Beware of the Religionist!

You see, the deluded religionist thinks he has special favor with God because of his own doings, that is, his own cockeyed convictions that he dreamed up to make himself think he's right with God.  The only reason any sinner has favor with God Almighty is because of Jesus' Blood, for Jesus' sake, that's all.  God gives respect to Jesus Christ, and no other man.  *Acts 10:34; Matthew 17:5; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Matthew 3:17; I Peter 1:17; Luke 3:22*  I don't believe Paul the apostle lived like that.  The religionist is a proud sinner, he boasts of his own righteousness; and you will never get self-glorying out of him.  Watch the religionist close - he desires self-glory, not Christ's glory. But remember, the God of the Bible is no respecter of persons.  The religionist's do's and don'ts have gone to his head and made him looney.  Now understand - Beware of the man that thinks he has some sort of special favor with God, because of the version of the Bible he totes around, his dress code, or his denomination! *Luke 20:46*

Those sinners that trust in a church's water and their own works, and then add a little Jesus to it will surely wind up unprepared to enter Eternity and are destined for the lake of fire which burneth with brimstone.

 You can cross all your T's, and dot all your I's perfectly, and still spell the word wrong. Religion is that stuff you do on a certain day at a certain place that makes you think you're better than someone else, the stuff that pleases man, the stuff you think impresses God, and the stuff you do to help save yourself from sin and hell. Religion will only make you self-righteous (more lost), really strict, and continually mean; but JESUS and the Gospel will make you self-abhorrent, meek and merciful.

Now come up close, and listen with both ears: Most religions these days will adamantly teach you that you must trust *their water* and *your works*, and then maybe you'll get to Heaven through their help, but only if you endure to the end in their sect; but the Gospel teaches and persuades you to trust the *Water of Life* (Christ Jesus Himself) and His Finished Work (Precious Blood and Perfect Righteousness). JESUS endured to the end for me - He cried, "It is Finished!" on the Cross right before He gave up the ghost. You see - It is Finished, Through His Blood, Worthy is the Lamb! I believe I'm just going to Count on what Jesus did for me, that's all. AMEN!

Now just hold your breath and wait for the Pope-ster, Joel Osteen or TD Jakes to tell you that. Oh, and by the way, the Pope can't make anyone a saint; only the Blood of God and the Holy Spirit can do that miracle. The old Pope-ster is just trying to make the news again.

The old religionist, have you ever met him?  He stresses on the non-essentials, because he is lost. He wants glory from man, he lives for man's praise and applause.  He makes much of his own religious dos and don'ts. He is always strutting and trying to do something in order to make himself feel accepted with God, or to earn God's loving favor by doing and suffering in some way he has concocted.  When he enters, he wants all eyes on him - look at me, look at me!  He has a nitpicking, critical, judgmental spirit.  He thinks his convictions make him special - well guess what, you're not special; you're just a proud ego-maniac. *Mark 12:38*  The conviction-ite exploits and extorts simple-minded folks through fear, guilt and superstitious nonsense.

The clever religionist keeps his sheeple corralled up by using fear, shame, guilt, and superstitious tactics on them.  The vainglorious religionist's greatest fear is that one of his sheeple will finally see through his nonsense and figure him out, and leave his little clique for good.  He tells his sheeple to keep those without their same convictions at arm's length.  He doesn't want one of those normal outsiders to rub off on his robots. You see, without any sheeple, the religionist is out of business and it will affect his bottom line ($$$).

The hardest thing for any person to do is to live a quiet (meek), sincere (lowly), practical life without becoming religiously conceited, strutting around, and getting the big head. If you're not careful, self-righteous religion will slowly turn you into a cold, technical, strict, critical soul. Religion is that stuff you do that makes you think you're better than other folks. When human nature gets a little bit of religion, pride and haughtiness inevitably lurk into the picture and puffs them up bigger than a bullfrog. *Proverbs 16:18*

The religionist thinks he is right with his *god*, and he will flat out tell you so. *Galatians 6:3* The religionist attempts to create spirituality in someone with his made-up rules and regulations, but that is an impossibility.  Only the Holy Spirit Himself can make someone spiritual and Christ-like.  It is a dangerous and natural tendency of outwardly religious people to dream that they are advantaged over others simply because they attend a certain church building or keep some religious ordinance or sacrament.

