Old Time Religion
Religion is not a bad word. It is an important word. It is a character defining word.
Noah Webster, in his original work, the 1828 “American Dictionary of the English Language” gives us a comprehensive overview of the concept as understood in his day, and as it should be in ours from a Christian perspective.
- religion, in its most comprehensive sense, includes a belief in the being and perfections of God, in the revelation of his will to man, in man’s obligation to obey his commands, in a state of reward and punishment, and in man’s accountableness to God; and also true godliness or piety of life, with the practice of all moral duties. It therefore comprehends theology, as a system of doctrines or principles, as well as practical piety; for the practice of moral duties without a belief in a divine lawgiver, and without reference to his will or commands, is not religion
- religion, as distinct from theology, is godliness or real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men, in obedience to divine command, or from love to God and his law.
- religion, as distinct from virtue, or morality, consists in the performance of the duties we owe directly to God, from a principle of obedience to his will. Hence, we often speak of religion and virtue, as different branches of one system, or the duties of the first and second tables of the law.
Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion.
The last statement is telling. American society today buys into the falsehood that a moral state can be attained and maintained in the absence of religious influence. Our institutions seek to divorce religious thought from their desired social order altogether.
But it doesn’t work. Take Christ out of our collective consciousness and nothing remains but chaos. Everything and anything goes.
Religion, in the true Biblical sense, is not an organization or a system or a fraternal order. Religion is the outward expression of spiritual devotion. Religion is a way of life. A radical new mold for behavior first introduced by Christ’s forerunner, John the Baptist.
John, as did Christ afterward, came preaching repentance. To repent is to change one’s mind about life, oneself, and God. Repentance calls upon the individual to live in a radically new way with a heart toward God. This means a change of behavior that diametrically opposes the human compulsion to put one’s personal life first and foremost in all things.
Neither John nor Jesus were short on examples of how that works in our lives. When the people asked John, “What shall we do then?,” he gave them practical illustrations of what living the repentant life meant: new, selfless behaviors such as generosity, honesty, and humility.
Jesus began his ministry by introducing a way of living and thinking that the world had never heard before. He didn’t focus on rituals and organizational schematics. He spoke of new ways of living our lives quietly, meekly, mercifully, and lovingly—and then He showed us how.
So, when we speak of religion, we speak of devoting oneself to the life Jesus taught and exemplified. That’s how James uses the word—behaviorally, not institutionally.
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. ()
The separation of church and state mandated by the First Amendment to our Bill of Rights does not in any way suggest separation of religion and state.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Simply stated, our government cannot establish a national religious body, or church, as was the case in the British Church of England. The framers had no issue with King George III being a devout Anglican, or with members of Parliament who were devout in their religious practices. They simply wanted freedom from laws and acts that impinged on their freedom to worship according to their individual beliefs. A government or a people without religion was the furthest thought from their collective minds.
A government without religious principles would have set the ship of state adrift without a rudder. A cursory examination of the lives of our founding fathers reveals, if anything, they were religious men who held Christian values and virtues.
Today we reap the fruit of decades of attempts to rid our institutions of Biblical religious principles. We see it in the disorder of the offices of government and the pandemonium on the streets of our cities. We see it in our in mainstream churches which, in a fanatical attempt to stay fiscally and socially relevant, have abandoned the religious principles introduced by John and Jesus and the Apostles; and practiced by the early church, principles which, in the words of one, “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).
Turning back to the old time religion means battling the headwinds of public sentiment these days, but we’ve got to try. Old time religion is not a church, or a movement, or organization, but a personal commitment to return to the first principles of the Christian faith as found in the Holy Scriptures. And that, not a watered-down user-friendly generic version, but the classical translations such as the KJV in the English language (or, for instance, Reina Valera in Spanish or the Lutherbibel in German).
Give me that old time religion, sang the old ones. Seems to be precisely what Jeremiah was calling for in the days not unlike our own.
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (Jeremiah 6:16)
What will we say?
[This article by Elder Smith, that first appeared in primitivebaptistsermons.org, addresses the purpose and the need for Bible Studies in our churches.]
