Did Jesus hate religion?

The video above is from Jared Duba aka Jesus Disciple(www.Depravedwretch.com) his video is a response to Jeff Bethke's video "Why I hate religion, but Love Jesus"


Now for those of you who are not on Facebook, first of all…good for you.

(I've debated several times on deleting my account) anyways if you don't have Facebook you most likely have not seen a video that has gone viral, even if you have Facebook you might of missed it. It's a video by Jeff Bethke, I'm not trying to put down Jeff, for he seems like a pretty legit guy, after all as Kevin DeYoung said in his blog(and I agree with him) Jeff isn't a fan of "Love Wins" the abhorrent book by Rob Bell(Mr.Universalist).

Bethke's new video has him reading a poem he apparently wrote, and the title is "Why I hate religion and Love Jesus". on the surface level that probably seems right on to a lot of you, to be honest doesn't seem that bad to me either. Of course this all depends on what your definition of "Religion" is, I'm not going to get into all the details... simply put because, a few already have and they can write/speak much better then I can on the subject.

Heres Bethke's video… watch and listen, and try to watch and listen as if you were hearing of Jesus Christ for the very first time.

Now ladies and gentleman, if Jeff was speaking directly to you from this video what belief would you come out with? what would your overall thought of this Jesus guy be? well…

1. Jesus Hates religion

2.Jesus came to abolish religion

3. Jesus also doesn't like rules

His video speaks a lot of "Christianese" it suffers from a lack of explaining certain things. It's like going up to someone who has never heard of the gospel and just quoting John 3:16 and walking away. Is John 3:16 true? yes it's scripture after all, but to not expound on it more would be on the dangerous side.

I guess one way to state this is this; Jeff's video doesn't effect me because I know(and even believe he knows) that just believing Jesus was a person at one time and died for my sins doesn't give me the excuse to continue living for myself and sinfulness. However the question is, does the non-christian who watches this video understand that? does this video put into the non-believer a Galatians 2:20 type of faith, a surrendering of self, a changed heart to walk in the light as He is in the light kind of faith? That Christianity literally means "Following Christ" and not "I believe He existed at one point and died so I can continue in sin". 

The kind of people that will like the notion "Jesus hated religion" which to a point I would say is true, but the kind of people that will mis the whole point of why Jesus came and what the gospel means, are the kind of people who think;

1.Jesus was just a good teacher of morals(and preached you can believe and do whatever you want as long as you believe I died so you could)

2.Jesus came to abolish hate

3.Jesus's whole message was a message of tolerance

1-3 are all completely false. The fact is God abhors(HATES) sin so much that He crucified His own perfect un-sinful son on a cross for our sins. God took Jesus who had NO SIN absolutely spotless and perfect and poured out His holy righteous wrath onto Him in the form of the cross. There is no tolerance for sin in the bible, and Jesus was not tolerant of it Himself, for He went to His death for it WILLINGLY. Jesus didn't come so you can continue living in sin, He came to free you from the chains of sin completely! He came to save you from sin, to turn Christ into somebody who tolerated sinfulness and preached the continued living in sin as ok is a complete lack of understanding of scripture.

Again, I don't think whatsoever that Jeff Bethke believes sin is ok, or that it is ok to continue living for it and your self. I just think in his video that can be easily missed by someone who doesn't know that.

I'll let someone more gifted and knowledgable speak further on this, Kevin DeYoung the same man who wrote "Burning down the shack"

go here to read his blog on what he thinks of Jeff's video and also see what he liked about it.

The Story of Stephen

Stephen was the first Disciple of Jesus Christ to die for him,

His story can be found in Acts chapter 7, but I figured I'd go over it with you.

In Acts chapter 6:8-15 we are introduced to a disciple named Stephen,

it's said that he was full of wisdom and the holy spirit, and no

man could stand up in an argument with him. This, of course,

didn't make the Jewish leadership very happy, after all

they don't want to be accused of killing the messiah.

Since none of them could stand up in an argument against Stephen,

they lied and made false accusations against him until Stephen

was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.

They accused Stephen of speaking blasphemy against God and

Moses, which obviously wasn't true at all. Now the amazing thing is,

or at least it's amazing to me, without any fear, Stephen who is surrounded

by people who want to see him dead...doesn't apologize

for preaching about Christ, He doesn't say "Hey you got it all wrong about me!"

He doesn't beg for mercy, Stephen stands in front of them all and

essentially, in a nut shell, he explains the Old Testament to them.

Obviously these Jewish leaders knew or I should say,

they thought they knew the Old Testament.

Here comes little disciple Stephen to give them a lesson?

Just imagine what they were thinking,

"Who in the hell is this guy? who does he think he is?"

These are high priests, these are Jewish leaders who are well respected,

and have spent their whole lives learning and focusing on Gods word,

and some "common" man is going to come and tell them they got it wrong?

Stephen stood up and he told them not only are they wrong,

but that through-out history their fathers were wrong,

he told them that they may know Gods word but surely they don't follow it,

He called them stiff-necked and asked was there ever a prophet

they did not persecute. Stephen was facing true opposition, he

was facing death, and he wasn't afraid to speak the truth, and yet

if we look at ourselves today, some of us our afraid to speak the truth now,

and why? surely in some country's you would be facing death

to speak about Christ, but in most you wouldn't. We are afraid...why?

because we wouldn't fit in? because they might laugh at us?

because they might look at us different? Stephen and the disciples...

kind of put things in perspective don't they?

The thing is the Jewish people knew Gods word, they knew the law,

however they didn't follow Gods interpretation of it, they followed their own.

Stephen's whole argument was based around that if they did follow

God and his law then they would have listened to the prophets of old,

and they would of followed Jesus Christ, but instead they killed them.

What did Stephen receive for his courage? what did he get for speaking

the truth? he was Stoned to death...

"You have received the law but have not obeyed it."

Acts 7:53

in the foot notes for 7:53 it says:

"The religious are always tempted to devise ways to satisfy God and then to

take pride in meeting the standards we set. Following God in truth means

one thing: following Jesus to the cross in humility"

I take that to mean, well what it means, the Jewish order in the book of acts,

focused on their man made rules/laws and they tried to do works

to please God. Doesn't sound to far off from a lot of people today...

In fact it doesn't sound to far off from a lot of Christians.

The simple fact of the matter is religion has become so convoluted..

by who? by the people in the religion..somewhere along the way...

it's become more about doing this or doing that...trying to please God

by these man made rules that we ourselves have created.

You see as it says in the foot notes we devise ways to satisfy God,

and then we take pride in meeting those standards that we ourselves

have set. I've done it countless times in different areas of my life..

"I've got to read this many chapters in the bible"

"I've got to pray this way or that way"

"I've got to do this or that to please God"

essentially making God a chore and something I have to work for,

when the fact of the matter is God made you...he already knows

what you will do and what you wont, he wants your trust and love..

and he doesn't look down on you and say

"What can you do for me"..

"Hmm you didn't read your bible today....so I think I'll ignore your prayers"

or whatever crazy things that come into your head.

Of course he should be put first above all things, and of course

we should seek after him with all our heart,soul,mind and strength..

but thinking you have to do this or that to receive his love or "blessing"

is foolish because the fact is you already have His love.

Plain and simple... we shouldn't be seeking God, reading his word, praying

and worshipping Him,because we think we have to, but we should be doing

those things because we want to. Don't make God just some daily routine..

he would much rather you sit there and do nothing and ask for his will..

then to say

"I've got to read this then pray this way then sing this,

then do this little dance, then this then that."

May Gods will overflow through you...

and His words be known to you.