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mercyakpan
Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 14
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Mon Nov 02, 2009 3:37 pm |
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Chapter one Reflection – Christianity is not religion
This chapter deals on proving the fact that Christianity is not religion. In summary I want to say here that with all the ideas from the different Christian writers, religion is simply human ideology while Christianity is the divine revelation of God.
Christianity is Christ and not religion of the book.
It is the dynamic personal spirit of God functioning in man.
Religion is clearly seen to be a human attempt to anticipate what God in his revelation will to do and does do.
In summary, religion is death but Christianity is life. Religion is the opposite of Christianity. And God does not approve of religion.
Responses for chapter one
Here I discovered that before the gospel of grace was religion and this is man’s attempt to know God. There are so many religions in existence today-- Christianity, Islam, etc. but the revelation of God denies that true religion is a force. It is therefore combat on every one to accept the grace of God. (Christianity) the life of Christ that giveth life that remains in and on religion even when it doesn’t have anything to offer.
Religion is man’s way of knowing God while Christianity is God’s way of locating man with the grace that bringeth salvation.
Reflection for Chapter 2 Christianity is not a book religion
The bible is a book – the only book in the whole world that requires you to have an encounter with the author before you can actually have a full understanding of it. But the bible which is the book was not to be made an idol for worship as most people do. Christianity is not a book but Christ. Just like the bible cannot give you or make you righteous but Jesus Christ the righteous one, your obedient is to the Lord not the book etc.
So Christianity is not all about the book but Christ who is the source of all. The purpose of the bible was not to take the place of God but to bear witness to Jesus who is the living expression of God, the word of God.
Response for chapter 2; Christianity is not a book
The bible as earlier said is for the purpose of bearing witness to Jesus Christ the living word. Our faith is not the bible, our hope is not the bible our love is not the love of the bible, our faith, love, and hopes are in Jesus Christ. Everything we are and need as children of God is not the bible but Jesus Christ.
Therefore confirming the fact that Christianity is not the book but Christ.
Reflection for Chapter 3 Christianity is not morality.
Morality is being morally good. This is not Christianity even though most of our people think it is. There are also listed out some facts about the rejection of morality. Morality is a joke, a result of the fall of man into sin, it is a lie, it is sinful, humanistic, psychological manipulation, offensive to God, salvation by works, legalism, deadly, bondage, idolatry etc.
According to Ettul, morality necessarily collides with God’s decision brought to pass in Jesus Christ.
Christianity is anti-morality
When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, then you have received the good man thereafter, you begin to manifest good.
Responses for chapter 3- Christianity is not morality
Morality as earlier seen in the reflection is not Christianity. Goodness or righteousness is not a natural phenomenon. No one can be declared good except God for in God is all goodness. Good exist only in God good is knowable only as God reveals himself.
God is doable only as the character of God is activated and expressed in human behavior by the grace of God.
There is no goodness apart from God. If anyone wants to be good then he has to first of all have an encounter with the one in whom all goodness dwells.
Christianity is not morality as morality speaks of a self-made goodness outside of God.
Reflection for Chapter 4 Christianity is not a belief system
Christianity is not just another religion demanding conformity to a particular belief-system or data-base of doctrine but the essence of Christianity is Jesus Christ. All of Christianity is inherent in Jesus, his person and his continuing activity not just his teachings.
The Scottish preacher and teacher, James S. Steward said, “those who have succeeded in defining doctrine most closely, have lost Christ most completely. Belief-systems, doctrines will always be the focus of religion but not Christianity. Christianity is Christ. In Christianity, truth is a person-- Jesus Christ. he is our life, he is so exclusive. There is no other way but Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a belief-system. Christianity is Christ.
Response for chapter 4—Christianity is not a belief- system
A belief system focuses on the teaching, beliefs, doctrines of a particular religion and not on the person of that religion. In Christianity, it is Jesus Christ and nothing else. Every of his teaching is seen in his person. He came as our salvation, love, God to bring restoration to all mankind. We are to take after him, his person and not just what he taught or doctrine.
God alone is absolute and immutable. What God is only God is; Therefore let’s not try to make doctrine our God as other belief system or religion do for Christianity is not a belief system but Christianity is Christ and him alone.
Reflection for Chapter 5 Christianity is not epistemology
Epistemology refers to the consideration of what we stand upon for our understanding. In other words the fact of their understanding of scriptures is what they are after. The fact of their understanding is inadequate to comprehend the divine reality that is the essence of Christianity because their belief- system is without the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian message is not to encourage people to receive and accumulate and assent to information, but to receive the very being of God into them and allow Jesus Christ to be their life.
Christianity is to be identified as ontological (the study of being) rather than epistemological. The goodness of the gospel is Jesus Christ not logical propositions.
Response for chapter 5- Christianity is not epistemology
I can’t really figure out why all of these belief system tend to avoid the person of Jesus Christ first it was religion, the book, then morality; the belief system and now epistemology. But I have come to discover and agree to the truth that Christianity cannot be complete with the person of Christ. Jesus is the only way to understand Christianity; he is the door or way to everything about life and Christianity so whatever other method of religion anyone tries to adopt to change what has been said and written is of no use but to increase the rate of confusion. Christianity is nothing else but Christ.
