Christianity IS A Religion!

G.K. Chesterton rightly observed that "A heresy is always a half-truth turned into a whole falsehood" (America, November 9, 1935).  Or elsewhere he wrote that "every heresy is a truth taught out of proportion" (Daily News, June 26, 1909).  I wrote the article below in 2012.  I keep hearing this fallacy from dear Christians over and over again.  They say, "Christianity isn't a religion, it's a relationship." This half-truth is leading the Church to disastrous results.   Here's my former article.  See my conclusions at the end. 

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I have heard (and probably said) on many occasions that Christianity isn't a religion, it's a relationship.  Unfortunately that's only a half-truth.  We better stop bashing religion because we will soon learn that the wound is self-inflicted.  Jefferson Bethke has a blog post and one of his YouTube videos went wild as he bashed religion. The huge problem for us if we decide to run down this road is that Jesus was very religious.   As Kevin DeYoung intuitively writes: 

Jesus was a Jew. He went to services at the synagogue. He observed Jewish holy days. He did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them (Matt. 5:17). He founded the church (Matt. 16:18). He established church discipline (Matt. 18:15-20). He instituted a ritual meal (Matt. 26:26-28). He told his disciples to baptize people and to teach others to obey everything he commanded (Matt. 28:19-20). He insisted that people believe in him and believe certain things about him (John 3:16-18; 8:24). If religion is characterized by doctrine, commands, rituals, and structure, then Jesus is not your go-to guy for hating religion.

Not only was our Lord, Teacher and Savior very religious, His Word commands us to be "religious":  

"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:26-27, ESV).

The adjective in this quote from James (religious) is the Greek word θρῆσκος [threskos]. It actually has ideas of fearing and trembling before God in worship.  The Scripture is replete with those ideas.  James is pretty clear: a managed tongue; a care for the needy in mercy and compassion; and a pursuit of holiness is God's idea of religion.

So, before we bash religion, let's define our terms.  Yes, Jesus did say hard things to the religious leaders of Judaism; and Paul did condemn self-made, man-made religion.   But Jesus was religious and His Word commands us to be religious.  We better define what we mean when we bash religion.! Religion bashing is not the kind of sport we should engage in readily.  I'm tired of hearing it.  It's simply not intellectually coherent to suggest that a Christian has a relationship with Jesus but no religion. 

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We live in a world where Christians are highly individualistic and are driven by consumerism.  WHY?  One of the causes is due to this incredibly erroneous statement that Christianity is simply a relationship with Jesus.  The popular chorus goes like this, "Me and Jesus got a good thing going."   Indeed, you come to Christ on your own.  You repent and you believe.  And yes, when you are saved your new identity is to be in union with Christ. But guess what: you share that union with every other believer. And together you express your newfound relationship through the Church -- the local church.   A scant reading of the New Testament reveals the "corporateness" of the Christian faith.  We don't even pray the Lord's Prayer without saying, "Our Father . . .."  

A Christian will shrivel and die without a connection to the means of grace, the disciplines of the Spirit, all experienced through the local Church.  If it's just "Me and Jesus" you will shipwreck your faith because your Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible.  Those that are in union with Jesus will soon find that they have an interdependent, accountable, caring relationship with others who are in union with Jesus. And all these relationships are fostered, nourished and built-up in the local church, using the ordinary means of grace. 

By definition a religion is a system of worship and faith.  Christian if you're not religious, you're in trouble.

What is a conservative?

Dr. Alberta Mohler hosted an interview with Yoram Hazony, on Mohler’s YouTube channel, “Thinking in Public”, June 15, 2022.  Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher, Bible scholar, and political theorist. He is president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem and serves as the chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation.  They discussed Hazony’s latest book Conservatism: A Rediscovery. I found the interview stimulating and provocative. From the discussion I gleaned this all-important question:

What is a conservative?

The dictionary defines a conservative as a person that tends or is disposed to maintaining existing views, conditions, or institutions.  They are marked by moderation and caution. So, it makes sense that a conservative is conserving something. Thus, in Canada, it is oxymoronic to call oneself a “progressive conservative.”  The point to be made is that there are permanent laws, traditions and values that dare not be changed because it risks losing what is good and right.

A point that Hazony makes is that one cannot properly call oneself a conservative unless you are a conservative is values and lifestyle.  To take the conversation further we could add that to call oneself a conservative and live a life that is not conservative is hypocritical. So, 2 questions emerge to the reader who claims to be conservative:

1. What are you conserving; and

2. Are you living a conservative lifestyle?

In the interview, Hazony, was very transparent and in fact courageous.  In examining that last decades of western conservatism, the executive word is “abandonment”.  Conservatives have abandoned God, Scripture, marriage, the family, man and woman, the sanctity of life, and so on. When a social or political movement places individual liberty as the end all and be all for all things, that is not conservatism.  It is liberalism.

The questions that face both Canadians and Albertans in the coming months is heavily rooted in the answer to the question, “What is a conservative?”  Secondly, for a political representative to embrace the category of being a conservative, do they live conservatively?  A cursory scan at those who are seeking the leadership of the United Conservative Party in Alberta reveals men and women who have abandoned God, the Bible, the Family and the sanctity of life.  There really are very few conservatives. Many so-called conservative politicians are clothed in liberal clothing.

Perhaps a question that begs an answer from prospective candidates is, “As a conservative what are you conserving?”

 

 

 

 

The People of God

In his book entitled, Between the Cross and the Throne, Matthew Emerson provides a beautiful description of the people of God all taken from the Book of Revelation.   Here’s some quotable quotes:

“John’s description of the Church can be summed up by Revelation 1:4b–5—“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.””

“The Church is the redeemed people of God from all tribes, languages, and nations (Rev 7:9). The entire people of God is possibly indicated by the “twenty four elders” in Revelation 4:4; 11:16; and 19:4. This number is made up of two groups of twelve—one representing the tribes of Israel, and one representing the apostles. This is also exemplified in John’s numbering of the “sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” at 144,000 (Rev 7:4, 9; 14:1).”

“The people of God are clothed with white robes, which, according to Revelation 7:13–17, means that they are the “ones coming out of the great tribulation,” who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14). In other words, the white robes indicate that their wearers are believers in Christ, those who have repented of their sins, who have trusted Christ for forgiveness, and who have been made new by his Spirit (Rev 4:4; 6:11; 7:13–17; 19:8; 22:14).”

“John also refers to believers as those who have been sealed on their foreheads with the name of God (Rev 7:4; 9:4; 13:8; 14:1; 22:4) and who have had their names written in the book of life before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). Both of these images assure believers that their salvation, accomplished by Christ and applied by the Spirit, is secure because of God’s great power.”

“Believers are also those who follow the commands of Jesus, keeping themselves pure and blameless (Rev 14:4–5). This includes not only in their individual morality, but also their corporate holiness in the face of economic and political corruption (see the description of the Harlot in Rev 17–18).”

“ John also combines this last image of the Bride with the new Jerusalem, the holy city coming down from heaven (Rev 21:2).”

“John also describes the Church in Revelation 4:5b–5 as reigning with Christ. As with the first description of the Church as redeemed, John uses a number of different images throughout the book to convey this point. He starts and ends the body of his vision by picturing 24 elders (representative of the whole people of God) with crowns on their heads and sitting on thrones (Rev 4:4; 20:4, 6).”

[Emphasis Mine]