Religion vs.

Relationship

I hate being called ‘religious’. I regard myself as a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ, not as a religious person. I guess the reason I don’t like being called
religious is that I associate the word with things like traditions, rituals, and rites
that seem more man-made than God-given. Some speak approvingly of ‘true
religion’, or ‘pure religion’, but to me the word, other than in the sense of James
1:26-27, is entirely negative.

I define religion as any human attempt to find a way, on his or her terms, to God.
The Tower of Babel was an early example of this (Genesis 11:4). The people of
that day wanted a way to relate to God that suited and served them. So they
built a stepped pyramid, a ziggurat ‘tower’ so they could climb up to the
heavens. They constructed a temple on the top of the pyramid filled with
representations of the sun, moon, and stars. Then they developed a religious
system of worship to these celestial objects, these ‘gods’. This is typical of
religion.

Things haven’t changed much since then. There are many religions in the world,
ranging from Islam to New Age spiritualism. All of them claim some sort of divine
origin. Islam professes that an angel revealed the contents of the Koran (Quràn)
to Mohammed, and New Age practitioners would like us to believe that
disembodied higher beings channel wisdom through them. However, when we
get right down to the basic issue of validation, only Mohammed heard the angel
and only the New Agers personally experience the ‘channelling’. It is all very
subjective.

Religion originates on Earth in the minds of men and women, while Christianity
originates in Heaven in the trinity of God. Jesus did not appear only to one
prophetic figure, but to tens of thousands of ordinary people. He himself did not
claim to have received divine revelation; he claimed to be the very source of
divine revelation. He didn’t say “I have come to teach you the truth”. Instead, he
said “I am the truth” (John 14:6). Joseph Smith, of Mormon fame, sat in a tent
transcribing what he claimed to be the oracles of God written in hieroglyphics on
gold plates delivered to him by the angel Moroni. When he emerged from the
tent the angel and the gold plates had conveniently disappeared. Jesus, on the
other hand, dwelt in the ‘tent’ of humanity (John 1:14) from birth to the age of
over thirty. He taught in full sight, died before witnesses, rose from the dead and
was then seen by hundreds, and finally ascended bodily into heaven in full view
of his disciples.

I don’t regard Christianity as a religion at all, at least not as I have defined

‘religion’. However, with sadness I have to concede that religion has infiltrated
Christianity. I bailed out of the church when I was thirteen years old because I
saw only tradition, rite and ritual, and not Jesus. Now, five decades later, I am
hopelessly committed to the church because I see it as the household of God,
the family of Jesus Christ, and not as a temple to tradition.
Jesus was patient most of the time and compassionate all of the time, but the
people who really angered Him were the religious ones. He told them that they
were hypocrites, white-washed tombs, and that their traditions nullified the Word
of God. He saw the Pharisees as standing between the people and God, as
offering not life but religion. Would He say the same to the religious people of
our day? I believe He would.

I have no criticism of the church. The church, the Body of Christ, in all its local
expressions, is a wonderful and precious thing. I just can’t stand the religiosity
that creeps into her thinking and practices. Things like the special classes of
‘priests’ who wear archaic costumes and conduct their religious practices behind
a separating rail; or expensively suited ‘Pastors’ who sit on special chairs on a
raised platform. Things like the muttered formula prayers spoken in Elizabethan
English, or Latin; or the exhortations to “Give the Lord an applause offering” as
the preacher bounds up to the Perspex pulpit.

If you are a church leader then you can influence these things. If you are not you
can still abstain, pray, and speak when the time is right. Anything that seeks to
express the truth that Jesus embodied brings life. All that expresses religious
tradition might bring nostalgia but will not impart life-changing truth.