the message with an illustration about choosing between two life building foundations- a rock or a beach. Choosing a basis for living involves a religious decision. Your foundation creates why you think you are here and what you are supposed to do. There are two distinct bases for life. In Jesus illustration the rock represents spiritual depth and security and the beach represents lack of spiritual depth and danger.

In spite of all these familiar parts, most of the Sermon on the Mount is a warning to avoid popular religion and its leaders. It turns out that the case for religion is empty. If you believe yourself to be religious and agree that religion is a good thing, you may need to reconsider your foundation. If Jesus is opposed to religion you don’t want to be His mortal enemy.

After we explore God and religion a little further, particularly in Matthew’s Gospel, we will carefully analyze the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. You may not call them religious tenets but hopefully you will learn how to precisely identify and consistently practice them. First we will see how often Jesus did warn against religion. Then we will see how practicing the Beatitudes helps us to avoid it. We can achieve God’s approval, not in the process of religious practice, but in the practice of righteous living.

Part One

How Religion Leads Away from God

There is a way that seems right to a man

Chapter 1

Describing the Enemy

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." ~Unknown

The dangers of religion are timeless. If religion was hostile to Jesus, and the ensuing chapters will show that, then it is critical that we identify the managers of religion in Jesus’ day. Religion shares common errors no matter where or when it is followed.

Principally the first century religious leaders were men called Pharisees. Pharisees are the best representatives of common religion because they were middle-class, conspicuous and popular. There were other complementary religious groups - Scribes, Sadducees, Herodians- but the Pharisees were the largest and most vocal group. A complete history of the Pharisees is hard to create so I will but offer a few points of background.

History of the Pharisees

Pharisees may have had their beginning during the reform efforts of Ezra and Nehemiah. The title is generally linked, however, with the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd century BC. After that rebellion a very traditional faction of Jews attached itself to Judas Maccabeus. They were called the Hassidim. When these ‘holy ones,’ as Hassidim is defined, saw the reform movement become more political than religious they began to ‘separate’ themselves from the more partisan Hasmonean Dynasty. A new name appears here in history- perushim, meaning Separatist. The Hebrew letter ‘p’ may be softened to ‘ph’ so perushim becomes Pharisee.

Notice that the sect changed from Hassidim to Perushim, from Holy One to Separatist. This change from saint to separatist is particularly significant. It means the Pharisees are no longer regular Jews. They are separate from the rest. They are better.

This separation created a natural animosity between the Pharisees and all who thought they were holier or knew God better. Naturally, the Pharisees would be antagonistic to Jesus who claimed to be perfectly holy and know God intimately.

Hostility of the Pharisees

What specifically caused the opposition toward Jesus? There are 3 fundamental issues which defined the lifestyle of the Pharisees. It was these issues that created the rift between Jesus and them.

The Pharisees added traditions to the Law. The priestly sect, the Sadducees, accepted only the written Torah (Law) as Scripture. The Pharisees incorporated oral law. As Matthew 15: 1-2 explains, "Moses received the (oral) Law from Sinai and delivered it to Joshua and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets and the prophets to the men of the great synagogue." Who were the men of the synagogue? Not the Sadducees for they were elitist temple men. It was the Pharisees who related to the common people. They were the synagogue men.

Most churches likewise, have traditions of some kind which have been passed down from generation to generation, sometimes by word of mouth. So what is the problem here? It is not tradition itself. The clash occurs when ritual is combined with doctrine so that man’s custom becomes the authority. That’s what the Pharisees did- embraced tradition as their authority. Jesus responds to them in Matthew 15:3, . . . why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? Sometimes you can’t have it both ways. You must choose oral, historical tradition or the Word of God. The Pharisees chose tradition.

A second practice that created hostility was that the Pharisees interpreted even the written Law according to tradition. They consented to God’s written law as authoritative, but still interpreted the Scripture based on their own traditions.

Matthew 19 illustrates this. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" (Verse 3)

Their question is based on the law of God in Deuteronomy 24:1-4