THE PROBLEM WITH RELIGION

To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy. Dean Inge

Christianity is absolutely definitely not a religion. Adisa Oludare

As you start reading this discourse I beg you to open your mind and allow the Holy Spirit to breathe his word into you because I am about to blow the cover off some of your most concrete beliefs. I say this because the subject of religion has been a recurring decimal in the world over the many generations of human existence and it is still such a hotly contested issue globally. 

Many people have stated their beliefs about religion both in support and against it. Considering the arguments for and against it, it seems religion and it attendant paraphernalia has assumed a status bigger than any other global issue. According to the Oxford Dictionary, religion is ‘the belief in the existence of a god or gods and the activities that are connected in the worship of them’. The Chambers Dictionary on its own part defines religion as ‘a belief in or recognition of a higher unseen controlling power or powers with the emotion and morality connected therewith’. With this definition it is clear that many of the world’s organized institutions based on a belief of the existence a god or higher controlling power can be safely described as religions. From this standpoint, Christianity is also generally referred to as a religion; we believe in the existence of a God.

The central core of every religion can be traced to man’s quest to make sense of the world and how he can control or influence it’s element for his own well being (note that this is what also gave birth to science). Thus we have religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, New Age, Maoism and etcetera. Despite all the lofty promises and assertions of various religions none seem to have been able to deliver us from personal and global problems and dilemmas. Why? Simple, they simply do not have the answer and this also applies to the ‘Christian religion’. My purpose in this discourse is however to help us see that Christianity is not a religion.

The first direct and compelling truth is that nowhere in the Bible did we see Christianity being referred to as a religion. In fact, the word religion was only mentioned five times in the whole of the scriptures. Three times in connection to the Jewish religion and the other two in the book of James chapter one viz:

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (Jam 1:26-27 KJV)

As we can see, Apostle James enlightens us on what real religion is and that is engaging in acts of benefaction and living a life of moral fidelity. This is the central message of most religion, not just Christianity.

The second point to note is that Jesus did not at any time, directly or indirectly, suggest that the reason he came to the world was to establish a religion! I have checked through the Gospels and I couldn’t find a single instance. If the progenitor of our faith didn’t give us a religion, where did we find one? So what did Jesus bring to us? This is what Jesus himself said:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (Joh 10:10 KJV)

Jesus didn’t come to give us religion; he came to give us life, hallelujah! I don’t know about you but I am always excited by this portion of scripture that lets me know what I have at the instance of Jesus Christ. You see friend, Christianity is not a religion rather it is a ‘faith based relationship with God that guarantees us an abundant and eternal life’. The often quoted book of John chapter three verses sixteen states that when a man believes in Jesus, what he gets is a life not a religion. It would have been an utmost stupid idea if Jesus had to die just for a religion to be established. Any man anywhere can create a religion in almost an instant.

The assumption that Christianity is a religion has rendered many of us Christians chasing the shadows rather than the substance and has robbed us of the power inherent in sustaining a vibrant fellowship with God through his Holy Spirit. We have substituted religious rites and rituals for a vibrant relationship with the Almighty God. How pathetic!

Lastly, it is clear to me that religion is not God’s idea. How do I know? In the story of recreation in genesis chapter one and two, when God created man in the form of Adam and Eve, God did not establish a religion as the basis of relationship between himself and man. He didn’t establish a set of rituals and rites to be followed meticulously in the worship of him. Rather what God did was to establish a relationship based on inter-personal fellowship between himself and man. However, this relationship was severed with the fall of man and ever since man has devised several ways in re-establishing this relationship in form of the several religion we have today. Therefore if God didn’t establish a religion in the beginning, it is then crystal clear that Jesus couldn’t have come to establish a religion as that would have been anti God’s eternal plan.

 So my friend, if your Christianity is based on rituals, rites and activities of your denominational or local church without you sustaining a vibrant and personal fellowship with God, you are just playing religion and you are missing it big time!