The poor religionist is caught up and blinded in his own vain traditions and religious pride. You can't earn God's grace, that's why God's grace is only given freely to sinners. We are unable to earn anything from God, and we can never repay the Lord Jesus Christ for bleeding and dying for our sins. In the religionist's little world of church-ianity, he thinks he's something special, and completely forgets that God is watching and listening to him all the time.  The religionist is hung up on a religious front and show.  Every legend in their own mind must come to an end.  Religion will damn you quicker than dope or liquor or pornography.  The religionist's message never upsets anyone, for that might affect his pocketbook or attendance.  The religionist is always dwelling upon the "must nots" of his religion, as if godliness was a list of negatives.

The religionist often gets fanatical and inevitably goes off on a tangent on some religious non-essential. Religionists take God's goodness for granted. The religious expert loves empty church-ianity.  Every conviction-ite is a nitpicker which is overly concerned about insignificant religious details such as dress, diet, and ceremony with the intention of finding fault in others in order to justify and magnify themselves.  Pharisaic pride puffs up and blinds the religionist.  All religionists are control freaks; they want to play god, and they will try to control you mentally by fear and guilt.  The religionist thinks you owe him a living, because he puts on a show.

The religionist is very clannish, that is, he tends to exclude from his group and slander all those that do not adhere to his strange doctrines and his list of do's and don'ts. Religionists are egotistical strutters who stress on the non-essentials and lead others away from Jesus and off into hell. *Matthew 15:14* The high-browed religious con-man is so excellent in his own eyes, and so everything he ought to be, that he reeks of pride. The only one that doesn't smell the foul odor of religious pride all over him is himself.

In his own false judgment he is within a half inch of being perfect, but he is about a quarter inch from hell. He has a fond conceit of himself, fancying his own religiousness and laundry list of do's and don'ts. In his own mind, he is IT, he admires himself and hopes that others might attain to his level of religious consecration some day. The religious high brow thinks he is right with God in his own eyes. Beware of the arrogant religionist that is more infatuated with his convictions than he is with converts. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes; every man did that which was right in his own eyes; every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but the LORD pondereth the hearts.

The religionist's motives are self-serving; they are fame and money. He scams simple-minded people. He compares himself with others; he sets one duty or day or place above another. He feels himself to be wonderfully good, and thinks himself to be right with his god. He uses the Bible as a resource, but not as the Source. He mistakes duty for spirituality and creates extra man-made commandments which are not from the Bible in order to make himself seem more 'spiritual' than others. Oh yeah, and anyone outside of his religious clique  can never be not 'right with God'.

Don't be a critical, technical, cold, hair-splitting conviction-ite. Being right with God in the religionist's eyes is when you follow all of his self-made do's and don'ts. He will never give Jesus Christ all the glory and humble himself as a nothing. Keeping his list either leads people around him to pride or despair. Christianity is not keeping a list; Christianity is coming to Christ, and letting Christ help you purify your life out of simple gratitude to the goodness and mercy of God towards you. The religious con-man serves God through a sense of pride - Look at me, if you want to see someone that's right with God, just watch how I do it. He does plenty of religous stuff but none of it is spiritual. He mistakes his imaginary goodness and carnal zeal for spirituality. *Romans 10:2*

The religionist loves to strut, and he pumps himself up with his religious self-righteous attainments. He trusts in himself that he is righteous and treats others with contempt. A convictionite is a religious kook who thinks the more dos and donts he has, the more spiritual he is. He thinks his convictions bring him more favor with God, and he looks down on those that don't keep his kooky list.

The religionist uses superstitious fear and guilt to keep people in bondage that are stupid enough to follow him. Religion leads a man to judge everyone else, when he is guilty of doing the same thing or something worse that the sin he is judging others over. Religion makes you think you are better than others. If you only preached what you practiced, your sermons would be real short. Deceived religious people are not upset over their sins against God.

