Christianity is Christ - the argument that real Christianity is not a religion or a label but is Jesus himself living in his people and through them

Some say that Christianity is not a religion but is Christ. Others may say it is not a religion but Christ is the religion. Maybe that is hairsplitting or there is no important difference.
 
Regardless, it makes a huge difference to say a religion is a divine person compared to saying it is an organisation. It makes that religion radically different from any religion that does not claim to be a person. Should it even use the word religion? Maybe it should be a different word.
 
The religion-as-in-person is entirely different from any religion such as Buddhism or Islam which claim to be communities first and foremost. Islam is Muslims who are accepted as such by Allah. Islam is not Allah. Allah does his own thing and is not father or friend but the one you bend the knee to.
 
So Christianity says religion is a person not an organisation or community. Christianity is Jesus so if he is divine and able to help then it is about a personal relationship with him and the organisation and community are consequences. The idea is that you don't make up the Church the Church just happens.
 
This denies that any religion that is an organisation such as Judaism or Islam is a religion!
 
The two different kinds of religion may have different dangers. If they are dangerous it will be for different reasons.
 
Religious labels - we are not talking about religion as such - are about creating and us versus them. That is obvious when they are just labels and there is no spiritual incentive.  A label that is just a word and means nothing is still a language construct and can still divide. The critics of labels tell you that you are your group or culture when in fact you are just you.
 
If there is a choice between seeing a person as Catholic or as a person then choose the latter Catholicism claims to come first and thus forbids that. The religious label then is particularly dangerous. It is only justified if the religion has real authority from a God of truth to label. Only God has any right to label in religion.
 
Calling yourself Catholic or Christian should not be about sticking a label on yourself and demanding that others go along with this labeling and affirm it. Catholic or Christian is not a declaration that you are good or reliable in religion but a declaration that you will submit and dedicate yourself of your own free will to Catholicism or Christianity. So in this light, a person using the Christian or Catholic label is not speaking for anybody but themselves or not speaking for Christians or Catholics when he or she contradicts the Christian or Catholic faith. They are calling themselves liars and failures.
 
Clearly we should call those who want the Catholic or Christian label while thinking what they like and ignoring the teaching of Jesus what they really are - liars and hypocrites. It is about more than just them - we are asked to put away logic and good sense in order to call them Christian or whatever! If the Church tolerates them they misrepresent and abuse that tolerance. In fact it is not tolerance at all for Jesus said he would deal decisively with the fakes and heretics.
 
If you are Catholic and you say you hold that abortion or loving gay sex is not a sin, that is contradicting the Church. You cannot call those positions Catholic and you have no right to. If you are a doctor, you are not being a doctor when you maliciously give the patient food poisoning on purpose.
 
A religion in most people's mind is an organisation perhaps even a loose one. Christianity says in a sense no individual member or Church is Christianity. That is why nobody should be unsettled by those who describe themselves as Christians who contradict the teaching and principles. They are speaking for themselves no matter how much they deny it.  It is hard to ignore them for engaging with them validates their nonsense as something to be debated.
 
Christianity is Jesus. This implies one Christian cannot be as Christian or have the right to present as Christian as much as another - it depends on how close they are to Jesus and his thinking. This assumes Jesus is still alive and a personal spiritual relationship with him is possible. If Jesus is dead then Christianity is just another religion. It's a mere organisation. It is also a lie. The teaching that the Church is one means the union with Jesus is so close that unlike every group which is really divisible into loads of other groups and it never ends there is harmony. In this light, disobedient Christians are really just sectarians.
 
On the human level, it is the original leader and founder's religion. It is up to him or her to lay down the objective standard of what the religion believes and entails even if he or she delegates that authority. To have beliefs and standards implies having non-beliefs and non-standards. If the Catholic standard of sex is abstinence until marriage then it implies negativity towards sex outside marriage. Every belief is saying you believe any belief that is against it is wrong. If there are two founders one delegates another so it comes down to one authority. So it is not your job to tell your religion to change the founder's teaching. It is not your job to challenge the teaching or ask other members to do so.
 
