American religion

He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God (Luke 24:44-53).

This weekend, I’d like to tell you about a false religion. It is false, because it is not based on the Bible. It does not have an official name, but it is a popular religion—a great many Americans have been raised in it. In fact, many of your friends or relatives may hold to the beliefs of this false religion.

For the sake of discussion, I’m going to call this false religion "Civil Religion" This religion has five main teachings about its god. First, people of this religion believe that god created the universe and continues to watch over it today. However, this creator is so far beyond our comprehension that no one can really know who or what god is. Mankind is constantly inventing new and different religions, because no religion can truly understand god; therefore, every religion has worth, because each reveals a different aspect of the deity.

The second teaching of Civil Religion is this: god wants all people to be good, nice, and fair to each other. We know this because most religions of the world teach the importance of treating our fellow human beings with respect, so this must be how god wants us to act.

The third teaching of this false religion concerns your goals for living: every human being should be happy and feel good about themselves. Therefore, you can live your life in whatever way makes you happy, as long as you do not treat others poorly.

The fourth teaching of Civil Religion is: god does not have to become personally involved in your life unless you need god to solve a problem that you are having. The rest of the time, god is content to just watch you as you enjoy your life.

And the fifth teaching is this: good people go to heaven when they die.

Now you may wonder how we know so much about a religion that doesn’t even have an official name or corporate headquarters. Well, the information that I’ve just shared with you comes from interviews conducted with typical college students who were asked to talk about their religious beliefs. This is what many Americans believe. This Civil Religion is taking over the beliefs of many Americans. And it is so very, very wrong!

Civil Religion is built on three false assumptions about God. The first is that God is unknowable, so a variety of religions are needed because each reveals a different aspect of the divine. Claiming that God is unknowable is simply not true. Speaking of Jesus, the Book of Hebrews tells us, The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3). When Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us," Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:8-9). It is possible to know God—because God has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ!

What about the notion that all religions are valid ways to come to know God? In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus is blunt: no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. In John chapter 14, Jesus makes this exclusive claim: I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And at the end of Mark, Jesus laid it on the line: Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Many people are offended by these words. They claim that Christians show a lack of love by saying that heaven is closed to anyone who is not pledged to Jesus. But the fact of the matter is that we are showing love when we warn unbelievers—because if they die without clinging to the Savior, an eternity of darkness and lonely despair is what awaits them. We want to spare them from this awful fate—so we tell them that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Heaven is open to all—but there is only one way to get in. Jesus said, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved (John 10:9).

The second false assumption of Civil Religion is this: the purpose of religion is to make you feel good. This kind of thinking reduces God to a heavenly vending machine; when you need something from Him, pop in a prayer and out comes a miracle. The rest of the time, God is ignored, just as a vending machine is ignored when you aren’t hungry or thirsty.

There’s just one problem with this attitude towards God—it takes Him for granted. You who are married: how satisfied would you be with your relationship, if the only time your spouse showed any interest in you was when they wanted you to do something for them? That’s not a relationship. And although our God welcomes prayer, He wants more from you than just periodic begging. God wants to be part of your life, every day, all day. In 1st Timothy chapter 5, Paul tells us to pray continually—throughout the day, He wants us to thank Him for His goodness to us, tell Him about the things that thrill us, and ask Him for advice—in short, to converse with God as we would with a treasured friend walking hand-in-hand with us.

Although you might not realize it, the Lord is constantly at work in our lives; Paul says of Jesus in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). Without the Lord’s active attention, our world would instantly crumble into dust because of the corrosion of sin. Without God’s power, no babies would be born; without the Master’s touch, no illnesses would be cured; without the Spirit’s warmth, no love would reach out from one person to another. The Triune God is intimately involved in your life every day, whether or not you take the time to notice.

The assumption that religion must make us feel good has other dangers associated with it as well. Religion is not supposed to be about us, it’s supposed to be about relationships—our relationship with God and our relationships with others. If our relationships are healthy, we are often blessed with the result of feeling good—but that is not a necessity or even a priority. Consider what Jesus did to make right our relationship with God; the Lord was humiliated, abused, and killed because He regarded our eternal welfare as more important than His "feeling good." The sinless Son of God suffered and died for our sins, so that we could be placed in a healthy relationship with the Almighty; Jesus rose from the grave to live again, so that He could help us build healthy relationships with each other. These healthy relationships often make us feel good, but like Jesus, we must be willing to endure suffering when these relationships connect us to the pain of another person’s wounded heart. Religion isn’t about me, it’s about my relationships. Religion dare never become selfish.

The third false assumption held by Civil Religion is this: good behavior earns God’s pleasure and results in heaven. But what does Holy Scripture say about our ability to please God by our behavior? Isaiah said, all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). In Romans chapter 3, Paul notes that the following quote applies to us all: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. He concludes that no one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by their attempts to obey [God’s] law.

The reason that good behavior does not impress God is because, by His holy standards, no good behavior is ever good enough, never rises to the level of perfection. People who say that ‘God doesn’t expect more of us than we are capable of’ are fooling themselves, because God has said several times, be holy, because I am holy (Leviticus 11:45). To be holy is to be perfectly pleasing to God in every way—something clearly impossible for we who have been steeped in sin since birth. This is why the Son of God had to dress Himself in a human body and come into our world to live a perfect life—so that His perfect life could be offered to God in place of our very imperfect lives. Jesus met and satisfied the standard God had set for each of us, the standard of a life lived in perfect righteousness and holiness. To use a baseball term, Jesus stepped into our lives to serve as our "pinch hitter".

So if good behavior does not earn us heaven, what must we do to be saved? When asked this very question, Paul and Silas gave the following answer: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:30-31). Believe that Jesus is the Son of the only true God, cast in mortal mold. Believe that this Jesus was crucified for your sins and rose to end death’s power over you. Believe that this Jesus wants you to abandon your love of sin, that He will forgive you no matter how many mistakes you’ve made, and that He will lift you from your deathbed to join Him in paradise. Jesus promised, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life (John 5:24).

Who do you worship? When Jesus ascended into heaven, His disciples worshiped Him as the true and only Son of God, Savior of the world. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they built the Christian Church, a body of believers who worshiped the same Triune God as they did. Is this the God who you worship? Or have your beliefs been influenced by the false teachings of Civil Religion? I hope that you can say with Joshua, as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD (Joshua 24:15).