Reflection for Chapter 6-christianity is not an ideological option
Christianity is not an ideological option Christianity is not an option or idea. It is not something you choose from many others. Christianity is life and anyone who desires to live must accept the life God offers through his son Jesus Christ. It is not choosing an idea that is more superior among all as some people think but making the right choice. Christianity is Christ and Christ is life not an ideological option. Accepting Jesus Christ-- Christianity is no exclusionism but a singularity of life’s option-Acts 4:
12. If you refuse this singular treatment then you will be excluding yourself from life and consigning yourself to death. It is your choice.
Christianity is not an ideological option; it is Christ.
Response for chapter 6- christianity is not an ideological option
If you know the only remedy to your situation why not accept it so you can live. Accepting it does not mean exclusionism but a singularity of life’s option.
Jesus Christ is the only way to the father—His name is the only name through which all can be saved. Accepting him will amount to accepting life and vice versa.
Every human being on the surface of this earth has singular choice to either accept Jesus Christ and live or reject him and die. It is your choice. But note Christianity is not an ideological option. Christianity is Christ.
Reflection for chapter 7—Christianity is not role- playing
Christianity is not role playing but religion is. Religion like stage Christianity puts on the show. It is all symbols without substance, when the church service or acting is over, and the curtains closes everyone takes off their costumes and their mask and their make-up and goes home until the next production, feeling no need to maintain the role except when they are on the religious stage. New converts comes in and assumes the identity of a Christian on the religious stage. Planning their role and staying in character, repeat their lines, parrot their parts and go though the motion knowing that the rituals are not reality. But Christianity is not role playing. It is the reality of the person of Jesus Christ lived out in Christian behaviour
Response for chapter 7—Christianity is not role playing
Role playing is planning or acting what is not true. It is the assuming of identity, it is make- believe it is a mere performance, It is religion. Christianity on the other hand is real, it is not role-playing, it is not acting on stage or the making a performances, it is the reality of the person of Jesus Christ lived out in Christian behaviour. Christianity is not the believe you make but it is real-believe nothing but the reality of Christ. it is not a form of acting or performance it is Christ.
Reflection for Chapter 8 -Christianity is not a...ism
Here I discovered that a word ending with an ...ism denotes an ideological or doctrinal trend deriving from a philosophy. This is far different and is not Christianity. It is of no doubt that the Christian religion also uses words that ends with ism, but that is not to say that Christianity is isms.
All…isms are antithetical to Christianity and are necessarily a reductionism of the spiritual reality that is Christianity. They are an attempt to encompass Christianity into an entity that can in no wise contain the supernatural activity of the living God. Christianity/ Christ cannot be bound up in the name of procedures, behaviours, He is free to express his divinity in our humanity. Christianity is not an…ism but Christ.
Response for chapter 8—Christianity is not an …isms
No matter how good a thing or word looks or sounds like, if it does not stand for or represent a particular thing it is not.
…ism no matter how many people, organisms etc. it is that make use of words ending with it (ism), it cannot make it Christianity and vice versa. As earlier seen in the reflection Christianity is not an ….ism; it Christ.
Isms are fixes, unchanging in their parameters where as the life of Jesus Christ expressed in Christians is spontaneous, unique, and creative; ever changing and surprising never capable of being stereotyped and regulated and this is expressed in the Christian behaviour. This is far more different from ism; In fact opposite to it. So Christianity is not and cannot be ism. Christianity is Christ.
Reflection for Chapter 9—Christianity is not problem solving
It is obvious that there are some people, beliefs that portray Christian religion and the institutional church as a business enterprise dedicated to solving all the problems of the world. Christianity is not a premise, proposition program or procedure to be applied to the problems of the fallen world. When Christianity is regarded as a packaged solution to identifiable social or personal problems, the reality of Christianity becomes objectified as an “it some “thing” to be applied to a problem as a utilitarian instrument. Christianity is not religion, but the proclamation of the end of religion. The Christian responsibility is to be available and receptive to what God in Christ wants to be and do in us. It is not problem solving but Christ.
Response for chapter 9—Christianity is not problem solving
Christianity is not problem solving else it will amount to religion. It is of no doubt that there are problems in the world and that God is capable of solving those problems. But Christianity should not be regarded as problem solving as it is not. Christianity is the life of Jesus Christ lived out in the midst of present problems, evidencing his sufficiency in all situations. Our duty or responsibility as Christians is to actively make a choice of faith to be receptive and available to all that God wants to be and do in us by the grace-- dynamic of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christianity is not problem solving but Christ.
Reflection for Chapter 10-- Christianity is Christ
In the previous chapters we looked at nine different things Christianity is not and here we will look at just one thing Christianity is and that is CHRIST. There are lots of arguments as regarding what Christianity really is, Christianity cannot be separated from the person of Christ. Everything about Christianity begins and ends with Christ thus the diffusion that Christianity is Christ. It is everything Jesus came to be and do. The revelation of God to man is constituted and comprised in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christianity cannot be anything outside of Christ. It is not religion or something or “it” as previously seen in other chapters. Christianity is Christ.
Response for chapter 10—Christianity is Christ
It is so unfortunate that most of the philosophers who speak or write against Christianity as related to Christ have nothing and do not desire to have anything to do with Christ. But the truth remains that Christianity is nothing but the living person of Jesus Christ manifesting on the lives and behaviour of the Christians or believers.
This is a revelation that no man can receive if he is outside of Christ. I want to use this medium to urge Christians and as many who will come in contact with this writ up to sit up and take the bull by the horn and defend the Christian faith. Christianity is not religion, it is not a book religion, it is not problem-solving, it is not morality, it is not a belief-system, it is not epistemology, it is not role-playing or an ism. Christianity is CHRIST and that is the truth. |
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