religion

[victor oyange]

Does religion make one /qualifies one  to eternal life?many atimes people believe that how they were raised is the way God wanted them to be,sticking on religion so much ,trusting upon their pastors and leaders hence heading to pit of man worshiping instead of God,does this make a man  fully qualified to attain eternal life?

may be this was discussed before,just understand  am new here in this site.

[victor oyange]

James 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's RELIGION [is] vain.

Galatians 1:13

For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' RELIGION, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

[Jack]

Here's an old truism: "true Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship."

[Daniel]

Hi, Victor!  Welcome to Theologica!  Religion doesn't get one to heaven.  Religion is works combined with knowledge.  What get's one eternal life is a relationship with Christ as Lord.  James tells us that TRUE religion is taking care of the widows and orphans.  It is basically doing all the things that Christ taught.  But Ephesians also says that salvation is not by works.  So doing religious things doesn't make one saved, but a truly saved person is going to obey Christ and end up doing things that are see as religious.  Does that make sense?

[Char]

Yeah it does if you got the right one.

[Harry]

If you are not a orthodox Christian, not a chance.

[Linda Ruth]

Jas 1:27

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

[JRKH]

Your question is actually more complex than most of the answers so far seem to give it credit for. 

The core issue here is "honesty"  If you honestly believe that the faith group you are in is correct.  that the teachings are God given, and then you puruse honestly your relationship with God within these honest parameters.  Then yes...

For Christ, even though he had a lot of problems with the Scribes and Pharisees, none the less told the disciples to obey what they taught (Mt 23:1-3)

 

On the other hand, if a person is spirtually lazy, and just figures if he goes to church a few times a year, gives some money and lives a "normal" life, and doesn't really incorporate God into his life, then no...Because he is not being honest.  He is acting like the Jews who stood on their heretage as "Children of Abraham", yet Scripture says this is of no account for, "God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Mt 3:9)

 

Peace

James

[victor oyange]

i am glad for your entire comments brother am blessed and my eyes are deeply opened,i am not asking this out of my own interest but there is areason ,very big if to say.

i have had lots of commitments in the church but my spiritual life instead of moving up graphically it is somewhat stagnated   or derailed by the so called''religion',in a church,

to one om my brother,i don't really believe religion is a solution ,when this website was being created no one knew the deep reason of whatever impact is gonna bring in peoples life,so it is not for ORTHODOX as you have commented about.

otherwise or your comments all,am blessed and i have a way through now to make proper decisions to follow christ with adequate wisdom and knowledge.

[JRKH]

Religion, provides a framework for community, discipline, teaching and other things that can be very beneficial to the faith journey. 

However, we must keep it in pespective.  If, as you say, your commitments in the church are adversely effecting your spiritual life, then it may be time to reassess.  There is an old saying that, "if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy".  This is good advice. 

It may be that your commitments are just being too much and need to be scaled back a bit so that you may properly focus and not be so distracted.  This will allow you to do a better job overall.

 

Peace

James

[Addai]

 I like your input JRKH or as I was going to post last night.     I see the religion vs. "having a personal relationship with the Lord" trope as a false dichotomy.

 

The term religion comes from two Latin words.   Religio to bind   and Religare to retell     It is suppose to originally relate with the need to people to link themselves to the past, most notably the creation and the creator.   In other words the original origins of the word come from a perceived need to have a relationship with God.

 

Because of various historical events it is popular to make organized religion  (in Christianity) the enemy of true spirituality, but not only is that over generalization, but it also has its own problems.   (Its a very Gnostic / Manichean mind set)

 

 

[Char]

The issue is truth. And it's not really that complex at all. As Warfield said, all religions are simply ways men try to articulate their understanding of God. Since God is, every man has a religion in reaction to him. If that religion is made by men trying to build towers up to him, it makes no difference how ardently they follow it, they're never going to get there. However if that religion is revealed by God himself, then indeed we can be confident that we have relationship with him through it.  It has nothing to do with our level of work or belief because we can't make the untrue true by strong desire. It matters if what we believe is true.

 

Faith, after all, is glorified by its object.

JRKH said:

The core issue here is "honesty"  If you honestly believe that the faith group you are in is correct.  that the teachings are God given, and then you puruse honestly your relationship with God within these honest parameters.  Then yes...

[victor oyange]

my brother jack God bless you for infusing that into my knowledge amen.

Jack said:

Here's an old truism: "true Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship."