by Jacob Ninan
Religion is the way men attempt to reach out to God. They either want some blessing from God or to pacify some god who they assume must be unhappy with them. They seek the help of God to give them success in different areas of life or to prevent calamities. In general, they do not know God, and their gods are creations of their own imagination. They make gods of things they are afraid of, or different gods to seek in order to get different types of blessings. And then, some people create stories about these gods with fanciful ideas which are still within their ability to imagine. We can see that stories coming from different countries are not consistent with one another, and there are also many contradictions among them, which tells us that these stories are not based on true knowledge of God but mere imaginations, and thus, they do not represent the true nature of God.
The unique fact about the Bible is that it is a revelation from God to man. In it we can find descriptions of the character of God, how He created man, the history of His dealings with man and also what God has planned for man in the future. The worldview that we develop from the Bible is internally consistent and provides a logical explanation of reality. If we follow the Bible we can get an understanding of what is happening now in terms of the direction religion is taking now.
The Bible alludes to how Lucifer who was the chief of the angels at one time wanted to become like God. "But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High'" (Isa.14:13,14). He was not satisfied with the stature he had, and wanted to go above the position God had allotted to him. He was thrown out of heaven for this, and he and his followers became known as Satan and the demons. As Satan he even had the audacity to ask Jesus to bow down and worship him (Matt.4:8,9). Now he has managed to get many people to worship in different forms. He offers to give them thrills, excitement and material prospects and attracts them to follow him away from God. But they don't realise that once they allow themselves to be trapped in this way, he will then squeeze their life out of them (Jn.10:10).
But now Satan is promoting a new form of religion which has infiltrated Christianity too. This religion is about exalting man, and making him think and behave as if he is god. There are Christian leaders who actually say that we are gods. Out in the world, perhaps the biggest manifestation that we can see of this direction is in the assertion of personal rights. Personal rights are being held up as if they are unquestionable and they can overrule any other values or principles. According to this approach, every person has the right to define what is right or wrong for them, and even courts have given in to the pressure and recognised this. As a result, what everyone from all religious backgrounds instinctively knew as sinful is now being admitted as being right. People are now being given the right to choose which gender they want to be recognised as by others, with the freedom to change their mind about it whenever they like!
Aham brahmasmi is a Sanskrit phrase that is used to describe the unity of the individual self or soul with the absolute. It implies "I am divine." It is a form of pantheism which is the belief that God is the universe and its phenomena, or in other words considers the universe as a manifestation of God. There is therefore no distinction between the Creator and the 'creatures'. It is then easy to see that this leads to removal of absolute moral values that are given by the Creator to the creatures, and human behaviour is constrained only by social rules which are being modified to keep up with 'progressive' outlooks!
This type of influence has crept into Christian teachings and practices in a big way, superficially based on Bible verses, even though many are not even aware how this has taken people totally away from God. Preachers who proclaimed that we were gods thought that they were explaining the Bible, even though they thought nothing at that point about God creating everything from nothing and giving life. With the idea that we are really gods, it is not difficult to imagine that we can speak and make things happen just as if we were gods. Many people no longer pray to God in the form of requests (Php.4:6), but give commands expecting them to happen. Instead of recognising the reality around them and dealing with it, people try to be positive and deny all that is negative, hoping that by this they will change the situation and make it positive. Some people try to muster up enough faith in their mind believing that once they have the sufficient faith in them they can 'activate' events to take place, 'unlock' things that had been closed to them before and 'release' life and power into dead situations! All words that new-agers use!
If we have power in our words or in ourselves, then we don't need to depend on God to do things for us. We can make things happen because we are gods ourselves. We don't have to find out what the will of God is for our lives because now we have the power to decide what we want and make it happen. So now we can dream whatever we want and make it happen for us. Preachers talk of making a bucket list of things we would like to do before we die ('kick the bucket')!
You can see how different this whole thing is and how it is designed to take us away from God. On the contrary, the Gospel that Jesus came with tells us about our fallen nature, how we can be restored to God and come back under His lordship. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, what essentially happened was that they chose to be independent of God, with their own knowledge of good and evil, and thus become like God! However, as long as they lived in total submission to God, they could enjoy the provision, protection and God's plan for them. They did not even feel any need in their life. But when man chose to become independent of God, he also lost His provision, protection and plan for him. Now he had to fend for life with his own strength and plans.
In God's unmerited favour towards us, He offers us a restoration to the lost fellowship with Him. What we need to do is to humble ourselves, acknowledge our sins and foolishness and get back to submitting to His authority.
But the gospel that is commonly being preached these days is a compromise. It offers us forgiveness for our sins and takes away the punishment. But without getting back to the place where we recognise God as God and submit to His ways, we cannot hope to experience the kind of life He has planned for us. This is the reason why many people wonder why they are not able to enjoy the life that the Bible talks about even after saying the 'sinner's prayer'. Let us go back to the Bible and understand properly what God's plan is for our salvation.