CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A RELIGION. SO, WHAT IS IT?
Christianity is not a religion, even though, over the years, it has been called this.
Here is what makes religion ‘religion’: A religion has rites, a religion has buildings, a religion has functionaries, a religion resembles the army, where a general compares to a pope, colonels to cardinals, officers to priests, soldiers to laypeople.
Is the church really similar to an army?
Well, religion has songs celebrating its aim, such as: “Like a mighty army moves the church of God”. And the equally unbiblical: Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross, or, Onward Christian Soldiers. Really?
In essence, today’s Christian religion resembles more the Old Testament than the New. Religion has official feast days, just like the good Old Testament times, when everything was stipulated, and we knew exactly what to do, and when and where. Also compare how Religion has prescribed vestments, for instance: the Pope wears white, the cardinals red. Usually the Protestant clergy are dressed in black. For a reason?
New Testament Christianity has none of that.
The adoption of Old Testament rituals leaves the impression that observing some rules will earn salvation. Old Testament rules mangle the Message. Look at Jesus, God’s Son. He dressed as a common citizen: nothing distinguished him in appearance. Certainly, no clerical collar.
And then there is Jesus’ very final act. Mark 15: 37-38 tells us that when “Jesus with a loud cry breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Just imagine, just picture the scene, and connect it to John 3: 16, which tells us that the reason for his death, was not that we, poor sinners would be saved, but that creation, the cosmos, the animals, the trees, the entire human race would be restored to Paradise Prime! Jesus in a cry of acute agony visualized how the church would degenerate into a pietistic portrait of non-relevance, many shamelessly adoring the Trump cohort whose devilish conduct is bent to destroy the cosmos for whose total regeneration, Jesus Christ gave his life.
Yes, Christianity today, basically, is a continuation of the Old Testament church, and when Jesus objected, when he went against the established rules, the then church killed him.
What then is “Christianity?”
How can I word that? How can I make that convincing? How can I get that across? First: Christianity is a constant struggle, because Christianity has no fixed rules, because Christianity always is exploratory.
The basic message of Revelation.
The basic message of Revelation, and thus of Christianity, is that “Everything becomes what it is”. That is its ‘lesson’. All truths and lies will be exposed. Trump’s traumatic attempts to rule the economic world, will backfire, because his opponent here is God/Jesus.
Colossians 1: 15-20, places special emphasis on Ta Panta: All Things. Since God created ‘all things’, then, as a matter of consistency, ‘All things are holy’. Karen Armstrong, with her book, Sacred Nature, shows this clearly.
The world is becoming a dangerous place. The latest readings from the “Doomsday Clock”, which notionally measures proximity to global catastrophe, suggest that it is now at 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to the theoretical point of annihilation.
The reasons are familiar: the risk of nuclear war, pandemics, disinformation, new technologies. Perceptions that the world is spinning out of control are heightened by environmental and health disasters like the recent Los Angeles wildfires, outbreaks of Ebola and other lethal, infectious diseases.
Animals too, look forward to the New World.
When Jonah went to Nineveh, God expressed special concern for the many animals there. Today the Die-off of wild creatures is rapidly accelerating. Look at the North/South Poles where polar bears, seals, penguins, will soon disappear, due to Global Heating. God made them. God loves them.
So, what is Christianity?
Christianity is NOT a religion. Christianity is ‘a way of life’. Religion separates soul from body, but God is in the midst of everything. Religion has heaven at its goal, pure pagan preaching. Jesus tells us that ‘the meek will inherit the earth’, those who claim little or nothing. We want everything.
Our bonds with the earth are so strong that we cannot imagine existing apart from the earth. We await Paradise, a Paradise with Jesus. Paradise is the unspoiled world where the total harmony of all creatures entwines everything into intimate cohesion. Paradise is the KINGDOM as seen by God on the morning of creation, when he saw all he had made, and concluded, ‘it was very good’.
When Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come”, that’s what He had in mind. That’s why Christianity is NOT a religion: It is a Way of Life, simulating the perfect creation to come.
To me the Bible/Jesus tells me so: John 10:10: I, Jesus, have come to bring LIFE -24/7 – and that to the full. Live life. All the time, Live LOVE, as God loved the world. Loving Creation in all her aspects, including humans, of course, in all her expressions. and trying to care for their welfare is equivalent to “Praying without ceasing”. (1 Thessalonians 5:17): That’s what Christianity is all about.