Michael Bresciani
Religion or the Savior - - the world's perpetual confusion
By Michael Bresciani
Only one generation after the Beatle's, John Lennon, suggested that we imagine a world with no religion; just who could imagine that religion is more profuse today than ever. Lennon said he was more well-known and popular than Jesus Christ, who could imagine that today there are millions of millennials who have no idea who Jon Lennon was?
His failure is based on the fact that man's proclivity and tendency to religion is second only to his penchant for sin.
In fact, men will never give up religion – they will only change what and whom they are worshipping.
This fact is made clear when it is seen, according to Biblical prophecy, that when all religions are banned by the coming of the antichrist (2Th 2: 4) he then begins an entire new religion where only he (the antichrist) may be worshipped.
It is known as the 'abomination of desolation' (Mt 24: 15) and is the short lived period of the worship of man, a man who is in fact – Satan in the flesh.
The world largely missed the incarnation of God in the flesh, (Jesus Christ) but will be well onboard with the devil in the flesh, at least for the last seven years of time as we now know it.
It would be safe to say that religion is not what ends, but it is the world as we now know it that ends – because of a false religion.
Religion or a Savior – Man's Control v. God's Release
Religions, whether they arecult, heresy, or true religion, are systems and methodologies for codifying, traditionalizing and perpetuating their own existence. They are a means of controlling adherents and providing imaginary ways of placating God. If we join, serve, do lots of good deeds, seek the nine fold path, tithe, seek spiritual gifts, get baptized, jump through hoops – we will be "saved."
The formulations of religion always become the visible structures and doctrines that man clings to in place of actually convening with God. The Apostle Paul told his young disciple Timothy that in the last days men would let the formulations thoroughly replace a real relationship with God. Religion then becomes the most effective way to keep them from God.
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Tim 3: 5)
Some religions still practice a real relationship to God, but they all tend to cling to the empty form if given enough time all while gradually succumbing to the outside influence from our increasingly secularized world.
The contrast between religion and relationship is so strong that it morphs into contradiction especially when seen in the light of the bible view of religion.
Not only did Jesus rebuke the religious leaders of his day for traditionalizing the effectiveness of faith in God (Mt 15: 6) to the point of neutralizing it, but he lambasted them for ignoring the very prophecies that heralded his coming to the earth as the Savior of all men.
The real surprise is when we see that the word 'religion' is found nowhere in the Old Testament and only five times in the New Testament. Of the five in the New Testament, only one comes close to a definition. Yet, it only defines what a pure religion is, rather than a true religion.
"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." (Jas 1: 27)
The bottom line is that Christ came into the world to offer men salvation and forgiveness of sins – he never instituted another religion – that is our doing. He came to release us from the bondage of sin and death – what religion is that?
The Battle of the Books – The Fruit of Death or the Death of Fruit
Before the advent of the 9/11 attacks and before the fatwa was ordered on author Salman Rushdie by the late Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, Americans knew little to nothing about that book known as the Koran. (Quran) Those days are now far behind and many books, websites and documentaries have all made their debut into the American psyche and body of knowledge.
Now anyone can get an accurate count of acts of terrorism initiated by adherence to the book which today numbers over twenty one thousand. Anyone can read for themselves the 37 verses of the Koran that greenlight the destruction of those who will not convert and another 15 verses that say the same coming from the Hadith.
The daily news cycle inundates almost daily with stories of Muslim extremes including suicide bombings, beheadings, mutilations and endless threats of death against the west.
Pro-active conservative warriors likeJan Morgan, Geert Wilders and David Horowitz along with someincredibly well informed websites like, The Religion of Peace, Jihad Watch, Middle East Forum, Gates of Vienna and a host of similar sites, keep the world abreast of new developments in the spread of Muslim extremism and the countermeasures being engaged to bring them to a halt.
The bottom line is that in a world that is dizzy on PC nonsense and busy forming lynch mobs to punish anyone involved in only slight shades of perceived hate speech, while flying right under our noses, under the banner of religion, is a book that is literally filled with hate speech.
Two simple, but frightening facts are now almost universally known about the Koran.
Yet, for all this, there is no contest and no real battle between the Bible and the Koran. One is evil and it takes no genius or spiritual giant to discern which one it is. Christ said he came to give men life (Jn 10: 10) while the surest path to life according to the Koran is to take your own life or the life of another.
Comparing this to what Christ said does much more to cast serious doubt of the visions of one emerging from the caves of Medina than all else combined. In a single sentence Christ ends the debate for almost anyone with only an ounce of reason and good sense left in their heads.
"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Mt 7: 20)
If the book you are trusting produces death, that should be the only clue needed to tell you where that revelation came from. If it is a life giving message then that 'fruit'is, according to Christ – all you need to know.
