Jesus Christ is Not Religious

by: Randy Jones

Well I guess the title caught many of you by surprise, sorry about that but the title alone holds a great truth that many in the world will not admit. Why do I believe that Jesus is not religious? Well if we look at scripture from Old Testament to New Testament we can clearly see that there is no association between Christ and any type of church that was founded throughout the Bible. The Jewish customs of worship and sacrifice in the Old Testament were not religious as we would perceive, but rather they were mandatory guide lines set by God (Jehovah) and were meant to be followed by the Israelites as seen in (Exodus 20-22) .

So what about all of the churches and tabernacles mentioned throughout the bible and why were they even built if not for religious reasons? From the first altar built by Moses in the book of Genesis, to the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans. The Jewish nation was split in the New Testament between those who believed in Christ and His divine calling from birth to resurrection and those who did not believe. The temples mentioned throughout the Bible where places of repentance made mandatory through and by God Himself. In the New Testament shortly after Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus Paul started creating churches or places of fellowship and worship and more so for those who were newly converted Christians to learn and understand the laws of God as well as the Great Commission of Christ given to all His followers shortly before His crucifixion. The Apostle Paul was responsible for creating several churches throughout the New Testament such as Corinth, and Galatia among a few. As far as Christ creating a church in physical form He did not but merely identified on in the New Testament found in (Matthew 21:13) When Christ saw that the synagogue was being used for more than worship He exclaimed that the people had turned His Father's house of prayer into a den of thieves.

Now spiritually Jesus did make a proclamation directed at one of His chosen twelve who was named Peter. This can be found in (Matthew 16:17-19) as proclaiming to Peter's faith being so strong that upon him would Christ build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail.

This is why I say that Jesus Christ was not religious merely because He was truth and life so He could not worship Himself but rather He came to man in the flesh to proclaim the Heavenly Father's will for all men and that He should fulfill prophecy in that He would become the great sacrifice for all sin and intercessor between man and God.

Religions have distorted the actual mission of Christ over the years and have taken on a more cultic approach trying to gain as many members as possible rather than training members to go out into the world and spread God's message. We make lite of the fact that Jesus is cool and contemporary and understands us. This could be no further from the truth as found in (Hebrews 13:8)"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." God's word does not change but rather religion has tried to change it to suit a more common man. We have to always keep in mind that to know the Heavenly Father is to have a personal relationship with Him not merely to follow suit in a ritualistic service. To understand God's will is to communicate with Him daily one on one and in some cases fasting and fellowship are definitely needed.

So am I saying that churches are not needed? Far from it, we have to have fellowship one with another and to teach each other and hear praises about what God has done in other lives. I'm saying a simple truth also found in scripture (Matthew 7:21) "Not everyone who says to ME; Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Church in its own is not wrong because now more than ever in America we are building churches of our own free will which are becoming outreaches to several communities suffering from poverty or just as refuge for the homeless and those in need.

What is disturbing is those that stray away from the basic characteristics Christ found honorable about doing His Father's will and those that the Apostle Paul praised in his epistles to the churches for helping one another and teaching each other of becoming servants of Christ, now has become more of a contemporary lets accept any belief because we should be more accepting of others. This was not what our Savior intended because He expressed the urgency to be aware of this very thing in (Matthew 7:14-16) in reference to wolves in sheep's clothing. So to sum this up Jesus Christ in himself was not religious because He was the foundation for faith, salvation, and eternal life so to say He belonged to a certain religion or denomination for today would be presumptuous because in reality He came to sup with the sinner and call the lost to repentance as found in (Mark 2:16-18) .