Nuggets from "An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith" by Dave Hunt - "Grace Is 'in Spite,' Not 'Because'

Nuggets from “An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith” by Dave Hunt – Grace is “In Spite,” Not “Because”

Jesus explained that God does, indeed, desire our worship – but it must be “in spirit and in truth” (John:4:23-24 [23] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. [24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
See All...). Affectations and embellishments, whether in physical adornments, props, or ceremonies, appeal to the flesh and, far from enhancing worship, deny both the truth and the Spirit by which it alone can be offered to the God who created and redeemed us. Sacramentalism – the belief that liturgy’s form and formulas transmit spiritual power and that salvation comes through the sacraments – too readily creeps into even Protestant thinking. In fact, some still believe that baptism saves and that taking the bread and cup brings or sustains life.

Alas, we are all Eve’s children by nature and still prone to follow the ways of Cain and the tower of Babel. Every place of worship that has been adorned for the purpose of hallowing it or gaining God’s favor or making worship more acceptable violates Exodus:20:24-26 [24] An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. [25] And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. [26] Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
See All... as well as the rest of Scripture. All such “sanctuaries” are monuments to man’s rebellion and his proud and perverted religion of self-effort.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy to fall into the error of imagining that belonging to a church or periodically “worshiping” in its “sanctuary” makes one a Christian and compensates for one’s lack of consistent personal holiness.

Of course, no one in today’s world is under the illusion that one can climb a physical tower to heaven Yet the folly of today’s religions is every bit as monumental, and the anarchy against God that motivates those beliefs is just as evil as was the Tower of Babel. Billions continue, in the spirit of Babel, to pursue equally futile self-oriented religious programs to earn their way to heaven. In the process, truth and doctrine are relegated to a secondary role, or none.