THE BIRTH OF A RELIGION

²⁵ And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”

²⁶ And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh.  Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:25-26)     

Three generations after Eden (6, if you count from Cain’s side of the family), people began to call on the name of the Lord.  During Enosh’s generation, humanity created organized religion.

Wait, now.  Don’t confuse the beginning of organized religion with the beginning of religion. 

The basic elements of religion are prayer, worship, and theology.    Prayer is dialogue with God, and people were already talking to God before this.  Adam, Eve, and Cain, and their descendants regularly talked to and about God (Genesis 3:9,10; 13; 4:9, 24) .   

The conflict between Cain and Abel started when they simultaneously offered public sacrifices to God (Genesis 4:3-5).  In the Old Testament public sacrifice was the central act of worship.  People were worshipping long before Genesis 4:26.

The dispute between Cain, Abel, and God over what constituted an acceptable sacrifice; and Lamech’s theory about how God would respond to him killing a guy --- those are both theological controversies.

In Genesis 4:26, people got together to decide how they would call on the name of the Lord, what name they would call the Lord by, what day and time they would all simultaneously gather at the designated location to call on God in the communally approved manner.  People began to consciously design their own religious experiences. 

Humans systematized and professionalized religion.  We formalized methods and rituals for calling on the name of the Lord.  But --- and this is a critical truth ----  we did not create religion and we did not invent the idea of God.

In 325, the Nicean Council formalized a statement (creed) on the nature of God, particularly the divinity of Jesus .  In   The Council organized those beliefs, but they didn’t invent them.  They didn’t create the God they described.

A century before the Nicean Council, Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240 AD) began to call on the Lord using the term Trinity.  He didn’t invent the Trinity.  He organized the concept of Father Son and Holy Spirit into a single name we could call.

True doctrine describes religion; it doesn’t define religion.  The church’s faith existed long before the church’s traditions.

Decades after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, the apostles wrote about Him, His grace, His sacrifice, and His coming judgment.  They didn’t invent Jesus, but they organized His story and His teachings.

Moses taught the Hebrew people how to make acceptable sacrifices and keep themselves ritually clean.  Moses didn’t invent the sacrificial system. He received from God a set of Laws to organize the religion that Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel practiced 2-5 generations before people started organizing religion for ourselves.

Organized religion is fallible because people, no matter how well organized tend to fail.  More importantly we tend to fall.  Be a healthy skeptic about the promises and processes in any religious institution.  Jesus was. 

Jesus confronted the organizers of His religious tradition.  “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

But religion isn’t a manufactured concept.  Religion is the primal, transcendent attraction to One who created us and first taught us to pray, worship, and think on His Word. 

Jesus confronted religious tradition but He endorsed religion.  Jesus words in Matthew 15 affirm that God has given commandments.  Which means that there is a God, a God who speaks and expects us to listen.  To listen and to obey.

Organized religion is man’s invention.  Religion is God’s gift.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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