Commentary

The problem with the slogan “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship”

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From blogger Allston Dee.

Excerpt:

Most people understand the word religion to mean a set of supposed truth claims about God and life after death; which are united with a way of life informed by those very truth claims. If this is how religion is defined, then Christianity surely is a “religion.”

Think of it this way—without proper doctrine, beliefs and sacraments (visible religious acts to symbolize God’s grace), how could one know they are in right relationship with God in the first place? If there was no religion (as defined above) at all, how does one know they are in relationship with God?

[…]Take for example the Christians and the Jews. An essential doctrine of the Christian faith is that Jesus is God and is the promised Messiah. Conversely, Jews believe that Jesus is not the promised Messiah and that he is not God. The law of non-contradiction (this is the second of the three basic laws of logic) attests that both of these statements cannot be true at the same time and in the same way. Either the Christians are right, or the Jews are right, or they are both wrong.

[…]It’s worth noting that most religions have a sense of a relationship with God. Given that Mormons, Jews, Muslims and Christians all claim to have a relationship with God—and that we know contradicting views on the nature of God cannot be true at the same time and in the same way—there must be something that defines the true nature of God and how we come into relationship with Him.

He writes that you need to know who God is before you can have a relationship with him. I agree.

And Melinda Penner of Stand to Reason also had something interesting to add to this:

First, we don’t know about Christianity by faith.  Everyone knows about the claims of Christianity and the Bible in the same ways other things are known.  Faith isn’t a way of knowing. It’s trusting in what we have come to know to be true.  Faith is laying hold personally of what is true in the Bible.  Knowledge is the first step and it’s no different than coming to know about anything else.  So it can be discussed between those who have faith and those who don’t because they’re both operating in the same way to evaluate truth claims.  Faith comes after knowing.

Second, Christianity isn’t a private topic.  This is a way to subjectivize Christianity – to relativize what Christians believe.  But essential to the what the Bible teaches is that it’s not subjective or relative.  It’s true for all people.  Things happened in history that were witnessed and reported.  And what the Bible teaches is for all people.  So engage in consideration of the truth claims of Christianity, but don’t dismiss them as private, subjective beliefs.

I agree with her, too. My concern with the notion of Christianity as a relationship is that people will cash it out as a subjective thing that they do for fun privately and that it is never the basis of public actions or words. And my fear is that without theology, people just project their own character onto God and discern his character through their feelings and intuitions, instead of through a study of the Bible and theology.

A relationship is not projecting your needs and desires onto the other person. A relationship is when you get to know the other person by studying him, and you start to incorporate his values and goals into your behavior. You re-prioritize to take his needs into account when you act. And when you act on his interests, it may be the case that other people won’t like you, and that might make you feel bad. But when you are the other person’s friend, you do what’s right for them and you just live with the fact that not everyone is going to like that. The Christian life is not about a private relationship and private feelings. It’s about the public actions you take because of your knowledge and convictions about God’s character. It’s not private. It’s not meant to make you feel good. It’s public.

Consider Matthew 10:32-33:

32“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

And her’s another like it 1 Corinthians 4:1-4:

1So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.

2Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

3I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

And 2 Timothy 2:4:

4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.

And 2 Corinthians 5:20:

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

A good ambassador doesn’t represent himself – he doesn’t project his character onto his sovereign. A good ambassador represents his sovereign, and that requires knowing about him, as well as experiencing him. When you have a relationship, you have a responsibility to know who that other person is and to act on their interests – which may be quite different from your interests. And it really doesn’t matter what the people around you, who are not friends with your friend, think about you for doing that.

