Quote's

 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 replied that 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 religions’ 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.  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 paid the price for sin.  The Bible gives an account of a man, Saul who was religious and did many evil things in the name of that religion.  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 asked this question: “who was the winner of the Crusades, the Muslims or the Christians?”  After much thought, 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