Can You Connect to God Without Religion?
Is there a difference between God and Religion? There is definitely a difference between God and religion. God is someone I have a relationship with. My view on God can be altered by many factors in my life. It can be affected by my relationship with my own father or even by my culture and the people I spend time with.
I see religion is a set of beliefs that have guidelines for behavior associated with them. There are many religions with many differing beliefs and rules. I don’t think God needs religion. He wants to have a relationship with me. It is so easy for me to get confused and think that my relationship with him has rules of engagement. I love knowing that God cares about me and that my relationship with him does not need a lot of order and structure. I want to participate in religion or church to celebrate his holiness, but it’s not a condition of knowing God. Do you believe you can you connect to God without religion?
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So if religion is something that you were taught as a child what about my friends who have come to Jesus in their adult years. Is that a religion? What about people who have grown up in a home that were told they need to connect with God in their own way as you are describing? Is that a religion?
What makes you so confident that the Bible was not inspired by God? Is it only because we have no record of women contributing to it? If God wants to be known and wants to be known as He truly is doesn’t it make sense that He would give humanity a concrete way of knowing Him like what we have in the Bible?
James:
Any mention of a biblical personality as part of your belief system is religious. GOD is not a publisher and had absolutely no role in the Bible. The Bible is mostly about male personalities. Yet today we know that GOD made women smarter than men. They are now the majority in post graduate school and in the professions. The Bible has kept women down. Men wrote it. Ask any biblical scholar and you learn that it was men who created this work. You may say they were inspired by GOD. For all you know this post is inspired by GOD. Neither is in fact true. If GOD had inspired them, women would have predominated. They don’t. In short religion is what you were taught as a child. Now as an adult find your own way to GOD without religion. It is a frightening journey. You need courage to take it on.
I am interested to know how you define religion Jack. What differentiates what you believe as a relationship and what Shelley believes as religion?
Shelley:
Your relationship is based on the Christian Religion. Your religion was created by men and not published by GOD. GOD has nothing to do with religion which divides us for one another. GOD is a uniter not a divider.
Well! I believe in that God is a relationship and not a religion. The things that happen in life are all part of His plan for mankind and bringing back His Son, Jesus to redeem man from sin, as he did on the cross for You and me. For example wars that have happened are all in the Bible, as you read it ex. in the book of Daniel.
Hello Claire,your absolutely right about religion bieng the cause of some but certainly not all pain,in fact around 240 million people died as a result of the wars in the last century and yet none of those wars where actually about religion,in fact in the case of ww2 religion suffered greatly,and yet had nothing to do with why it happened,but i still can’t except that the writings of ancient people (who wrote the bible,Koran ect)haven’t been altered by people since to ensure those documents fitted in with the way that they wanted in order for the masses to follow their religion,and turn away from others,hell for one example was clearly created to frighten people into attending certain churches and following their idea of faith (for a fee too of course),& one other prominent aspect of my personal view is fear of god,we are constantly being told that we should fear him,why?,is he not our all loving,slow to anger heavenly father?,my own father was a wonderful man and certainly didn’t want me to be frightened of him,as i don’t want my lovely little 2yr old boy to fear me,i would like him to love and respect me,listen to me and hopefully become a good man,but fear?,and yet,like the fictional story of Noah (among many other stories) is the written word is it not,on this particular subject it really would take divine intervention to get me to bury my nose in some religious text and follow it to the letter,as i said here before i believe that the language of god is the emotion we feel in our hearts when we pray,& ive prayed about this subject many times and always have felt him say,stay with the truth,strive to be a good man,stay close to me and your doing just fine as you are.
Hi Dave, I would agree that you shouldn’t follow faith blindly. I think that God would agree with that as well. I disagree with your assertion that all scripture is tampered with but we both know that it’s unlikely I’ll change your mind on that. I do agree that all religions have caused pain at some point but I don’t agree that religions are always causing pain. Religions have people in them and people make mistakes that hurt people – sometimes huge, catastrophic mistakes. I know that in my own life knowing God has been a game changer.
