The marks of true religion, Part 1

How are we to know the difference between true and false religion? religions, subsets of religions, and anti-religions abound, each one claiming to be the best. Over all, the banner of tolerance and respect is held high, in a manner that amounts to an admission of defeat. Since we can’t agree on the truth, proclaim one and all, we may as well resign ourselves to a life without it. This attitude has it’s good points; it is far better than wars fought by fanatics. But it is far from what we are required to live on this earth. It lacks a key feature of the true church: action. It is not a city set upon a hill to glorify God; rather, it is a declaration that no such city can exist.

I think this is best illustrated by a documentary I recently watched about a 14 year old Bolivian silver miner. Throughout the whole work runs a basic dichotomy best expressed by a song later inspired by this film:

Underneath the ground there sleeps a god

They say that he is stronger than the god outside

If he gives you good luck he is playing you a trick

And will shut you up with him under the ground

I prefer to carry him a twig of coca

To keep him content and so he may not be offended

And that he may let me come running out from under the mountain

…

Therefore to this god Tío I bring offerings

Because up from under the mountain, not even God can come.

Thus, we have a di-theistic religion; The god of the silver mines is worshiped in the mine, and the god outside is worshiped in the local church. Which god is stronger becomes purely a matter of opinion. The priest in the church says one thing; Basilio Vargas the silver miner, another.

This alone was rather disturbing, but I found some of the comments left about the video equally thought-provoking. I don’t remember all of them, only two that caught my attention. One commenter was aghast at seeing idol worship. Another replied and said, in essence “Well, if your god is so great, take him to the silver mines and see if he does any better!” The thoughts this all provoked were not pleasant. I don’t condone idol worship, yet I am hardly in a position to help or to criticize. I began to wonder whether my god was any better than the rest of them, or whether I was merely deceiving myself into thinking I worshiped the true and living God. If my faith were any good, I felt I should know the answer to such a predicament – a real answer that could ever mean something to a 14-year silver miner endangering his life to help support his family and pay for his education. Not knowing what else to do, I began to pray. I prayed to know how even the true God could possibly solve such a situation, that I might have some shred of faith left to me.

Finally, I think I have an answer. Such problems as those of the silver miners are not usually something to be solved with a dramatic miracle. They are, rather, symptom of a great societal vacuum where the true and living God should be. In His absence, the silver miners fill the void with Tío, the god of the mines and the catholic priest fills it with the god of outside. Neither god does anything of much account, any more than the block of wood lamented by Isaiah:

Half of it he burns in the fire; over half he eats meat as he roasts a roast,…But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says “Deliver me, for thou art my god”

(Isaiah 44:16-17)

Such empty gods are a sign of false religion. What is really needed is a community that hears, obeys, and walks in the life of this true and living God, who said to the Israelites “But there shall be no poor among you…if only you will obey the voice of the Lord God”. (Deut. 15:4)

I must emphasize: This was spoken not to a single person, but to a group. Hearing and obeying is, at its fullest, a corporate act performed by the church of Christ. And as long as the community is based on something other than the guidance of Christ, it is, at some level, broken. The community that hears and obeys, be it large or small, cannot help but show that it has something superior. As with a city upon a hill, it cannot be hid.