Why organized religion has failed.

Today, the failure of organized religion is renowned: The abuse of little children and others. The obscene opulence and seeking for wealth. The undermining of faith in the Bible. (Some undermine faith by replacing the Bible with other books and materials, or by adding to it, as they assert other publications are also spiritual food and equal to the Bible. Others undermine faith in the Bible by asserting common people are not smart enough to understand it; without those lowly ones having someone to interpret the Bible for them.) All such acts, all of which undermine faith in the Bible, all serve to show up the failure of organized religion.

This should not surprise those who have actually read the Bible. The Bible teaches an apostasy would become prevalent after Jesus went away, and a "man of lawlessness" would be revealed: (2 Thes 2:2-3 - Darby of 1889) "that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as if it were by us, as that the day of the Lord is present. Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because it will not be unless the apostasy have first come, and the man of sin have been revealed, the son of perdition... (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8) And so now you know the thing that acts as a restraint, with a view to his being revealed in his own due time. True, the mystery of this lawlessness is already at work; but only till he who is right now acting as a restraint gets to be out of the way. Then, indeed, the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will do away with by the spirit of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his presence.

Jesus and his followers taught after the apostasy took hold, a man of lawlessness would be revealed. They further taught Jesus would do away with the man of lawlessness at the manifestation of his presence. That man of lawlessness is a composite of those who fight against the teachings of Christ: Not openly of course, or he would not need to be exposed. They are those individuals and organizations who pretend to be righteous, but use religion to ensnare and abuse others. Their tactics are always the same: They hide or obscure the simple truth of the Bible. (2 Peter 2:3 ; 2 Peter 3:16 ; 2 Timothy 2:18 ; 1 Corinthians 10:13) We must all beware, therefore, of those who make strong assertions that you must believe in their organizational teachings. (Mark 7:3-4 ; John 7:48) We must beware of those who assert any teaching which they can't directly support by the Bible. Such persons or groups will often profess you must believe in their doctrine to be saved; but then not be able to support their teachings from the Bible. In many cases, they have created words which don't even appear in the Bible, and use those unscriptural terms to define their doctrine. That is one method of hiding or replacing the Bible. The dark ages was a period of about 1000 years which historians teach started roughly between 300 and 400 CE (after Jesus) and ending between 1300 and 1400 CE. There is no specific start or end dates as it was a gradual change. It was a terrible time for mankind, during which the church hid the Bible from the common man and thus worked to keep the people illiterate. That "dark" period was brought about as the church (the religious organization started by Christ Jesus) polluted itself by joining forces with Rome: The ruling world power of the time. The Church did this seeking power to deal with it's enemies; and the government did it to gain respect and credibility. That marriage of Church and state formed what has been referred to by some ignorant individuals as the Holy Roman Empire. The church gained the power it sought from the state, even to execute it's enemies [which they did a lot]. Judging people as witches and apostates, they burned, boiled, racked, and otherwise horribly tortured and/or put to death many thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people during that 1000 years. Records of the numbers of those murdered are understandably vague; as the church kept the records. Their most successful tool to keep people from questioning their horrible deeds lay in their keeping people ignorant of God's word the Bible. They made it illegal under penalty of death to own or even read a Bible. The church asserted the common people had to have priests and others to explain what the Bible meant, and to act in behalf of those individuals before God or Christ. Thus they abandoned the Bible teaching that Jesus is the one and only great high priest, and that it is through him alone we must address our prayers to God. (Hebrews 4:14 ; John 16:23-24) They stole away from people the gift of being "noble minded," and rather tried to force them to become "Doegs." (See Bible Terms)

The reformation movement was started by men and women who recognized the injustice meted out by that polluted and wicked state church. Such reformers started the process of breaking away from that apostate form of worship, and thus started moving out of the dark ages and back into the light of Bible truth. Men studied the Bible, and then risked their lives to share it and/or to translate it into English and other languages commonly spoken. Sadly, after some progress, many/most of those reform movements returned to the apostasy they had left. While true Christianity teaches sacrifice, most false religions teach it is appropriate to judge and even to murder their enemies. You can recognize true followers of Christ Jesus by the love they display. (John 13:34-35) Though they will try to hide who they are, using Bible knowledge you can also recognize apostates by the hatred they manifest.