The religionist harps on social issues, not the person and blood of Jesus Christ. The religionist tries to appear like he has a burden for missions and lost souls overseas, but he has never sincerely tried to reach his next door neighbors for Jesus Christ. Religionists are strange birds. Just like the Pharisees, "they say, and do not." *Matthew 23:2-3* The religionist focuses more on tithing and giving money to missions, than walking humbly with God, adoration of Jesus Christ, and inward purity.

Religious bosses are highly interested in filthy lucre that keeps their religious machinery operating. The religionist loves entertainment, and he tries to religiously entertain people to keep them coming to his meetings. Religionists are peculiar self-righteous folks.  Religion gives men a false hope that damns them. Religion cannot change the heart; it tries to hide wrongdoing and forgets that God see everything.

We have no merit at all to please God with. The religionist wants to be a Christian, but he ends up only being super-religious. He is on the treadmill of religion, going nowhere really fast. Stay at it, work at it, try and live it - that is the religionist's motto. The religious con-artist is more interested in what he can get out of people, than what he can put in them. The religionist isn't concerned about filling the hearts of people with God's word, no he wants to fill up his pockets or ego. Human nature loves to put on a religious show; it loves religious programs, buildings, drama, settings, performance, entertainment, personalities, paraphernalia, and propaganda. Superficial external religion is a hard chain to break.

Hireling religious politicians are after your membership and pocket book. Religious emotionalism is the dangerous counterfeit of holy zeal and worship. You can be sound in your doctrine, religious in your conduct, and moral in your daily life, and still wind up in Hell. Self-righteousness is a hellish thing. The most damning, blinding, and dangerous pride there is is religious pride. You can never religionate yourself into favor with God. Make sure your guilty soul is regenerated, not just religion-ated.

The religionist has much external formalism, but no internal dealings with the living God, Jesus Christ. Professional religious bosses will always try to put something between you and Jesus Christ. The religionist is hopelessly arrogant, self-righteous, and orthodox. He say he believes the Bible, but he never does what the Bible says - walk humbly with God, do justly, and love mercy. Human nature loves the religion of show, but it neglects the religion of the heart, of inward and personal private purity (that is, careful conscientious daily discipleship). Pride (me first) and presumption (I can do it) fill the religionist. Religion says,"Pay up!" But the Cross says, "Everything is paid in full by Jesus' blood, come now and take everything you need from Him freely!"

The religion con-man loves the outward parade of religion; he makes a living swindling people out of their money and then helps damns their souls. He cleverly manipulates simple souls using his religion to cause fear, guilt and superstition. But you don't need outward religiousness; you need inward grace. The Love, Blood, and Grace of God is what your poor soul needs. Religious services will ruin you if you put them in the place of personal dealings with the Mediator. The conviction-ite spends more time looking at his convictions than he does looking at Christ's vicarious Sacrifice on the Cross. The religious externalist is starched and ironed, but he's never been washed. The religionist wants attention, and he wants to be Somebody. The conviction-ite is a mechanical Pharisee. The religionist thinks his convictions make him right with God and impressive to God. The conviction-ite has much religious activity, but it is has no true spiritual eternal value.

The inner thought of the true religionist is this,"God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I can't let people with fewer convictions than me draw me away from You." The griping hunger of human nature feeds on the restraints, duties, and formalities of religion in order to try and satisfy the guilty conscience. The religionist is an artificial charlatan who is busy protecting his turf and polishing his title. Be very sure you are regenerated, not just religion-ated. Religious conceit is a dangerous thing. The conviction-ite is a professional religious sham. The religionist worships his own foolish self-image; this is the highest form of idolatry. The religious man joys in false profession, hypocritical formality, and a vain show. The conviction-ite is hopelessly trapped in his religious stupidity; he is hopelessly preoccupied with religiousness. The religionist loves to put on a show with his fake Christianity.