Ok,first,i never said anything about having faith in a monty python movie,all i was saying was that the character Brian in it was right when he addressed a self brainwashed crowd that we don’t need to follow anybody or put our trust in ancient writings that have cleaning been tampered with over thousands of years,the character Brian tried to tell them the truth that we’ve all got to work it out for ourselves!,every single religion that exists has been corrupted and altered through the centuries to suit those in control,the Catholics with their dirty money deals and paedophile priests,Islam with its suppression of women,hardly a year passes without hearing news of religion causing trouble,so,basically Brian (& Canadian jack here),are right!!,we shouldn’t follow blindly,and we shouldn’t fear god (that’s more religious propaganda to force us to follow there ways,for a fee of course),& yes,once a month i do have a smoke and pray with god,he/she fills my heart with so much love and joy (so by doing it in a sinner?,bullshit!),besides,we have a saying here in England,man made Alcohol,god made weed,wich one do you trust?,& to say god wouldn’t laugh at that movie is nonsense,as long as it isn’t wicked or plain cruel god laughs with us!!,oh,and ur right again jack,the bible is way too masculine!!!
Claire:
I have no concerns. I reject myths both Old and NEW. There can be no concern when you know SHE exists. It is by the feminization of the Divine we rid ourselves of the burden of two masculine books. We have lived in a testosterone driven world for too long and women have paid a terrible price. Once our perception of the divine is changed so will our behaviour to one another. May She bless you and keep you safe Claire. AWomen.
There’s an excellent book that might address your concerns – Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey
She changes her mind. Her first thought are rarely Her last. She ultimately arrives at the right decision. Adam was practice so She could then make the perfect human: a woman. Yet women are not prominent in the books you hold so dear to your heart. I am not a woman, but I find the masculine nature of your faith very troubling.
Claire:
One more thought. I find the Old and New Testament very masculine. Women are not very prominent. Most biblical scholars state that is because men wrote both old books. GOD never instructed these men what to write more than the writers of Monty Python. Neither of us can possibly know what is on Her mind. It is wrong I think, to make GOD our father. She is not.
Canadian Jack – Why would a divine being need to practice?
Claire:
GOD is laughing at both of us right now. She finds our debates about who SHe really is quite amusing I am sure. I would never dream of telling you what to believe. I believe for GOD Adam was practise so She then created a perfect human being. The GOD that I believe in wants us to understand and not judge anyone lest we be judged by HER.
Hi Canadian Jack, You asked what gives me the right to hold Dave in my critical aim and then proceed to tell me what I must believe. Interesting choice. I do not believe that God only weeps. I also do not believe that you can infer that all thought is divine and therefore Monty Python is divine and a suitable base to build a belief system on. You are, of course, welcome to place your faith in whatever you like, but when you comment on a site about faith in God you can’t be surprised to get a reply that faith in God, and not faith in Monty Python, is what matters.
Claire:
What gives you the right to hold Dave in your critical aim. The knowledge of GOD comes from inspired thought. Thought is divine. The creators of Monty Python divined him from their divine minds. Laughter is a gift to all of mankind and GOD created the gift of humour in us to create movies like Monty Python. You must believe in a GOD that only weeps. How pathetic.
So this is interesting, you say that it’s madness to follow the teachings in a very old book but you find wisdom in the words of Monty Python? I’m curious how you know that “Jesus actually found it very funny”. Maybe the cannabis isn’t helping you think clearly after all.
Thanks jack,you are the 1st person in almost 40yrs of personal research that i agree with completely,and you are spot on about the receptors that god has given us so that we can speak with him,spend time with him,a Rastafarian chap once told me that smoking (or eating if you don’t smoke),will help to tune us in better and clearer when we pray,now,im no stranger to it but it was the 1st time i used it to help me pray,a Jehovah’s witness i know told me that i had sinned by doing it,but hang on?,if that is true why did god make it?,why did he put receptors in our brains that accept the ingredients?,and,why then was that night the most amazing prayer i had ever experienced?,the language of god is emotion,to follow scriptures written and corrupted by religious madmen is not the way to connect with him (or hack each other to death because these scriptures differ so much,we are all the same yet different,and he does love us all like children,to indulge & blindly follow religion is just plain wrong,as “Brian” said in the (blasphemous:-) movie the life of Brian “you don’t have to follow me,you don’t have to follow anybody,your all individuals,you’ve all got to work it out yourselves”….spot on!!,& yes,despite the vicious christians who condemned the film as blasphemy,god,and Jesus actually found it very funny.
