"What do these mean: 1. The devil lurks behind the cross 2. The nearer the church the further from God?"

Answer 1

1) Means that those who pretend goodness are often not so.

The sentence comes from a longer proverb which makes the meaning clearer, it is alluded to in Don Quixote thus:

"...if you don't think fit to give me an island because I am a fool, I'll be so wise as not to care whether you do or not. 'Tis an old saying, the Devil lurks behind the cross. All is not gold that glisters."

2) The way to find Christ is to find him within you, not to look outside to someone else to tell you where he is, which is what the church does.

vis:

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Luke 17:20

Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21

interesting that the first quote in many ways introduces the second. Did you hear them together?

Answer 2

1, if we choose to bypass the cross we will soon come in contact with the devil's work and fall into evil hands.

2, The better a church thinks it is (thinks a lot of itself, not humble and accepting it's faults) the further it is away from getting to Heaven. Remember a church is not the building, it is the people in it, the followers.

Answer 3

I never heard these sayings before but it seems to me that these are nothing more than embittered and sarcastic quips from someone who has an dislike for religion.

Answer 4

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