No Religion Allowed Beyond This Point by Greg Albrecht

Think of a huge sign posted on the Cross of Christ. Warning!  No Religion Allowed Beyond This Point.   The gospel truth is that the Cross of Christ stands for no more lies, prevarications, manipulations, characterizations and deceptions.  Warning!  No Religion Allowed Beyond This Point is the gospel truth.  

The BIG LIE of Christ-less religion is that God is angry with you and me.  The “gospel” of Christ-less religion is that even though God is really upset with you and me, we can please and appease him with our behavior, so that he will not send us to hell as he would have had we not appeased him. 

The Cross of Christ says “no more lies.”

The BIG LIE attempts to add the necessity of religious performances to Jesus – the BIG LIE admits that God’s grace might be powerful enough to get you started in your relationship with God, but after that you need all of the rules, regulations and regimens of religion to keep God happy.  

The Cross of Christ insists “no more lies.” 

The BIG LIE is the notion of a huge score board in heaven, and the angels are continuously updating God on your progress – or lack thereof.

Big business religion tends to interpret and represent God as a businessman, a bean-counter, an accountant who keeps careful records.   

Big business religion would have you believe that how God feels about you at any given moment depends on the heavenly Dow Jones stock market like numbers that are continuously displayed in heavenly places.

In the words of that old Christmas tune about Santa Claus, religion depicts God as making a list and checking it twice, to find out who’s naughty and nice. 

But the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that God keeps no record of our wrongs, he blots out our sins, he always and forever forgives us — his love triumphs over all.

The BIG LIE is God is mad at you.   

Christ-less Christendom insists on a god filled with outrage and wrath, a god who must be vindicated and who is only appeased by suffering.  Such a god serves the purposes of Christ-less religion – because that image keeps people under the thumb of religion.  

The BIG LIE is God will punish you – he will even make you sick and cause you to have diseases to teach you a lesson. 

God doesn’t give anyone cancer.   God doesn’t cripple people, physically or emotionally.  

God doesn’t require us to suffer.   Christ-less religion says that God teaches us through the school of hard knocks – in fact Christ-less religion says that God is a tenured professor, the headmaster or the president of the school of hard knocks.  

But the Bible is clear.   God does not give sufferings.  God is not in the business of doling out pain and heartache.  As Christ followers we suffer for many reasons, but one of them is not God directly cursing us.   That’s an old covenant teaching – but, in case you missed it, the old covenant is dead, buried and kaput. 

The BIG LIE is God’s love must be earned and deserved. 

One of the foundational teachings of authentic Christianity is that God’s love is unconditional.  We cannot convince him or manipulate him into loving us anymore than he already does or ever will.  That’s what the love of God and his grace are all about.

Here are some oft-repeated bumper sticker like lies that infest Christendom like the virus of a pandemic.   “Do your best and God will do the rest.”  “God helps those who help themselves.”  Avoid this thinking like the plague.   Keep socially distanced, wear a mask and isolate from this anti-Christian thinking that infects pure and undefiled faith.     

Finally, the BIG LIE is this:  When all is said and done, according to religion, God doesn’t really love you.  He says he does, but he doesn’t really. 

Religion is saying that God is lying, because God is not really love – he is really more about anger, wrath and judgment – he is all about vindication and retribution.  

So who are you going to believe?  Religion – or God?  The Cross of Christ is more than a historical event, it is the ultimate revelation of God, who is love.  The Cross of Christ insists No Religion Allowed Beyond This Point.

Let God be true, and every human being a liar – Romans 3:4

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