Atta boy Dave. God is what it is all about. GOD gave as endorphins so when mammals die they die with bliss and not with pain. GOD gave us canniboid receptors in our brains. GOD created a plant whose botanical properties connect with the receptors in our brains. In short GOD’s purpose is seen in all of creation. No theological book and can prove the existence of GOD. Only common sense gets you there.
Oh my,where do i began?,to say that in confused about god and religion is an understatement,i have all my life looked into just about every religion there is,and in still no closer to the truth,for example,if i don’t become catholic and follow their teaching i will go to hell?,but then the Muslims say the same thing!!,Jehovah witnesses say i shouldn’t celebrate my sons birthday or watch the news?,and so on ect,i personally believe that god is with us,he does hear our prayers but in certain that he is also upset by the constant bickering and attempted brainwashing by all these dumb ass religions trying to convince us that they are right and all others are wrong,no one can possibly say that the ancient writing from millennia have not been altered to suit the various religions!!,of course they have!,we are constantly discovering stories from just a century ago that have been changed to suit history,so,when studying whatever text you believe to be the truth,don’t Read between the lines,take time to tune your heart in with god and “feel” between them,let him guide you through all the nonsense and lies man has written down over the centuries and maybe you really will find him,and get to know him,he’s amazing,he has a. Fantastic sense of humour and yes,if you really need him,he will help you out,i was in a very bad way with no possible way out once (& i was an Atheist!),but he saved me,and yet unlike the “written word”,i for one have proof,ur heart is ur transmitter,ur brain is ur microphone,use them wisely and he’ll always be there for you.
Thanks Shelly:
But you see I was lifted up a long time ago. It may be time for you too.
Dear Father God.
Lord I lift up my friend to You at this time as You are not a religion but a relationship to us. In Jesus mIghty name /amen
This site is about getting to GOD without religion. Yet religion is clearly on every other poster’s mind according to their clear message. GOD never authorized any religion or any religious book. Human beings came
up with this divisive idea which is repugnant to GOD. No belief about Jesus can create a unifying faith for 7,000,000 people and counting. The majority of Earth’s citizens are not and will never be Christian. To become part of the larger community just accept GOD alone with no offspring. To do otherwise is to be steeped in only what you were taught as a child but have learnt nothing as a man. Christians themselves are divided in their beliefs as are all other monotheists. Only when faith wrests on the written word does conflict ensue. Rid yourself of the burden of a book and let the spirit of the ALL MIGHTY embrace you.
The past 25 comments have been very interesting indeed! I believe that God has built into each one of us the desire to know our Creator. Therefore mankind keeps on searching for Him. We want to know the meaning of life and a reason for our existence. King Solomon had all the wealth and earthly pleasures at his disposal, yet he said “all in vanity”, for he discovered that nothing satisfies unless we know God intimately. Try as we might, we humans were and are unable to fix ourselves. We cannot be good enough or reach high enough to get in touch with God, because sin stands in the way. That is why HE reached down to us by sending Jesus to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves! When I read the Bible it is more than words, ideas and stories; it is God speaking to my heart. The Holy Spirit within us tells us whose children we are. The Bible is more than a “Rule-Book” though it is all of that; it is “God’s love letter to us”. In it we find historical truths, and it also agrees with science. I maintain that it is the greatest book ever written! We now have no excuse, but stand condemned for not believing what it says, or blessed by believing it and living accordingly. That is true Spiritual Life and is not religion. As Jamie pointed out, people who love Jesus have something in common, and benefit from gathering to worship together and to be of mutual encouragement. God is at work, and may even at this moment be speaking to you heart! I pray that this will be of help to someone.
Jamie:
GOD has always existed and will always exist. We live in a multi universe of GOD’S creation. Astro Physicists now know that the Universe has always been and will always be. Everything seemingly ends and then it starts all over again. Nothing permanently dies. There is joy in this world. Joy is initiated by a rush of endorphins. Endorphins were placed in mammals and birds by a benevolent GOD. When a creature dies the body is flushed with endorphins to bring a pain free death. In the multiverse there is no need for heaven for our paradise can be made within creation. When our bodies expire our souls are liberated to enter another being somewhere within the multi verse. Through this process we learn it feels to be a different gender, to be rich or poor, to live with hope or have no hope. We finally learn that we live within our minds and that is all that really matters. We enjoy live theatre, the movies a good book. GOD witnesses our joy and delights in it.
