Christian Religion vs True Relationship

[Barry]

Christian Religion vs True Relationship

Please understand, I'm not selling "Christian religion" here. If anything, I still believe "religion" has kept more people from God than anything else in history.

Actually, I've discovered that true Christianity isn't a Christian religion at all - it's discovering and establishing a relationship with God. It's trusting in Jesus and what He did on the cross for you and me, [1] not on what we can do for ourselves. [2]

"True Christianity" isn't about "organized religion." It's not about hierarchical structures, ornate buildings, flamboyant preachers, or traditional rules and rituals. In fact, let's just drop the "Christianity" label all together. Simply, it's pursuing and reconciling three basic questions of life:



Does God exist? If so, what am I going to do about it?


Is the Bible true? If so, what does that mean for me?


Who is Jesus? If he is who he claims to be, how will this reality change my life?


Again, it's not about the so-called "Christian religion" at all...

It's not about the man-made machine we know today as "Christianity"...

It's all about Jesus.

He's either the Son of God who offers the only true hope for the world, or he's not.

Done.



Know God Now!



[1] 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 -- Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
[2] Ephesians 2:8-9 -- For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.


— Barry

[long tail]

hey waz up bro
If your throwing away the label of the church then consider this that Jessus was teaching the same thing that Buddhists have for longer then there has been a religion based on the being god. also consider that the churches have defiled the man Jessus by using his ideoligy and saying that he was more than he was, he was just a man who converted a lot of jews to a new path and in doing so his followers have thought of him as being of godly origon.

[Korkoa]

Hold it. Are you saying he was just a good man? Impossible! He clearly stated the He was the Son of God. If that were not true, then He would be a liar, or lunatic. Not a good man.

[thundertail]

If you consider the theory that God created all of us, then we ALL are children of God...
We're the sons and daughters of God!
Therefore, any of us could lead the people to the better path.
(get it?)

[jewelspike]

Sept 17, 2007 5:41:02 GMT -5 long tail said:

hey waz up bro
If your throwing away the label of the church then consider this that Jessus was teaching the same thing that Buddhists have for longer then there has been a religion based on the being god. also consider that the churches have defiled the man Jessus by using his ideoligy and saying that he was more than he was, he was just a man who converted a lot of jews to a new path and in doing so his followers have thought of him as being of godly origon.

I learned in my philosophy of religion class that Buddha never claimed to be a god. The name "Buddha" literally means "the one who is awake."

The concept of a religion is mainly a western ideal. In Asia, philosophy and religion are more connected.

I think that there are two major aspects to religion. One is the personal belief. The other is more social. There's nothing wrong with the social aspect, since it brings communities together, but it's also easy to be corrupted by politics, as well as religion as an excuse to justify violence. Islam originally had nothing to do with the oppression of women -- indeed it once granted more power to women than the other two Western religions. Christianity somehow became influenced by big business. Hinduism once had nothing to do with the caste system.

[aric]

Apr 30, 2008 17:33:31 GMT -5 Korkoa said:

Hold it. Are you saying he was just a good man? Impossible! He clearly stated the He was the Son of God. If that were not true, then He would be a liar, or lunatic. Not a good man.

Technically, the way it goes is: Others claimed that Jesus said he was the son of God. Nothing in the Bible was actually written by Jesus himself; it's those around him and those who came after him who wrote the material that would become the New Testament. So even if the material is false, that wouldn't necessarily mean Jesus himself was a liar or a lunatic - just those who built Christianity around him.

Of course, this is assuming your words were serious instead of facetious.

May 3, 2008 23:57:05 GMT -5 jewelspike said:

I learned in my philosophy of religion class that Buddha never claimed to be a god. The name "Buddha" literally means "the one who is awake."

Long Tail never claimed Buddha was a deity. All he said was that Buddha had taught some similar stuff half a millennium before Jesus.

- Aric