Again, it was not mainly the heathen, secular world that sentenced the Lord Jesus to death. It was the members of the Sanhedrin, the “supreme court” of the Jewish people, which judged things according to the Bible. The Sanhedrin was composed of the chief priests, the elders, the lawyers, and the scribes, all of whom were God-fearing people, but they sentenced Jesus to death according to the law given to them by God. What a cheating and a deceiving this was! In John 16:2 the Lord told the disciples, “An hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” This has actually happened. Saul of Tarsus, before he became Paul the apostle, offered service to God by persecuting the disciples. When Stephen was martyred by being stoned, the witnesses laid down their garments at Saul’s feet, and Paul himself told us that he persecuted the church of God excessively and ravaged it (Acts 7:58; 8:3; 9:1; Gal. 1:13, 23). He was a typical, genuine, religious person with the best religious qualifications. He said concerning himself, “As to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, become blameless” (Phil. 3:5-6). However, whatever he did was against Christ and damaged the church.
Therefore, while Saul was on the way to Damascus with authority from the high priest to arrest the believers, the Lord Jesus came to him (Acts 9:2-3). Paul might have been unique in history as one who did not hear the gospel from a man. The Lord Jesus came to preach the gospel to him directly, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 4). Although he did not know the Lord, Saul cried, “Who are You, Lord?” (v. 5). If anyone calls Jesus the Lord, he will be saved (Rom. 10:13). When Saul called Him “Lord,” the Lord said, “I am Jesus” (Acts 9:5). It was there that Paul had a radical change. He had thought that he was full of sight, but after he was saved, he became blind (vv. 8-9). Today many religionists think that they are full of sight and light. They do not know that they are fully blind and under a covering veil.
We must not be cheated or deceived. We should not discern the situation of the denominations according to the fact that genuine Christians are there who are zealous for the gospel and who love the Lord. Rather, we need to discern according to Christ and the church. I like to see the young people being released and excited, but whether or not they are religious must be checked not by their excitement but by Christ and the church. How much do they live by Christ? I am not legal to say that we should not use guitars and tambourines in the meetings, but to use these things does not prove that we are not religious. I am afraid that our excitement, guitars, and tambourines may even prove that we are religious. Whether or not a person is religious depends on how much he knows Christ, lives by Christ, knows the church, and lives with Christ in the church and for the church.
In 1963 in Los Angeles the leading ones of four different groups proposed that they come together to practice the church life. A number were excited by this. I was the only one to “pour cold water” on the situation, asking them if they were all willing to drop their religion. One group among the four practiced speaking in tongues, and the other three had a Brethren background. I told them, “You brothers need to drop your insistence on tongue-speaking and on biblical doctrines. We are all here only for Christ and the church.” I showed them in Romans 14 how liberal, generous, and general the apostle Paul is. Paul says, “He who eats, let him not despise him who does not eat; and he who does not eat, let him not judge him who eats, for God has received him...One judges one day above another; another judges every day alike. Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind” (vv. 3, 5). Paul certainly knew the correct doctrines and Christian practices, but he did not tell people which were right and which were wrong. He did not care for that. He told them simply to receive one another and be like-minded, not according to doctrines and practices but according to Christ. All those who heard my word agreed to drop their religion, and they came together to meet beginning from the first Lord’s Day in March of that year. That was wonderful. After one week, however, I received a phone call telling me that the tongue-speaking religion and the doctrinal religion had collided. Those who spoke in tongues said that the leading brother did not know the Spirit, and the others said that he did not properly care for the doctrines.
These things have happened not only in the present time. They were already happening at the time of the apostle Paul. What bothered the churches in the early days, while the apostles still were on the earth, was religion. Paul says, “Beware of the dogs” (Phil. 3:2). According to the context, the dogs are the religionists. In verse 8 Paul says that he counted all his religious gains as refuse. In Greek, the word for refuse refers to dregs, rubbish, and filth that are thrown to the dogs. Because I speak these things, I do not have a good name among the religionists. Like Paul, I am sounding the trumpet, telling people that the religionists are “dogs” and that all the religious things—including circumcision, the Sabbath, and anything that seems to be for God but is apart from Christ—are “dog food.” Even the doctrinal knowledge of the Bible apart from Christ is “dog food.” When Paul was Saul of Tarsus and persecuted the church, he was a strong, religious “barking dog” eating religious “dog food.” This is not my own teaching; it is the revelation of Philippians 3. In that chapter Christ is everything. Christ must be our gain, not circumcision, the Sabbath, or anything religious (vv. 7-8). Likewise, in Colossians Christ is the test of whether or not one is religious, and He is also the church, the new man (2:8-9, 16-17; 3:10-11).