God is Not Confused – You Are!
With only a little comparative religion 101 and a desperate hope that all religions should come under one happy roof called ecumenicism, religion parallels the deluded vision of the Galapagos galloper who noticed a few canaries with slight variations in their anatomy, from which he laid a trip on the entire world about how a mindless, unintelligent and nebulous 450 billion years (depending on which scientist you ask) magically created all species, all things – out of nothing!
Some say Chuck wasn't Godless he was merely brainless, but in spite of the conspicuously missing links; his hapless vision, much like the one in Medina, played right into the hearts and minds of the Godless for the entire last generation.
After counting the respective adherents to the many religions and idols men create, including Darwinism, it seems the world is satisfied to name the top contenders as the worlds 'three great religions.' These summations are often made at the expense of dismissing the one and only Savior of the world.
Nowhere, in the entirety of the scripture does the idea that the Arch Deceiver (Satan) stops short of things branded as 'religion.' In fact, false gods, idols, cults, heresies and entire religions are his mainstay. But modern man, fully educated and well versed in all history has not noticed that the ancient idolatries, endless deities and often life crushing practices of human and child sacrifice have all been identified by the bible as having originated under the power and auspices of the god of this world – Satan.
Man's adherence to, sacrifices and other means of attending to idols and false deities are considered worship for the Devil. He doesn't care if it was offered in days long past, he'll take what he can get from modern man as well.
"But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." (1Co 10: 20)
"They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not." (Dt 32: 17)
So what would make God, the one God who actually created everything there is send us a mixed message? Why would he allow two books each with totally contrary messages to be considered as both coming from him? He would not, he has not, and all wisdom is called to bear in only one verse of scripture.
"And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." (Mt 12: 25)
One book offers life and God says it is his word. The other book promotes death and no one but a mortal man says it comes from God and even he admitted that he had his doubts.
Doesn't seem like much of a decision to make and yet, men still grab on to the whole dark life threatening message as if it actually had something of value to it.
Little wonder that Christ was forced to say...
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (Jn 5: 39, 40)
Man has, and always will clutter the path to God with peripherals and pandemonium. Man offers religions, popes, hierarchies, groups, traditions, edifices, liturgies, ceremony and hundreds of other distractions and diversions.
God offers only one thing – The Lamb.
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (Jn 1: 29)
© Michael Bresciani
August 28, 2014
Only one generation after the Beatle's, John Lennon, suggested that we imagine a world with no religion; just who could imagine that religion is more profuse today than ever. Lennon said he was more well-known and popular than Jesus Christ, who could imagine that today there are millions of millennials who have no idea who Jon Lennon was?
-
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
– John Lennon
His failure is based on the fact that man's proclivity and tendency to religion is second only to his penchant for sin.
In fact, men will never give up religion – they will only change what and whom they are worshipping.
This fact is made clear when it is seen, according to Biblical prophecy, that when all religions are banned by the coming of the antichrist (2Th 2: 4) he then begins an entire new religion where only he (the antichrist) may be worshipped.
It is known as the 'abomination of desolation' (Mt 24: 15) and is the short lived period of the worship of man, a man who is in fact – Satan in the flesh.
The world largely missed the incarnation of God in the flesh, (Jesus Christ) but will be well onboard with the devil in the flesh, at least for the last seven years of time as we now know it.
It would be safe to say that religion is not what ends, but it is the world as we now know it that ends – because of a false religion.
Religion or a Savior – Man's Control v. God's Release
Religions, whether they arecult, heresy, or true religion, are systems and methodologies for codifying, traditionalizing and perpetuating their own existence. They are a means of controlling adherents and providing imaginary ways of placating God. If we join, serve, do lots of good deeds, seek the nine fold path, tithe, seek spiritual gifts, get baptized, jump through hoops – we will be "saved."
The formulations of religion always become the visible structures and doctrines that man clings to in place of actually convening with God. The Apostle Paul told his young disciple Timothy that in the last days men would let the formulations thoroughly replace a real relationship with God. Religion then becomes the most effective way to keep them from God.
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Tim 3: 5)
Some religions still practice a real relationship to God, but they all tend to cling to the empty form if given enough time all while gradually succumbing to the outside influence from our increasingly secularized world.
The contrast between religion and relationship is so strong that it morphs into contradiction especially when seen in the light of the bible view of religion.
Not only did Jesus rebuke the religious leaders of his day for traditionalizing the effectiveness of faith in God (Mt 15: 6) to the point of neutralizing it, but he lambasted them for ignoring the very prophecies that heralded his coming to the earth as the Savior of all men.
The real surprise is when we see that the word 'religion' is found nowhere in the Old Testament and only five times in the New Testament. Of the five in the New Testament, only one comes close to a definition. Yet, it only defines what a pure religion is, rather than a true religion.
