Story
My spiritual mentor, my great-uncle Bob Iverson, was nearing his 90th birthday when my mom and I went to go visit him for the last time up in Seattle. We loved visiting Uncle Bob, and we left inspired every time we had the opportunity to go see him up north. The last time we visited him he told us something that stuck with me and my mom to this very day: “Christianity is not about religion, it's about relationship.” As my Uncle Bob would say, “Wow!”
I had heard the religion-relationship saying many times before, but it was different coming from Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob was an old-school preacher, very traditional but also open for new revelation. When he told me relationship was the most important aspect of being a Christian, I was assured of what I had come to know myself through my own studies and my own Christian walk.
I've read the Bible my whole life, and I continue to find inspiration in it everyday. Growing up I read the Bible in typical evangelical fashion: the Bible was a story that showed God created the world, man brought sin into the world and damned us all to hell, and it was only through "asking Jesus into your heart" that you were officially saved and could go to Heaven when you died. Every time I read the Bible I could fit any passage into that common story.
I graduated from high school in 2006 and went to Seattle Pacific University, a Christian college near Queen Anne hill. As a Christian, I felt comfortable going here. I decided to go to college to become a teacher or pastor, two drives that inspired me since elementary school. As I attended classes in the fall and winter of the 2006-2007 school year, my understanding of God expanded. I was introduced to a variety of Christian history and theology. I realized through my studies that there was way more content in Christianity than I was raised in, some beliefs being very different than my own. My mind started to open to the reality that God is a lot bigger than any single belief system.
Within one year I had two major revelations. The first happened when I read C.S. Lewis's book Mere Christianity. In it he said, "Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind." It wasn't drinking alcohol, exploring other faiths or having sex as I was led to believe. Pride led to the fall of man, and out of pride all sin is manifested.
My second revelation happened when I read Jesus' two greatest commandments: Love God and Love your neighbor. I read these words many times before, but for some reason I saw them with a different pair of eyes. While pride is anti-God, Love is God. Love is the ultimate reality of God and the primary Christian instruction.
With these two revelations I began to read the Bible and see Christianity differently. Christianity became more universal, accepting, and spiritual. God became more relatable and accessible. Through this new lens I could see the corruption of the modern church, driven by pride in doctrine. I saw the manipulation tactics used by mainstream church leaders to bring more people and revenue into their churches. The pride-love dichotomy was very, very pronounced for me.
I read the same Bible, but I was internally transformed.
3 Archetypes of Christians
There are three archetypes of Christians that I have encountered in my walk:
Religious Christians- The religious Christian highly values doctrines. Religious Christians believe that by being a Christian they are in an exclusive club that is saved while all others are damned who don't hold those same beliefs. Religious Christians are very criticial of new ideas and modern revelations.
Struggling Christians- Struggling Christians also value doctrines but they have an element of deeper spiritual truths that can only be understood through personal Divine encounter. They see the value of things like faith, hope, love, and transformation, but have a tough time shedding the doctrines and theologies that surround them. They hold strongly to certain doctrines but can also see how doctrines fall short. They are in a constant struggle between what the Bible says and what they experience, a battle between religion and relationship. They struggle in the middle ground.
Relational Christians- Relational Christians see little value in doctrine and value relationships above all else, be it a relationship with God or relationships with others. There is no separating love of God and love of neighbor for the relational Christian. They are the same. Relational Christians open themselves for Divine encounter and complete transformation, even if that means leaving traditional beliefs behind.
The Never-Ending Temptation of Doctrine-Driven Christianity
The Roman Catholic Church dominated Christian thought for nearly 1500 years. From Rome to the Middle Ages, being a part of the Church was the highest social value. The Bible and personal encounter with God was also valued but only under the authority of the Catholic Church. After Christianity was legalized and declared the official religion of the Roman Empire, politics and aristocratic greed began to influence its development. Very quickly the Church was led by doctrines that would best serve the empire and its leaders, and it made Jesus’ teachings a minor aspect of Christian life. Church leaders, aristocrats and government officials became intertwined. To add to the corruption, the Bible was only produced in Latin, an ancient language understood primarily by the clergy. Lay people couldn't read the Bible, so Scriptures could be picked and abused by the church authorities quite easily. The Church began to sell indulgences to the public, payments to the Church to reduce the amount of punishment one had for their sins or for the sins of their ancestors. The Church was on its high-horse heading into the 16th century.
