If you go by the dictionary definition of the word, “religion”, it is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods”.  Wikipedia further elaborates “religion” to be “a cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, and organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements”.  On paper, It is without question that Christianity would be classified as a religion among other religions such as Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism.  However, as a Christian, I always find myself hesitated in telling people that I believe in a religion because it never was nor will it ever be a religion in my mind. 

Religions in my opinion are man-made ways of connecting with supernatural gods.  Some may argue they aren’t all “man-made”, they came through revelations from the gods.  Well believe it or not, many gods are man-made as well.  Just so that you know, people worship all kinds of man-made things all over the world whether it is a piece of art, sculpture, or even just some drawing imagination.  And even if these gods are real, you never know what are from gods and what are from men unless you have some concrete writings that can stand up to the test of time.  One great example of this is The Bible. The Bible is a book that had been written by 66 authors spanning a time frame of 1500+ years and yet it communicates a consistency by all of its authors across different generations and geographical locations.  Today even 2000 years after the death of the last author, it is still the best-selling book in the world every year by a big margin.  Therefore as a Christian, I believe Bible is God’s complete revelation to mankind, so I care about understanding and getting to know God better through the Bible rather than the man-made religious practices and classifications that Bible doesn’t talk about or sometimes even talk against.

Perhaps when you start associating Christianity as a religion, people will understand and treat it as a religion like all other religions.  What’s wrong with being treated like all other religions?  I mean you get to practice your religion in your churches while Buddhism, Hinduism, and Muslim get to practice theirs in their temples and mosques and everybody is happy.  Isn’t freedom of religion a nice thing?  Why do you Christians need to be above and so exclusive of others?  Other religions don’t seem to have problems co-existing with you.

Yes freedom of religion is nice privilege in many countries and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it except that people just don’t get it.  There is a difference between “facts” vs. “opinions”.  When you are talking about God and spiritual matters, many people think they are just a set of different religious beliefs and opinions that it makes sense to group them into different religions and each can have its own god and space.  It is actually very funny to think that humans can actually group gods into religions.  If gods listen and follow to your grouping, you might as well be their gods not the other way around. 

The reality is that you can have your beliefs and opinions about God however way you want or even come up with religions to practice your beliefs.  At the end of the day, these are all just opinions and none of these will change who God truly is, which is fact.  A simple analogy to this will be that I can be so delusional and denial to say that Donald Trump is not the president of the United States in year 2019 and I can hold on that belief as long as I want. I can even use my freedom of speech to defend what I believe, but that doesn’t change the fact that Donald Trump is the president of the United States in year 2019 because that is the reality.  As a matter of fact, there can be many different beliefs, but there is only one truth and one reality.  So the real question is not about whether your religion can agree or play along nicely with other religions.  Instead, it is about whether your beliefs are in line with the truth and reality.  Truth discerns right or wrong, good or bad.  Truth by its very nature is exclusive because there can only be one truth.  So if you truly believe that your belief is the truth, then it ought to be somewhat exclusive of others.  Not to be surprised, Christianity is the only “religion” that is exclusive of others.  Other religions all seem to be more or less tolerable of others.

Some may still argue, why can’t each religion have its own god and truth?  Yes you can have as many numbers of gods and “truth” as you like if your gods or “truth” aren’t the ultimate God and Truth.  But if you are talking about God that is almighty and all powerful and if you are talking about the Truth that is promised and fulfilled by the Almighty God, then there can only be one God and one Truth.  You can’t have multiple Gods because what if they aren’t in agreement, which one has the saying?  This simple logical reasoning basically proves that there can only be one God that has the ultimate saying and one Truth that overrules all the others.

Bible tells us about this Almighty God and his ultimate Truth to us.

“⁹Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. ¹⁰I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please”  Isaiah 46:9-10

Let’s just say Bible is a book that never ceases to amaze me.  I can provide you hundreds of objective evidences to show you without a question that it is the ultimate Truth from the Almighty God.  But even this very passage alone is nothing short of amazing.  I mean who in the world dare to proclaim and call out other gods like this?  There are only two possibilities.  It is either that it is really from the Almighty God or it is about get into some serious trouble with Almighty God.  For that, I dare to challenge you to find from other well known religions that also make this same kind of proclamation in their official textbooks.  It may be hard because their gods are all so “humble”.

For these very reasons, I don’t think I believe in a religion.  I believe in the Almighty God and His Truth revealed to us through the Bible.

As usual, your questions, comments, and remarks are welcome.  God bless!