Undue Loyalty

I’ve seen it more times than I can remember or count, and it never ceases to sadly amaze me. People are fiercely loyal to the very thing that has grievously injured their lives. I’m talking about erroneous religious traditions that so many have been brought up in, and the damage that they have done to so many lives. I see it up close and personal all the time, and I never get used to it or find it to be an acceptable thing. So what do I do about it? Well, beside trying to persuade people of what is real and true in Christ, I just continue to grieve about it and pray much. That’s really all I can do because the bottom line is that it’s up to them to pull free from these traps that have ensnared them. I couldn’t count the people I’ve met that have been brought up in some Pentecostal sect, who complain about the abuse from their parents and the judgmental spirits and scorn of those in their religion. They wear the effects of the injury done to them by their religion like a brightly colored scarf, yet they will defend these false religious traditions like a honey badger. And as I am always want to say, it is nothing new. Nothing ever changes. God’s people in Jeremiah’s time were conditioned the same exact way, to be fiercely loyal to religious traditions that their parents raised them in; which traditions were contrary to the law that God had given them. Jeremiah had God’s word while everybody else THOUGHT they had God’s word, and thought that Jeremiah was an enemy of ‘the faith.’ God told Jeremiah exactly what the reward would be for the parents who loved falsehood, as well as for their children who were taught to revere the erroneous traditions that were taught them: “The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth” (Jer. 16:1-4).

A lot of soft bellied 'Christians’ would read that and say, “Oh that was the old testament, but we’re under grace.” My answer to that is one of stern, unwavering rebuke, which is this: So you’re telling me that upholding erroneous traditions about the faith of the suffering and death of God’s only begotten Son is more excusable than for those people to follow after tradition that was contrary to the law of Moses which was established on the blood of bulls and of goats? The men to whom God entrusted the writings of the holy scriptures certainly did not think like that: “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28,29). Again some pacified 'Christians’ will read that verse and say, “He’s talking about 'the world’ there.” Really? Well then I suppose we’ll just have to tack on the next verse in that passage for good measure: “For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge HIS PEOPLE” (Heb. 10:30). This generation of 'believers’ have been pacified by preachers of misguided hope the exact same way that God’s people were pacified by 'prophets of victory’ who opposed Jeremiah. Jeremiah warned of oncoming judgment for the continued willfulness of God’s people to continue in their stubborn denial of his word, but all the other prophets promised the people victory BECAUSE they were God’s people. That is what God straightly told Jeremiah they were doing: “For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer. 8:11).

Everybody and his brother today have promised everyone salvation just on the basis that they have made some verbal confession of faith, or because they have received the holy Ghost, or by many other similar means. And the same 'everybody and his brother’ have also taught God’s people that they are still sinners, and that they are unable to NOT be sinners. They are liars who speak such vanity in the name of the Lord, even as the prophets of Jeremiah’s time were all liars for speaking the equivalent of their day. And like the prophets who opposed Jeremiah, the wayward ministers of today are sending the same exact message to all who hear them, and that message is the same one that God rebuked through the prophet Malachi: “Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?” (Mal. 2:17). So the moral of the story my friend is that nobody can possibly prosper by following after vain religious traditions, regardless of how may people preach them or how many people believe them. The reason that the lives of those who follow such things are so damaged is that God is merciful to give all such a light preview of what is to come if that path is not departed from. Loyalty is a very good thing, but be certain that your loyalty is to the Son of God who died for you, and not to some misrepresentation of him. As for being loyal to such things for the sake of family, Jesus had a very direct answer for that as well: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mat. 10:37). Many think I’m a hard nosed preacher. They know nothing at all. God on the other hand knows all things, and said the following: “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29). I believe that covers the bases on that for now. God bless.