On Organized Religion: An Observation and Exhortation

While reading Michael Horton's generally excellent book, Christless Christianity, it struck me with considerable force why so many Americans recoil from "organized religion" and why they favor an undefined "spirituality" over religion.

Would any sane person desire unorganized courts or an unorganized police force or an unorganized medical service? Of course not. In these areas knowledge and authority are recognized as necessary. But when it comes to spirituality, we are on our own. There is no objective and knowable authority, supposedly. The individual soul discerns what it takes to be sacred (for a season--or a weekend).

But organized religion--religion with creeds and offices and a remembered history--well, that just tramples the untrammeled Self. It imposes (another hated word today) on our dispositions. It challenges the authority of the "I."

Yet we fallible creatures need knowable and objective truth that is authoritatively delivered from longstanding institutions based on perennially binding sources (the Scriptures). We do not need to reinvent; we need to remember and repent. We do not need style; we need sacrament. We do not need more experiments with the ego; we need proper worship. We do not need (another) make over; we need to be born again. We do not need a new business model; we need an ancient gospel: Christ crucified for us; Christ risen for us; Christ coming again for his own. We need another new experience; we need faith in the truth of the gospel. We need the knowledge of God in relation to ourselves, others, and eternity.

Organized religion--doctrine based on biblical truth, proclaimed and defended--is just what we need. Moreover, it is what God himself requires of us and gives to us! Jesus Christ is the head of this organized religion, his Body. He is the author and perfecter or our faith, the faith given once and for all to the saints.

Get religion. Get organized religion. Believe in and confess that Christ is Lord before the world and in the company of the committed.