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The Popular Worship of FaithThe Watchtower—1959 | January 15
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the authentic tradition of the Jewish-Christian faith is to be found in the chasm that separates Jane Russell’s ‘livin’ Doll’ from the living God of Scripture.”
MAN-CENTERED, NOT GOD-CENTERED
Right at the core of this faith-in-faith religion is the fact that it is man-centered, not God-centered. Thus it operates in just the opposite way from the Christianity of the Bible. When teaching his followers to pray, Christ Jesus placed Jehovah God, his name, his kingdom and his will, first: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matt. 6:9, 10) But those who worship at the altar of faith say in effect: ‘Let my will come to pass with your help.’
One of the most apt descriptions of this man-centered popular religion was given by Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations: “Man is the beginning and end of the present-day American religiosity—God is made to serve, or rather to subserve man, to subserve his every purpose and enterprise whether it be economic prosperity, free enterprise, security, or peace of mind. God thus becomes an omnipotent servant, a universal bell-hop, to cater to man’s every caprice; faith becomes a sure-fire device to get what we petulantly and peevishly crave. This reduction of God from master to slave has reached its height, or rather its depth of blasphemy, in the cult of the Man Upstairs—the friendly neighbor-god who dwells in the apartment just above. Call on him any time—especially if you are feeling blue. He does not get the least bit upset with your faults and failings and, as for your sins, not only does he not remember them . . . but the very word and concept of sin have been abolished.”
CONSEQUENCES OF FALSE RELIGION
A man-centered religion is false religion, and false religion cannot save anyone when God destroys this evil world at the war of Armageddon, “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings due punishment upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction.”—2 Thess. 1:7-9.
Thus today’s popular religion is without power to save anyone to everlasting life in God’s new world. The fact that such a religion cannot merit God’s approval is even admitted by some clergymen, such as cleric Ralph Sockman who said: “We tend to present God as our servant who brings us financial and social success rather than as our sovereign whom we serve. A self-centered, self-serving religion is not Scriptural and, however popular it may be at the moment, it cannot save us.”
Despite the admitted futility of this man-centered religion, it continues to be popular; and clergymen, despite protestations now and then, continue to dispense what is popular.
Ah, now we gain insight into why churchgoers have not found the happiness they seek. Only true religion, centering around the will of Almighty God, and resulting in right motive, right belief and right works can bring the peace of mind the Bible speaks of: “The peace of God that excels all thought will guard your hearts and your mental powers by means of Christ Jesus.”—Phil. 4:7.
Now we also see why crime increases despite rocketing numbers of churchgoers. Popular religion has not been a molding force in their lives; it has not brought about a change in their way of living. It has not given them guidance and power to “put away the old personality” and to “put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will.”—Eph. 4:22-24.
No wonder there is so much moral insensitivity among professedly religious people! No wonder so many persons, despite regular church attendance, operate in a moral vacuum! No wonder materialism has increased right along with the rising rate of church membership!
To climax its reprehensibility, popular religion has obscured the true worship of Jehovah, the true and living God. What folly to allow what is popular to obscure what is right and true! True religion will never be popular with this world, as Jesus plainly showed: “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”—Matt. 7:13, 14.
True religion, the way to life, can be found. It is largely a matter of right heart condition. Do you sincerely desire to find the truth and to do the will of the true God? Then to his Word, the Bible, you must go. From this Book you must get your principles for living. Associate with those who practice the true religion of the Bible. Allow Jehovah’s witnesses, who have brought you this magazine, to assist you in taking “the road leading off into life.” Turn from the futile popular worship of faith to the life-preserving worship of Jehovah God; for, of a certainty, “the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.”—1 John 2:17.
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Part 6—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”The Watchtower—1959 | January 15
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Part 6—“Your Will Be Done on Earth”
The theme of the book that we are studying serially, namely, “Your Will Be Done on Earth,” was taken from the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, which prayer he addressed to the heavenly Father of both him and his faithful disciples. It is the will of the heavenly Father, Jehovah God, that Christians are instructed to pray to be done on earth as well as in heaven. “Why It Must Be Done on Earth” is the title of Chapter 2, in the midst of which we now find ourselves. One of the strong reasons why is that Jehovah God created the earth to exist forever as the habitation of humankind together with all the lower animal creatures subject to man. It is God’s purpose that the whole earth be made a paradise like the original garden or Paradise of Eden. When that purpose is fully realized and mankind in human perfection are doing the heavenly Father’s will, it would bring to nothing his divine purpose if he removed the inhabitants of Paradise to some place else.
26. What, however, has man been doing to earth, water and air, and what divine purpose must be realized to justify man’s creation?
26 Today, after almost six thousand years of human history, men in general are ruining the surface of the earth by their wars and commercial exploitation of the land. They are making a sewer of its atmosphere and are polluting and radioactivating its waters. They are filling the earth with imperfect children, illegitimate and legitimate, who are no more doing the will of God than their parents are doing. God’s will has never yet been done over all the earth by all humankind as God indicated to man in Eden was the divine purpose. That divine purpose must yet be realized in order to justify God’s creation of the first man. God must yet be vindicated in the matter of having his will done on earth as well as in heaven. Jesus prayed that God should be vindicated in that way.
27. By whom will God not let his purpose be blocked, and for what deliverance did Jesus teach us to pray, and by what means?
27 God has not changed his purpose in this regard, not even since his Son Jesus Christ came to earth. Regarding his stated purposes he says: “I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
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