10 thoughts on “The problem with the slogan “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship””

  1. It’s a bit shallow. The comment in question is in refutation of using religion as an idol, where the practices become the meaning and you forget about the reason for the practices. Now, you see the counter balance, where the fear of rationalizing the relationship aspect becomes the message. It’s a tennis match, when there is, in reality, no net. It’s called balance. Christianity is an ity (a state of being), not an ism (a philosophical construct). Christianity requires a set of precepts, but those precepts are based upon a person, not a series of practices. All the practices in the world mean nothing without the person. In this there must be balance. Our faith requires a public display. Our Lord has determined the proper conditions of that display. Religions are, specifically, man made constructs which seek to give presence to an understanding of that proper display. Religions therefore, can most easily become corrupt, because they rely upon man made construct, man made sensibilities and man-made doctrine. Religions rely upon the honesty of men for their continuance and correctness. Doctrine itself is man-made in that it is man’s attempt at properly defining the things that our Lord has given us. Who has authority over the things the Lord has given us? Whoever manages to convince enough people of their “right” to doctrine becomes the arbiter of doctrine. That could be Calvin, or Buddha, Augustine or Mohammed, Wesley or Pius IX. In reality it is the promise of God that the Holy Spirit will be our personal liaison concerning the affairs and intents of God. We do not need religion to know God, we need God, who reveals himself through people, who then happen to engage in what might be defined as religious practices; practices through which others, with God’s grace, will come to know God.

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  2. I’ve seen that video that Allston Dee wrote about puking all over my facebook feed for the last week or so. I understand the guy’s point that we aren’t saved by external practices, that instead we are saved by God’s grace alone. Yeah, I get that. However, he’s totally wrong about Christianity not being a religion. “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship” is clever ploy used by Evangelicals to try and get a person to be a Christian (trust me, people used it on me a lot when I wasn’t a Christian – which might be part of the reason the phrase annoys me so much….). Why not use apologetics instead? Or Koukl’s tactics? I think non-Christians see through it anyway.

    Christianity is a religion; it’s based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles. Christianity is built on doctrine. It is a religion, but modern Evangelicals don’t want it to be. The reformers weren’t ashamed of Christianity being a religion, nor was the church before them. Religion is spoken of positively in the Bible even. Yeah, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees often, but he wasn’t condemning religion, he was condemning religiosity, i.e., “exaggerated or affected piety.”

    Do you think the slogan is used primarily to “win” people over to Christianity?

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    1. Frankly, I think it is used to appeal to people who don’t want to have any responsibilities to know anything about God and to defend him in public, and act on his interests.

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      2. I do think, however, many Christian leaders just don’t want to use the term ‘religion’ because they believe the term comes with a lot of baggage, namely conjuring up images of hypocrisy, child-abuse, crusades etc. Modernity has put a bitter taste on the very word.

        I don’t think this at all excuses them from retreating from the term. I think the appropriate Christian response is to redeem the term from the negative aura modernity has given it.

        The funny thing is that all these Christians who fight against the term ‘religion’ and for the term ‘relationship’ get tripped up by the very word of God, which declares Christianity as a religion:

        James, end of chapter 1: True religion consists of helping the widow and the orphan and remaining unspotted from your dealings with the world (something like that, quoted from memory).

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        1. Well said Dustin, as well as WK and Jared. I think you are all on the same page. I find myself that it seems the term “religion” is used in negative ways in order to perhaps sway the unsaved in to the fold, and maybe even to create a decision making atmosphere that can be appealing, but can also be shallow as well. We should get back to simply preaching the gospel and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His job rather than trying to “help” Him in that arena, lest we become more dependent on our methods and less on God’s.

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  3. I wonder if our churches avoid this topic for the same reason they avoid apologetics: Our society is driven by wanting something simple as quickly as possible.

    Religion to me is nothing more than corporate worldview. As Christians, we should all value honesty enough to honestly portray Christianity as just what it is, nothing more and nothing less. Especially not something so simplified it becomes a single sentence.

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  4. Yeah Jared!! Awesome comment!

    Thanks WK for a great post. Every time I hear Christians talking (or singing) about Christianity not being a religion I think of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and I want to throw up!

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  5. Kevin DeYoung wrote a blog post about the video too. Since then, he has been in contact with Jeff (the author of the video) and Jeff wrote: “…I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn’t as air-tight as I would’ve liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I’d keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly…”

    http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/13/does-jesus-hate-religion-kinda-sorta-not-really/

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