Consider This

Making God and Religion in Our Image

“If God made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.” Various people get credit for this quote, but it’s the 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire who originated the notion.

Voltaire held some rather skewed views of God, but his insights regarding many religious practices, especially those based on superstition, were often razor-sharp. Sacred cows did not escape his wit, nor was he bothered by alienating, as often happened, the pious traditionalists.

Making His religion in our image as well

Voltaire wasn’t the first to recognize that we’ve refashioned God in our image. Long before, God said through the prophet Isaiah, “These people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men” (Isaiah 29:13).

But along with wrong—even insulting—man-made ideas about God have come wrong, man-made ideas about worshipping Him. Dozens of doctrines and practices seen in churches today would be unrecognizable to the early apostles like Paul, Peter, James, John—and Jesus Himself. They, and others following, fought tirelessly against many teachings that eventually crept into and forever altered Christianity.

As we are now nearing what most Western religions consider to be the holiest time of year, some of these are in the spotlight. The “Should Christians Celebrate Passover?” article in this issue shines light on the core question: Are today’s worship practices based on Scripture or invented by man?

Institutionalizing religious fraud

God Himself instituted sacred commemorations to be annually observed in this season, and several articles in this issue focus on their deep, spiritual significance.

But we also take aim at one of the contrived ideas that wormed its way into religious tradition: Jesus being crucified on Friday and rising on Easter Sunday. It’s unbiblical and illogical (try fitting three days and three nights into that time frame); it was never taught in the Church Jesus established; and it corrupted the true meaning of God’s holy days.

Other practices with zero biblical authority— bunnies, eggs, hot cross buns, Lent, Ash Wednesday— also found their way into church practices over the centuries. How? Why? Very simply, powerful people knew that blending in pagan religious practices would attract more devotees. It was nothing less than institutionalizing religious fraud. Doing it in God’s name was sacrilege.

Strong words to those who genuinely hold dear their beliefs? Maybe, but we hope anyone reading Discern holds equally dear a desire for discovering truth. Such criticisms are aimed at practices, not people.

Bottom line: Does it matter?

Frankly, if you could somehow observe the people and practices of the Church in the days of Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John, you probably wouldn’t recognize them. Worst of all, most of those men, and countless other faithful people, gave their lives valiantly resisting changes that led to pagan practices becoming ingrained in conventional Christianity.

Can we shrug our shoulders at religious practices that once were heretical but now are entrenched? Does it matter to God if we recreate Him in our own image, or reinvent the Church Jesus established? Does God give us the authority to ignore the Bible and decide when and how we will worship Him based on the ideas of men?

Research tells you where these things came from. Discernment tells you whether or not it matters.

Clyde Kilough Editor