Christianity is not a religion, but a revelation
an excerpt from a homily by
Blessed Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios
Delivered at the Holy Monastery Komneniou, Larissa on October 13, 1985
We should know what Christianity is, because the topic concerns us directly. It is not at all taken for granted that the content of Christianity is known. Of course, the content of Christianity is known, but it is interpreted in various ways. This “interpreted in various ways” is very very significant, because for this reason a variety of opinions about Christianity have been formed.
In order to know Christianity truly, we must first say what Christianity is not, and then what Christianity is; a clearing out must be done. I will insist very much on what I said, that Christianity is interpreted in various ways. You will see outsiders, both educated and uneducated, having an opinion about what Christianity is. And of course all these opinions are deviations.
I don’t know how many people truly know what Christianity is. We must become Saints. It is a very rough thing. And someone will say to you, “You want me to become a saint?” But this is precisely what Christianity wants, for you to become a Saint. “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev 12: 44-45). So, children, the topic is not an easy one. We will be sure to make it simple so that it can be understood, so that you may know how to position yourselves as proper Christians.
We said we would say what Christianity is and what it is not. First of all, you ask: Is Christianity a religion? It is not a religion. Truly, Christianity is not a religion. This statement is factual, but it does not say what it is. Indeed, Christianity is not a religion, it is a stance, a way of life. This too is correct, but only half-correct, and we will see why shortly.
So, first of all, Christianity is not a religion. This sounds strange at first. Isn’t Christianity a religion? What does “religion” [θρησκεία] mean? If you look up “religion” in an encyclopedia you will find an explanation of what religion is, but only insofar as this is possible, because we cannot know the depth and the breadth of what religion is. …
Religion is an innate tendency of a man to seek God in order to be dependent on Him, to have a feeling of physical and metaphysical security knowing that he depends on God. That is, if I sense danger, I will say in an instant, “God, help me.” (This “God help me” is not only said by Christians, but by others of any religion, by pagans and others. “My God”, they say, but who is this God?) Secondly, we seek God for what we call a metaphysical sense of security, because I, the man, will eventually die. If I know or believe that I will live on after death, what will this afterlife be like? So I seek an answer and an assurance of the afterlife.
(Those objects put in the tombs of the Egyptians, for example, which archaeologists find today, the various personal belongings of the deceased, were put there precisely because they believed that the deceased needed his personal belongings. These days we don’t put personal belongings of the deceased in the grave, but we keep them in our homes in order to remember the deceased who left this world.)
So when a person confronts death he feels a certain insecurity; he doesn’t know what will happen. Thus, faith in God provides a sense of security, both physical and metaphysical. This is why the Apostle Paul told the Athenians in his speech at the Areopagus to seek the Lord, that they might perhaps feel for Him and find Him (Acts 17: 27). Pay attention to this point: To seek God. I emphasize this phrase, to seek God, that is, the effort of man to find God. He seeks God to find God. Whose effort is it? Not God’s to find man, but man’s to find God.
Whether we call it religion or a religious feeling, God has implanted this in the depths of the human soul, so that if man turns away from God, if he leaves, if he moves away from Him (as when [Adam] fell into sin and moved away from God) he will never be able to forget God and will always seek Him, even if in a distorted way. That is, he may believe that an object is God, whether lightning, a river, the cow (the sacred cow of the Indians) or whatever else it might be. In order for us to understand this reality better, here is what it is like:
God wanted to have fellowship with man, face to face, as He spoke with Adam, and took care to do the following: He took a spool with string, the kind we sometimes fly a kite with (and when we fly a kite, we tie one end of the string to the kite, and it flies, and we hold on to the other end, to the spool; and when the eagle goes up, we let the spool loose and the string unravels; and when the eagle is going down, we pull on the spool, wind some string, and the eagle comes closer), and God holds this spool, and the other end of the string He tied inside of man, inside of every human being. And now God says: “If you want to leave, go wherever you want.” Man goes and goes and goes, but he is bound to God by the string. And now what happens? Either God pulls on the string and brings man closer, or man gathers the string to find God. This is called the innate religious feeling implanted in man by God, in order for man to seek God and to find Him.
I will repeat what the Apostle Paul said to the Athenians: to seek the Lord, that they might perhaps feel for Him and find Him. Look at the verbs. The verb “to seek” [ζητεῖν]; the verb “to feel” [ψηλαφίζω]; and the verb “to find” [ευρίσκω]. These verbs mean that man moves to find God.
Religion, however, as stated, is the search by man for God, an opening of man to God. In other words, man tries to find God, even if this man’s openness to God is impaired, if it is foggy, if it is unclear. This is why the Apostle Paul writes, that they may feel. Notice, this verb of the Apostle Paul is characteristic. What does “to feel” mean? It means I feel around with my hand for an object if I cannot see, or if it is dark, and by feeling I am going to “see” the form of the object, and so forth.
(This is why I told you earlier that man seeks to find God, feels for God. In fact, there are some who, while they are Christians, leave the full light of the truth and say to you: “I am searching for God”. This is condemnable. Many times we think of it as some great statement. He’s searching, he says. Why are you searching? There is no need to search. As long as God has not revealed Himself to you, seeking is praiseworthy, but the moment you know God, why search for Him?)
So there is darkness in the space, and from the way I feel an object I draw different conclusions, because I do not have a complete picture of the object. This is why, children, there are different perceptions of God in the field of religion. This is why. Someone will tell you: “God is transcendent”, as Plato said. Someone else will tell you: “God is nature”, as pantheism says (he will make everything that exists into “God”). All these perceptions show that we humans are secarching, that we are open to God, but this openness is limited, it is foggy, it is unclear, as I told you. Christianity is the opposite. We know where we are.
