Religion is the Demon Bride of the Church by David Smith

In the Book of Revelation, she is called the great whore of Babylon.

In the Book of Proverbs, she is called the Wicked Woman, sitting on the street corner - calling out to those that are young, and immature.

In the Book of Zechariah, she takes flight with her cronies to breed more of her kind.

She is the pious face of religion. She looks good.  She sounds good.  She dresses well. She SAYS that she is wise.

More often than not, SHE is a HE... and, I'm not talking about gender. I'm not even talking about people.  I'm not talking about poor training, poor upbringing, poor teaching. I'm not even talking about good intentions, bad method.

I'm talking about heart.  I'm talking about fruit.  I'm talking about power - true, spiritual, GODLY power.

The demon bride of the church corrupts the heart. It convinces the heart that we will NEVER be worthy!  Yes - God MADE us worthy... but we just cannot - EVER - LIVE a life that is worthy because we just do NOT have what it takes.

But... there are the "special ones" that DO have what it takes.  The demon bride of religion elevates the lives of men - and women - and tries to convince them that " if you just do what I do", you will become worthy.

The demon bride of today's church - religion - has no true power. It uses control, position, intimidation, and threats. If it has ANY power at all, it is POSITIONAL POWER.  With religion, POSITION is everything! Title is EVERYTHING.  Who you know is EVERYTHING!

The demon bride of religion has no true "Fruit of the Spirit".  The fruit that is DOES produce isn't really healthy.  It breeds sickness.  It breeds religion into the church.

I hate religion.

Religion turns a Loving God that simply wants relationship with His children into an angry, vindictive child of a god that is determined to HAVE HIS WAY, no matter WHAT!

Religion TRIES to be the Bride of Christ - but fails.  Religion TRIES to put on the proper "outward appearance" and often succeeds. Religion is good at deception.  Religion is good at looking good.  Religion is good at SOUNDING like the true Word of God.  Religion is good at getting people so distracted that they began to worship the demon bride of the Church instead of the One true God.  Religion tries to convince us that Jesus Christ will never - ever - come back until the Bride of Christ is Perfect. Prepared. Ready. Beautiful. Free of any taint.  Religion wants us to PERFECT the FLESH!

Religion lies.

God is Love.

God loves you. God loves me. When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, and believe - in our heart - that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead - we ARE saved... for ALL of eternity.  You can lose that salvation.  I used to think that you couldn't... but, over the years, I found out otherwise.  But... there is a catch. The only (meaning without exception - EVER!) way to lose your salvation is to deny God repeatedly; you have to try your best to do anything and everything you can to PROVE to God that you do not love him. That you don't want him.  That you changed your mind.  It takes a LOT of effort.  It takes 24/7 HOURS of diligent sweat-producing effort for years and years and years of doing everything that the DEVIL can think of to get you convinced that God hates you.  Even then, it takes years and years of denying Christ before you lose your salvation.  Even then, you may not have tried hard enough.

God looks on the heart.  He is never fooled.  And He is LOVE.  God can out endure ANYTHING.  He never - ever - gives up on us.

BUT - the demon bride of religion says otherwise.

You have to try EVERYDAY to NOT lose your salvation!  If you have even ONE bad moment, you may have just committed the unpardonable sin!  Your salvation - indeed, your LIFE - is on the shaky cliff of indecision every moment that you breath.

Religion lies.

Religion tries to convince us that we need to "work on our works".

Let me show you what the Bride of Christ is.

Revelation 21: 9b, 10 -

"...Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife; And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Revelation 21: 2 - 7 -

"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son."

Jesus Christ will come back when it is TIME to come back!  Man has no say in the matter.  Man is NOT going to tell GOD when HE may send Jesus Christ back!

God is Spirit.  Jesus Christ has a new spiritual body that will never die!  Jesus Christ is never going to marry a bride that ends up as a dead body.

Jesus Christ will CLOTHE His Bride in a NEW, SPIRITUAL BODY!

Read 1 Corinthians 15!

Read Revelation 21... God is talking about MORE than a PHYSICAL BUILDING!  Study the word "CITY" - a city is PEOPLE!  Study God's Word!  There are TWO cities talked about in the Book of Revelation... and I'm not talking about the churches of the first few chapters!  There is the Bride of Christ - New Jerusalem... and, there is the demon bride of the world, the whore - Babylon.

If you look at the pagan religions of many cultures, and times, you see that a common practice is to prepare the "bride" for marriage to god. She is purified, and cleansed, and made to LOOK as perfect as possible; she is brought into the ceremony with great pomp and circumstance. Sometime she is raped by the god's chosen prophet; sometimes, she is sacrificed on an altar. Sometimes she has to dedicate the rest of her life into service to her "god" -which usually means serving those that are the "official representatives" of god. RELIGION tries to do, through works, what Jesus Christ ALREADY did.

Let those with ears to hear - hear!

A comment from Annie Hoffman, a friend of his:
I