Topic: Difference Between Christianity and Religion
Christianity is unique in the fact that it is the ONLY faith which is not a religion- as a 'religion'- by definition means "to be bound" by rules and regulations and rituals in order that one MAY attain salvation. (whatever their definition of salvation may be)
This is in stark contrast to the teachings of THE most anti-religious person there ever lived- Jesus the Christ.
Jesus taught that the truth would SET YOU FREE and that it would be faith ALONE in His sacrificial death and resurrection for our sins which would save us and NOT our good deeds.
"For it is by God's grace that you have been saved, through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's GIFT, so that no one can boast about it." (Ephesians 2: 8-9)
This means that (although good in themselves and recommended) it is NOT by attending 'church', being baptised** or even believing in God! (Satan is not an atheist himself!)
To put it plainly: We are saved by faith and DEMONSTRATED by good works- but it isn't the works themselves that actually save us.
"His choice is based on His grace, not on what they have done. For if God's choice was based on what people do, then His grace would not be real grace." (Romans 11:6)
You see, religion is humanity trying to reach God by their own efforts..whilst Christianity is God paying the price Himself- in essence- reaching down to us..it is a RELATIONSHIP with our creator.
Still not convinced? Has religion still got a strangle-hold on you?..then consider Isaiah 64:6 :
"ALL of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags."
Did you note that it isn't just our sins that are filthy to God..but even our RIGHTOUSNESS? You see, Gods standard is HIMSELF, who is THE epitome of Holiness and purity.
"God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1John 1:5) So, to a pure a Holy and perfect God, ANY sin/darkness would naturally be alien and repugnant to Him..so, humanly speaking, it IS impossible for us to be saved..THAT is why God demonstrated His love for us by coming down in human form as the Lord Jesus Christ.
Furthermore "For whoever shall keep the whole law and stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)
Therefore, if you are trying to live by the law and fail just once you shall die by it- for it is humanly impossible to keep. That is the very reason the Jews had to continuously offer sacrifices as substitution for their own lives. But the blood of bulls and goats weren’t sufficient to take sin away entirely.
Since every single person has been a sinner, that is, we have all rebelled against God's wishes, we were all doomed to an enternity in hell- seperated from light and love- forever
It doesn't have to be this way though- God loves us so much that He supplied a solution.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23)
Men die because they sin. If one was perfect they would not then die. The very fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead (this is a historical fact) proves that all our sins were paid for. Romans 4:25 tells us that if just one sin wasn’t taken care of, Christ would still be in the grave for all to see.
Jesus, being God AND man, was the ONLY one who could be perfect and keep the commandments- and since He did- He satisfied The Law and then on the cross He bore the punishment of our sins- ALL OF THEM, past, present and future, died and then rose again to show that He had conquered death for us and as a promise to all those who trust in His sacrifice for our sins- that they too will rise from the dead and into eternity with God. This is the gospel.
**Note on baptism- Baptism is important, but it does not save us- it was the shed blood of Christ which accomplished this. Baptism is the New Testament signification of God's New Covenant (Testament) with Man as circumcision was to the Old Covenant (Testament) representing our spiritual death, burial and resurrection in Christ.
Bible translation errors and contradictions?
This is an understandable assumption..and if the Bible were just a normal collection of books written by humans it would not be a surprise, however, God promised that He would preserve His Word and that is exactly what He has done!
For it has been long established with the findings of the dead sea scrolls and other ancient corroborative manuscripts that the Bible (quite miraculously) has been transmitted through history with an astounding 99.98% accuracy rate, WITH NO ESSENTIAL TENETS IN DOUBT!!
Furthermore, there is a standard by which all ancient books are tested today called Aristotle’s Dictum which states we must listen to the claims of any and all documents under analysis and not assume fraud or error unless the author(s) disqualify themselves by contradiction or error.
For example: The two earliest books about Alexander the Great were written more than 400 years after his death in 323BC yet historians consider them to be accurate.
The Gathas of Zoroaster in 1000BC are claimed to be accurate even though most weren’t written until 300 years after Jesus!
Even though we have the sayings of Mohammad in the Koran (570-632AD) his biography wasn’t written until more than a century after his death in 767!
Even though there is vastly more evidence for Jesus than all these and was written much earlier by the eyewitnesses themselves, most people do not want to apply Aristotle’s Dictum because they do not WANT The Bible to be true!
In fact, there have been found over 5000 partial and complete manuscripts of the Bible in Greek and 25,000+ in other languages..some dating to the 1st century no less (thusly destroying the baseless myth that the New Testament was written 120-500 years after Christs death!)
This is an embarrassingly high number of manuscripts in comparison to any other ancient document- some of which are incomplete and number only in the dozens to the hundreds.
As for contradictions- there are none. The fact that the Bible, although penned by 44 writers over 1800 years on 3 continents from Kings to peasants who never knew each other and have absolutely no conflict in ANY subject is a miracle in itself- try getting just 5 people TODAY agreeing completely about any given subject.
..indeed, the main reason that many say that there are contradictions is that they either have not read the Bible for themselves and attack because they do not WANT to believe- repeating the same errors that they heard from someone else who never read the Bible either and so on...or they simply do not understand.
The challenge to all skeptics is to point out just ONE "contradiction" that cannot be satisfactorily explained.
Besides the Bible is there any evidence?
There are quite a number of non-Biblical sources which confirm the main events written in scripture.
This is a list of a few of the non-Christian historians and writers who lived around the time of the writing of the New Testament that wrote about Jesus:
Thallus Tactitus Mara Bar Serapion Galerius Phlegon Suetonius The Jewish Talmud Josephus Galen Lucian Pliny the Younger Celsus Numenius.
Even if we didn’t have the Bible at all, from these secular sources we would have a basic outline which matches the Bible:
That Jesus was born at the time of Tiberius, that people saw Him perform miracles and believed that He was the Messiah, that He was put to death and dispite this people claimed to see Him afterwards alive and worshipped Him as God.
Jesus Christ said in John 14:6; "I am the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE, NO man comes to the Father but through ME.*" As truth cannot be relative, Jesus was either lying, or He was telling the truth- that decision is YOURS to make- but make it on the evidence, and not on what your friends and associates think..Perhaps you feel God calling to you now as you read this so please do not ignore Him- for your own sake make the decision while you are able...
10 out of 10 people die- noone but God knows WHEN..so forever is a long time to be wrong.
*[Therefore also beware of any organisation which make the claim of being "the truth" or the "one true church"- these kind of monopolistic statements make Christ a liar or at the very least incapable to save any INDIVIDUALS who come to Him for their salvation!]
"When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else--something it never entered your head to conceive -- comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."
-C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity'
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