{"id":10458,"date":"2020-12-10T17:02:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=10458"},"modified":"2022-01-12T15:27:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:27:49","slug":"religious-but-lost-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=10458","title":{"rendered":"Religious\u2014But Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 2<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note: \u00a0<\/strong>This MS is available in<strong> \u00a0<\/strong>larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 2<\/strong> \u00a0page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">How can this be? Doesn\u2019t <em>religious<\/em> equal <em>saved<\/em>? \u201cIt makes no difference what you believe as long as you\u2019re sincere\u201d is a very old slogan that implies as much. (The updated version of this platitude is, \u201cIt makes no difference <strong>if\u00a0<\/strong>you believe\u2026.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">What about it? Can a believer be devoutly religious and still be lost? Are you willing to let the Bible answer this question (it does so very definitively). Consider the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Cain<\/strong>, the first-born of all mankind, was religious, as indicated by the fact that he offered a sacrifice unto God. However, his apparent sincerity did not excuse his substitution of produce for blood (Gen. 4:3\u20135; Heb. 11:4). Religious, but lost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Jeroboam<em>, <\/em><\/strong>first king of the northern Israelite kingdom, was so zealous in religion that he built new altars and objects of worship, appointed a new priesthood, and declared new holy feast days (1 Kin. 12:32). His epitaph by inspired writers reads that he \u201cmade Israel to sin\u201d (14:16; et al.). Religious, but lost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The<strong> Pharisees<\/strong> of the first century were among the most zealous religious folk of their day among God\u2019s people. Yet Jesus repeatedly rebuked, exposed, and condemned them for their many hypocrisies, calling them \u201csons of hell\u201d (Mat. 23:15). Religious, but lost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">The <strong>Ethiopian nobleman<\/strong> was so sincere in his religious practice that he rode 750 miles in a primitive vehicle (a chariot) to worship God in Jerusalem, and he read the Bible as he rode toward home (Acts 8:27\u201328). Yet the fact that an angel of God and the Holy Spirit brought Philip into contact with this man (vv. 26, 29) so he could hear the Gospel (v. 35), conclusively indicate that he was lost. Neither this man\u2019s zeal nor sincerity were enough to save him. Religious, but lost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Saul of Tarsus<\/strong> was as sincerely zealous in his convictions as a person can be. He was a \u201cHebrew of Hebrews,\u201d a Pharisee, who concerning the law, was blameless (Phi. 3:5\u20136). His zeal for Moses\u2019 law led him to believe he \u201cought to do many things contrary\u201d to the Son of God (Acts 26:9). He proved his sincerity by leading a wave of terror against Christians. But when Saul asked Jesus what he must do, the Lord didn\u2019t tell him, \u201cYour sincerity and zeal are sufficient; you need do nothing.\u201d Rather He told Saul to go into Damascus where he would be told what he must do (22:8\u201310), resulting in baptism, in which act his sins were \u201cwashed away\u201d (i.e., forgiven) by Jesus\u2019 blood (v. 16; Rev. 1:5). Religious, but lost.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>We thus learn: <\/strong>It is not enough to be religious or even to be sincere and zealous in religion. We must be sincere and zealous in <strong>true<\/strong> <strong>religion<\/strong>, as defined by the New Testament.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, June 21, 2013].<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 2[Note: \u00a0This MS is available in \u00a0larger font on our Brief Articles 2 \u00a0page.] How can this be? Doesn\u2019t religious equal saved? \u201cIt makes no difference what you believe as long as you\u2019re sincere\u201d is a very old slogan that implies as much. (The&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=10458\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Religious\u2014But Lost<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214,743,154,112,302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hypocrisy","category-sincere-heart","category-sincerity","category-truth","category-zeal","wpcat-214-id","wpcat-743-id","wpcat-154-id","wpcat-112-id","wpcat-302-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17376,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10458\/revisions\/17376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}