Is religion emotions? Joel Osteen’s crowd seems to think so. “Feel good” is the essence of his message. If you just let Him come into your heart you’ll have a higher estimation of who and what you are and you’ll feel good. Positive thinking becomes religion according to many of today’s televangelists. The Bible says things about emotions, it is true. The Ethiopian, we are told, “went on his way rejoicing” after he was taught and baptized (Acts 8:39). And in 2 Corinthians 7:10, Paul taught that “godly sorrow worketh repentance.” Peter spoke in Acts 3:19 of “seasons of refreshing” which can come from having done what is right. But the Bible nowhere teaches that emotion, some religious “experience” is equal to religion. In fact the Bible everywhere teaches that emotions must subordinate to reason.

Is religion entertainment? Worship today has been turned into little more than and entertainment gig. There are variations of rock and roll and blues adapted to religious use, there are huge orchestras to fascinate and titillate the people’s emotions. There are professional singers who “get the audience ready” for the sermons. Worship is enjoyable, but enjoyment is not necessarily worship. To worship “in spirit and in truth” (Jno. 4:4) is more than having some large choir do it for you. It is more than admiring the vocal talents of some singer or enjoying some fine orchestrated version of Amazing Grace. Worship can only be accomplished by doing what God said do (Eccles. 5:1-5). What does it mean that we be careful not to “offer the sacrifice of fools”?

Is religion monetary success? John Hagee says it is. “I am the salesman, God is the business manager,” he said on a recent television appearance. Is it true that if you give to God he will give to you, “pressed down, running over,” etc. Does that mean that Christianity is a warranty against being poor or having to struggle to make a living? Hagee even said that his preacher-father went out during a hail storm and prayed for the salvation of his parishioners’ crop and God spared every one of them. Is it so that if you give $10 you can expect to receive $100? Can you really expect a financial miracle in your life because you acknowledge Christ as your Savior? Does being a Christian ensure financial success? Why are Christians told not to “lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matt. 6:10)? And why are so many of those who attend these miracle meetings still poor? The religion of Christ is a religion of other-worldiness, not worldliness. God says we will be cared for, but nowhere that I know of does He promise financial success.

Is religion miracles? Is it having preachers who can give you good health as well as good wealth? If miracles are being performed today, what do its modern practitioners not perform the same kind of miracles as did Christ and His apostles? Kenneth Copeland says he has done all kinds of healings. So does Oral Roberts. So does T.D. Jakes. So do literally dozens of others. But why are their miracles always things not so obvious—things like stomach trouble and backaches? Which of them has restored a severed hand? Which of them has caused a blind man to see? Which of them has calmed a storm? There is absolutely no evidence of any modern-day healer curing a person with Muscular Dystrophy or Lou Gerhig’s Disease. Where is the doctor who gives proof of today’s healings? I saw a lady on television who was totally turned off by the claims of Benny Hinn. Her mother went to his crusade in Houston, became so enthralled with his message of healing she claimed he healed her, threw away her medicine, and promptly died. How sad.

What is religion? Religion is doing what God said do in the way He said it should be done. It is preaching a gospel of salvation from sin. It is worship, conducted in the way God said it should be done. The religion of God is not a secular one. It has little to do with this world, but identifies ones time on earth as a probationary period during which he equips himself for a heavenly abode. In fact, it predicts that one who becomes a Christian will suffer for having done so (I Pet. 4:12-16), that it will possibly bring hardships of various kinds (Matt. 10:34-35). Christians are taught to be separated from this word (Rom. 12:1-2; Col. 3:1; 1 Jn. 2:15; etc.) They are said to be “strangers and pilgrims,” “so-journers” in this present world (1 Pet. 2:9) and that they will “suffer for righteousness sake” (I Pet. 3:14) or that it they will likely “suffer for well doing” (1 Pet. 3:17).

The religion of Christ is a religion of the heart (Matt. 22:37). It is a religion based on an awareness of eternity as opposed to this world, which is to be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10-11). It is a religion that has Christ at its center and heaven as its end.

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