The Real Problem With Religion Today..

     As humans we all play a unique part in our diverse world today, yet a fact that seems easily misunderstood is healthy teaching about our spiritual beings. We are all the ghosts in the machine, entrapped under thick layers of deceptive lies wherein our real identity is hidden. Yet underneath this highly sophisticated physical apparatus is a concealed intelligence which defies the comprehension of our minds. For those of you who disagree with me, contemplate eating a hamburger, after you finish you feel nourished and well supplied, but have you any idea how your stomach is currently breaking this down into your blood stream and providing vital strength to you muscles and sinews through the complex process of digestion? You can take classes on it, garner a bachelors in health economics, even a phD as a neurosurgeon and you still aren't even close to understanding the complexity of the chemical reactions and bodily processes within us.  Nothing in our universe is as simple as it appears. Perpetual motion is everywhere and many of us lack even a crude understanding how complex motion is. 

     Now here is a question that interests me? Why do surgeons remove ribs for bone marrow transplants and genetic research! Why ribs? Because they are the only bones in the human body that grows back every time they are carefully removed. This reality alone should make us question some deeper truths, like the fact God explains women were formed from a mans rib. Or that 99.99% of the matter around us is empty space, is the .01% of spinning particles not also part of the illusions as well? In layman's terms: "What is unseen is more real than what is seen". We first need to understand we are spiritual beings in order to ascertain a deeper meaning to the physical world around us. 

     When anyone talks about sin and addictions, and raises any questions about or suggests refinements of, disease orientated perspectives, people head for the exits. Some people leave because the very mention of sin is evidence that the speaker doesn't get it, they get angry that anyone add spiritual condemnation to the self-loathing an addict already experiences. In a cultural where self-esteem and high views of self-worth are considered psychological essentials talking about sin seems an attack on mental well being. It conjures up an image of dour puritans and preachers screaming damnation upon those who don't repent. However this is the very core of the problem; the refusal of Christians to see religion as the biggest scam in the history of the world. A personal relationship with Christ and recognition of our woeful inadequacy in every regard is what saves us. The moment we see people through spiritual eyes we begin to see the defects, the facade's, moral fronts, and concealed lies interwoven underneath. We've all heard of the prodigal son story, the younger son goes off squanders his fathers inheritance and indulges fully in the salacious lusts of his true desires. At first he had many friends, yet all were attached to the money and the prosperity: flowing booze, sexy girls, one night stands, best quality dope money can buy, luxury hotels, sleazy nightclubs, seedy underworlds, secret pastimes-giggles, flirts, feels, seductive leather outfits, lap dances and drug induced chatter with nameless ladies slithering around this way and that. Life can easily become a real freak show if you let it. Eyes had adjusted to constant spinning and spiraling of lights that all danced to beats; body and mind had adjusted to accept the effects of intense psychedelic drugs as the normal state of things. The spinning lights that danced to beats from a dozen different DJ booths, he finds all life is a trade, once his fortune was gone and his friends abandon him, he finds himself wrestling a pig for a corn cob coated in mud, and perhaps right then he wondered if we're all just whores in the end? But this realization alone is what brings him to a deeper realization of his depravity. As many people who read this story and then think "this is the condition of us all without God's love" will miss the bigger picture. It is my firm belief that this story speaks more to the sin of the elder brother than the younger one: self-righteous and judgmental yet by a worlds standards morally pure, his arrogance restricts his ability to see his own need for a saving figure and many Christians today fall into this trend of being the elder-brother.Rather than being genuinely interested in people for their friendship they become spiritual head-hunters. The harshest words Jesus spoke were to the religious pharisee's,  living a ethical code of moral purity to God is like "straining out the gnat and swallowing a camel". If like the older brother, you seek to control God through your works then your morality, then that is just a way to make God give you the things you really want, which are very rarely the things you really need or He really wants! A horizontal approach to things around around you destroys the vertical necessity. It is when you see the desire to be your own "savior" through your deeds--lying beneath layers of moral goodness that you are on very dangerous ground. Ground that Mormonism is founded on, this is not a laughing matter                       either, millions are deceived around the globe today by this moralistic lifestyle. 

