Christian Religion: What It Is and Why It Matters

Understanding Christian Religion Is Key to Understanding Western World Views

10^th January 2022

Christian Religion (CR) is one of the world’s organised religions that originated from Judaism or Jewish Religion (JR) in the Middle East. Christianity was the first form of Islam, and both Islam and Christianity came out of Judaism. They are also known as the Abrahamic religions. This article looks at CR compared to other world religions, such as African and Islamic faiths.

What Is Christian Religion?

Christianity or Christian Religion as I would love to refer to it in this article is the first and largest religion in Africa and in the world at large at the time of this writing, followed by Islam. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are known as Abrahamic religions because they originate from Abraham, the Jewish ancestor. There are billions of adherents to Christianity worldwide.

It is also one of the organized religions of the world apart from Africa Religion, mostly originating and being practiced in Africa. Like Islam, Christian Religion believes in the fact that there is Satan, the personification of the forces of evil, as well as hell, a place for eternal punishment for sinners and Satan himself and his angels or evil spirits. It also believes and teaches the existence of heaven, a place of peace and eternal life for the faithful ones.

Africa’s Religion is not like this. It doesn’t teach anything about heaven or hell, Satan and his fallen angels, or holy angels on the side of God. However, it does teach and acknowledge the existence of evil, as both parts of the same God. According to AR, God can do good and evil depending on His will and purpose, just as He created and then slaughtered dangerous creatures such as dinosaurs and many others.

In Christian Religion, one must believe in God through a medium, Jesus Christ, in order for God to forgive him or her, and allow him or her into heaven. To this religion, Jesus is the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 3:5-6).

The God of the Bible then is the only true God. Other forms or revelations of God are not considered to be about the same God of the Bible, and this includes the African Religion beliefs, doctrines, teachings, and traditional religious and spiritual practices.

If Christian Religion is the only way to God, then one asks several logical questions. Does it mean Christian faith/religion is also present in other world cultures and traditions including the Africa Religion as Rick Warren seems and other universalism teachers teach? If so, then is there a need to believe in the biblical Jesus in order for one to get saved? What if I never come across such a name as Jesus until my death, will I automatically qualify for hell and torment?

Where did Christian Religion come from?

Christian Religion (CR) originated in the land of Israel in the first century of our current modern age. It started after the death of the God-Man, Jesus, who is also called the Christ, a title that means the anointed one on both Hebrews (Messiah) and Greek (Christos).

The New Testament section of the Bible teaches us about the prophecies, birth, life, ministry, suffering, death, burial, and the resurrection of this man from the dead. This was how religion started.

After Jesus died and rose again, we are told that He appeared to His disciples and other followers before He finally ascended into heaven where He is believed to be right now until He descends to earth the second time to judge both the living and the dead. This means both Christianity and the Africa Religion believe that the dead are just resting but fully alive and will rise to live one day.

Thus, Christian Religion/faith is the continuation of the Jewish God’s promises to His people, Israel. These promises were delivered through prophets and writings of the Old Testament. But up to now most of the Israelites are still waiting for the Messiah to come because they didn’t believe in the Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews because for many reasons and factors.

In Africa, Christian Religion came right from the Middle East before the rise of Islam in North Africa, which then blocked the African church from the main church in Rome and Israel. This means Christianity as a religion did not come from the West to Africa.

Reading Acts of the Apostles chapter eight will explain this to you very well. The Ethiopian eunuch brought the religion to Africa as early as 33 A.D. Some disciples of Jesus also came to North Africa, Carthage.

How did Christians use their religion?

Christians all over the world use their religion to live their daily lives as well as to share their faith with others around the world. Because they believe their way is the only way to God, Christians want to share this good news with everyone they could find. The challenge always is the reason why could God make it that hard and impossible to save the world by choosing only one narrow way to Him.

Christianity is such a spectrum where from the left to right there are extreme ends. The far-left means Christians who don’t care much about their faith, and the far-right means those who are extremely religious and spiritual. The middle means those who are neutral to their faith.

I will rather be spiritual than religious because I believe that’s what everyone is by default. God is the Creator of our world and of ourselves. Thus, He can and He did, He is and He will continue to reveal Himself to the world in many different ways.

Now you can see where I belong, right? I think making God a religious personality is thinking little and folly. It is making God into a small idol, or something instead of acknowledging Him as the Creator and the lover of all humans and other creatures. We may even think that other animals are useless compared to us, but how true are we? God is for all and in all.

I am Christian, and African Christian who also believes that my ancestors are in heaven, simply because there are believers in every culture all over the world, or else, Satan must be the winner if such a high number will perish in hell one day, simply because they didn’t know there is a way to heaven.

It won’t be their fault to go to hell because they never had a chance to make a decision. This is how weird Christianity and other organized religions are: narrow and shallow.