If Christianity is Jesus that can be interpreted on the human level - if Jesus was just a man then it is true that anything that contradicts him or does not care what he thinks is not Christian.

On the spiritual level the same things are true but for a different reason. If the founder is divine and able to heal the mind and soul from evil inclinations and sins, it is another reason for taking what he/she has authorised as standard. It is like needing tablets from the doctor. It goes with having the right or authorised information about the tablets and sourcing them.

If religion is human it will be bad in so far as human nature is bad. And it is bad for humanity to manipulate that they are talking for the divine when they are only giving their own ideas. That is bad no matter how good the consequences are. It is not about the consequences but about how it is bad for humankind to manipulate and for people to be manipulated even if they do not see it.
 
If Jesus is not this great power that is raising human nature to compassion and love then if Christianity is Jesus that is a criticism. Christians share in the responsibility for doing the harm. Normally everybody in a group is different but if you are claiming your religion and source of holiness is another person you cannot use that reasoning. It is your responsibility even if not your fault that you are latching on to a spiritual fake.

How does the Church not being about men or leaders but Jesus affect things? When you point to how evil Christianity has been they say their answer is that Jesus is perfect. What do they mean? They mean that Christianity is really Christ. This implies you may not be fully Christian or perhaps not Christian at all. Rejecting one core doctrine makes you a non-Christian. Why? A Nazi who saves Jews is not a Nazi even if he is in every other way. If Christianity is Christ then maybe you are not Christian for you are not stoning homosexuals to death or you are not Christian because you are. So to say the religion is about Jesus is hardly anything great. It has nothing to do with showing the religion is in principle about peace and love. And to say, “Christianity is Christ” is saying it is and that is warning sign.

Any religion however bad can try to excuse its evil doctrines and evil deeds by saying, “We are about Jesus, Krishna or whoever.” It is a distraction and tries to make you feel bad or a backslider should you leave the religion. No matter how much evil it does it can use the excuse which shows that it is just an excuse. It is playing on how human nature does not want to be seen as antisocial.

To say your religion is not a religion but a person is to say it is all about principles and duties to a person of immovable and firm principle.
 
Religion is a community but not about being one. Religion is a system of belief or faith but not about belief or faith. It is about principle. But I say all the time that there are religious belief systems and communities? I do. But you can have community or belief systems without religion. So what is happening is religion is claiming to be about principle and that is what it builds community and faith on and around. It is not a community but a community of principle so it is really about the principle. It's not a faith but a principle expressed as faith.

People want to forget that religion is about principle and principle is about what you stick by no matter what.

Religion is not the same as any group or society that has a good and bad side which everybody has mixed feelings about. If religion is just in principle wrong then it is about the wrong principle or wrong principles and should and must be walked away from. Fast.

The excuse, our religion is about Jesus for it is Jesus so Jesus is Christianity - shows the irresponsible and manipulative side of Jesus and the other religion-makers - assuming what their religions claim about how they were founded is true.  The assertion in the John gospel from Jesus that he is the way the truth and the life - or the religion if you like - is dreadful in that light.

Some who say Christianity is Christ use it as an excuse to avoid having to listen to the Church or the Bible.  They say they follow Jesus not a book and call that bibliolatry.  But if you are an angelic being or a divine being, you can be yourself but also be what you write or inspire as in the Bible.  A love letter is a true extension and true presence of the lover.  The Bible teaches that Jesus is a person yes but he is the Word.  Word means information.  Those who use the excuse have a Jesus who changes personalities and whims like socks.  They are tricksters for it is what they want to think that matters to them not Jesus.  So if the book is the Word and Jesus is the Word then Jesus the person is effectively the book.  Jesus does not have to be literally the book but effectively the book.  Bibliolatry is just a strawman and shows that liberal "believers" need to stop being so manipulative and stupid.  In a sense, every person is a book.  The book just hasn't been written that is all.