Having a relationship with God is more important than
religion. During my youth, my mother
taught me (in her way) that there would be plenty of church members and
preachers in hell. Some of the most vicious people I have known were
very religious.1 As a police officer, I handled religious people from the
church I was reared in who had murdered someone. I once worked for a
religious sub-contractor and he was very dishonest in many ways. His
brand of religion did not reflect the light of Jesus Christ in any way,
although he would claim it did.
The Pentecostal church I was reared in was full of extremely religious
members, but some of them would give others a "piece of their mind" in
(so called) tongues. I would think Pentecostal churches are generally
very religious, but that is not nearly the same as being Christ-like.
I felt uncomfortable in churches after WCG. There are beliefs in some of the
churches I find to be unscriptural and I find some discomfort being in
that. That might be because in WCG you had to believe their
doctrines. There were things there I did not agree with but I kept it to
myself because I understood the result of disagreeing with them.
The person preaching in the most recent church I attended (I preached
there for most of a year) has turned out to be an apparent Leftist and I
certainly cannot buy into that. When this minister insinuated we should
not be with the means of self defense within our homes, I did not go
back. However, I made it clear to him that I do have such.
By Walter
Footnote by ESN:
1
Religious people can be recognized
as some of the meanest people you've ever met. When they find you are not
living in obedience to the laws that they are trying to keep, they will at
first try to "help you." When you don't respond in the way they believe
you should, then they respond to you in the way they believe God would
respond to you, and that is with condemnation.
Roots of the
Pentecostal Movement [offsite link]
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