Here are five reasons to be wary of manmade religion

 1. Religion is based on a lie

 At the heart of religion is the belief that we can make ourselves good. It’s the serpent saying, “Do this and you will be like God.” We think Adam and Eve were fools for listening, but we repeat their mistake whenever we look to ourselves as our source of security and joy. Religion is a temple built with human hands.

 2. Religion prostitutes the love of God

 Religion perpetuates lies about the character of God. “God is mad at you. He’s keeping score. He may reject you.” These lies feed the fiction that God can be bought. “But if you do A, B, and C, you can appease an angry God. If you are faithful and good, he will bless you.” What a villainous distortion of our Father’s unconditional love!

 3. Religion alienates you from grace

 Religion offers a pathway to God that perversely leads away from him. “Keep these rules, heed these principles, do what you’re told, and you’ll be acceptable to God.” Nope. The highway of religious pride does goes nowhere near the throne of grace.

 4. Religion is idolatry

 Forget Baal, Molech, and television. The biggest idol is the one called Self. This idol utters two words again and again: I will, as in “I will make things right; I will do better; I will never fall away; I will follow Jesus anywhere; I will do great things; I will ascend to the heavens; I will be like the Most High.” Religion runs on will power and speaks the language of Satan (Is 14:12-14).

 5. Religion rewrites the Bible

 Since religion is false, while God’s Word is true, it has to redefine words like repentance (penance), faith (works), hope (wishful thinking), obedience (rule-keeping), and grace (grease for the gears of self-effort), lest it be exposed for the sham that it is. Christ said following him was meant to be easy, but religion makes it hard. The gospel is meant to be good news, but religion makes it bad.

 Make no mistake – religion is rotten to the core. Religion is organized crime masquerading as an insurance racket. Like the Mafia, religious institutions hide behind a respectable storefront of good deeds. Don’t be fooled!

 Regardless of what it says on the brochure, the purpose of religion is to enslave you. Religion wins and you lose whenever you buy into its propaganda of uncertainty and fear.
​~ Paul Ellis