2 Corinthians 4:4

Thoughts on religion (Part 1): Satan’s purposes

OVERVIEW. An essay on religions. This article focuses on the purposes for which Satan has created religions.

“I must admit that I am doctrinally weak.” These were the words that Elisabeth said to me when I had mentioned that some of the beliefs of the Mormons were a bit strange. Elisabeth and I were dating at the time. She was a Mormon, having recently come into that group through her sister’s influence. Through a couple of Mormon “missionaries,” I was being exposed to this group’s teaching and found it pretty hard to believe. And so I made my comment to Elisabeth.

This anecdote serves as an introduction to a series of reflections I had recently about religions and about how these philosophes gain and then maintain their control over men and women. This article is a record of some of these reflections.

BASICS OF RELIGION

Before we get too far along, it will be helpful to establish some basics about religion. All religious systems are conceived by the prince of the demons and are brought into the world as Satan insinuates his ideas into the minds of sinful men.

THE PURPOSES OF RELIGION ARE TWO-FOLD. Since the fall in Genesis 3, when sin entered the world (Romans 5:12-14), all mankind has experienced two great problems from their sin: guilt and death. Religions are Satan’s response to these two great problems, because religions are intentionally designed to deceive people about their guilt from sin and to deceive people about death.

GUILT. One of the purposes of any religious system is to provide its adherents with a way to ignore their conscience so that their guilt is assuaged. Because all men have a conscience and because a complete copy of the Law is written on every man’s conscience (Romans 2:14-15), all people experience guilt every time they violate the moral Law of God. The only way to truly remove the guilt from your sin and to rid your conscience of its shame is by true repentance and by faith in the Lord Jesus. But religions are designed to provide a man-made counterfeit that pretends to remove guilt through man-made works and efforts or through man-made ideas with the result that the religious adherent is deceived into believing their guilt is no more.

DEATH. The second purpose of religious systems is to deceive their adherents regarding the nature of death.

When the LORD God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He warned the man with the most terrifying prohibition possible. The LORD God warned man by threatening death as the consequence of disobedience (Genesis 2:17). Death is the most severe threat man can experience. Thus, the threat of death should be the most terrifying threat to us.

But Satan is the deceiver of mankind. What the LORD God threatens for our good Satan twists so that we will be deceived. And so he said to the woman, “You surely will not die!” (Gen. 3:4). The talking snake convinced Eve that there was some wiggle room in what God had commanded. The snake was persuasive, so the woman was persuaded that the threat of death was not that bad. And, ever since, the serpent of old has been persuading fallen mankind that death is not really that bad and deceiving them that God does not really intend to destroy some of His creatures in the lake of fire. Religion is one of Satan’s primary tools for deceiving man about death.

OBSCURING CHRIST AND THE CROSS

To this point we have spoken of religion as Satan’s means of deceiving mankind about the peril of his situation before a holy God. When presenting the gospel to unbelievers, this explanation of religion as putting a veil over the realities of guilt (sin) and death can be a helpful introduction to proclaiming the atoning death of the Lord Jesus and how it solves our two great problems. So certainly, Satan has created religions for deception and distraction.

But there is an even more significant purpose for the invention of religious systems and philosophies. Satan’s primary purpose for religion is to obscure the cross of Jesus Christ and to remove the glory of the Lord Jesus. Consider 2 Cor. 4:3-4:

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Paul expressly teaches that “the god of this world” (Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the glory of Christ. Satan hates Christ and he hates the cross and therefore his primary goal is to bury Christ’s triumph on the cross in the deepest depths of Sheol. Religion, consisting in fallen man’s pathetic and futile efforts to achieve his own righteousness, is Satan’s primary means for obtaining this goal. So, religion in all its myriad forms is never a way to gauge your goodness but is, in fact, the primary way Satan blinds your mind and obscures the cross of Christ, which is the only way of salvation (Acts 4:12).

In a future post I will continue my musings about religion and will consider the effects of religion on fallen man. We will also consider ancient religions and “next gen religions.”

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 5/22/2025                 #717

Considering Religions – Part 3 Religions are shallow

INTRODUCTION. This is the third post in a series of articles about “religions.” I had planned to have this third post be about the threats posed to the true church from pagan religions and from “Christian” religions and also about the biblical warnings against these false systems, but I have decided to defer those subjects and, instead, to consider the shallowness of religions. Shallowness is another mark of “religions.”

OUR DEFINITION OF RELIGION. We have been considering the subject of religions in the last few posts. Remember that we are defining “religions” functionally, knowing that these systems of thought do not innocently spring up as someone’s helpful ideas, but are Satanically conceived and designed to prevent the adherents from hearing about Jesus Christ and thus being saved. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).

Thus, I am defining a “religion” as “any worldview, philosophy, ideology, or system of thought which exists for the purpose of intentionally obscuring the gospel of Jesus Christ so that people remain trapped away from salvation in a godless, Christless, hopeless religious system.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGION. Last time we had also talked about the characteristics of religions so that we could better identify them. The definition above contains the most prominent characteristic of religions; namely, that the purpose of “religions” is keeping people away from Jesus Christ and away from His salvation. But as I was thinking and praying about this topic this morning, another distinguishing mark came to mind: Religions are shallow.

