What would you say to someone who asks why she needs a religion? Or says that she believes in the existence of God but not in organized religion?
By Ask Anything Team on December 13th, 2011 at 8:09 pm | No Comments
Answer:
If religion refers to ‘a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe’, then in a sense, everyone has a religion because everyone has some way of explaining these things, whether they be within the confines of a recognized traditional religion e.g. Islam, Buddhism etc., or put together based on the persons own life experiences and empirical research. In short, we would say to the person that everyone has certain beliefs that they presume, whether they know it or not. Hence, it is not really a question of whether one needs a religion or not, but rather whether one wants to conform ones beliefs as closely as possible to reality. Christianity does not teach that ‘belief’ is a ‘leap in the dark’ i.e. believing in spite of the facts, but rather a ‘step into the light’, which is responding to the truth that God has revealed to us in the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ.
With regard to ‘organized religion’, if what is meant is that the teachings are codified, and that there are ‘organizations’ or ‘structures’ surrounding these beliefs, then it is true that God reveals that there is a body of truth, as revealed in the Bible that we must hold to, and that there is a body of believers that we belong to, called the church, when we become followers of Jesus. However, this does not have to be pompous and bureaucratic, but simple and life-giving, as revealed in the Bible e.g. Acts 2. To someone who says she believes in God, but not in organized religion, you could ask, “Who is this God you believe in?”, and “What has this God revealed to you about what you should do with your life?”. Answers that fall short of what the Bible teaches, demonstrate that this ‘god’ they believe in is not the true God as revealed to us in Jesus and the Bible.
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