According to CH Spurgeon: "Many of the enemies of the cross of Christ have been so trained in godliness that we find it hard to believe that they can indeed be so vile;  let no man, therefore, arise and shake himself, as though no sins could ever bind him, because he feels himself to be a very Samson through his connections and surroundings. Yes, it may be that you shall fall—fall foully, fall desperately, unless the grace of God be in you—fall so as never to come Christ, and find eternal life. It was so with angels. The best natural thing that creation can work is not sufficient to preserve the fickle creature from sin: regeneration must come in—the work of the Holy Ghost, a creature may be perfect, and yet sin will reach and destroy him. You and I are far from perfect. We are not angels unfallen: we are not angels at all; but we have evil hearts within us; therefore let us not imagine for a moment that the most select position can screen us from the worst of sin. Angels are beings of remarkable power. We know that they have amazing intelligence and beauty. We read of one whose face was like that of an angel of God. When a thing is spoken of as being exceedingly good, it is often connected with angels: "men did eat angels' food." It is supposed that everything with regard to them is of of refined quality. I suppose that a spirit not cumbered with flesh and blood, as we are, must be delivered from much that hampers and beclouds. Oftentimes a clear judgment is dimmed by a headache, or an attack of indigestion. Anything that affects the body drags down the mind; but these angelic beings are delivered from such weakness, and they are clothed with a glory of strength, and beauty, and power. Hear then and observe! However great Lucifer was, yet he degenerated into Satan: the Son of the Morning became Apollyon the Destroyer. However excellent the fallen angels may once have been, they have now become potent only for mischief; their wisdom has curdled into cunning, and their strength has soured into a vicious force; Let no man say: "no not I, I will never become this or that" you know not what you may become. There is also a great difference between position and person, Ah me! we need not marvel; for if angels fall, what man may think that he can stand? The grace of God can keep the least and weakest of us; but apart from that heavenly power how dare any man hope to be preserved to the end? Self-confidence is the beginning of declension.. We must never presume. Angels fell: why should not men? An angel occupies a high position near the throne of God: We have evidence in Scripture that they are called on grand occasions to discharge high commissions for the King of kings. And yet these household messengers of the palace of heaven, these domestics of glory, even these went astray, and fell, and turned to devils. Let no man dream that because he occupies an office in the church or does such and such a deed, his salvation is therefore secure: an apostle fell. The arrows of the prince of darkness can reach the highest seats of the synagogue. The high places of the field of service are not free from danger; nay, they are the more perilous as they are the more notable. The powers of darkness make their direst onset upon the foremost soldiers of the cross, hoping to overthrow the standard-bearers, and create confusion throughout the camp. Apart from the perpetual miracle of God's grace, nothing can keep us from declension, apostacy, and spiritual death. "Oh, but I spend my time," one may say—"I spend my time wholly in the service of God! I go from door to door seeking the lost souls of men, as a city missionary"; or "I conduct a large class in the school, and I have brought many to the Savior." All this is good; but if we trust in it for standing before God it will certainly fail thee. If any one of us were to say, "But I am a preacher, called to offer prayer, and to share the precious word: my engagements are so sanctified, they bring me into such hallowed fellowship with holy things, that it is not possible that I should fall,"—this would be the height of folly. We need not go beyond the pale of professed ministers of Christ to find specimens of every infamy of which man is capable. After having preached to others there is grave cause for trembling lest we be castaways ourselves. No, there is nothing in the most sacred office in the church to preserve us or our characters."

