I Have a Relationship with Christ

lmao, well said.

The main idea in the region of religion is-Your eyes upon God, not on men. Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man. Get an inner chamber in which to pray where no one knows you are praying, shut the door and talk to God in secret. Have no other motive than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to conduct your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer: Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 16

Funny how 100 years ago Evangelicals/Fundamentalists used “religion” as virtually synonymous with “Christianity.” This “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship” stuff is fairly recent. Oswald Chambers, among many others, wouldn’t have recognized it.

“It’s not religion, it’s just a belief that I have a connection with an unseen magical entity whose traits and demands for us all are accurately portrayed in a set of texts that I lend undue credence to.”

Hmm.

When Christians (at least evangelicals, I’m assuming it was an evangelical who said that because only they would, most likely, ha) say that, generally what they are trying to do is disassociate their faith with external trappings.

A lot of unbelievers have the impression that Christians believe we “get to heaven” by going to church and praying and reading our Bibles. It’s that kind of misunderstanding such statements are trying to avoid.

Sometimes they’ll try to make the same point by saying things like “Religion is man’s attempt to reach God, Christianity is about God reaching down to us”.

A lot of times we talk past each other. That much is true.

There is a difference between faith and religion though. A person can have faith in a personal god but not ascribe to the dogma of a given religion. I’m all for cutting back on dogma.

There’s also the general idea that “Christ followers” rather than “Christians” tend to follow the ideas of The Sermon on the Mount rather than the hellfire and damnation crap. Again, this is a good thing. If you’re going to follow a particular faith then follow the bits that make you a better person and not the bits that make you picket funerals with “God hates Fags” signs.

It is a strange stance of arrogance when they think their particular magical myth is somehow more reasonable than every other magical myth.

My first response to that was “in that case, you won’t mind if I take away your religious freedoms, right?”

Religion- 1. An organized system or institution of belief based upon the traditions of men instead of the pursuit of friendship with God. 2. The act of playing church, exchanging internal truths for external performance; substituting spiritual realities with carnal rituals.

Just because someone is religious does not mean that they have a relationship with God. A man cannot “earn” his way into heaven through acts of kindness or general “goodness” It is all about faith. We were all born with a need to believe in something greater than ourselves.

I decided that phrase is no different than when people try to differentiate themselves from “white trash” or any lesser subgroup of themselves.

I don’t like it because I think we’re all more alike than different.

As a matter of fact, I don’t think the subgroup of “atheist” or “religionist” means much either.

All humans. Humans needing to prove they are different than “them” for ego reasons.

Harmless.

Funny.

A way to pass life as a social creature.

I can understand what the person was trying to say. It is like saying you don’t subscribe to organized religions. Some people love to say “I’m Catholic” or “I’m Baptist.” I would say “I’m not into organized religion, but I follow the teachings of Jesus and Confucius.”

It is the same thing when it comes to politics. Some people blindly follow one major party or the other. I’m registered as “unaffiliated” but would describe myself as a “progressive liberal.”

I think the Christians I’ve heard saying “I’m not religious…” were meaning “I’m not a judgmental, pompous, bigoted, ignorant jerk, so please give me a chance.” They’re basically embarrassed by their peers, and it may be true that they are not like that. The only way to know is to give them a chance. Some turn out to be decent people and some don’t.

Hemant,

You were dealing with a person with a very low IQ (both in the conventional sense and in the sense of Irony Quotient). You should probably shorten your response to: “I’m not mathematical. I just have a relationship with numbers.”

Haha! Seriously my wife and I laughed out loud… That was awesome.

Hemant :

Consider that response stolen 🙂 I love it!

That’s something that’s cropped up lately. It seems some of them have tired of their religion being called a religion, so now they claim it’s “a personal relationship with Jesus”. I usually hear it from the more conservative fundamentalist types.

Sorry, but if it walks like a religion, talks like a religion and oppresses others like a religion then it’s a religion.

Buffy said:

Sorry, but if it walks like a religion, talks like a religion and oppresses others like a religion then it’s a religion.

Yet someone who disavowes organised religion in favour of a “personal relationship” in in a state of flux when it comes to their faith. It seems likely that the Christ followers (as opposed to Christians) will eventually settle down to form their own set of traditions based on their interpretation of scripture and their own wishful thinking. I’m sure Christianity has done this every few generations since the Reformation. It is one of the strengths of Christianity that it appeals to so many differing views.

I would prefer that the next generation of Christians were tolerant of differing faith views, charitable, open minded and reasonable. The sort of people who view all of “God’s creatures” as equal rather than mark out homosexuals or women or an ethnic group as “the enemy”.

I have a personal relationship with Christ. Really?

Does Christ talk to you? If so, what does he talk about? And i don’t mean through the bible, by that reasoning i have a personal relationship with JRR Tolkein.

If Christ doesn’t talk to you but you talk back, then your relationship may need counselling. Seriously, imagine if your significant other never talked to you no matter how much you talked to them. That’d be grounds for moving on.

I’d like to ask this person exactly what input Christ puts into the relationship.