What does ‘a belief in GOD’ mean Jack? Are there specific things about God that one is supposed to believe?
Cole:
Religion was created initially for political reasons. Rome needed it to unify its people. Luther needed it to rebel against Roman Catholicism. A belief in GOD is all anyone needs. Such a belief unites the believer with every other human being who has the courage to cast off their religious mantel. GOD welcomes all the courageous souls into heaven who are free of any creed. GOD detests religion for it divides us from one each other.
Hello Cole, I would encourage you to use this blog to discuss things with Canadian Jack. It is our policy not to encourage the exchange of personal email addresses. This is to protect the privacy of all who use this website.
Canadian Jack, what’s your email address, I have something to ask you.
I wouldn’t say that I have a disdain for my fellow humans. Don’t you think the proliferation of ‘self-help’ literature reflects an awareness within people that something needs improvement? Wasn’t a major theme in Shakespeare’s writings the brokenness of humanity? The fact that every culture has some religious component point to an innate awareness that we are not what we should be? We may not like to admit it (remember the first step of any 12 step program is admitting you have a problem) but we all know deep within us there is something wrong. We try to hide it, we try to fix it, we try to ignore it, and we sometimes even try to celebrate it.
Jamie
The Bible has never been evidence of the truth of its contents. That is why it should not be quoted as being authoritative of anything. The BIble is considered a great peace of literature and I would agree. Shakespeare is considered a creator of the greatest theatre ever. Was he divinely inspired? The man or woman who finds the cure for cancer will they have been divinely inspired? You speak of a broken humanity that bespeaks your innate disdain for your fellow humans. The people I have mentioned are in no respect broken human beings. Human beings have the choice of being better than their predecessors. I suspect Jamie that you do not see yourself that way.
That’s exactly the problem if there is no measuring stick against which we can judge whether revelation comes from God or not. If there is no record of the Word of God then there is no way to know for sure what is and is not from God. That problem is magnified by the reality that there is universal recognition of the brokenness of humanity. We know that there is something wrong with us and so we all are trying to figure out how to fix that which is broken. But since we are broken how can we trust what we feel within?
But God has not left us in that kind of predicament. He has spoken through His Word and we are able to know Him and know what He wants from us because we can read it in the Bible. When somebody wants to know God’s plan for dealing with their brokenness they don’t have to guess or try to figure it out. They have the words of Jesus which says, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life; no one comes to God the Father except through Me.”
We can test if someone says that they have been divinely inspired; if it matches up with what God has already revealed in the Bible we can agree. If not we know to reject that teaching.
I am not God’s mind reader. I don’t have to be because I know what God wants for us from what He has spoken in His Word.
God is a revealing God who is Truth. It would be inconsistent with His character to foster doubt in order to build faith.
Jamie
Who chose you to tell us so much about GOD? You must be GOD’s personal mind reader. Then again how do you know that I have not been divinely inspired? If I haven’t how can you be certain anyone else has? Certainty is the death of all faith. Doubt is its foundation.
Do you have any evidence of things being edited out of the Biblical documents that we have today? Again, the vast store of manuscripts, lectionaries, fragments, etc. that range in age as far back as 130 AD argue against that claim. By tracing the small variations that exist amongst these different sources scholars are able to trace back their sources. These documents were copied circulated widely amongst Christians in the 1st and 2nd Centuries. Any changes that would have been made can be seen and followed back to the source as it is compared to other copies.
Your assertion that the documents are flawed neglects the active work of God in the production and preservation of His Word. God by nature is a revelatory God. He does not hide Himself but makes Himself known. He has spoken to His people throughout the history of humankind and has directed the recording of His Word. Moses was directed to author the Torah, Jeremiah was directed to write down what he had received from God, Paul tells us that all scripture is God-breathed. God loves to show Himself to His people so that they can know Him and follow His leading. The Bible is a crucial part of His communication with us. Therefore it is not unexpected that He not only directed the writing of the words of the Bible, as Paul claims, but also that He directed the compilation and preservation of those words over the centuries for us today. The amazing consistency of the message of the Bible despite it having been written by over forty different authors, all from different socio-economic settings, over a period of more than 1500 years in 3 different languages is strong evidence that there was a unifying Author behind the writing of this Book.
