False religion and the stimulation of the mind

“Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” (Isa. 50:10,11).

“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.

Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.” (Isa. 47:13-15).

“Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,

Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?...

I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” (Isa. 57:4,5,19-21).

“And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living [instead of] to the dead?

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isa. 8:19-22).

These scripture warn everyone away from the attempt to self-resuscitate their dead soul. Through classical education, science and the humanities, the world’s thought leaders, whether in religious or secular leadership, seek to put a band-aid on the cancer of their hearts and on the hearts of their followers. The dead soul needs more than a bachelor of the sciences and of the arts. Faith in our Creator’s love is the only cure for the deadness of a hopeless soul.

One YouTube testimony came from a man who was so addicted to the hardest drugs that he felt totally dead. He would cut himself and stick needles in the nerves of his teeth because, as he said, “the pain was better than nothing.” Finally he realized that there existed no rescue from the power of his addiction, except death. He wanted to die; so he got a gun. But, just before he pulled the trigger he yelled out, “God, if You’re real, You’ve got to save me because can’t feel, and in 1.2 seconds I’m going to pull the trigger, and I’m going to die!” Immediately a change came over him and he saw a ray of hope that was much more powerful than crack cocaine. All of his addiction was gone and now he is spending his life learning about the God who saved him. He is safe in Christ now. You can find his testimony at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5DOcIYOWcE&t=4819s, minute 1:44:15 to 1:51:22.

That experience illustrated to me what I have come to see lays behind the wickedness and deception of all false religion. People using earthly constructs to resuscitate themselves. I heard a pastor once say, “Everyone in the world has a devotional life. They are devoted to Jesus or they are devoted to sports or perversions or many other things of this world.” He was so true. Everyone is religious. Everyone is spiritual because we all are spiritual beings. But, we all are also under a delusion from the deceiver, therefore most people don’t want to strive to find the truth and the true religion of the Bible.

Whether by mysticism or technology or ballet or sports or political power or to have celebrity or to be part of the elite families of the world, the rich and famous, the deceiver has diverted billions away from their Creator. Everyone is born with a hole in his heart. And the older we get the bigger that chasm gets, with a voice calling out of the chasm for us to somehow repair the breech. So we throw ourselves in movements or curiosities or mysteries or empty rites and sacraments all of which attempt to substitute for reconciliation with the One who has the creative power to restore us to peace in Him. To love and to be loved constituted Eden. David’s praises give us a taste of Adam’s and Eve’s. “Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.... My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.” (Ps. 63:3,8). But, the deceiver seeks to keep us from the glory of the original garden of God that Jesus made for His most precious creation.

The rift born in each person’s soul and the human measures to buttress their spirit through humanly devised stimulation attempts to restore the love and life lost in Eden. For many, their soul is so dead that mental activity, deep thinking, intellectual endeavors are sought out to ease the deadness in the heart. This is where Gnosticism comes into play, as well as the sciences and “the mysteries”. People can literally wrap their mind around a thought so tightly that they seem to find some relief for their nagging, empty heart. This can be true even of theological thought. Remember what Jesus said of the religionists of His day, “In [the scriptures] ye think ye have eternal life.” (John 5:39). Gnostics of all colors seek life from knowledge. But they never come to their Creator that they might have the full eternal, never-ending life. 

And then the devil promotes this practice by pointing out all the advances that sciences have brought to our planet. But there are ways that seems right to the unregenerated mind, which always end in death. Such knowledge is unbalanced; it is one-sided knowledge, and therefore lop-sided because the omniscient Creator and His omniscient truth are not allowed into their perverse knowledge. Any pursuit that involves the intellect alone, intellectual pursuits devoid of pursuing the Law of love, is a dangerous science and philosophy. Such a pursuer who is closed to God’s truth and grace is open to the demons’ subtle whispered deceptions.

To the devotee of wisdom without righteousness and mercy a degree of satisfaction and peace does come. But, indulgence in knowledge that is devoid of faith and dependence on the God of lovingkindness deranges the human soul differently than does the opiate to the drug user. It’s all the wine of Babylon. They believe that their humanly administered stimulation gives spiritual life for the dearth of the soul. “The fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.” (Isa. 47:14). And because their idols of philosophy seemingly provide for some light and life such devotees will protect those intellectual idols, religious or secular, to the extent that they will dispense capital punishment upon everyone who reproves them of their idolatry. Don’t get between them and their source of life or you will be hurt. You might even die.

But the mystified, enflamed mind, like the nerves of the drug abuser, needs increasingly extreme stimulation until it is completely wasted and there is not “a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before….” (Isa. 47:14). Only the screams of baby sacrifices can seem to revive the dead soul from its dungeon. The imprisoned heart has no mercy; the lifeless conscience no guilt. And a grandiose, world renown system of human philosophy gives credence to such wickedness. Thus it is perpetuated.

But such a bonafied system is attempting to jump-start a soul that doesn’t have the internal mechanism that allows it to start up—that soul doesn’t have the recreative Spirit of the Life-giver with It’s power of love. The soul of that person has atrophied and died, and to use an artificial substance or philosophy is to abuse the brain and nerves, and then enervate them. “Ye shall lie down in sorrow.” (Isa. 50:11). That soul expends the remaining life that his dead body has until he has zero desire to live.

“The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night.” (Rev. 14:11).

“He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36).

Finally comes suicide. Or a miracle comes from above by calling for help from the Creator. “God, if Your are real, I desperately need You help!” Then “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” (John 3:36).

The miracle from above, the promised Spirit from Jesus, that precious gift of God, comes to everyone who finally gives up the attempt to fill his soul’s grand canyon, the “great gulf” (Luke 16:26) between the holy God and arrogant, wretched self. When the great divide is closed, the God-sized hole fills instantly as if it was never empty. The Spirit of God makes that soul His new fortress. With Christ’s new presence in that heart and mind comes everything that He is—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith. He glorifies us with His own self. He withholds nothing of Himself, His wisdom, His reconciliation, His sanctification, His redemption, when we give Him access to our heart and will. “Christ Jesus…is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1Cor. 1:30). We have unrestricted access to Him, and He has unrestricted access to us. In Christ’s heart the missing object for loving is filled. He is satisfied and so are we. The Christian’s new soul, mind, and body are whole.

The mystical mind flees. The intellectual diversions that gave only temporary relief for the dearth of the soul, flee away. Our education and knowledge and wisdom are balanced between the studies of eternal, heavenly things and temporal, natural things. Heart and brain are brought into every deep thought. Our brain isn’t taxed solely with scientific research, but also with being filled with thanksgiving and joy for God’s creative work in nature, and with researching His Law. All nature sings and ’round us rings the music of His works. We have perfect freedom.

“I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts.” (Ps. 119:45).

“I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts.” (Ps. 119:99,100).