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).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and
clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
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