January 30th - Religion, what is it?

"...they had certain questions concerning their own RELIGION..." (Acts 25:19)

"Now Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus, averred, Men, Athenians! On all sides am I beholding how unusually RELIGIOUS you are. For passing through and contemplating the objects of your veneration, I found a pedestal also, on which had been inscribed, To an Unknowable God. To Whom you are ignorantly devout, This One am I announcing to you." (Acts 17:22-23)

The Greek word for "religion" is the noun "deisidaimonias" and means "superstition". The Greek word for its adjective, "religious", is "deisidaimonesterous" which means "very fearful of god". The word is actually two words together meaning "dread" and "teach".  The Greek noun and its adjective are used only two times in Scripture. 

Religion is superstition and fear of a god or gods and these gods become "objects" of  "veneration".

Paul, at the Areopagus in Athens some 1,950 years ago, told religious people about the true God of Scripture to whom they were "ignorantly devout". Such is needed among religious institutions today.

"The God Who makes the world and all that is in it, He, the Lord inherent of heaven and earth, is not dwelling in temples made by hands, neither is He attended by human hands, as if requiring anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all. Besides, He makes every nation of humanity dwelling on all the surface of the earth, specifying the setting of the seasons and the bounds of their dwelling, for them to be seeking God, if, consequently, they may surely grope for Him and may be finding Him, though to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent, for in Him we are living and moving and are, as some poets of yours also have declared, 'For of that race also are we." (Acts 17:24-28)

God the Father is spirit and is all around us. It is He who gives life and breath. The nations of humanity are part of one single "race" and "inherently of God".

"The race, then, is inherently of God; we ought not to be inferring that the Divine is like gold, or silver, or stone, a sculpture of art and human sentiment. Indeed, then, condoning the times of ignorance, God is now charging humanity that all everywhere are to repent, forasmuch as He assigns a day in which He is about to be judging the inhabited earth in righteousness by the Man Whom He specifies, tendering faith to all, raising Him from among the dead." (Acts 17:29-31)

Paul told the Athenians that the real God is not like the gods of religion who are the "objects of your veneration". The real God judges "humanity" "in righteousness" by the "Man" whom he raised "from among the dead". And on that judgment day God will be "tendering faith to all".

Those who follow the God of Scripture know that the true God does NOT give us a "spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and a sound mind".

“God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) 

Christ Jesus pronounced His "righteous" judgment on sinful humanity from the cross as He was dying for their sakes...

"...Father, forgive them, for they are not aware what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)

"...Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture..." (1 Corinthians 15:3)

Humanity should "repent" from the "veneration" of the false gods of religion and turn to the real God. 

So, if you fear a god who might eternally torment you in hell, repent and turn to the true God.