RELIGIONS ARE SHALLOW

Religious thought is marked by shallowness. They intentionally avoid the immense and complex questions which occur to every human being. God has built into every human heart a longing to know the answers to obvious questions about their own existence and He has displayed His creation for all to see His handiwork and to give undeniable evidence of His existence (Romans 1:19-20). But as you examine religions, you will see that they do not answer the obvious questions. Religions do not answer these questions because religions cannot answer these questions. If you have ever spoken to someone who is a religious adherent and have tried to move the conversation to deeper things, you have probably been frustrated by your inability to get much traction with them. That is because of how religions operate. Religions typically seek the young and the gullible and the simple-minded. These they ensnare in their religious system with its simple answers to complex questions and then they gradually smother any curiosity about the inadequate, unsatisfying answers they provide. Thus, as Paul said, they “blind the minds of the unbelieving.” So, religions are marked not only by shallow answers to life’s complex questions, but also by vigorously discouraging clear thinking or challenging questions. The attitude is, “Do what we tell you and do not ask questions!”

I have claimed that religions are shallow because they do not answer the basic questions of life. But what are the “immense and complex” questions that we are considering? What are the deep questions that we would like religious adherents to think about as precursors to possibly coming to faith in Jesus?

EXISTENCE QUESTIONS

I maintain that every sentient human being asks these questions at some point in life. We all have questions about our existence like:

  • “Where did the world (and universe) come from?” How is it that the infinite complexity and order and beauty that I see all around me came into being? Has it always existed or was it made by someone? These questions plant the fact of our own smallness and finiteness in the front of our mind. Whoever created all this must be extremely powerful and immensely wise.
  • “Who created me?” When I consider my own body and the phenomenal complexity it has, I must ask, “Who made me?” I have a heart and lungs and eyes and ears and bones and a brain, and these all function perfectly well without my conscious will. Who could have designed and created me like this?
  • “Why do I exist?” Man is made to search for meaning because he needs a purpose for his life. Once a person loses a purpose for their life, they begin to die. But the question is, “Where do I find my purpose?” Who supplies me with my purpose? Since all other people are seeking an answer to this same question, then the answer cannot lie with people. But if why I exist is something that cannot be answered by man, who can answer the question?
  • “Why do people die?” As we gain years in life, we begin to notice that people die. One day the person is laughing and smiling, and they can hug you and talk with you, and the next day they lie still and cold and will never laugh or talk again. What happened? Why did they die? Where are they now? Is death the end, or is there something beyond death? If something is beyond, what is it?
  • “What happens to me when I die?” The previous question leads inevitably to this question. As I think about that person’s death, since I also am a person, I have to think about my own death. The same questions now take on vastly more significance. Where do I go when I die? Is death the end, or is there something beyond? Some claim that my death will be followed by nothingness, but if that is true, why am I so afraid of death?

These are universal questions which all people consider simply because they are human beings. As we search for these answers, we would naturally turn to our religion. “Surely,” we think, “my religion will give me the answers to these deep questions.” Unfortunately, the shallowness of religions is borne out by the lack of satisfying answers they provide for these most basic of human questions.

MORAL QUESTIONS

But human beings are also moral creatures with a God-given conscience. Yes, we are fallen creatures stained by sin and our moral faculties have been warped by the fall, but we are still all moral creatures with a built-in sense of right and wrong and a sense of guilt earned from our own transgressions of God’s holy Law. And so, after wrestling with the universal questions of existence, we turn to moral questions which lead to God and His justice. Now we are asking questions like:

  • “Why is there so much evil in the world?” If God is good, then why is there so much evil? Where did the evil come from?
  • “What do I do with my sense of guilt?” I see that I do many evil things and I feel guilty. How do I get rid of this guilt?
  • “How can I be forgiven of the evil things that I have done?” I do not think that my good will ever outweigh my bad. In fact, I am not even sure I can think of an example of doing a “good thing.” What I need is a new start. What I need is forgiveness of all my sins.
  • “Does God exist?” Even though man knows that God exists, this question still needs to be asked. Some religions would get this one wrong.
  • “What is God like?” Is there one God or many gods? Is God personal or impersonal? Is God good or evil? Does God care about me or about anything that I do? For that matter, is God involved in this world at all?
  • “How can I know anything about God?” Has God ever communicated with man in any way? Is there anyway that I can find out about God? Is there anyway that I can communicate with God, like one-on-one? What are God’s thoughts? What does God think about evil? What has God ever done about evil?
  • “What is the Bible?” The Bible stands alone as by far the most famous and most read book in human history. This amazing book is God’s written communication to man. There are religious books that are clumsily written counterfeits, but the Bible is evidently God-breathed. There is no book like the Bible.
  • “Who is Jesus?” While religions may have their religious heroes like Mohammed or Buddha, Jesus towers above them as Mount Everest towers above a sand dune. Religions offer evil founders with their sinful systems of wicked worship and useless works, but Jesus shines as incarnate deity, the Son of God and God the Son, who performed countless miracles as He lived a sinless life. Then He submitted to the agony and humiliation of His atoning death on the cross, rising from the dead three days later in glorious resurrection and coming soon in power and glory to judge all the earth.

Take any of these metaphysical questions to any religion and the answers will either be shallow or silent. If religions have no answers about the immense questions of life, they certainly offer no hope regarding moral answers.

But there is one more area that should fall into this discussion and that points out the shallowness and hollowness of religions.

INTIMACY WITH GOD

In Christianity, our God is personal, and He invites us into a personal, intimate relationship with Him that continues to grow deeper the longer we walk with Him. He declares He is with us and will never leave us or forsake us. He invites us to cry out to Him and to commune with Him because, in Christ, we are His children.

By contrast, in religions whether pagan or “Christian,” the gods are impersonal, and God is distant. An identifying characteristic of a religion is that the one who is worshiped is emotionally distant. Religions are marked by an absence of intimacy.

SDG                 rmb                 3/6/2022                     #498