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In light of James 1:27, is it right to say that "Christianity is not a religion---it's a relationship"? Also, doesn't that just confuse nonbelievers? In that common platitude, "religion" is usually defined as "meaningless ritual/self-righteousness/trying to be saved by works." But most of the non-Christian world sees a "religion" as theistic belief or practice.
Comments
YES! I like how David Jeremiah puts it, in relation to counterfeit Christianity [Revelation 17] and the rapture (pre-trib):
"Some people say that when the Tribulation starts and the Church goes, that religion is dead. Hey, listen: When we get out of here religion is going to flourish. We stand in the way of the flourishing of religion today! You know why? Because we're not a religion. We're a relationship. Religion is trying to measure up to some deity. We already know that we can't do that. A relationship is knowing that God has already measured up for you in the person of Jesus Christ.
"You know, we're always in the way of religion. When we're gone, religion is going to flourish under the False Prophet...and I don't just want to pick on the Romans [Roman Catholic] because as soon as we're out of here, I believe the Roman church is going to have a great leadership in that whole area. but she's going to be joined by every apostate Christian who's still around and it's not going to just be Romanists... they're going to be Baptists and Lutherans and Presbyterians and Methodists and Pentecostals and all of the other people who have just gone to church but never knew Christ!"
- David Jeremiah from "Escape the Coming Night, Vol.34"
I've heard the phrase "[r]eligion is trying to measure up to some deity" quite a bit among evangelicals, anyway. But I also know many people outside Christian circles who DO NOT think that this is what "religion" means. Many nonbelievers know that Christians teach about a relationship with God (and they know that we believe we're saved by grace, NOT by works), yet they still call Christianity a "religion."
Their understanding of Christianity as a "religion" is very different from the way David Jeremiah describes the term "religion." That is, if you ask many unbelievers, I think they tend to see "religion" as merely belief in God (or gods). Granted, some may see legalism, self-righteousness, or doing good to "earn" God's favor as an inherent aspect of "religion," but does this mean we can still use the silly phrase "Christianity is not a religion"? Isn't "praying" religious? But when I call prayer a "religious" activity, am I saying that it is a "legalistic/work-your-way-up-to-God" kind of activity? No! We pray AND believe that we're saved by grace and not by law-keeping.
If people see "religion" as working one's way to God (and therefore see Christianity this way as a result), wouldn't it be better to simply correct their erroneous views of Christianity instead of redefining the word "religion"?
But most importantly of all, why do we continue to use this weird definition of religion (that is, saying that "religion" means "trying to measure up to some deity") when the Bible doesn't do this? In fact, how do we deal with James 1:26-27, which distinguishes between "worthless" religion and "pure and undefiled" religion?
Yes.....Being a Christian isn't a religion...something you just do because your parents or friends do it. It's not something you just go to church for....It's a relationship between you and God! You do good things because you want to please Him. The good things you do CANNOT get you into Heaven...It's by having Jesus as your personal Savior and keeping up a relationship with Him.