Being religious will never take away your sinfulness inside. Human religiousness is of no value, Christ-less religion is worthless. One small breath from the Spirit of God is all it takes to wither all your human pride and conceit. The Cross dashes in shivers all man-made religiousness. The religionist makes himself comfortable in his own useless do's and don'ts. The conviction-ite thinks much of his accomplishments, but he is as dead as a door-nail in God's sight. The religionist preaches morality, not the Cross. Your moral deeds, acts of charity, religious performances, and empty ceremonies are all in vain. The religionist believes certain days and places are more sacred than others. He strives to maintain orthodox religion, but he still has an unclean private life. The conviction-ite loves to put on a religious show.

The religious flimflammer strives to maintain orthodox religion but he has an unclean private life. The conviction-ite pretends to adore God, he mocks the LORD by a feigned heartless worship, he loves Sunday-religion, but not Monday religion, his service is a pretense with no heart in it. The religionist doesn't actually know he is a sinner indeed, but because of his self-made morality and the rigid strictness of his life, he has a high conceit of his own excellence in the sight of God. A lofty view of your own excellence will tempt you to look down upon your neighbor who is not as 'religious' as you.

The religionist seeks to win friends and influence people with his carnal charisma. Religious con-artists are known as unaccountable personalities. Whatever he says is truth. Whatever he speaks, he expects you to believe it, because he said it. His followers should not question him. He may say, I prayed and God told me what you should do in a particular situation in your life. He sets himself up as the authority. He alone is the source of spiritual insight. He takes advantage of people's insecurity, loneliness, poor health, simple ignorance or religious superstition. The religionist is off limits, he is out of your jurisdiction, you can't touch him, you just need to keep to your self. The religionist is more interested in what he can get out of people, not what he can put in the people. He want to fill his pockets and ego, not the people's souls with Christ. He can never be wrong. If you question him, you are being rebellious. But remember, no one is ultimately unaccountable.

The religionist thinks he is the only one who speaks for God. He has empty speech, worthless words with no real substance, no solid content, fluent but Biblically shallow. They promise things they cannot produce. They have smooth words without spiritual life. They so beautifully and smoothly say nothing. You can't pin them down, they wiggle around the real issues of Scripture. The truths about sin, rebellion, judgment, salvation, the Cross, hell, and heaven are avoided. Jesus is only a buddy, a good model, a political messiah. They may tack on the plan of salvation at the end of their social issue message in order to make it sound Biblical. They say you need to saved from low self-esteem, financial problems, an unfulfilling job, racial oppression, or bodily sickness. Rule over your credit card, or your credit card will rule over you. You can quit smoking, quit drinking, and improve your marriage, and still go to Hell. They say the Gospel is not sufficient, Grace is not satisfying, Jesus' atoning blood is not enough, you have to do something yourself to earn Heaven.

The false teacher focuses on everything but Christ Crucified. They will teach you how to get gold, parenting skills, better health, you should have no problems now, you should be prospering. Look to the crucified atoning Lamb of God for sinners slain who is risen from the dead and is soon coming to rule and reign. The root goal of their religious activity is a buck, power, influence, and prestige. Wealth, health, and prosperity is their trinity. This is the promoting of self for the sake of gain. They fill up their wallets, not the believers. They try to take shortcuts, ignore the map of Scripture, and wind up lost forever. Don't be conned, be careful. Don't be scammed, be vigilant. Yield your desires to God, and submit to His will.

The religionist never speaks of Holy Ghost conviction which comes from reading the Bible and listening to the preaching of the truths of the Gospel, the unconditional love of God in Christ, or assurance and certainty of the free forgiveness of sins through simple faith in Jesus' atoning blood. He is all quiet about the Crucified Creator who was rejected and denied, the God who stooped to become a Jewish man to redeem sinful man by shedding His own innocent blood to satisfy His divine justice, so that sinners could be saved by simply trusting in His atoning Blood.

Much religiousness and superstition is found in the heathen of America and third world countries. Many conviction-ites have been brought up religiously, they respect ministers, church music and ordinances. He reverences Sunday, the Bible, the church, and its ministries. He has a superstitious trust in religious things, his light becomes darkness. He regards public worship as a substitute for inward grace. He looks to membership with a particular denomination as a certificate for spirituality. He may even think that baptism helps put a sinner into the body of Christ. Baptism only makes you wetter, but not any better on the inside. The conviction-ite forgets to look wholly and alone to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything his soul needs. Outward forms of worship will not help your guilty soul at all. It is possible to be intensely active and very diligent in religious duties, and yet know nothing of Christ Himself and the workings of the Holy Spirit. The externalist is stuck on himself and his religious attainments. It is a horrible snare for people to trust to any man whatsoever.