Then along came Martin Luther, a German monk and college professor. With the ability to read Latin, Luther was able to see how far the Church fell away from its original teachings of internal transformation based in the Bible. He criticized the Church and its selling of indulgences, and he called out the Church where he saw they abused their power. At this time, the Church held ultimate authority. Those that came against the Church were often deemed heretics and burned at the stake. It was a risk Luther was willing to take. Because of Luther the seed was planted for a major reformation in Christian thought.
It made sense why Luther valued the Bible and gave it ultimate authority, also known as sola scriptura, or the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. The Catholic Church lost its authority over Protestant Christians, transferred into the hands of popular Protestant leaders. Denominations started to rise in Europe under these various leaders.
Sola scriptura is a concept that Protestant churches have held in the highest regard for the last 500 years. The problem with sola scriptura is it led to bibliolatry, or the idolization of the Bible. Jesus warned us of this (John 5:39), but we largely ignored his warning. This idolatry is widespread amongst Protestant circles today. In these circles, the Bible has sole authority, and questioning such authority or adding or taking away from it is heretical and potentially damns one to hell. What the idolization of the Bible did was allow mainstream Protestant denominations to create and promote new doctrines based on their own interpretations of the Bible, believing their own doctrines to be absolutely true and others to be absolutely (or partly) wrong. Legalism became the norm. Once again Christianity strayed away from what Jesus showed us: doctrines are a problem and so is the worship of anything other than God, including Scriptures. Sola scriptura also took away perhaps the most important ingredient of knowing God: personal encounter and Divine revelation. By placing sole authority in the Bible, an individual was limited from the kinds of Divine encounters they could have. Novel encounters were seen with suspicion. The belief formed that somehow, someway God stopped speaking to people as he once did to people like Abraham, Moses, David, Ezekiel, Paul, and John.
From the Catholic Church to the Protestant churches, from priestly authority to written authority, the Reformation was an important step of peeling away religious nonsense and embracing God personally, but it wasn’t enough. The Reformation called out the corruption of the Church, but it didn't lead to mass spiritual transformation, as Luther had hoped. In fact, Christians clung tightly to their doctrines and refused to change just as the rest of the world was moving forward.
Correlating with the Protestant Reformation was the world's transition from the Middle Ages to modernism. Modernism saw the rise of science and the separation of science from spirituality. Christians always seemed to be the ones to combat science, always the last ones to the party.
Christians were the last to accept the sun as the center of our solar system.
Christians were the last to accept evolution, and there are still many today who reject it quite profusely.
Christians were the last to accept medicine, claiming those who practiced medicine to be witches.
Christians were the last to accept contraception, even though it had numerous health benefits.
Christians continue to be the last to accept the possibility of life on other planets.
The craziest part is Christians have been in the majority all along! Now their numbers are dwindling, their influence decreasing, and it's happening quite rapidly. People outside the inner circle of Christianity refuse to adopt a religion that centers on an angry God who threatens to punish people to hell. People distance themselves from judgmental and condemning people, and people certainly don't appreciate being told that shame and guilt are virtues to know God. People in the 21st century are finding little value in the doctrines of Christianity. It is no longer taken seriously by the majority of people outside its inner circle. It has lost its effectiveness to transform lives and expand. The old methods are simply outdated. It's time for some serious changes in how we practice Christianity. We don't need to change our theologies and doctrines. We need to move beyond them altogether.
Jesus stood up against the corruption of his own religion. He never intended to create a new religion; he wanted to transform his own. He wanted his Jewish followers to open their eyes and see that there was a major difference between God in essence and the priesthood, temple, and Scriptures that attempted to put God in a box.
People are starting to awake to the corruption in the modern church. People are starting to read and understand Jesus' teachings, and not rely on the Church's interpretation of those teachings. People are starting to study the history of the Church and the abuse it has caused. People are starting to study the history of the formation of the Bible and see that it too falls short in the end without God. People are starting to wake to the fact that God can speak to them today, as He never changes.
We are living in a postmodern world, and we're beginning to see science and spirituality integrated together. If we Christians want to regain our status as the light of the world, we got to make some big changes. Instead of hoping for change collectively, however, we need to start at the individual level. All sustainable systematic change begins within the individual. Changed individuals change the culture. I'm calling on Christians from all different denominations who feel called to go beyond doctrine and encounter the mystery of God directly. I'm calling on those Christians to shift from a doctrinal worldview to a worldview of Love, if you haven't done so already.
