The following is not meant to make light of what people believe, because belief systems can be sacred and precious to people. I might think some of these things are controlling and ridiculous, but we must respect people's convictions, for we haven't walked in their shoes. The intent of revealing these things is meant to take our minds off things that have nothing to do with our salvation and onto WHAT OUR GOD IS LIKE. Not how holy we can be for doing or not doing or believing in certain things.

Religions in general have produced a lot of God fearing, God honoring people. I think this has came about because, people seeking a spiritual base, are usually in the frame of mind to do right. They are seeking to know God and learn of His will, spending a lot of time trying to figure out what that is.

The steps usually taken are to find a church they like, attend classes to learn about what they teach and do their best in following the belief system. Of course, we would like to think someone in this body of believers has figured out what God's will is, so they follow, trusting that they are following after God's will.

Things being taught can range from very wholesome right things to the most ridiculous strange behaviors you've ever seen - all in the name of religion / spiritual things. Most organizations direct their people to focus on pleasing God, which would seem to be an honorable thing to do, except, some leaders in some organizations are taking advantage of the people. They attempt to control the people through their emotions in order to get to their finances. And what better way to do this than to direct them onto a treadmill of doing all kinds of things that are sure, they say, to please God.

Simply convince the people that God's will is 'this and that' - some good things plus some non-sense, mix it all up so the people don't know the difference and you have the ingredients for control. This control can range from being or acting very holy, to rolling on the floor, barking like a dog, laughing like an idiot, turning everything you own over to a religious Commune to piloting a loaded aircraft into tall buildings. The main focus is control, to convince people to act in irrational ways. The purpose? To make anything associated with God look silly and ridiculous to people that do not attend church.

It doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to figure out that there must be a lot of super sales people to get people to believe almost anything in the name of religion. Simply make it sound mystical and spiritual, and some people, without thinking, will follow after irrational behavior.

We might want to look at Gal. 5:22 where it's stated that one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. So when anyone suggests that you should let go and let God - let the Spirit lead - you might want to look ahead as to where they want you to go. For you see, it really could be the wrong spirit. It could be a wolf in sheep's clothing. I'm saying these things not to put down being lead by the Spirit, but as a word of caution to think before leaping.

Churches in general, have many special beliefs, which to them are very precious - we could call them pet issues or sacred cows, so to speak. These beliefs can range from talking in tongues, keeping a certain day holy, calling God by a certain name, dressing in very odd ways, along with many, many other things. Again, not to make light of these things, only to bring out that if we are putting things ahead of what God is like as our main issue, we could be misinterpreting the real meaning of things.

I gave my book, "Are We Sure We Know God?" to a friend and sometime after, asked him about a doctrinal point within my book. His answer was a classic. He said he wasn't into all that doctrinal stuff that he was into the anointing of the Spirit.

It's my hope that all of us could be anointed by the Spirit, the right Spirit, and the only way we are going to know the difference is to get into 'ALL THAT DOCTRINAL STUFF' which means teachings about God.

Most all religions tell us we must love God, which I agree with. However, the question should be; what is our motive for loving God? If properly understood, it's within all the doctrinal stuff that we can develop a reason and a proper motive for loving God beyond the obligation stage of Christ dying for us. If we are saying we have to love God, some individuals could be including that in their long list of rules to do.

The issue here is not about keeping some special rules, rather the issue should be over WHAT IS OUR GOD LIKE, WHAT KIND OF A PERSON IS OUR GOD? We need to be asking questions like; what does He have to be like in order to be a kind and loving God? At the end of time, will He be found keeping sinners alive in the fire, torturing them for ever and ever or as long as they deserve - all in the name of justice? This sounds more like something we would find in the history books that Hitler would have done, but he couldn't keep them alive in the fire like God can.

More info at - "Is There Life After Death?"

Could this concept, Bible interpretation, come from Church leaders, again, for control purposes to simply scare the people into their brand of behavior? Yes, some of us might need to be scared into improving our lives and maybe God has allowed the concept for that purpose, to get our attention. But it's high time we look past tradition and what we think the Bible says and take another look at what God is really like.

The enemy against God would have us put the cart before the horse. He would have us get into everything that controls our feelings that he might direct us his way. In other words, the enemy will work through our feelings instead of principle. He will put down anything that has to do with our reason and common sense. He would rather we spend our time in everything that has to do with our feelings and emotions, because reason, common sense, and evidence for solid principle is not on his side.

Maybe we should step back to notice the motives for leading with prophecy in Bible study. Most of us are interested in things of the future, so could church leaders be using prophecy as a lure on their hook to reel in their candidate? Simply get your candidate so worked up over what is going to happen in the future, through their feelings, being very mystical and spiritual, where again, many can be lead almost anywhere in the name of religion and spiritual things.

I once attended a prophecy seminar that I was assured that Christ was sure to come back in the next few months. I remember the affect on me was chilling. Well, maybe some of us need to be scared into cleaning up our lives to become better people, but on the other hand, when the let down comes (nothing happening as told) it could turn some of us off on spiritual things. We can come to the conclusion that it's nothing more than poppycock.

As time went on I came to realize that we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. We simply need to realize there really is a sound, solid, wonderful side to spiritual things, and on the other side, God's enemy has gone all out to distort every good thing given to us by God.

Prophecy is sometimes used as a lead-in for exclusiveness among different groups. It's like, 'if you will believe what we are presenting, you may belong to our group.' (Exclusiveness) Then they will display their long list of things to believe in, which of course, is the list of things to do and not to do that is sure to please God, they say. And one other thing, if you don't believe like they do you are lost and going to Hell, for sure!

These long lists of things 'to do and not do' vary within organizations. I can remember growing up, that if on the Sabbath you were on a family picnic by the lake on a hot summer day and found wading over your ankles, it would be consider a sin. Of course, now I see some of these things as simply placing God in a bad light of ridiculous demands in order to enter into some level of holiness.

It seems to me that the people within churches have been lead to think that becoming holy to please God is our way to heaven. So they have come up with everything under the sun to work on or to scare people into holiness. And when they discovered it's impossible to become perfect as God, to be accepted by God, they came up with the idea that God sent His only Son Jesus to be perfection for us. And if we believe that’s true, it's said we will be saved for the New World to come.

This takes the attention off of what John 3:16 really means. Which says nothing about a legal transaction. This verse along with verse 19 says that Jesus was sent as a light to reveal God the Father to us that we might believe the real truth about His ways. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." If we like the ways of Jesus and want His ways to become our ways, we have just qualified and met the requirements for Heaven. Of course, if we have our attention on the ways of our God and have come to like what we see, what do you suppose our behavior would be like? Doing right because it's the intelligent thing to do.

Again, this is not meant to make light of what some believe, but only to make us think about what makes sense within our belief systems. Maybe we need to examine spiritual things closer for ourselves, not being only reflectors of other people’s thoughts.

This subject must become first and most important for all of us, because understanding this subject properly is the very foundation to every other subject under the sun. The Bible is full of saying to know God is everything - it's eternal life. And understanding why Christ came to die is the key that opens the door to knowing the true God.

This is simply the most awesome view of God you will ever experience. It's all in my book, "Are We Sure We Know God?