Christians use their religion to see the world and find meaning in life because of their hope of the eternal life which only they have in Christ Jesus their Lord and Savior. Because of this hope, life is full of meaning and purpose. Christians are then taught to live as aliens here on earth because they don’t belong here.

Why did Christians use their religion?

Like any other religion, Christian Religion is practiced for many different reasons by those who believe in it and are called after. One reason for people to become Christian in the first place is the fear of the threatening hellfire.

At least for me, this was the main reason why I wanted to receive water baptism as soon as I could, simply because I don’t want to go to hell. It also sounds good to know God in this new way, especially for the African kids who were exposed to the new worldviews and teachings of this new religion: Christianity.

We soon despised and look down on our parents who seem to be worshipping the devil and living in the utmost darkness. We thought we were in the light and they were in darkness simply because Africa Religion was not taught to children, and this is why we don’t have books for it. It is known as not organized like other world religions even though it shares a lot of things in common with the Jewish beliefs, doctrines, teachings, and traditional practices.

Even I was not born in Israel, I was a Nazarite from birth, and I didn’t know this fact until we had the Old Testament translated into our Dinka Padang language in 2012. If you look into the Nuer and Dinka cultures, you will see a lot of similarities with Jewish life. Things like wife inheritance and marrying for the deceased have been our practices for the same reasons as that in the Bible: to preserve a name for the deceased brothers.

Now, Christians use their religion as part of life, as well as a tool to convert others into their worldview, ideologies, and lifestyle, especially the Westerners in Africa. It was used as bait to lure the Africans into the Western ideologies, beliefs, doctrines, teachings, and cultural practices that seem to be Christian but they are not in the real sense. Things such as monogamy are purely western and not biblical.

The Bible is open about the topic of marriage. This means whether one gets married or not (to one or more partners) is totally a personal preference according to Jesus. He knew all humans are not the same nature, so you can’t make one rule for all of them. Some are created never to get married in their lives. But naturally, all productive and healthy human males are not tied to one female.

Because of the Western ideologies confused with Christian Religion, we in Africa made laws that affect us negatively in different ways in our societies. One of the effects of these foreign laws is the issue of a man getting married to one legal wife and three other hidden illegal ones that only show up on his funeral days, with all their children, asking for their share in the man’s wealth. Judge now by yourself. Which is better between hiding and telling the truth?

What is the importance of Christian Religion?

Christian Religion is important because it gives us hope for the future world of peace and harmony, even if this is just fiction and human wish. It also helps us live lives of responsibility since we are reminded to be responsible in the world to come for our deeds, here and now. It teaches us ethics and love and compassion for one another. It also teaches us resilience in a violent world like this.

Christianity is important because it helps us understand our human quest for meaning in life, which we don’t fully know from the natural African ways of life. This is because the Africa Religion is not about who God is, what He likes, what He hates, heaven and hell, angels and demons, and things like that. It is rather a living relationship between humans with both good (God) and evil (Satan).

We Africans see God as both good and evil because He is in charge of all aspects of life including what is good and what is bad or evil. God blesses those He wants to bless, and He curses those He deems to be cursed on His own will and purpose. In this way, there is no evil person that is wrestling with God as if they both share the same position, power, and authority as Christian Religion, Islam and Judaism seem to suggest.

Christian faith calls God a loving father, which is not the case in other religions of the world, and this is very important because we now see God as a father. Some Christians see this as a living relationship with God instead of a religion. This means in Christian Religion we don’t do anything to appease or please God since He has already done something Himself to save us from sin and the eternal death in the lake of fire. For this reason, Christian Religion is important.

My Final Words

Now, if you have started reading from the very beginning of this article, you know that CR is one of the world’s largest religions. It is in fact the largest of all with billions of adherents all over the world and counting. But you might have also seen that Christian Religion is not the only way to God, or else many will die eternally because they won’t have a chance to give their lives to Christ or know God in His way.

You might have also witnessed that Christianity is quite different from one continent to the other because people mix it with their previous beliefs and systems. In Africa, we have a different form of Christianity than that in the West, East, or Middle East, and this is very important to notice.

Finally, I want you to take things simply, not becoming religious along the way. Religiosity is not the same as spirituality because these are two different things. Believing that one way is the only way to God is not only demeaning and ridiculous, but it is thinking little and folly at best.

God is the Creator of all things, and He is for all and in all. This means He reveals Himself to the world in His own unique ways that we can’t know or control. Thus, our view of Him differs a lot more from one continent to the other.

I hope this article has been helpful to you, personally. Would you love to take a minute and share your thoughts about it in the comment section below? I will surely and deeply appreciate your input. Other readers will also love to hear what you think about this article. May God richly bless keep you safe during and after the pandemic. This is my wish and prayer for you.

Shalom!

Further Readings

• Christianity—Wikipedia.
• Christianity—History.
• Christianity Fast Facts—CNN.