It is probable that life evolved on other planets in other solar systems. How likely is that somewhere else in the Cosmos was the story about a child of GOD born to a virgin was ever told? It is probable that this story originates only on Planet Earth and no where else. In a Cosmos with hundreds of thousands if not millions of different civilizations it is more likely that they have their own miraculous stories of persons who lived in their past. Story telling is not unique to our planet. Before there was radio, television and the movies, people told oral stories as entertainment for each other. BIblical stories are inventions for the most past of the human mind. By reading fictional books we can perhaps be more emotionally moved than books about history, Humans need to be moved and inspired by miracles. Some scientist have spoken of this feeling as the GOD gene. Our need to believe in something enduring and true. That human need is proof enough for me that Someone put that need in us. That Someone is GOD.
Those that selected what goes into the Bible are editors. They edited out those parts of the historical story that were inconsistent with their creed. That is consistent with how any history is created. No history is therefore completely reliable. Humans make mistakes only GOD does not err. The only book that GOD dictated was the one that Moses took down.
Again Jack, that is an interesting theory but what evidence do you have that the story was transformed by the authors of the New Testament? Or that they changed over time? We have available to us today a vast compendium of copies of the New Testament and close scrutiny allows us to determine with a great degree of accuracy what the original manuscripts contained. Those manuscripts were written by eye-witnesses of Jesus’ life within the lifetime of many other eye-witnesses who could have affirmed or denied the authors’ accuracy. The level of historical detail given in the documents again would have made it very easy to identify what was myth and what was historically accurate.
I am not familiar with the “Book of Timothy” but there have certainly been other documents that were written by followers of Jesus and were not identified as divinely inspired. Paul refers to a letter he wrote to the church in Corinth in between what we now identify as 1 & 2 Corinthians. That was not included in the New Testament. We also have manuscripts of the Gospel According to Thomas While there is suspicion about the authorship of that, it is also clear that it was never widely used in the church. It’s absence from the New Testament shows that those who were closest to the actual events never saw that as authoritative.
The New Testament authors show great concern about ‘false teachers’ that ‘preach another Gospel’. So there were very early on those who wanted to distort the truth of Jesus and the documents we have today were written so that we could have an accurate record of what the truth is.
So what is the part of the message of Jesus as presented in the New Testament that you think is inaccurate? On what basis do you regard it as inaccurate?
The more often a story is repeated the more it changes. Whatever story was there at the beginning was transformed into something completely different to fit the historical circumstances the writers were living under. The story fit their needs. Just like today, different Christian faiths read the same story yet their interpretations vary widely. At the beginning of the Christian faith there was more than one book about Jesus. One such book was the “Book of Timothy”. Why did the Christian Church reject Timothy’s book. Simply his book did not fit their historical circumstances. The Christian Bible is a selection of different writings that were selected on the basis of whatever suited the biblical committee. Absolutely nothing is preventing any of us from setting up our 21st Century biblical committee. Who wants to volunteer? The Mormon religion is the most recent incarnation of the biblical committee.
That is a very interesting theory Canadian Jack. On what evidence do you base that? What facts have led you to believe that the authors of the New Testament documents did not accurately record the words of Jesus?
Jesus was literate. In his lifetime he chose not reduce his teachings to parchment, Why? He understood that the written word would last longer
and be more reliable than the spoken word. What he spoke must not have been that startling in the first place. He was referred to as Rabbi or teacher. He taught his students what he had been taught as a child, What was added to the simple story is what gave rise to a new faith but in fact nothing is new in matters of faith.
Hi Canadian Jack, You have made some pretty strong statements. What convinced you that intellectually challenged people feel closer to the Creator? I am not sure that idea would stand up to a closer study. There are many brilliant minds that have been drawn to faith in Jesus and found strength and comfort in the personal relationship with Him.