The religionist tries to do right and stay right with God, but then he falls and becomes guilty - that is idolatry, because he is the source of his own joy, his joy comes from himself and continual self-working, but the true Christian's joy comes from the finished work of Jesus Christ. On your very best day, you are wretched and rotten. Stop looking to yourself and trying to please God with your own efforts, because you can't do it, but Jesus did. Come and Rest in Christ's Precious Blood now (Matthew 11:28). The religionist wants to be something big; he doesn't want to take the backseat. Trust in Christ's perfect works, not your own self-perfection. The religionist is a professional church operator, an ambitious egotist, a self-exalting narcissist. Stay humble before God: "Lead us not into temptation" is an admission of sinful weakness.

Trust in Christ's perfect works, not your own self-perfection. The moral religionist is a professional church operator, an ambitious egotist, he loves the preeminence and spotlight, he is a self-exalting narcissist. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. A technical religionist doesn't walk with God in secret and he is concerned about private godliness. He is eager to be seen of men, and is covetous for publicity. Superficial surface work will never make you a new creature in Christ, or cause you to pass from death to life. If you know not the Spirit of God in truth, you are still carnal and sensual, dead in sin, and the flesh will profit you nothing. Don't be white-washed by human religion, part with self, and be washed whited in the Blood of the Lamb. The religionist becomes enamored of new convictions, he falls in love with his own scriptural interpretations, he makes himself look good by appealing to strict elitist Christians, and he comes to love self, stuff, flattery, popularity, and money. The religionist preys upon the superstition and ignorance of human nature.  The religionist's doctrine is just as straight as a gun barrel, but it is just as empty and cold. The Bible in your head produces proud self-righteousness, but the Bible in your heart produces humble purity.

Wandering eyes, a distracted heart, a discontented soul, and uncontrolled affections lead the conviction-ite down a dark path of religious nonsense. The vain religionist is an empty show - he wears the cloak of religion to appear more respectable, or to help out his wallet. He thinks the Gospel is a good message for thieves and harlots, but not for him for he has many good works to boast of. Remember, you have no good works except in your dreams. High-browed religionists trust in themselves that they are righteous and despise others. The vain religionist loves admiration from his followers. If you try to make a savior out of your convictions, you will be lost as surely as if you made a savior out of ceremonies. The conviction-ite uses his religious dogma as a means to an end. Religiosity is only behavior modification, a facade of hypocrisy, a long list of religious chores that make you worse that you were before. Religion is like putting perfume on dung (Philippians 3:8), it just doesn't work. Salvation is not based on your merits, but on Jesus' obedience and blood alone.

The religionist is a stickler for the form, but he neglects the inner life that is needed to walk humbly with God. The conviction-ite has a formal religiousness with a hypocritical heartless nominal profession. His religion is worldly, his prayer mechanical, in public he is one thing, and in private another. He prefers emotion to regeneration, he is a cloud without rain, a well without water. They throw out the kernel, and cleave to the husk.

The religionist has three fatal flaws. He believes that outward appearance is all that matters. He thinks if he appears righteous, that he is righteous (Matthew 23:25-28). The Pharisee still does his dishes the same way in the 21st century, as he did in the 1st century. He washes the outside sparkling clean, but he leaves the inside filthy and reeking. The religionist is filled with hypocrisy and iniquity. There is no excuse, and there is no escape. The problem with the conviction-ite is on the inside, not on the outside. He is a pretender, a great big actor, a respectable religionist. He thinks that if you don't have any problems, you are walking with God. The conviction-ite seeks to put a yoke of bondage of Do-Do-Do on your life, so that you will have to come to him for help, and he thinks he is the one that determines whether you areright with God or not.

