"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion"

Originally posted by josephw
I can answer the first question. I think the answer can potentially be both a surprise to you and the answer to your second question.

Indulge me for a few moments. Look at the following two verses please.

Romans 3:25a
Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood,..

And

Galatians 2:20d :.. and the life which I now liv ...[text shortened]... Son, that that the believer lives the life of God.

Very simple and easy to understand really.

Your answer means that, indeed, faith the way you conceive it, is nothing but strong belief in the doctrines of the Christian religion based on spiritual conviction rather than proof; this is the reason why you backed up your answer with specific scriptural verses.

Faith is simply whatever We define as faith; there is no difference in faith as regards the specific beliefs we evaluate as true thanks to our blind beliefs alone. (The) faith (in G-d) is a purely religious product😵

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Originally posted by black beetle in reply to josephw
"What is the exact difference between “faith” as you pose it and faith commonly defined as “complete trust or confidence in the Christian G-d and/or strong belief in the doctrines of the Christian religion based on spiritual conviction rather than proof ..?"

bb, here's an everyday example ...[text shortened]... because of disbelief or lack of empirical proof that the site member will deliver or pride. -gb

In this context, I evaluate the protasis and I act accordingly -no faith required my friend😵

Originally posted by RBHILL
Maybe by the human definition it is.

do you suggest we use nonhuman definitions?

where do we get them from?

what is the point of using non-standard definitions?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Part Two)

"I could go on and on. When Jesus was on the earth, religion was very rampant, as it is today. There was a group of corrupt religious leaders called the Pharisees who had taken the word of God, passed down from Moses and the prophets (the Torah), and written a commentary on it interpreting what ...[text shortened]... t-a-religion/

~ Te Deum Laudamus -Jake McWhirter" http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/[/b]

Edit: “God wants so much more. He wants to have a real relationship with you. He wants to show his love to you and He wants you to love Him. That was the point of the original commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy”. The Sabbath day was supposed to be a day for us to take a little break from working, refocus on what’s important, spend time with our family, and spend time with God. You can’t build a deep relationship without spending quality time together. If you read the 10 Commandments you will notice..." (to be continued)”


If this Greek Jock understands that Jock alright, the Christian God wants this and that, OK. So if you do this and that, you are saved. You are saved when you do whatever is required (as it is described in the Holy Book, that is, which is full of do’s and don’t’s) so that you can be saved at last. Because, in case you live not accordingly to those specific do’s and don’t’s that are described in the Holy Book, although the Christian God wants to show his love to you and receive your love to him, you will be in fact unable to love him and as a consequence you will never get to notice that he wants to show his love to you and to receive your love. So it would be a good idea to take a little break from working the Sabbath day, refocus on those do’s and don’t’s, share the product of your thoughts with your family and worship the Christian God. You can’t built a bond with the Christian God without spending quality time on thinking deeply about the differ core religious concepts that turn Christianity into a locomotive and us preachers into locomotive engineers. Then, when you get inside the locomotive, you are at last free to do the locomotion (to be continued)


Well, I fail to see why a Christian has to walk this way; if I were a Christian I would simply affirm that I adore and worship the Christian God because this is what I want to do according to the evaluation of my mind and because I pay homage to the Being Supreme by means of this specific religious tradition😵

Well, I fail to see why a Christian has to walk this way; if I were a Christian I would simply affirm that I adore and worship the Christian God because this is what I want to do according to the evaluation of my mind and because I pay homage to the Being Supreme by means of this specific religious tradition

I believe this is basically right.

I've spoken before about the idea of faith being relative to each individual, and some who think they have all the faith required actually have little faith, and "where the rubber meets the road", so to speak, these Christians might give up their faith in the coming Tribulation to ensure their survival.

All that being said, I believe that faith describes one's relationship to God, while religion is all the trappings of one's belief, even down to the traditions involved. And yes, we use this religion, these ritual trappings, to corral our beliefs into a credo that we can share with others and take part in a greater community of those with similar beliefs. Thus, yes, Christianity IS a religion, as Islam IS a religion, as Judaism IS a religion.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Some here avoid the label of "religion" like the plague, as if they think being "religious" is somehow a bad thing. Many Christians here have said as much in the past. I guess they think this automatically gives them intellectual breathing room away from those who, in the past, have used religion as a means to an end. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Dark Ages, the puritanical witch hunts in early America, the Holocaust, these are all laid at the feet of "religionists". This is NOT the fault of those who embrace their religion! This IS the fault of evil men within those religions, those who would use the inherent trust of their positions for personal gain.

