Religion = middleman

Omegaman

Think about this: God gave mankind a Guide book on who he is , how we should live our lives and his purposes This book is the Bible or in some cultures the Koran

Whether Christian, Jew or Muslim we all accept this to be true

Also God has provided us a 24x7 way of communicating with him day or night - Prayer where we can talk about anything to god and he hears and answers us

Whether Christian, Jew or Muslim we would agree

BUT

This is not good enough, religion in effect is saying this to god , we need to help people to “find you god” the book you provided and prayer is not good enough, people have to come to us first, and god we need billions of dollars a year to do this from the people . we will build big building and purchase real estate in your name and we would like to do this full time so we will need to take some of the money for ourselves so we can do this full time and make a career of this

jaguarbass

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/emmett_fields/word_of_god_debate.html

Arthur

This is not good enough, religion in effect is saying this to god , we need to help people to “find you god” the book you provided and prayer is not good enough, people have to come to us first

Great points Omegaman

The New Testament is very clear in warning Christians about this phenomenon. It is why the apostle Paul was so vigorous in warning Christians not to become "slaves of men", to avoid "being tossed about by every wind of changing teaching", and to beware of "new gospels".

When a religious organization teaches people that salvation hinges upon organizational membership and uquestioning compliance with it's ecclesiastical councils (or governing body), they are guilty of going beyond what is written and teaching a new gospel.

When Christian congregations were formed in the first century, it was for the mutual encouragement and spiritual enrichment of Christ's followers. There was no emphasis placed upon perpetuating an organizational structure or complying with organizational edicts. Such a concept would have been foreign to those Christians.

It is true that elders of the first century had authority. However, the authority that they held was the authority to serve; not to govern. When Christians were admonished to show obedience, it was in a relative sense, not absolute. They were only admonished to cooperate with elders in the sense of maintaining a spirit of harmony (not unanimity). No man had the authority to dictate his personal conscience upon another.

When studying Jesus' words as well as the apostolic writings, it is clear and unambiguous that no man, group of men, or organization can usurp Christ's headship and claim that salvation hinges upon membership ties or association with a remnant of people. No group of men or organization can serve as a mediator or even a co-mediator. For any group of men or organization to make such a claim is flagrant arrogance.

Any "organization" is only acceptable in the sense that it serves Christ's followers, or that is serves important business functions. The organization itself is never to be served. This is an example of the organization becoming a "middleman", as you put it.

There is Scriptural term for this phenomenon. It is idolatry.

Satanus

The bible, or any other book, guru, priest, etc, are also a 'middle men'. In as much as we all have the 'divine spark', the potential to connect w the 'divine', we can graduate from relying on middling agencies and go direct, if we want.

S

LittleToe

The hand that points to the moon is not the moon.

Some folks seem to want a little push-start, though. You pays your money, you takes your choice...