Does God Hate Organized Religion?

A JW recently stated to me that God hates organized religion (often referred to as "Christendom" in WT literature).” Of course, he did not include the highly organized WTBTS as a religion that God hates. 

Here is my response to this JW.

I would say that in the vast majority of cases Organized Religion is not a road to God but a road away from God. Jesus said there are just two roads. A narrow road, found by few, that is hard to enter but leads to God (heaven). There is a second road that is large, well-traveled but leads away from God (hell) (Matt. 7:4). In the book of Revelation, John is writing to seven churches that are in modern day Turkey. All seven started out as churches that were a road to God but when John wrote he condemned five of the seven for having lost their way. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees were the dominant Jewish religion and followed all kinds of do’s and don’ts—yet Jesus said, “"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matt 23:17).

Organized religion is not always condemned. Two of the churches in Revelation were commended. The Bible tells us that God is not a God of confusion but of order (1 Cor. 14:33). Therefore, when true believers get together there must be some kind of organization to their worship. They might decide when to meet, where to meet, what will be done at the meeting and in what order things will be done. None of this is wrong. What happens to turn right religion into wrong religion is when people believe that following the rules is all that is needed to commend them to God. 1 Samuel 16:6-7 says, “When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

So the problem comes in when a person says I am doing all this external stuff but their heart is not right. And how can our heart be right in God’s eyes? John 6:28-29, “Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that an organized religion will save anyone. Salvation is in a person, Jesus Christ, not in an organization. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9). Belonging to any particular church and following all their external religious practices like the JWs, Mormons, charismatics, Catholics, etc. will not save anyone.

What often happens is that someone will look at organized religion and see all its faults and use this as the reason for totally rejecting the Bible and Jesus (God’s’ way of salvation). Hebrews 9:27 states, “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” God will either judge a person in their sin or judge them clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.

Don’t give up on the Bible and Christ because some large organized religions are obviously not following Jesus.

Consider Romans 8:35-37, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”