If Devout Folks Get to Heaven by Using Magic Spells and Potions…

Why bother following the rules?  

We can find many examples of Jesus-script in the gospels that stress good behavior, compassion, carefully following god’s rules—as the ways to make it to heaven. In Matthew 19 we read the story of a rich young man who asked Jesus how he could obtain eternal life. “Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” (Matt 19:21-22)   I suspect most consumer-driven devout folks would identify with the young man’s grief. An important part of life for them is the accumulation of as much stuff as possible, e.g., cars, houses, flat-screen TVs, a wide assortment of appliances—and saving bundles of cash for fun vacations. That’s life in the modern world. Following Jesus into poverty can be left to those who join monasteries and convents. The devout may not say it out-loud, but their response to Jesus is no thanks!



 
In the famous Last Judgement scene in Matthew 25, the Jesus-script invites the righteous to “…inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (v. 34) They have earned this reward because they fed the hungry, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited those in prison. Again, compassion is the key. But there is a brutal downside to this Last Judgement. Those who fail to measure up on the compassion scale will be thrown into eternal fire (v. 41). Religious folks need to take stock: just how much of their time and energy is devoted to the acts of compassion listed in Matthew 25? Are they at risk of suffering eternal fire?
 
In Mark 12, one of the scribes had this exchange with Jesus:
 
“‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’” (Mark 12:28-31)
 
Is this all, all, all, all requirement realistic? How many believers actually do love their god at this (quite frankly fanatical) level? And how many love their neighbors—as much as they love themselves? What if their neighbor belongs to a different race or ethnic group? Or is openly gay? Or follows a different religion—or is openly atheist? 
 
This rule in Mark 12 is another that is hard to follow. Indeed, these days, fundamentalist and evangelical Christians seem to have a long list of neighbors for whom they feel only contempt.   
 
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) presents a major challenge as well: so many rules that believers turn their backs on. One of the favorite dodges of the devout—when they discover horrifying rules and laws in the Old Testament—is to claim “Well, we now have the New Testament, which is so much better.” But the author of Matthew’s gospel saw the Jesus cult he defended as a Jewish sect: the Old Testament—the Hebrew Bible—was not to be downgraded. Hence he created this Jesus-script:
 
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks [or annuls] the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)
 
How many of the devout embrace other rules in the Sermon on the Mount? “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.  Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:39-42)

The Sermon on the Mount is idealized—isn’t it the most wonderful teaching of Jesus? —but if Christians go through it word for word, line by line, they will find so much they disagree with and choose to ignore. Why bother with these rules? 
 
Sliding into extreme cult mode
 
This is one of the biggest mistakes religions can make, especially when worship of a holy hero is involved. It is very easy to embrace magical thinking, that is, magic spells and potions work better than following rules. Belief is considered the key: believe what the cult claims is the truth, and you’ve made it to the inner circle. 
 
The apostle Paul, who bragged that his knowledge of Jesus came from his visions of the heavenly Jesus, was one of the first to affirm the value of cult belief:
 
“…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). 
 
At the conclusion of Mark’s gospel—an ending added later—we find this Jesus-script:
 
“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
 
Baptism itself is one aspect of magical thinking. At the very beginning of Mark’s gospel, John the Baptist offers “…baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). As if immersion in water is pleasing enough to a god to enable he/she/it to forgive sins. Devout believers today are deeply divided on the issue of infant or adult baptism. Supposedly infant baptism will prevent a dying baby from going to hell. 
 
The Old Testament was big on the magical properties of animal sacrifice to cancel the guilt of human sin. The slaughter of animals was big business in the Jerusalem Temple. Hence it’s no surprise that the author of John’s gospel, an extreme cult fanatic, had John the Baptist announce, when he saw Jesus coming toward him: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) The author of John’s gospel declares, in his opening chapter, that Jesus—depicted in the earlier gospels as a Galilean peasant preacher—had been present at creation. This is theological bombast: how could he possibly know that? But of course, theologians have been making up stuff about gods for millennia. Hence they disagree with one another so much—and secular observers don’t take them seriously for a second. 
 
One of the most cherished Bible verses is John 3:16—even as a child I was taught how important it was: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Notice that everything hinges on belief, and in two other verses in this chapter, lack of belief is a disaster: “Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (v. 18) and “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life but must endure God’s wrath” (v. 36).
 
The author of John’s gospel also earns the top prize for grotesque, ghoulish cult goofiness. In his 6^th chapter he argues that eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking his blood are vital for achieving eternal life. See John 6:54-58. This has become imbedded in Christian ritual: Protestants call it communion, Catholics call it Mass. When I was growing up in a Methodist Church in rural Indiana, we had Communion Sunday once a quarter—and we pretended to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood. All symbolically of course, but there was no one there to tap me on the shoulder and say, “That’s pretty gross, you know.” 
 
With this kind of ritual, Christians have indeed adopted magic potions. When they pray “in Jesus’ name,” they are using magic spells—as if uttering the very name of Jesus can guarantee results. It would be a great benefit to the world if Christians would read John 6:54-58 every day, and apply critical thinking to this text. How can eating Jesus possibly make sense? It’s time to snap out of it. 
 
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of two books, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes, the first of which is Guessing About God (2023) and Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also now available. 
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.