Had a GREAT time yesterday with Cambridge University students, talking about whether Christianity is all about being religious. I LOVE doing student stuff. (It might even make me rethink my long term decision to not accept invitations to be the main speaker at Christian Union missions).
The subject was is Christianity all about being religious? Christianity is the opposite of religion. Christianity is opposed to religion and all real Christians hate religion.
One guy said to me afterwards that he would previously have described himself as a non-Christian. What put him off was the idea that you have to be religious, but that the talk had resolved that for him.
Here is an excerpt:
Religion is not Christianity. In fact it is the denial of Christianity. Christianity says I need Jesus to do it for me. Religion says I will do it myself by performing the religion. Christianity is Jesus and Levi. It is a place, a relationship with God for messed up people where he offers forgiveness, adoption, acceptance, power to change. A church is a family of sinful people who are loved by God and precious to him. He invites everybody in, including me and you. There is not a single person in this room, a single person in this world, who isn’t messed up. There is no one who is perfect, least of all people who are relying on religion. There is nobody who doesn’t need this from Jesus.
Is Christianity all about being religious? Of course it isn’t ladies and gentlemen. If Christianity was about religion then Levi wouldn’t get a look in and neither would any person who was honest about their own failings of life and heart. Jesus Christ is the opposite of religion, he says in the Bible that he loathes religion, he confronts it all over the place, and He is Christianity.