"Poets, priests and politicians
Have words to thank for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no one's jamming their transmission"

This is why there are some who villify "religion". It's seen as a mind-control tool, as used by those of questionable aegis, lumping together priests with poets and politicians, who surely "have words to thank for their positions."

Religion itself is NOT the evil that even the theists here claim it is. You give evil WAY too much credit if you think this way, and in fact, you have done half of the militant atheists' job for them. Yes, it is true that some evil men have USED religion in the past, this does not make religion inherently evil. To throw out the concept of religion is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You're casting your own failings onto religion and in this way, it acts as a convenient 'bogeyman'. The Christians need to find a community they can be part of, in order to grow in Christ. The lone Christian, going his own way, is often lost fighting upstream in this world. He becomes that which he fights against. This is why the church exists. Christians who find other like-minded souls with which to congregate (a denomination) have a much better chance of actually growing in Christ, instead of becoming beat down by this secular world. United we stand, divided we fall. I'm not saying religion is perfect. I AM saying that it beats the alternative.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion"

"The way to be right with God in every religion is by earning your way. It is based on works, not grace. Christianity is different from every religion in this aspect: all other religions (including Mormonism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) state that you must [i]earn the right to be reconciled with ...[text shortened]... ly to the statements of this Scotsman who believes in Christ for his salvation and eternal life?[/b]

I agree that Christianity if Jesus Christ is involved is not a religion; however,
I do believe many people don't grasp Jesus Christ and the reality of Jesus
Christ yet claim the name nonetheless. Like those found in Acts 19:

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Originally posted by Suzianne

Well, I fail to see why a Christian has to walk this way; if I were a Christian I would simply affirm that I adore and worship the Christian God because this is what I want to do according to the evaluation of my mind and because I pay homage to the Being Supreme by means of this specific religious tradition

I believe this is basically right. ...[text shortened]... ivided we fall. I'm not saying religion is perfect. I AM saying that it beats the alternative.

Without the hat called "Religion", where from did that rabbit of yours came, my Dear Lady? Where exactly can a Christian stand, if not on the Holy Book, in order to cultivate her faith strictly by means of following the Good Book and meditating on its verses?
😵

Originally posted by black beetle
In this context, I evaluate the protasis and I act accordingly -no faith required my friend😵

Your choice, bb....

Originally posted by KellyJay
I agree that Christianity if Jesus Christ is involved is not a religion...

The world religion means what it means, regardless of your efforts. So I am curious. Is the little special feeling that this bit of misuse of vocabulary presumably gives you ~ is it self-importance? 'Otherness'? some sort of inter-religionist holier-than-thou thing? ...perhaps you tell me ~ is it worth it when set against how silly you might seem in the eyes of a thoughtful user of conventional English?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Part Two)

"I could go on and on. When Jesus was on the earth, religion was very rampant, as it is today. There was a group of corrupt religious leaders called the Pharisees who had taken the word of God, passed down from Moses and the prophets (the Torah), and written a commentary on it interpreting what the ...[text shortened]... s-not-a-religion/

~ Te Deum Laudamus -Jake McWhirter" http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/

"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Part Three)

"If you read the 10 Commandments you will notice that they are all about relationships. They are either about improving our relationship with God or with other people. As Jesus Himself said:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” -Matt 22:37-40

And Paul said: “For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.” -Rom 13:9-10 So the law can be summed up in love; love for God and love for others. The law is about relationships; vertical and horizontal. It is about our vertical relationship with our creator and our horizontal relationships with the rest of mankind. It was never intended to be a list of rules that can be relegated to a checklist or mathematical formula. We are talking about love.

So the Pharisees took the commandment to remember the Sabbath and added religion to it by making that ridiculous rule about spitting on the ground. Jesus showed his complete disregard for their rules when he repeatedly healed people on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered this “work”. On one particular occasion, He healed a blind man on the Sabbath by spitting on the ground, making some mud, and rubbing it on the man’s eyes. Jesus was God. He didn’t have to spit on the ground to heal the man. He was making a point to the Pharisees and everyone watching him that religion was wrong.

“Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam“. So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, because it was on the Sabbath that Jesus had made the mud and healed him. Some of the Pharisees said, “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.” -John 9:6-7, 13-14, 16

Religion is man trying to reach up to God. The message of Christianity is God reaching down to man. Religion is about what man has to DO to be right with God. Christianity is about what God has already DONE to provide us the opportunity to be right with Him. Religion says you must EARN your salvation by doing good deeds or certain acts and not doing evil.

Christianity says all we need to do is BELIEVE that Christ has already paid the price for the evil we have done. Christianity says we are all evil (filled with sin) and there is nothing we can do to earn the right to be saved. Christianity says that God (in the form of Jesus Christ) stepped into our place and paid the awful price that had to be paid for us. He gave us the free gift of salvation if we choose to believe in Jesus.

