Spiritual, not Religious?

I used to work with the missionaries of a church I used to go to, and one of the questions I would get would be about what to do when some non-church member would try to blow them off with that old, “I'm not religious, I'm spiritual!” nonsense.

I told those missionaries that I really disliked that kind of thing.  That while maybe some given individual, here and there now and then may mean no harm by it, that It's still a Satan inspired saying as far as I'm concerned.  If you ask the person who says that what they mean, the most common response is, "I'm not into churches and rules and hierarchies and hypocrisies and exclusions and all, it's not about that, man!  I'm just into, you know, God!  And, like, Love!"

(Yeah, many who take this route do sound like hippies!)

But know that this is flawed on two important levels.

One, the person who says that is (perhaps inadvertently) arrogantly assuming that they are on such a high spiritual plane as to be able to walk with their Heavenly Father on a regular basis without any instruction, guidance or feedback from their fellow man.  That left to themselves, they will walk the straight and narrow always, and never stray, because they don't need anyone to give them advice or caution.

Is that possible?  Yes.  Is that the case with them?  Highly unlikely.  It was Elijah and some few other saintly Prophets who walked with Heavenly Father so well, and yet even they in the main attended temples and holy places and communed with their fellow worshipers.  

You must then look at the person making the claim and ask, "Am I in the presence of The One who a new Gospel will be wrote of?"

If you cannot answer "yes", then the person speaking may well be the very hypocrite he purports to be concerned about.

Second, this assumes that churches are all places of rules and hierarchies and hypocrisies and exclusions in some kind of bad sense.  And such is simply not true.

This one, you may have a harder time believing.  But I speak not here of your church or his church or their church or that church.  I speak of The Church, the Bride of Christ, in all it's time transcending glory, from the first stone altar made by Adam to the rudest shack erected by a man of sincere heart who breaks bread with his brothers.  I speak not only of Seventh Day Adventists but Methodists and Amish and Baptists and Russian Orthodox and Lutherans and Anglicans.  I speak even of such churches we don’t usually agree at all with, who further afield than others, are nonetheless loving their Heavenly Father - our Heavenly Father - as best they know how.

That concept, of the totality of organized worship, greatly scares Satan, as he knows that when men gather together in fellowship, to seek after their Heavenly Father and to learn his bidding and do his bidding, that there is no room then for him.  Thus he conspires endlessly, not only to try and corrupt each of those churches, but to make all men feel that any such churches are unnecessary.

The worst sinner who failing in all else, nonetheless attends church each week, is more a threat to Satan than the most smarmily sweet "spiritualist” meditating or lighting incense or walking through a forest "just being".  Such things are not needfully bad in themselves, but if they are a substitute for going to church, they are deadly.  As always, it involves the sin of pride, in that they assume that there is nothing for them to learn from their fellow man, no benefit they can receive, that in actuality, were they to yoke themselves with church goers, it would be an uneven yoking, with they - almost laughably - being the ones drug down!  Remarkable conceit!  But nothing more than the plain truth of what their claim means!

This is why whenever I ask if someone goes to church and they say that they do go to church, I express my gladness that they do so.  And I am glad!  True, that they attend another church makes them less likely converts to our church that follows all - and not just some - of God’s commandments.  True, their church no doubt has theological flaws that are outside the scope of this lesson!  But I am glad nonetheless for it means that they know Jesus and our Heavenly Father and that we've one more fellow traveler praying and working towards the day of His Kingdom!  I'll take a striving Christian over a complacent spiritualist any day of the week and twice on the Sabbath!  

For really, any enemy of Satan is already my friend, no matter what further truth I would wish that they find!

But I have no gladness for the one who is "spiritual" not religious.  Such are too often lazy and pride filled!  Such usually are well aware of some of their sins on some level, and in trying to not acknowledge such to themselves, avoid church so as to not have anyone else speak out loud to them of those sins.  Their reticence in church attendance is not truly due to some saintly self-examination in the woods, routinely done, that they may correct and perfect themselves!  It is far more a running away from any place where they might hear in a sermon or a message or a Sabbath School lesson that their sins are actually sins, and that there is no excuse for them persisting in doing it!  For such types are also admirable at the Fallacy of Libertarian Theology, where they figure that - just like a Wiccan! - if it "harms none", then it's "anything goes"!

When such a person complains about "rules", it is usually for not being able to follow all of the ones they had agreed to, or not liking rules at all!

When such a person complains about "hierarchy", it is usually for not being high enough up in it to suit their tastes, or having some other mundane conflict with someone in leadership, or just disliking anyone telling them that they need to actually change a bit!

When such a person complains about "hypocrisies", it is usually that they are being called to task for a sin of theirs, and want to use the "But Brother Bob is guilty of X and you didn't tell him off!  So until every sinner on Earth is punished, you can't complain about anything I'm doing, which probably isn't so bad anyway!"

And when such a person complains about "exclusions", it usually means that he fears that if his particular sin, weakness or flaw becomes known, that he'll be expected to move to correct it, and denied some privileges if he chooses to persist in the sin instead!  

The great secret is that the complaints about churches boil down to, "They strive to aid everyone in obeying the will of our Heavenly Father and will correct you if you stray from it, not doing it perfectly, but doing it as best they can."  The spiritualist is the one who wants nothing to correct him but his own conscience, his own "understanding" of Heavenly Father's will, which - as all experience shows - will never be too strict, and never be anything that leads him to any real growth.  

What can be done if you encounter one of these deluded unfortunates?

Share with them the need for having a Church Family, a group of brothers and sisters that love you no matter what, are there for you no matter what, but who will not let you stray too far from the fold without calling out for you out of love!  That EVERYONE can go astray sometimes, and if we do not want the wolves to get us, we need to heed not only the Shepherd's call, but to stick close to the flock in general, so that if we fail to hear His voice at any given time, we may at least hear our Brothers and Sisters!

Share with them that it would be remarkable indeed for them to have, all on their own, come up with the precisely right way of living according to God’s will.  That if they find it hard to believe that an entire church knows the right way, wherefore do they then think that they have such an ability?  That if nothing else, church allows for the practice of humility and service, and failing all else, if they are truly that great and spiritual, why are they denying those in church the benefit of their example?

Say that last with a smile, and you may even get a laugh!  And nothing angers Satan or drives him away like good-hearted people sharing a laugh!  Use this to draw the “spiritualist” closer to you, that he sees the value of companionship with fellow travelers and eventually he may see the need - the urgent need - to commune with his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in general!