Quote
Blaise Pascal, "Men
never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction"...and
he said that nearly 400 years ago. Can we go to the Scripture and find validity
in Blaise Pascal’s statement? The
answer is a profound Yes!
One of the best examples is Jesus He often brought the passion of the
religious leaders of His day down on Him.
We have too many examples to list of Jesus rocking the boat of the
Jewish religious leaders, but often it was not what He did but when His action
took place. One such occurrence is
found in the gospel according to John, chapter 5:1-18. It is the account of Jesus healing a
man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, and it was done on the
Sabbath. Now after he was healed
Jesus told the man to “Get
up, take up your bed, and walk.” Now that was a big no-no, that was breaking the
Sabbath, and so when confronted by the religious leaders, the man that was
healed, reply was the one that healed me said to me, ‘Take
up your bed, and walk.’
Later he found out it was Jesus who had healed him and he told the
religious leaders and verse sixteen states: “And
this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things
on the Sabbath.” And if
this is not enough evidence to support Blaise Pascal’s
statement, then look at verse 18, “This was
why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he
breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making
himself equal with God.”
I have a very dear friend
that our relationship goes back to Jr. High and he loves to pull my chain or
anyone else that is close to him.
His favorite quote is the one from Blaise Pascal, listed above, an one
that I am in agreement with, I believe religion end game is always death, it
was religious people that demanded the life of Jesus.
My friend began by asking me
who was the winner of the Crusades, the Muslims or the Christians, and our
exchange went on for weeks on this subject. One of our last exchanges, and I am only using the last
paragraph of an exchange that went like this: “Christians
although they said they were and the millions and millions of people killed
over hundreds of years in repeated religious wars in what they said was
His name were just unlucky victims. It seems to me that doesn't speak very well
for Christianity in general and whatever doctrine is taught under Jesus’ name
has historically been ignored. If it were an isolated incident I might
understand it better. Unfortunately it follows a historical pattern. But...from
what you say, the fault is not Christianity, it's the Christians, even if it
happens time after time and the losers are the poor bastards that lost their
lives and the winners are the survivors...simple as that. Does that make
Christians any different than Muslims?”
And my answer is yes, the
Muslims faith is based on “Do” what I must do for Allah to earn his acceptance,
and that is religion. The
Christian faith is based on “Done” it is a relationship with God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, Jesus pay the price for sin. And the Bible give an account of a man
who was religious and did many evil things in the name of that religion, his
name was Saul. He took great joy
in hunting down this new group of followers of Jesus Christ, and putting them
in prison or killing them all with the blessing of the leaders of that
religion, and he and they believed they were doing the will of God. But if we follow this very religious
man after he encountered Jesus Christ, and after entering into a personal
relationship, we discover a new man, who became Paul the apostle, and his life
and goals changed because he went from a “Do” religion to a “Done”
relationship.
Anyone who follows the
teachings of Christ, as the apostle Paul did, will not do harm to their
neighbor, or their enemy to make them conform. You may recall that my friend ask this question: “who was the winner of the Crusades, the Muslims or the
Christians?” After much
though, I’ve come to this answer; the “Do” won, it matters not what name they
were fighting the war under, it was all about religion, and power, it was not
God centered, it was not doing the will of our Lord. But, it does seem on spot, to blame Christians and God for
just about everything.
The prophet Jeremiah had
this to say about our hearts: “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test
the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of
his deeds.” And the one who put those thoughts into Jeremiah’s
mind had this to say in the book of Matthew 15:18-20a, “But
what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a
person. For out of the heart,
comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness,
slander. These are what defile a
person.” I believe the
Scriptures have stated, that the real winners will be the ones who do the will
of the Father and who obey His commandments.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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