That raises a couple of questions: What does it really mean to be a follower of Christ Jesus and a part of God's true organization? And, is it a protection to be a Christian?
     Bible knowledge, among those who were fortunate to gain a little exposure to it during the dark ages, helped men and women realize what the Roman church was doing was wrong. As individuals or small groups, they started to stand up for what they believed was right. But how could they do better than the Church, and know for certain what was right?
     One belief shared by most all of those reform movements was that each individual had to learn and interpret scripture for themselves. They disregarded the apostate notion that common men needed a priesthood (or clergy class, or anointed group) to intercede and/or interpret scripture for them. They recognized the need for each one of them to become "noble minded;" doing so by comparing their personal faith with the Bible's teaching. They recognized their need for each and every one of them to have faith based on their own understanding of the Bible. Some man or group telling them they were among the faithful was not acceptable to them. [We do understand the comfort associated with being part of a large group who pat you on the head and whisper in your ear you are saved. We also hope everyone will comprehend the danger inherent in doing so! Such peer pressure and fear of nonconformity is what caused people to go along with Hitler, and Jim Jones, and priestly abusers of children, and abusive sports programs...] All those reformers who made a break from the dark ages, and who risked [or gave] their lives for truth; all those who refused to be pressed into a faith based on membership in some group of men: All such individuals [were and] are the people forming the membership of God's true organization. No imperfect man or group has or maintains the registry of that membership. (Hebrews 12:23) It is simply the group of men and women who, through the ages and to this day, have been determined to be God's friends through their faith in Christ Jesus. (James 2:23) They respect only the "truth" of the Bible. (1 Corinthians 4:6) That is, you see, the basis for exposing of the "man of lawlessness." We are still breaking free of the apostasy of the "dark ages," as the "man of lawlessness" becomes ever more clearly exposed in the light of truth. The true followers of Christ now realize: No membership roll maintained among men can give them friendship with God, and no man or group of men can take it away from them. When men form an organization, no matter how grand their aspirations, as soon as they get a little money and power, most start to worry about protecting their organization instead of continuing on their path as sincere Bible students. At that point, their cause is lost as an organization. They become "Doegs" as they start to sacrifice loving kindness and justice on their alter of organizational unity.

      John Calvin [and those like him] worked to break free of apostasy: Mr. Calvin is considered by many to be a founding father of the reformation movement. After Mr. Calvin broke free of the Roman Church, he had soon established his own religion. Sadly, his next step was to align himself with another governmental power to gain protection for his new church, just as the early apostate church had done with Rome. Michael Servetus was a man who also recognized the wrongs done by the professed Holy Roman Church, and Servetus escaped from them as Calvin had done. The Roman Church burned Servetus in effigy, since they could not lay hands on him to burn him alive. Servetus fled to Calvin, as he knew Calvin had successfully broken with the Church. Soon Servetus and Calvin had a disagreement about a scriptural point. In trying to protect his new religious organization, Calvin burned Servetus at the stake [not in effigy but in the flesh]. Calvin killed Servetus because Servetus did not agree with him about the doctrine of predestination. (Most/many Bible scholars today believe Calvin held an unscriptural view of predestination, even as he committed that vile crime against truth and against Mr Servetus.) Mr. Servetus is the only man in history to have been burned at the stake in effigy by the Holy Roman Church, and then actually burned alive by the Calvinist's. Just that quickly, John Calvin had returned to the apostasy he had risked his life to flee. His reason? He abandoned the truth of the Bible in pursuit of protection for the new organization he had formed.

On a news cast in 2009, a Catholic woman was interviewed and asked about her faith in the light of all the charges of child molestation against the priesthood of her organization. She stated that sadly, her faith was seriously undermined by such knowledge. Such actions tolerated internally by those who lord themselves over such organizations are a persistence of the Dark ages; and a manifestation of the apostasy Jesus foretold. Faith is not undermined in the heart of those who recognize that simple Bible truth.

The failure we see today in religious organizations is a continuation of the apostasy the Bible warns us against. The simple solution, and protection, is personal knowledge of Bible truth. (Mark 12:24) Through knowledge of the teachings of Christ, the man of lawlessness has been exposed in our day. The failure of religious organizations should not undermine faith in the Bible. When these organizations fail, they do so simply because they fail to maintain harmony with the Bible. The Bible teaches many would become apostate in the last days. Learning and building faith in what Jesus had to say with regard to our day is the most important project of our life!

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