Let Go of Religion and Let God Transform You in Love
Years ago I came across a word, metanoia, that totally transformed the way I understood Christian conversion. In the original Koine Greek, meta means "beyond" or "after" and nous means "mind". It can translate as "beyond the mind" or "transformation of mind". Second and third century Christian scholar Tertullian said that metanoia is best translated as change of mind.
"In Greek, metanoia is not a confession of sins but a change of mind."
Metanoia can thus be understood as spiritual conversion. The understanding of metanoia can go further and indicate a transformation of the whole self, a shift in a person's entire being: the old self dies and a new self is born. Metanoia is translated ten times more often than the next word we'll look at, metamelomai.
Metamelomai means to "repent" or "regret". Other translations show it means remorseful regret or painful sorrow. Metamelomai is strongly associated with the feelings of guilt and shame. It is used when describing Judas' remorse after betraying Jesus. The result of such regret for Judas was suicide.
Metamelomai is how I previously understood Christian salvation. It's how I was taught. According to this theology, one must feel extremely guilty and shameful of their sins in order to humble oneself before Christ to be saved. I remember how this belief gave me extreme anxiety and very low self-worth.
When the Bible was translated into English, metanoia and metamelomai were translated similarly as "repent". Why is this important?
In Matthew's gospel there's a verse well-known to most Christians that has driven evangelism.
"Repent, for the kingdom of God (or heaven) is at hand."
Matthew 4:17
When one goes back to the original Greek translation in the verse above, however, metamelomai is not used; metanoia is. So let's change the translation to its original Greek meaning:
"Change your mind, for the kingdom of God is at hand."
There is no indication of guilt and shame. There is no repentance. John the Baptist called for transformation.
"Change your mind otherwise you won't see God."
When you see John's words as a call for transformation and not a call to repentance, the whole understanding of salvation shifts. Salvation requires absolutely no guilt or shame. Fear is not a requirement to know God. Salvation simply requires a willingness to be transformed through Christ by Love.
When you read the words and actions of Jesus, it is recognized that Jesus preached transformation through Love. He preached that Love of your neighbor and Love of God are the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:36-40). He said that others will know you're his disciples by Love (John 13:35). He even radically commanded that we love our enemies (Matthew 5:34)! Paul and John the Evangelist also emphasized Love. John says in 1 John 4, "Whoever does not Love does not know God, because God is Love." Paul says you can have all the knowledge, perform miracles and have faith that can move the mountains, but if you don't have Love you are nothing. (1 Corinthians 13). Paul even valued Love over faith, which mainstream Protestantism still identifies as the ultimate pathway to God. Faith isn't the way to God: Love is. Faith is the fruit that arises out of Love and can deepen your Love of God, but Love is the ultimate reality of God that also includes Love of those He created. If you seek to be transformed, you do it by Love. If you seek to "make disciples of all nations", you do it by Love. If you seek to transform this world, you do it by Love. If you want to know God, know and practice Love. God and Love are the same.
Is Love the image of a Christian to the outsider?
In my future book, I will be writing about seven mindset shifts that need to happen to ensure Christianity's survival going forward into the 21st century and beyond. These mindset shifts begin with YOU:
1. From Original Sinner to Unique Creation (How We View Ourselves)
2. From Paradise to Presence (How We View the World)
3. From Judgment to Understanding (How We View Others)
4. From Concept to Mystery (How We View God)
5. From Belief to Transformation (How We View the Christian Walk)
6. From Fear to Faith (How We View the Unknown)
7. From Separation to Inclusion (How We View the Church and the Great Commission)
These mindset shifts will enable the willing Christian to see oneself, the Bible, the world, people, and God through a different lens. Same soul. Same Bible. Same world. Same relationships. Same God. Different mindset.
Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
Christianity can lead the change moving forward, but to do so we must abandon doctrine-driven Christianity and embrace Love-driven Christianity. We must officially move beyond the confines of religion and embrace an open relationship with God. May God guide you in this journey.
Quotes
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
Seneca
"A religion that is small enough for us to understand would not be large enough for our needs."
Grenville Kleiser
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
Dalai Lama
"I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality."
Mahatma Gandhi
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
Susan B. Anthony
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful wihtout having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
Douglas Adams
"Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right."
H.L. Mencken
"God has no religion."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."
Napoleon Bonaparte
"I belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple."
Rumi
"Love is my religion"
Ziggy Marley
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