   When Jesus performed his miracles he used terms that baffled and confused the general masses following him. He would say things like "your sins are forgiven" which shows a deeper rooted problem than the physical. "In stark contrast to Western rationalism and naturalism other inhabitants of the world have a different view of reality. The reality of the spiritual world is part of their culture and worldview. Animistic and spiritistic cultures appease their gods with peace offerings and perform religious rituals to ward off evil spirits. In many third-world nations, religious practice or superstition has more practical relevance in daily life than science does. It is easy for those who are educated in the West to dismiss Eastern worldviews as inferior on the basis of our advanced technology and economic success. But why then do we have the highest crime rate of any industrial nation and greatest distribution of pornography worldwide?" -NA. Between two tiers (Transcendent world of God/gods and spiritual forces) - aka Eastern world view and (empirical world of the senses): a Western worldview. There is an excluded middle between the two. Yet we must include the "kingdom of darkness" in our worldview because in reality their is no excluded middle! When Paul referred to spiritual battles in the heavenlies, he was not referring to distant places or realms yet to the kingdom of darkness that is all around us and working in the sub-consious of believers and un-beleivers minds. He urges us to "hold every thought captive" now why would he say this other than our thoughts alone can lead us astray? Unlike third world countries which demonstrate overt ritualistic behaviors and occult practices which are demonic in origin, here in Western culture the term idols has a more esoteric nature.  It is not found in belief systems rooted in "rationality" because sin is not rational. It doesn't make sense! It doesnt look into the future. It doesnt consider consequences expecially if they are immediate. All it knows is I WANT-I WANT MORE!. This is how a father can leave his family for a stripper without giving thought to the psychological and emotional devastation it wreaks on his family. Reason is useless. We cannot simply say "stop doing drugs, get control of yourself" As a result of spiritual oppression, drug users may be very intelligent yet oblivious to the destruction and slavery associated with the use. 

  Here is the truth. Using the perspective of idolatry, addicts are "blinded" by their "own" desire. They refuse to see themselves as dependent creatures on God and instead find their "self" dependency on something else which further enslaves and blinds them to the end result. They perform addictive, repetitive rituals of "using" that give them perceived power, pleasure and identity, they see in their addiction a release from the physical and in a way the behavior itself as a form of magic. Yet any identity power or peace these behaviors bring are temporary, due to their primary motives being spiritual. The result is deception and further spiritual blindness. For the addict dope is God. It is the supreme being. the higher power, in the junkies life. He is subjugated to its will, in effect it short wires the brain, temporarily shuts down the frontal lobe controlling such qualities as inhibition and judgement, and gives one a release from those very behaviors which he himself sees as enslavement!. The point of deception is one doesn't know they're deceived! In the end the user cannot find joy in the simple things in life, like romance, sex and comfort outside of the drug which is now deceiving and controlling the body to believe the drug itself is good. This is similar to a numbing effect and is rooted ina desire to escape reality. It is not strictly limited to hard drugs, like heroine and shrooms. Marijuana in effect cauterizes the nerve endings, coating them and inhibiting there  ability to function. I am not condemning marijuana users, merely giving a perspective. Each shot of junk a user shoots in his veins is a "shot" of divine love, and makes one feel resplendent with altered emotions. For some smoking marijuana is of consequence, now I am not saying marijuna smokers are sinning, what I am saying is to test the motives of why anyone smokes? Is it a release from the stress of relationships and the world around? Without knowing it we may be deceived by realizing we are unwittingly "bowing" to another "god" or sub-conscious idol, not made of brass or wood. Although one may worship God they may also be worshipping other "gods" (opinions of others), and peers. Wanting surrounding spectators to think "I'm cool" and accepted may be reasons that are faulty. Being proud others know one is a "stoner" may be an "idol". Of course the goal was not to worship marijuana it was to use it for our own purposes and gradually begins to represent an idol of "worship". One will begin to think about it, plan how to get it, and even avoid friends in order to perform (occultic) rituals; in this environment - smoking marijuana, and before one knows it when a substance becomes a "need" rather than a "desire" to that he/she is enslaved. This is a new radical approach to religion but religion is not the truth. The truth is within our very hearts and motives! The idolatrous heart wants more because the physical desire is unsatisfied and the cravings become uncontrollable as proper reasoning begins to be dismissed. The heart always desires just one more! And the body is briefly satisfied. That's all for now have a good night everyone :)