TEACH ALL CHRISTIANS A LESSON:

CHRIST, NOT CHRISTIANITY

"Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary. At last they are too often made idols, and all must bow down to them or be punished."
                                                                                     – J. C. Ryle

"In my humble opinion, what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount ... I am speaking of the Christian belief, of Christianity as it is understood in the west."
                                                                                – M. K. Gandhi

If any Christian tries to convert you to Christianity, teach him a lesson – ask him to prove that the word (or even the religion) ‘Christianity’ has any legitimacy in the Bible and whether Jesus even referred to it.

If he can’t prove its authenticity, tell him to go read the book by George Barna and Frank Viola titled: Pagan Christianity, the book that rocked the Christian world in 2008 and Re-imagining Church its sequel.

To help him get a balanced view however also suggest The New Restorationists by Albert M. McIlhenny.

Much has been written about the problems in the Church by these authors and many others, but as far as I know nobody has addressed the basic concern that I will point out about 'Christianity.'

It took me more than half my life to figure it out but I eventually realized that more than giving my allegiance to Christ I had been indoctrinated into the worship of an idol.

Strategically named 'Christianity.'

Eventually I let go of institutional religion for a meaningful, direct relationship with Christ but the vast majority of those who consider themselves followers of Christianity are hooked to this man made, hypnotic, western religious concoction.

Russian writer Tolstoy in the 1870s after completing his two great novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, underwent a profound spiritual crisis in his search for the meaning of life. The experience haunted him, and he explains in A Confession, that he restlessly sought the meaning of life. Nowhere could he find anything that gave him meaning and value, leading him to contemplate suicide.

Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church, and he is described by some as a Christian anarchist, who rejected church authority. Though he acknowledged the Gospel he believed that Christ was simply a man.

Observing poor peasants on his estate approach death with calm and serenity in the face of the apparent futility of life, Tolstoy realized they had ‘faith’’ and it intrigued him and gave him hope. So he plunged into the Bible with renewed enthusiasm, finding some answers in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus’ radical proposal to respond to any form of ‘evil’ when coerced or treated unjustly, not by retaliation, but love, forgiveness and generosity, astonished him. Tolstoy realized that a patient cycle of love, forgiveness and sacrifice could overpower the destructive cycle of evil, anger and revenge.

During his last three decades Tolstoy achieved world renown as a moral and religious teacher. He was justifiably not just one of the greatest writers who ever lived but a living symbol of the search for life’s meaning.

His doctrine of nonresistance to evil had an important influence on Gandhi – nonetheless I believe it didn’t do Bapu* much good. Rightly unmoved by Christianity, Gandhi sadly missed the wood for the trees, he was unable to know Christ – just like millions of people who are deceived by Christianity.

That’s where I part company with both Gandhi and Tolstoy – like those Russian peasants, I have a simple faith in Christ, I know who he is and my trust in his teaching for three and a half decades has not been in vain – he completely reoriented my heart and mind – but first I had to give up my misplaced faith in a religion which consumed half my life.

The fact that Tolstoy and Gandhi rejected Christianity doesn’t bother me at all, but both foolishly threw out the baby with the bath water.

There is some indication that Tolstoy may have rediscovered faith in Christ before his death, but there is no such evidence about Gandhi who took so much from Christ yet the Mahatma unthinkingly consigned Jesus to an institutional religion he shunned.

How could he have done that? How could anyone not see the difference between Christ versus Christianity? But I didn't either, like millions of Christians.

Futile religious pride ultimately proves worthless for anyone.

Readers may be startled by my proposition that Gandhi was given a divine choice – to reveal the truth about Jesus Christ and face the consequences, or achieve historical fame by dismantling the British Raj.

Had he made the first choice I don’t believe Gandhi would have been denied his role in India’s freedom – in any case he ended up a hapless victim of fanatic religious pride. In the bargain was India’s opportunity to see her national motto ‘Satyamev Jayate’ (Truth will triumph) exemplified or mislaid?

‘Satyamev Jayate’ always reminds me of Jesus’ promise in John 8:32: “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

Christianity is the Trojan Horse in the Church that has no legitimacy in Holy Scripture. Yet in this lifetime at least it is an idol that will not lose its following by the billion plus global horde that calls itself Christian.

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of an enemy planting weeds in a wheat field. There is no doubt in my mind this is what has happened in the Church where Christianity has spread like a weed and the word Christian is merely a cliché today.

A suffix of the sacred name of Christ used by an individual or a community is only a label – it is a genuine relationship with the Savior that lends authenticity to that name.

Ravi Zacharias author and renowned Christian apologist is a mentor but if I was asked the question his new book poses: Has Christianity Failed You? my answer would be Christianity has deluded everyone – Christ has not.

How far removed we Christians are from the simple teachings of the humble Christ!

There is one significant reason for this.

Many of the greatest Christian writers in history had a surprising blind spot and inadvertently kept exalting the term ‘Christianity’ when it is quite obvious it is Christ they mean to credit.

In repeating this mistake down the ages they gave credence to a word that has somehow strategically slipped into the Christian mindset – it has basically created a new religion that exploits the name of Christ.

How did the word Christianity come to be? Who coined it? How did it acquire such global credibility? Scholars can only guess. Has it really brought harmony and meaning to the Church? If no suffix had been added to the name of Christ would his followers have been better off? I certainly think so.

At first they were merely called people of 'The Way.'

What Jesus clearly intended was a global family network of people with genuine relationships. If his aim was the religious edifice of Christianity he would have recruited the learned Pharisees not scorned their religiosity. Instead of religious insiders he chose mostly fishermen as his Apostles.

Christ is definitely not the founder of Christianity.

The blind spot about promoting this word - a strategic falsehood, is obvious even in CS Lewis, one of the greatest Christian writers who declared: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see by it, but because by it I see everything else."

There is no question in my mind that Lewis was referring to his faith in Christ - NOT in a religion called Christianity.

But what if he had emphasized Christ instead of Christianity? Like French physicist and mathematician and Blaise Pascal boldly does when he says, "Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; We do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ."

Imagine the loss of meaning in Pascal’s statement if he had replaced Christ with Christianity!

However, in his book 'Surprised by Joy,' CS Lewis confirms his faith in Christ. His greatest realization after he had finally recognized who Jesus is and what he offers to every human heart was that in his journey of faith he had not come to a place or accepted a belief; Lewis knew he had come to a person - the very person of God.

Hymn writer William Cowper whose best known hymn is, 'God Moves in a Mysterious Way,' has one stanza which reads:

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

I know Zacharias’ concept of Christianity is the real McCoy – he too like Lewis undoubtedly refers to genuine faith in Christ.

I only wish he and other writers like Philip Yancey whose books have sold in the millions, and with whom I've had the same discussion, would stop promoting the word and belief in something called Christianity.

It is a lesson all Christians need to learn.

Frank Raj is the founding editor of the 22 year old magazine The International Indian and the author of Desh Aur Diaspora.

*Indian endearment for Gandhi