Now you are correct that Jesus never penned any documents but the ones who did record His words for us were all eye witnesses of what He said and did. They wrote their documents within the lifetime of those who also heard and saw Jesus ministry. We can be very confident in the accuracy of their reports and the instructions that they have passed on through their writing. As you read through those texts you will see that even within a few years of Jesus ministry on Earth, there were whose who tried to distort what He taught. That was part of the motivation for their writing so that people would know the truth. How much more so us who are much more distant to the actual events of Jesus’ life do we need the testimony of Jesus’ disciples who were commissioned by Jesus to “teach all that I have commanded you”?
Hi Cole, God will not accept or reject you based on what you do. There is no way that you could live up to the standard of God’s perfection. Our only hope is for God to intervene on our behalf which is exactly what Jesus has done for us. All other belief systems or worldviews state that a person can fix the brokenness of their humanity by doing something: following a moral code, performing the proper ritual, achieving a certain level of spiritual enlightenment, or even an atheist’s desire to personal improvement. But all of those are human efforts which say “I have it inside of me to fix me.” Jesus is the only one who said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” “I am the Way the Truth and the Life; no one comes to God the Father except through Me.”
One of the last things Jesus said to His followers before He returned to His rightful place in Heaven was, “Make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you.” From that command we have the development of the Church, through which the Apostles taught the words of Jesus, joined those new followers of Jesus into the fellowship through baptism, and eventually wrote the documents we now have collected which make up the New Testament. It is hard to imagine that Jesus would lead someone to ignore all those since He was the one who directed their establishment.
How do you discern between your own ideas and the direction of God? The Bible is God’s gift to us to measure the truth of ideas about God. Ignoring that leaves you vulnerable to whatever truth seems best in the moment. “There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end leads to destruction” Depending on my mood or life circumstance, some things can seem either wrong or right. But when I hold them up to the light of God’s revelation in the Bible I can know what is right in His eyes, especially as I depend on Him to help me.
Does that make sense?
Jesus never authored any book before his crucifixion. The New Testament was written by someone else long after his crucifixion. People who are intellectually challenged are closer to the Creator than people who can read. People who can read want to always quote whatever hearsay comes from their bible to give themselves comfort. The intellectually challenged have no concept of religion they just feel the love of the Creator and that is all the comfort they need,
I rest assure that when you commited your life to jesus that you are healed and will go to be with Him in heaven.
My only fear is not being accepted into the kingdom after going through somewhat hell on this planet. It may be wrong for me to do this, but I often compare my life to those of others who live the, I guess you can say “religious life”. I don’t consider myself Christian, Buddhist, etc. I’m just a human being who is a God fearing human being, just doesn’t intertwine with religious structures, as the ones and those similar to the ones I listed. Why would God accept me when I’m not on the level of those people ? I don’t want you to get the notion that I have hatred toward “religions” or people who are in them. I have respect and love for each one and those who are in one, even the atheists. Guess my overall question is will God accept me even though if I don’t go to church every Sunday ? Or if I don’t read the bible ? Are there specific terms where God looks at you and considers you as “one of his own” ?
If the sacrifice of Jesus is not enough then He is a God with limits. That doesn’t fit with how He is presented to us in the Bible.
Our moral behaviour, involvement in the Body of Christ and service for God in the world we live is not the basis by which we are saved. Those are results of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Because He has sacrificed for us, and is leading and guiding our lives, we will naturally be involved in these things because it will an expression of the character of Christ in us.
I am still not clear on what you define as being a participant in religion. What do you feel is not something you want be a part of? What are the things you are afraid you should be apart of?
My biggest fear, the fear that the fact I lack religion is what will deny certification & acceptance as one of God’s people. I fully accept the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for me, and with a humble heart and open spirit, I accept him as saviour. But what if that’s not enough ? I can’t fake my life by “acting” as a participant in a religion when I know my heart and spirit is not in it. As I grow older (will be 21 this year) I start to see what the world is truly is. The useless things I gave so much time and thought into became useless to me as time passed, this knowlege, the answers to questions I seem to be on a endless path on, I have desired to find out my purpose in life, outside of just a “9-5” but what if I’m going round things the wrong way? How can I free fall into the love of God without feeling less significant because I choose my own paths ? I will help and assist my brothers and sisters in Christ as of they who have helped me in dark times. But my overall question is, how do I know what I’m doing is right under the judgement of God ? What if I choose to shift my eyes away from the bible ? Will I be forsaken ? How can I save myself from being indulged and swallowed by this world we live in ?