“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.” -1 Pet 3:18

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” -John 1:12 (to be continued)

http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/why-believe-in-jesus/why-christianity-is-not-a-religion/

-Te Deum Laudamus -Jake McWhirter" http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby

The message of Christianity is God reaching down to man. ...

Christianity is about what God has already DONE to provide us the opportunity to be right with Him. ...

Christianity says all we need to do is BELIEVE that Christ has already paid the price for the evil we have done ...

Christianity says we are all evil (filled with sin) and there is nothing we can do to earn the right to be saved ...

Christianity says that God (in the form of Jesus Christ) stepped into our place and paid the awful price that had to be paid for us ...

He gave us the free gift of salvation if we choose to believe in Jesus...

The above are all religious beliefs and they form the basis of the religion that you are an adherent and proponent of.

These long copy pastes exhibit a rather transparent rhetorical trick that relies on clumsy circular logic. 'Religion is X, but Christianity is Y'. In fact 'Religion is X and Y (according to the actual meaning of the word)'. So Christianity is a religion.

No one has ever claimed that the tenets of belief or the folklore have to be the same as other religions. Claiming that Christianity is not a religion because it has different tenets and folklore from other religions is a flop in discursive terms.

All you have here is a kind of rhetorical riff that a preacher might use to 'preach to the choir'.

"For our struggle [spiritual warfare] is not against flesh and blood [human beings], but against the rulers [Arche: From 5th Century BC Athens: chief magistrate archon, highest ranking demon positions], against the powers [Abaddon in the Hebrew: "angel of the abyss" Revelation 9:11], against the world forces of this darkness [Kosmokrator: Satan's emissaries' influence in global capitals], against the spiritual forces of wickedness [Pneumatikos: immaterial beings] in the heavenly places [entire universe] ." -Ephesians 6:12 A formidable organization which attacks all human beings in different ways. [study notes]

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
"For our struggle [spiritual warfare] is not against flesh and blood [human beings], but against the rulers [Arche: From 5th Century BC Athens: chief magistrate archon, highest ranking demon positions], against the powers [Abaddon in the Hebrew: "angel of the abyss" Revelation 9:11], against the world forces of this darkness [Kosmokrator: Satan's emissa ...[text shortened]... s 6:12 A formidable organization which attacks all human beings in different ways. [study notes]

Just about all religions address or perceive or relate to supernatural entities. Christianity is no different in this regard.

Originally posted by KellyJay
I do believe many people don't grasp Jesus Christ and the reality of Jesus Christ yet claim the name nonetheless.

How well or badly Christians "grasp" the tenets of their religion, or whether they are sincere or superficial in their beliefs pertaining to Christ, it does not alter the fact that Christianity is a religion.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Part Three)

"If you read the 10 Commandments you will notice that they are all about relationships. They are either about improving our relationship with God or with other people. As Jesus Himself said:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is th ...[text shortened]... is-not-a-religion/

-Te Deum Laudamus -Jake McWhirter" http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/

"Why Christianity is NOT a Religion" (Part Four)

"Christianity says that God (in the form of Jesus Christ) stepped into our place and paid the awful price that had to be paid for us. He gave us the free gift of salvation if we choose to believe in Jesus.

“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.” -1 Pet 3:18

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” -John 1:12

“Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.” -Romans 3:19-25

We are free by God’s great gift. All we have to do is claim it. Just like a Christmas present, it is a FREE GIFT (that cost the giver dearly), but it doesn’t become ours until we believe that the giver does care for us and that what is inside the box is something good. We then have to receive the FREE GIFT. It doesn’t become ours until we trust the giver and choose to receive the gift.

You see, as the verse from Romans above states, we can’t be saved by abiding by the law (the 10 Commandments). This is a list of rules. We can’t be saved by the effort of man. The bible clearly states this.

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” -Eph 2:8-9

So often you hear from people that they think they will go to heaven because they have “been a good person”. Being good has nothing to do with whether you are saved or not. That’s religion. You can’t earn it. Thank God, because none of us could ever be good enough. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” God is perfect, and in order to be one with God and commune with the Almighty we would have to be perfect too. Only one person could ever do this, Jesus Christ. That’s why it took Jesus to stand in the gap and pay the price for all of us. Our sins are erased because of Christ. Theologians use a big term for this called “Substitutionary atonement”.

“If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.” -1 John 1:8-10" (to be continued)

http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/why-believe-in-jesus/why-christianity-is-not-a-religion/

-Te Deum Laudamus -Jake McWhirter" http://philippians1v21.wordpress.com/about/