*Disclaimer, this article may be judged as highly controversial.
Leaving legalism is not an easy journey and is impossible if you aren’t aware that you’re steeped in it. I have spoken with many people who claim to refute legalism, yet they were so deeply ingrained in legalism and didn’t even know it. Just as with any 12 step program teaches, you must first realize the problem is at hand in your life.
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable
Identifying legalism is tricky business and many in the Christian Religion think they know what legalism is, but so many don’t notice the deeper roots of legalism thus they don’t become truly free from it’s vicious cycle. Legalism is an addiction and is present in many religions world wide. Even some Atheist groups can become legalistic. Legalism stems from any set dogma that you allow to govern your life. This is why legalism has infiltrated the Christian Religion. The Christian Religion is fraught with dogma that governs their lives.
It may help to understand that the Christian Religion and the Christian Faith are two different concepts and are easily misunderstood because they use similar lingo and the same book, the Bible.
free photo source Pix-O-Sphere credit Mike Davis
The Christian Religion was established by mankind and they set their dogma based on their interpretations passed down from various religious forefathers. One of the biggest problems in the Christian Religion is that the people submitted themselves to government tyranny masked with the Bible. Without the Bible, they would not have been able to gain the power it has over the people today. They used the Bible as a weapon, not a helpful tool for faith. The leaders of yesteryear have used the Bible to force people to adhere to their tenants of religion ‘or else’. That ‘or else’ is somewhat different, depending on which denomination you follow.
Some threats include disassociation from the group, breaking off of relationships, financial down fall due to lack of economic support to your business (boycotting), and character assassination for leaving or not adhering to their group’s dogma. In former years, they would imprison you or have you burned at the stake. Some historians have recorded that if you had your own copy of the bible to read for yourself, you were killed in their attempt to remove it from your possession. This wasn’t because they hated the Bible, it was because they didn’t want you to read it for yourself. They wanted full control over the Bible and over the people’s ability to reason the interpretations for themselves.
In the Christian Religion today, many clergy and seminaries do not want the people to study the Hebrew and Greek outside of their control. They also don’t want you studying other dogmas outside their own, even from their own pet version of the Bible. When you walk into the Christian Religion with control such as this, it is a clear indicator that you are entering the realm of legalism and it goes quite deep.
On the surface it seems to be “right” as they tell you to “rightly divide the word of God”, but only as far as they want you to. If you go outside your chosen denomination for an interpretation they will tell you that you are either disobedient to the “man of god” or you are “on a slippery slope”, and even “walking with the devil”. Don’t forget the ever so popular threat of “you’re going to hell”. There are many other statements in which the Christian Religion and it’s devotees will say to you if you venture out of their elite realm of “understanding”of Christianity.
Then there is the Christian Faith. This is a community of folks who walk by faith, not dogma. They seek to follow the Divine and listen to this leading aside from dogmas. They indeed read the Bible and study it, but they realize that the Bible is not a closed canon as once forced by the Christian Religion. There were many other books and letters from prophets and disciples that the Christian Religion does not accept. Those who walk in the Christian Faith believe that one could read anything and know if it’s to instruct them in their walk or not, because they hear from the Divine directly. This is not to say that those in the Christian Religion don’t also hear from God directly. The difference is that in the Christian Religion one must seek the clergy’s guidance on what is from God and in the Christian Faith the people rely on their faith to know if it is from God or not.
The Christian Religion claims to follow “Biblical facts” to support their dogmas guided by their traditions, while the Christian Faith takes everything by faith and simply walks in the confidence of their hope in the Divine.
It is evident to me that there are folks who walk in both communities, but it often leads them to confusion. When they are faced with this crossroads, they are coming face to face with the reality that these are two communities that do not agree.
If one wants to follow the Christian Religion you must adhere to your chosen denomination and all of it’s dogma. Only those who adhere to it are welcome.
If one wants to walk in the Christian Faith, it simply requires faith. In the Christian faith, all are welcome.
One leads to legalism, while the other leads to freedom.
You can leave the road to legalism, but you will suffer the onslaught of modern religious warfare. The Christian Religion is a jealous sort that does not take kindly to “defectors” of their Religion. In some extreme cases, one might need professional assistance in leaving. Some families are so integrated into the Christian Religion, that even choosing another denomination will land them in “hot flames” with families members, co-workers, and church members. They might put you through “hell” trying to flee to another denomination, let alone leaving it entirely.
A word about leaving “Christianity”. To leave the Christian Religion does not mean one has fled from the Christian Faith. They are two different realms.
This is the first of a series I will be sharing to help those seeking to leave legalism.
SisterLisa
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