Hi Cole, sometimes our differences in definition can create confusion and conflict unnecessarily. What I mean by ‘Relationship with God’ and ‘Religion’ may be different from what you mean. ‘Religion’ to me refers to a human creation which establishes a means of ‘fixing’ the brokenness of my life through my ability to follow moral code, preform a proper ritual, attain a level of spiritual enlightenment, or some other human enterprise. ‘Relationship with God’ to me means that my focus is knowing God as He reveals Himself, following His leading in my life, and depending on His action on my behalf to transform my nature to one that conforms to His.
I know that God has chosen to reveal Himself through many different ways but all conform to His self-revelation in the Bible. I know that because I am imperfect I can be easily swayed by emotion, deception, and selfcenteredness that will draw me away from God. That’s why God has given us the Bible so that we have something with which to measure all other ideas to discern whether it is from God or not.
I also know (from the Bible) that God always redeems people into community and never into isolation. That’s why the Church is called the ‘Body of Christ’ because we are all joined together through Jesus to live out His purposes. We cannot be a part of the Body but not be attached to it. One of the distinguishing features Jesus promised His followers would have is their love for one another. That cannot be done in isolation but must be lived out in community.
So associating the Body of Christ as ‘religious’ and therefore avoiding deep vulnerable connection and shared mission with other followers of Jesus would be a misunderstanding of Jesus’ purpose.
You talk about a fear of being denied entrance to the Kingdom of God unawares. Your qualification for the Kingdom is not about what you do or do not do. It is about Jesus Christ dying to pay the penalty for your rebellion against God and you accepting His sacrifice on your behalf and living your life under His control. As I said, this will result in you becoming a part of the Body of Christ and playing a role within the Church. That’s because that’s how Jesus works. But your acceptance into the Kingdom is not based on whether you are a part of a church. Does that make sense? Does that fit for how you see God working in your life?
This is the internal battle I’ve been having for quite some time now. I maintain a STRONG relationship with God, and always give him thanks for not only the good times, but the bad times also because, they cultivate the love and faith I have in him for seeing me through them. But what scares me is I will be denied entrance of the kingdom because I don’t follow suit to religion. Now I’ve learned different tactics and philosophies of varoius religions, and applied them to my everyday life, but I serve God how I want to, not by the writings of man. Am I wrong for this ? Am I so disconnected from this world that’s not promised to me, that I 100% follow my spirit ? I am man, a creation of God, and I am a liberated being, I act & think on my own free will. Will this drag me to a eternity of fire ? For saying no to man, and to what man thinks is right for me ? I believe in helping my fellow man, becoming a blessing to his people through him, doing whatever it takes to enhance my brothers and sisters, sharing my knowledge and wealth with my circle. I’ve been in many dark places, and only through the grace of God I made it out of those places, I know he exist, but am I at fault for thinking religion is just the cloud of confusion that has blurred my vision into seeking 1 truth ?…
Hello Shavon, Thanks for sharing some of your story and experience. I think you’re totally right when you say that God’s priority is to get to know us. We can do that with just him, but he also shows us wonderful things about himself when we’re connecting in community with other Christians. It’s perfectly OK to take your time to find the right spiritual community for you. In the meantime, you might want to join one of our chat groups (it’s like online Bible study and discussion groups to help each other be encouraged and grow.) Here’s the link if you’re interested: http://powertochange.com/experience/chat/ You could also connect with one of our confidential online mentors if you like: http://powertochange.com/experience/talk-to-a-mentor/ Take care Shavon.
I believe that religious or not God wants a relationship with you and you can have it you just have to accept him in your life through the son Jesus Christ. I dont go to church much but i do write in my prayer journal and talk with him as much as i can. I am building my relationship with God and if he thinks church is for me he will lead me in that direction. Until then i dont think that i will go to hell for not being super religious. He just wants us to know Him
I have been torn between God and religion for years. I believe that religion separates people from eachother and the truth. I was once told that people should not look down on another persons religious beliefs because there is truth in each one. Instead we should keep an open mind and find similarities within ours and someone elses religion. I believe there is a bigger truth than any of us humans will ever know until they are revealed by God.
