John,
These emails and the words “religious institution” keep reminding me of some things I was reading the other night related to our NT study.
I was reading in Matthew 13. (I am going from memory, since I am at work, so I hope I don’t mis-state anything…please correct me if I am wrong.) So, anyway, I was reading a parable about the tares. When I started reading just a little ways, I wondered if slander was involved in the tares. And then I read on, and saw that when Jesus explained the parable, that it was slander. (?The enemy that sowed them was the slanderer?) Well, anyway, I decided to read over the notes that I took the night that you went over the topic of slander with us recently. One scripture led to another, and I found a lot of references about slander. It seemed like everywhere I looked in the Bible at that time, I was reading on slander – or a froward (sassy) tongue. Those things seemed to be related. I couldn’t explain much about what I was reading/seeing/learning, but I felt like Jesus was giving me a little bible study or something. It was exciting and very good to me.
So, the reason that “religious institution” kept reminding me about this is that I had a question about Christianity. Christianity is institutionalized slander. Somehow, what I was reading in Matthew 13 made me wonder whether, eventually, those who remain in Christianity and do not leave it would be tares -i.e., slanderers. Am I in left field about this? I wanted to ask you about it.
Lyn
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Hi Lyn:
I feel sure that there are many of God’s children in Xty today who would be saved if Jesus came back today, people whose faith and love would provoke me to seek God more than ever if I just knew them. I have to say that, so that what I say next will not be misunderstood.
To partake of Xty is to be a slanderer by default. It is to be a deceiver by default. It is to be a liar by default. Just the participation and support of that lie, that deceit, that slander, makes one guilty of those crimes. That is why God is pleading with His children, whom he loves so much, to “come out of her my people!” He does not want His children to partake of the plagues He has prepared for that wicked institution. But that is what will happen, at some point, to those children of God who refuse His plea, when that plea is made clear and strong (Rev. 18:1-4).
jdc