The religious spirit vs. the Holy Spirit

[David H.]

I Found this article to be helpful for understanding the differences and how easy it is to be seduced by a religious spirit.

How the Spirit of Religion fights the Spirit of God | Christian Faith (christian-faith.com)

A snippet from the link:

However, religious spirits are at work not only outside the church of Christ, but also within it. The extent to which Christendom has been infiltrated by evil spirits is greater than it will ever be possible to calculate. It extends virtually to every local church and across every denomination to a greater or lesser extent. This fact can be demonstrated logically by considering for a moment the theological disagreements and bad relationships which exist between churches, and also within individual local churches. How can these things be so, when Jesus put so much emphasis on us loving one another (John 13:34, 35), and was so emphatic in his desire for the unity of the church to reflect the unity of the godhead? (See John 17). Obviously the spiritual power behind these problems is religious in nature.

The religious spirit will also rear its ugly head when a man or woman full of the mercy of God and the power of the Holy Spirit begins to confront religious people in churches with the truth. At these times demons get stirred up and if possible will provoke all kinds of unreasonable and malicious attacks on such servants of God. In some situations they may even be publicly cast out of those so influenced by them. This ministry is necessary, and in the last days will become more and more common.

Jesus Christ had little trouble dealing with demons provoking sickness and disease in people. However, the Lord faced greater opposition from people controlled by religious spirits. These people did not know they had religious spirits. They thought they represented the true religion of God. They did not want to be free of the spirits that made them feel important and more righteous than those around them. Because of their pride and hardness of heart, even the Son of God could not help them to come to the Father. These people were known as the Scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests and experts in the law. It was these people who hated Jesus and conspired to crucify Him. They were motivated by pride, envy and self-righteousness. They refused to humble themselves and believe in the Messiah, despite the many proofs that Jesus gave. This remained true even after they were confronted with the fact of the resurrection.

We make a serious mistake if we assume that the spirit which motivated these Jewish religious leaders can in no way influence us. In fact, those who think like that are probably the very ones who are influenced by such spirits. While these religious spirits will obviously not promote exactly the same errors now as they did in those people, there will be similarities of attitude and behaviour which will be clearly seen.

This subject is actually a vast one and we need the help of the Spirit of God to be able to get free from the influence of religious spirits. Most people, myself included, will have an ongoing battle with these kinds of spirits. If we are not fighting them, perhaps it is because we are happy to be securely in their grip.

 

[DNB]

These people did not know they had religious spirits. They thought they represented the true religion of God

Hi David, ...yes, of course, everything in the article perceived correctly the type of spirit that may lie under the layer of a Christian façade.
These are all exemplified by either a self-righteous, hypocritical, hyper-critical, misguided or shallow disposition. Many variations or degrees of wolves in sheep's clothing.
My only contention to the article, and a pet-peeve that I've had for years, is the use of the word 'religious' or 'religion' as derogatory. Religion, in its most rudimentary usage, simply means an organized and structured belief system. It's a philosophy that can be defined with precepts and dogma, so that it can be compared and assessed as to being either orthodoxy, or heterodoxy. Religion is not a pejorative term, Christianity and Judaism can be viably referred to as religions, and fall under the category of world religions alongside Islam and Buddhism, for example. But, which religion understands and complies with God's will, is where the question lies.

The two passages that I quoted above, seem to contradict the authors predicate that religion, or defining a creed as such, is bad?

Either way, David, again, the article, perceptively and insightfully, exposed an egregious fact about the type of people that the church consists of. I was just wondering if a better term could be used to more accurately define, and thus discern, the essence of this malevolent spirit? For example, I might characterize the spirit of the Pharisees as being motivated by self-exaltation, as opposed to giving glory to God, in that many vices are derived from this attitude. The term religion, on its own, does not on any level convey where the error lies, and I said asserted earlier, does not even imply error?

Thank you!