"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." (Jas 1: 27)
The bottom line is that Christ came into the world to offer men salvation and forgiveness of sins – he never instituted another religion – that is our doing. He came to release us from the bondage of sin and death – what religion is that?
The Battle of the Books – The Fruit of Death or the Death of Fruit
Before the advent of the 9/11 attacks and before the fatwa was ordered on author Salman Rushdie by the late Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, Americans knew little to nothing about that book known as the Koran. (Quran) Those days are now far behind and many books, websites and documentaries have all made their debut into the American psyche and body of knowledge.
Now anyone can get an accurate count of acts of terrorism initiated by adherence to the book which today numbers over twenty one thousand. Anyone can read for themselves the 37 verses of the Koran that greenlight the destruction of those who will not convert and another 15 verses that say the same coming from the Hadith.
The daily news cycle inundates almost daily with stories of Muslim extremes including suicide bombings, beheadings, mutilations and endless threats of death against the west.
Pro-active conservative warriors likeJan Morgan, Geert Wilders and David Horowitz along with someincredibly well informed websites like, The Religion of Peace, Jihad Watch, Middle East Forum, Gates of Vienna and a host of similar sites, keep the world abreast of new developments in the spread of Muslim extremism and the countermeasures being engaged to bring them to a halt.
The bottom line is that in a world that is dizzy on PC nonsense and busy forming lynch mobs to punish anyone involved in only slight shades of perceived hate speech, while flying right under our noses, under the banner of religion, is a book that is literally filled with hate speech.
Two simple, but frightening facts are now almost universally known about the Koran.
-
1.) It has a death centered message.
2.) All Muslims, al Qaeda, Isis, Shia, and Sunni, moderate and extremist – are all reading and taking their cues from this book.
Yet, for all this, there is no contest and no real battle between the Bible and the Koran. One is evil and it takes no genius or spiritual giant to discern which one it is. Christ said he came to give men life (Jn 10: 10) while the surest path to life according to the Koran is to take your own life or the life of another.
Comparing this to what Christ said does much more to cast serious doubt of the visions of one emerging from the caves of Medina than all else combined. In a single sentence Christ ends the debate for almost anyone with only an ounce of reason and good sense left in their heads.
"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Mt 7: 20)
If the book you are trusting produces death, that should be the only clue needed to tell you where that revelation came from. If it is a life giving message then that 'fruit'is, according to Christ – all you need to know.
God is Not Confused – You Are!
With only a little comparative religion 101 and a desperate hope that all religions should come under one happy roof called ecumenicism, religion parallels the deluded vision of the Galapagos galloper who noticed a few canaries with slight variations in their anatomy, from which he laid a trip on the entire world about how a mindless, unintelligent and nebulous 450 billion years (depending on which scientist you ask) magically created all species, all things – out of nothing!
Some say Chuck wasn't Godless he was merely brainless, but in spite of the conspicuously missing links; his hapless vision, much like the one in Medina, played right into the hearts and minds of the Godless for the entire last generation.
After counting the respective adherents to the many religions and idols men create, including Darwinism, it seems the world is satisfied to name the top contenders as the worlds 'three great religions.' These summations are often made at the expense of dismissing the one and only Savior of the world.
Nowhere, in the entirety of the scripture does the idea that the Arch Deceiver (Satan) stops short of things branded as 'religion.' In fact, false gods, idols, cults, heresies and entire religions are his mainstay. But modern man, fully educated and well versed in all history has not noticed that the ancient idolatries, endless deities and often life crushing practices of human and child sacrifice have all been identified by the bible as having originated under the power and auspices of the god of this world – Satan.
Man's adherence to, sacrifices and other means of attending to idols and false deities are considered worship for the Devil. He doesn't care if it was offered in days long past, he'll take what he can get from modern man as well.
"But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." (1Co 10: 20)
"They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not." (Dt 32: 17)
So what would make God, the one God who actually created everything there is send us a mixed message? Why would he allow two books each with totally contrary messages to be considered as both coming from him? He would not, he has not, and all wisdom is called to bear in only one verse of scripture.
"And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." (Mt 12: 25)
One book offers life and God says it is his word. The other book promotes death and no one but a mortal man says it comes from God and even he admitted that he had his doubts.
Doesn't seem like much of a decision to make and yet, men still grab on to the whole dark life threatening message as if it actually had something of value to it.
Little wonder that Christ was forced to say...
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (Jn 5: 39, 40)
Man has, and always will clutter the path to God with peripherals and pandemonium. Man offers religions, popes, hierarchies, groups, traditions, edifices, liturgies, ceremony and hundreds of other distractions and diversions.
God offers only one thing – The Lamb.
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (Jn 1: 29)
© Michael Bresciani
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