The religionist is self-deluded and self-deceived, and he makes merchandise of human beings. He loves it when religious people look to him for spiritual guidance and direction. He thinks that if you don't have any problems, you are walking with God. The religionist is a vainglorious professor with no real holiness of heart. He is in bondage attending church every week and trapped and lonely in his vain religion. The religionist is interested only in preserving religious exercises in an irreligious world. Outward religiousness is unimportant, get your sins forgivenfirst, believe now on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are saved.

The fashionable religionist has a form of godliness and nothing else. They think they are on"the inside" just because of their family, or their denomination, or their doctrines and convictions. But your religious morality never changes you on the inside. Only the Holy Ghost can change you inwardly, and He must get all the glory, so face it, you have absolutely nothing to boast of. Daily, you must ask the Holy Spirit to make you a Christian within, and not become super-religious. With the religionist it is all about competing, comparing, conceitedness, and convictions. The conviction-ite wants to manipulate you so you will follow him, and not the Lord Jesus Christ.

Religion promotes Self, runs its mouth about Self, honors Self, and brags on Self. Religionists love religious drama and man's admiration. The religionist rests on outward forms. The conviction-ite crosses his I's, dots his T's, and spells the word wrong. He dresses right and talks right, but he's crooked as a dog's hind leg within. He has a form of godliness, but he doesn't have Christ - the power of God. Men think they can please God with their religiousness, outward performances, and by religious strictness and correctness - human nature sets up its own faulty disobedience against Christ's sinless obedience.

The religious moralist always majors on external issues, and not the internal issues. The externals have little or nothing to do with your inward character. The religionist imitates spirituality, he love to strut in his ecclesiastical correctness, and this will eventually damn him. Human religion always wants to try to shine you up on the outside without any real heart change inwardly. The religionist tries his dead-level best to do right on the outside, but he has never been changed on the inside. The religionist tries to control people and micromanage everything you think and do; he wants you to be accountable to him at his church, but not with God in private. The religionist wants you to need him. But what you really need is to be conscious of and sensitive to God's eye (what He sees), God's ear (what He hears), and God's heart (what He feels). This is what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord.

The religionist leads you to always think about him and his do's and don'ts and never about God's continual presence. The conviction-ite will only show you his approval when you live up to the standards he has selfishly created for you to follow. The externalist will have nothing to do with you, if you do not attend his church or obey his religious regulations. The moralist enforces too many of his carnal preferences on others, he thinks his preferential rules are the same as Biblical commands and standards. It's all about what the religionist prefers, not what pleases God. The pretender is all about unnecessary separatism, they don't want you to be involved with anything that involves those worldly "heathen" who might defile you.

The religionist becomes a spiritual elitist and begins to not even associate with some of the people at his own church, because of a strange fear that he might be affected by someone without his particular convictions. The externalist is always fault-finding and nitpicking, being critical of everything, producing a constant attitude of criticism and condescension. He only wants to be around people like him, and that meet his standards, he continually shows favoritism to his little conviction-ite clique. The Pharisee takes himself way too seriously and is often glum. He builds up himself and his denomination, not the Savior and His Cross. The religionist focuses on external morality, not inward regeneration and sanctification.

The external without the inward is good for nothing. Years of reputable external religion is not worth a minute of grace: "Ye must be born again;" the Holy Spirit must come into your soul or else you are still dead in your sins. Outward morality and religion cannot reach the sinful soul's internal leprosy. The religionist is externally washed but not internally quickened. Form, ceremony, position, image, and convictions is the religionist's blindness - they can only worship God in a wooden box, they call the "house of God." They begin to feel smog and arrogant, they think they are God's favorite and they become proud of knowing God's will and what's important to God. The clean-living, morally upright, sweet-smelling, conviction-abiding, legalistic, conceited religionist looks down his nose at those outside his religious circle. All other churches are compromising apostates and not "right with God". The conviction-ite is a silly, blind slave to his religious games and rules.