Hi Jack, I agree that science can help lead us to God. Science is the study of all that is around us and since God is the creator of all things, the more we study what He has made the more we understand Him. The Bible says that all we need to know about God is revealed in what He has made.
But I also know that there are many who study science and come up with different conclusions than me. That’s why God didn’t just leave us with our study of science in order to know Him but He also gave us the Bible. That way we can measure what we discover in nature with what He has revealed in the Bible and interpret it properly. The Bible says that all of scripture is ‘God-breathed’. He inspired what the human authors wrote so that it would accurately reveal Himself and His purposes for us. So we have the Creation account written by Moses. Obviously Moses was not an eyewitness to the event but he drew from the reports that had been passed down over the many generations and then also was led by God to give us what God wanted us to know about how things began.
I do agree with you that God wants humanity to be unified. That was Jesus’ prayer shortly before He was crucified. But more importantly, God’s desire for humanity is that they be united with Him. As long as there are people who choose to be separate from God there will always be disunity amongst humans. How can we be unified with our brothers and sisters when they are rebelling against God?
I don’t agree that Christianity is an evolution of other worldviews. There is far too much historical evidence of the events and people from the Bible–most significantly Jesus–that precludes that. The documents of the New Testament were written by eyewitnesses of the life Jesus within the lifetime of those other witnesses who could discredit their truthfulness. And we have access to copies of those originals that were made less than 60 years after the original was written. That is unprecedented in any contemporary literature. To suggest that somehow Christianity evolved over a long period of time just does not fit the evidence.
But as Sharon wrote, God does not call us to follow the ‘religion’ of Christianity, but we are invited into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a religious set of moral laws but it is an invitation to be made new so that we live out the perfect character of Jesus as we follow His leading in every moment of our lives. When Jesus was on Earth, He was in constant connection with God the Father, just as He had been for all of eternity past. His claim was that everything he did and spoke–even how He spoke–was at the personal direction of God. For those who follow Him, they look to Jesus to continue that moment-by-moment connection with God in their lives. Their moral life is not the result of following some religious code of ethics but it is completely the result of their following their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That is very different from every other religious system or worldview. All other religions demand that humans follow some code of morality, or religious ritual, or pursuit of enlightenment to fix the brokenness of their lives. But that is hopeless because what we all know–but try so desperately to ignore–is that there is a darkness within us that we can never get rid of. We can clean up the outside and make ourselves look right, but it is a thin facade covering our something ugly and dead.
Jesus offers to make us new; to take our ugly deadness on Himself and in exchange give us His beautiful perfection. It is our only hope Jack!
I agree that God is not a religion but a relationship that is personal. The more that I get to God the better and am very satisfied in my relationship with God.
God never authorized any religious book. Men were completely responsible for creating religion. Women have recently proven through their academic accomplishments that God made them smarter than men. In other words Adam was practice before God knew what perfection could be. Yet women are not mentioned as much as men in the bible. The proof of God lies in Science. If Hydrogen did not have the exact weight that it does nothing would exist, God is the Ultimate Scientist, God wants the unification of humankind, Regions creates a division between us. Most faiths are of the offshoots of pagan religions, Christianity is no exception. Zeus impregnated Hera and she bore Hercules. Sex between a god and a mortal is a pagan concept, That’s why the Romans and the Greeks created Christianity as an evolution of their pagan faith.
Hi. Jesus said that those who love Him will follow His commands: without following the commands or law of Christ you will be ‘worshipping’ somebody or something else. John 14: 21,23 demonstrate this. If you disregard Scripture, the Word of God, you will not be worshipping God, but a lying spirit. It is good to seek the leading of the Holy Spirit. But if you don’t know the Bible, you may not be able to tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and a different spirit.
Dear Father God.
Lord I lift up all who are afraid of asking about being religious and not have a relationship with God.
I pray that many will respond to the invitation that has been set before them by this web site, as we are all wanting to help others as we are all brothers and sister to God who is our Father. In Jesus Mighty name Amen