{"id":7128,"date":"2024-12-21T17:21:17","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T23:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=7128"},"modified":"2024-12-21T17:21:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T23:21:18","slug":"2-religion-or-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=7128","title":{"rendered":"(2) RELIGION ? \u2013 OR \u2013 NOTHING ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part Two—The Boat\/The Swamp<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your religion was gone . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your \u2018name brand\u2019 religion was gone . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your religion crashed today . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your religion already crashed on the rocks in the storms of your life . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your church denomination crashed . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the perfectly designed cruise ship (theologically ‘sound’) with all the finest, complex furnishings (of theology) of your church denomination—if that ship and everything it held securely—if that ship and everything in it sank in the swamp (you didn’t know you were in a swamp, safe on your cruise) and was gone, . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the ‘modest’ boat (simple theology) of your non-denomination with its avoidance of the complex cruise luxuries (complicated theology) of denominations—if that boat was in a swamp (surprise) and got swamped, and was gone, . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the BIGGEST, OLDEST, MOST LUXURIOUS cruise ship in the world (passengers literally ‘sold’ on theology forever), offering every amenity and trinkets for souvenirs (and salvation) that money can buy, with detailed ‘activities’ (rituals) for everyone (tight ship participation essential part of ticket price), guaranteed safe passage like the Titanic—if your CATHOLICISM CRUISE is actually in a swamp and gets swamped, and is gone, . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THEN,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You only have a life raft.
The life raft is strong.
It is the Bible.
Just the Bible is left.
NOW that the Bible is all you have—
You read it.
The Bible is all you need.
The Bible tells you all you need to know.
The Bible tells you all you need to understand.
The Bible tells you all you need\u2014to tell someone else all they need.
The Bible tells you all you need\u2014to tell someone else that they need Jesus.
– – –
The religion way to heaven ?
X – Beautiful religious BOAT ?
X – Best cruise money can buy ?
X – Best theology money can buy ?
X – What a way to go ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELIGION – – – NOTHING !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE BIBLE – – – EVERYTHING !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part Two—The Boat\/The Swamp If your religion was gone . . . If your \u2018name brand\u2019 religion was gone . . . If your religion crashed today . . . If your religion already crashed on the rocks in the storms of your life . . . If your church denomination crashed . . . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,4,7,9,13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-financial","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7128"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7131,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions\/7131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}