by AR Press Staff
Sept 2nd 2024
"Of all the things Jesus did while on the earth as a man", says author and Senior Editor, Robert Anthony, "He certainly never started a new religion."
Jesus was a Jew. Never, not once, did Jesus tell His disciples who were technically His friends, to stop being Jewish. He never once told them to separate themselves from their families or culture or nation and become something altogether different. And we must remember, the followers of Christ, even the Gentile ones, were all considered a sect of Judaism for some 200 years following Jesus' death and resurrection!
So it begs the question, what happened? How did Christianity become what it is today? An obvious and recognizable religion, arguably the largest one on the earth!?
This question, how did it happen, requires some study of history and some real critical thinking. A very important part of the story is to learn about the division that started rather early on between the Gentile followers and Christ and the Jewish followers. Christianity was spreading like wildfire all throughout the Roman Empire, much faster than it was spreading in Jewry, perhaps hundreds of times faster! But the founding members of Jesus' message were all Jews from the Promised Lands of God, all of the original teachers of Jesus' gospel were of course Jews. And another division was created over the Jews desire to keep their customs, feasts, traditions and Mosaic law but even while they followed the principals of Christ - this dynamic was already taking shape even while they were writing the Bible! In Galatians we learn that Paul had to correct Peter in Jerusalem because Peter was teaching the law mingled together with the gospel of Jesus the Messiah.
It seems clear that as this division between the Gentile believers and Israeli believers widened, so Christianity emerged more clearly as a stand alone religion, outside of Judaism. But then came the founding of the Roman Catholic Church by Emperor Constantine. Then, all throughout the Holy Roman Empire, this new and obvious religion rose to great prominence on the world stage, ready to rule European kingdoms, politics and culture for some 1,000 plus years!
But considering that the founding of the religion of Christianity was actually some three hundred years after Christ, it really does provoke the question, "Did Jesus intend to start a new religion?"
Religion is actually somewhat a confusing word. For some, asking about religion, they perhaps want to know what is a persons belief system. For others, when asking about religion, they are referring to the denomination or organization to which a person affiliates. The Bible, on the other hand, loosely defines religion as actions or duties by which one lives out their faith. Like in James, Chapter 1 verse 27, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
Certainly Jesus knew what He would accomplish in His ministry and life's work! But did He desire for Christianity to become the religion in which it has today? To this we must return to the scriptures and even His own words to understand better, just what was Jesus wanting His friends and disciples to spread out to the world?
When someone considers religion they are often going to think of a few fundamentals: a belief system and set of principals to live by, a teacher or teachers to lead the way, even to lead the people, almost always some land and buildings of some sort and finally names: names of sects, names of famous teachers, names of buildings and icons, famous names and titles throughout said religion and its history. Every religion on earth functions with these same basic foundations. Judaism has their Talmud and rabbinical law, they have the law of Moses but also centuries of teaching from their other religious authorities along the way. Islam has of course the Quran but also hundreds of years of teachings from their other respected leaders throughout their near 1500 year past. Hindi's, Sikh's, Buddhist's, etc. all have their original text handing to them their belief system but then a myriad of other teachers building upon what began. Jews have synagogues, Muslim's have Mosque's, Buddhist's and the various others have temples... and Christians have their churches? Or do they (we)? (Was this given to us, these churches?)
I would argue that all religion adheres to the same general fundamentals except for Christianity! I would argue that while all other religion falls in line with the same fundamentals, Christianity, at least what was taught by its founder, Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth, functions in stark contrast. Let me explain:
For hundreds of years there was no recognizable ruler of Christianity, no buildings were established in the name of its founder, not for hundreds of years, there were various teachers all adhering to this same spiritual way of living in which God was to be both ruler and teacher, Lord and Savior, Supreme. Jesus even went out of His way to teach to His disciples, DO NOT RULE THEM! (He said, "This is what the Gentiles do. But you must not.") And it's in all the gospels! Matthew 20:24-28, Mark 10:35-45 and Luke 22:24-27. Jesus taught them to serve and not to ever lord over them!
Jesus never built a building, never created a new name (of His religion) on the earth, never appointed a successor or authority to take His place and He never wrote anything down (that we know of)!! Have we really ever considered this!? In all our Bible Colleges, Seminaries, Christian Television Programs and millions of Church buildings throughout the world... Have we ever just stopped to consider, plainly, Jesus did it totally different than we do.
It's easy to refer to Christianity as a religion today. It has all the markings of a religion, the same as every other religion on the earth.... But this is clearly not what Jesus taught to His friends, who became Apostles (all except for Judas, the betrayer). His Apostles never taught us religion either, they never built a building, they never appointed a ruler, instead they had various leaders serving a variety of roles without something that resembled more of a family, rather than a religion: the Bible even teaches, in Titus 2, that the older men should teach the younger and the older women likewise. Sounds less and less like a religion and more and more like a family the more I read the New Testament. Jesus said, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15) And He never ruled them. Instead He loved them until His very painful and horrific death upon the cross, even though everyone left Him to suffer and die alone, He loved them until the end.
Thought provoking to consider these things. So what became of us, Christians? How did we become something so organizational and hierarchical, something so religious, like every other religious tradition upon the earth!?
Rereading the book of Acts, as the church was starting, there remains still no religion in that book, The Holy Bible. Even the Jews were never a religion, not until much much later in their history - but they were a family - simply a family from the start. What has become of us? And how did we become this Christianity, what we are known for today?
Probably worth considering... Definitely worth praying about... "Lord, what happened to us? And what do we do about it now!?"
((Our Senior Editor, Robert Anthony, often tells the story about how God woke him up in the middle of the night, more than 20 years ago and whispered into him, "Robert, I never started a religion." This revelation changed Robert's life in such profound and lasting ways - so much so he left the successful life he had in business and became a missionary. Robert traveled to some 15+ nations and 40+ US States learning from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, preaching the things God gave to him - and eventually wrote his story down in a book, called, "Jesus did not Start a Religion". You can purchase the book HERE, follow this link.))
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