The religionist thinks that God has put them here on earth to be everyone's guide and corrector - they are super-religious authorities - they think they have been given to this earth to set the record straight, and they begin to fill up with arrogance and become spiritual balloons. But they are still needful of this one essential - an inward spiritual life and fellowship with God. They still lust in their mind and boast in their religion. They trust in themselves and view others in contempt, they think they are a cut above everyone else. For the religionist, it's all about maintaining a religious image no matter what. Their mind is all wrapped around their self-importance - they become religious narcissists. They use naive people and see others as inferior. But their mind is just as vile, and their inward nature is no purer than any other human being. They are all offensive in God's sight. The religionist uses fear and intimidation to maintain loyalty and devotion to "his group". Any question of the religionist's authority is treated as rebellion, and you are not willing to take his correction. Superficial, mechanical, second-hand, lifeless religion is the way that the professional religionist deceives the simple.

Some definite symptoms of a Christ-less religionist:
* Dress codes become more important than your inward moral code. Religious, super-pious, hypocritical, conviction-ites always major on the minors.
* Try to appear and sound more spiritual than you really are.
* Begin to use religious rules (convictions) to control women, teenagers, and the spiritually naive.
* Begin to think you're something, when you're really Nothing.
* Add regulation upon regulation, you make Christianity a wearisome burden that no one can follow. Become unyielding in your spiritual pride, position, and performance. Earthly religion always goes full speed in the wrong direction.
* Choose rules over relationship, facts over fellowship, works over worship, rituals over righteousness, convictions over communion, activity over an authentic relationship with the living Christ. Going full speed in the wrong direction.
* Constantly, persistently, continually seeking another way (convictions/religious do's and don'ts) to make yourself feel better about your own religious self.
* When you pray or give of your money or time, you want to make sure someone knows.
* You say, and do not; you talk of good works, but do none; you bid others to do them, but do not practice them yourself, very strictly and severely force them on others, but are very careless yourself to observe them.
* You say you've made yourself "right with God". You continually let everyone know you are "right with God."
* You want to perform religiously. You seek to build a monument to yourself. Look at me! Look at me!
* Feel you have been called to "fix" other people; you only see what's wrong in others and never what's right with them. You are obsessed with the clothes people wear, not the good of their soul. You don't pray for people, you only judge them in your heart.
* Neglect private and family worship, Bible reading, closet prayer, and personal evangelism with souls.
* It becomes harder and harder to submit to anyone spiritually or be taught by anyone.
* Don’t evangelize your neighbors, friends, and work-mates. Don't invite people to church anymore.
* Become so "separated" that you can't fellowship with anyone except for the one or two souls left that have all your kooky convictions.
* Find better things to do than serve in your local church.
* Fill your life with questionable movies, music, television, and internet.
* Your thought life becomes filled with self-righteous and judgmental thoughts (evil surmisings). Externalists love superficial, second-hand, lifeless religion.
* Set aside fellowship and accountability with fellow brethren in Christ.
* Let your study of divine things become dull, mechanical, boring, lifeless, and mundane.
* Don’t read to learn and do; read only to refute what you believe is wrong and build your list of endless convictions.
* Spend more time blogging than studying and praying and witnessing.
* Avoid Sunday School and church and other opportunities for corporate worship.
* Forget that your primary responsibility is to care for your family through provision, shepherding, and leadership.
* Master and love your favorite theologian or preacher more than the Law, Prophets, and Apostles.
* Gain knowledge in order to merely show others how much you know or to win arguments. Don’t expand the effort it takes to deal with your own heart and inward sin.
* Pick apart your pastor’s sermons every week. Only point out his mistakes and his poor theological reasoning so you don’t have to be convicted by anything he says.
* Only be nice to those folks that support you and follow your convictions.
* Protect yourself from real fellowship by only talking about theology and never about your personal spiritual issues, sins, and struggles.
* Resent, behind-the-scenes, unrecognized service. You only want to serve in areas where you are sure you will be seen and receive public praise and accolades.
* Must appear spiritual and knowledgeable at all costs. Don’t let others see your imperfections and ignorance, even if it means you have to lie.
* Love books and sermons more than the Bible, denomination more than sound doctrine, convictions more than communion with the Holy Ghost, and ministry more than personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
* Let your passion for the Glory of God and the Gospel be replaced with a passion for complex doctrinal speculation, that is, strange doctrines and kooky convictions.