Following are three dangerous way to lose your religion.
- Reject Jesus as your personal Savior
- Do not add your name to Heaven by trusting Jesus
- Do not fear God's eternal wrath
If you do these three things you will lose your religion and...
...become a confident mature Christian! What? Yes, consider...
1. Reject Jesus as your personal Savior and receive Jesus as Savior of ALL God's people!
While Jesus loves each individual person, his work on the cross was not for individuals and a private personal expression of faith. Instead his work on the cross was as the second Adam, a perfect vicarious sacrifice, for ALL God's people. Jesus is the ultimate family man, building His family. His salvation is not personal, but corporate, inviting ALL mankind to enjoy restored fellowship with Himself and His family.
Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation...
Jude 3a (WEB)
2. Do not add your name to Heaven by trusting Jesus and instead trust that Jesus has written your name in glory from BEFORE the creation of the world!
The hymn writer and many still sing, "There's a new name Written down in glory, And it's mine, oh yes, it's mine!" Unfortunately, this hymn perpetuates the fearful religion of conditional salvation, that there is something we must do, from being good enough to "accepting Jesus," to get God to love us eternally. Instead Jesus invites us to Christian faith, trusting that he already loves us unconditionally and eternally. Predestination used to scare me as the reason that I could not be saved, but friends this is the reason that all God's people will be saved!
3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, 5) having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, 6) to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, 7) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8) which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9) making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him 10) to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him.
Ephesians 1:3-10 (WEB)
3. Do not fear God's eternal wrath and allow God's perfect love to cast out fear!
Many evangelists have created entire churches full of hypocrites happy to have found the recipe to win God's love, huddled in reverent fear, while escaping His eternal wrath. They prayed a prayer, went forward to the altar, thought a thought, stopped a sin or two, bought a pass by "trusting" Jesus, or discovered the "safe" fellowship of the chosen few. Friends, complete confidence in God's love for us cannot come until every condition to guarantee his love through human decision has failed and we open our eyes to the bedrock of his unconditional eternal love, an unshakable place to stand.
18) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. 19) We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:18-19 (WEB)
Losing your religion is these ways is good, but may have dangerous repercussions.