Let us not call Christianity a religion. Christianity is the opposite of religion. If religion is the search by man for God, Christianity is the search by God for man. I remind you, in brief, of the parables of the lost sheep (Mt. 18:12-14; Lk. 15:4-7) and of the lost drachma (Lk. 15:8-10). In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd lost one out of one-hundred sheep and searches high and low to find it; and when he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders and goes around saying: Rejoice with me! I have found my lost sheep! Who is doing the searching here? Are the sheep searching for the shepherd, or is the shepherd searching for the sheep? Is man searching for God or is God searching for man?
So when man is searching for God, this is called “religion”; when God is searching for man, this is called “Christianity”, not religion. This is the difference as I explained to you. I would like you to understand this: Now when we say that God wants to find man, what does this mean? It means no more feeling, no more searching. It is a revelation. God comes to us and reveals Himself, and the culmination of revelation is His becoming man. In Judaism, God reveals Himself on Mount Sinai, but in a dark cloud, and now, how is He revealed? Through human nature. He comes among us (cf. John 1:14). “God was revealed in the flesh,” says the Apostle Paul (1 Tim: 3:16).
So we now have here a complete revelation of God (and you know, we are not expecting another revelation in history; this is the final revelation of God in history), and the way to approach this self-revelation of God is faith. In the religions, what we call “faith” does not exist. That which I am searching to find, I accept when I understand it. This is what “faith” is in Christianity. I must accept it as it is offered to me. Do you see? They are diametrically opposite. This is why we cannot really say “the Christian religion” as you hear it being said, but instead we say, “the Christian faith”.
It is an abuse to call it “the Christian religion”. Of course, I who am telling you these things, if I had to write a report, some statement, and refer to Christianity, you will probably see me writing “the Christian religion” because this has been established, but we must see not what was established but what it is. I can say “the Christian religion” for a moment – but listen to me – it is not right. What do we say? We say, “the Christian faith”.
In the Old Testament, children, the word “religion” is only found in the Wisdom of Solomon and in 4 Maccabees. I will mention only one instance for you because both are essentially the same in concept. In the Wisdom of Solomon (14:27) – pay attention – it says:
For the religion of nameless idols is always the beginning and cause and end of every evil.
So what does he call religion? Something which refers to idols. Did you notice? The term “religion” refers to idolatry. What is more, in the so-called natural or invented religions, these man-made religions, the religious feeling is innate, but the construction is human. This is what religion is. In the Old Testament this is very clear.
(Perhaps you will go and find where these instances are, in 4 Maccabees, chapters 5 and 6, and after you read, you will tell me: It doesn’t talk about idolatry there, but about the Jewish religion. Yes, but who is saying it? Antiochus Epiphanes, a pagan, speaking to Eleazar, the teacher of the seven Maccabees, and he calls the monotheism of Judaism a religion.)
So then, the meaning of the word “religion” in the Old Testament means pagan religion. In the New Testament the word “religion” occurs only three times. One instance has the meaning of external Jewish practice, referred to in Acts 26:5 [“…after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.”]. The second instance refers to demonic worship, where the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:18 writes, “worship of angels”, about Gnosticism, a pagan religion. And the third, mentioned by Saint James, the Brother of God (1:27), concerns philanthropy, what pure religion is, “to visit widows and orphans.”3 [“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (RSV)] But the concept of religion cannot be exhausted with philanthropy. In other words, if I do philanthropic acts, I cannot say that I am a religious person.
So we see that in both the Old and New Testaments the word “religion” does not correspond to what it is in Christianity or even in Judaism, as a revelation of God. Do you know the danger in saying that Christianity is a religion? We inevitably end up comparing Christianity with religions, those invented religions, the worldly, demonic religions; we put them side-by-side with Christianity and make comparisons. And what do we say? We say: “All religions are good.” How many times have we heard this? Or, you yourself may say to someone: “Be a Christian” (in order not to be in heresy, or a Buddhist, or whatever), and he will answer you, “All religions are good, they all talk about God.” Today, celebrated “ecumenism”, which wants to blend all religions into one, a syncretism, is based on this thought. And someone will say: “All religions are good, they all talk about God; it doesn’t matter if that God is Jesus Christ or is Buddha or Allah (or I don’t know what else)”. In so many words, what he is saying is that with each people God takes a different name but is the same God: “Let each one worship the One God as as he prefers…” and “All religions are paths to salvation.” Is it the same God?
And the significant thing is, I repeat once again, we end up placing Christianity side-by-side with religions and make comparisons. Of course, if we want to be somewhat more favorable to Christianity, we add: “…but Christianity is the superior religion.” There is no greater or lesser. EITHER I HAVE A REVELATION OF THE TRUE GOD, OR I DO NOT HAVE IT. GOD IS EITHER THE TRUE GOD AND ALL OTHERS ARE FALSE, OR HE IS NOT TRUE AND THEN I MAKE COMPARISONS. Can you see this? Truly, Christianity is not a religion.
If we asked Jesus Christ what He would say about the religions of the world, what would He answer? Do you think Christ could answer this? Christ has answered, children. Listen to what he says in John 10:8: “All who came before Me…” (all those who came before Me with the purpose of calling people to a religion, that is, to make them like sheep, to make them a flock; therefore, all religions which do this) “All who came before Me…” (Who are these, Lord? Tell us who came before You? Buddha, Confucius, and I don’t know who else, whoever made claims as founders of religions) “…they are thieves and robbers.”
Did you hear what Christ calls all these founders of religions? Thieves and robbers. Do you know why? Because the object they wanted was man, however since they were not true, in the end they abuse man spiritually and end up thieves; they steal the human soul. And robbers, because they occupy the human existence, the human personality. They are thieves and robbers. “The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy…” (10:10) Whether he understands it or not, the thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. “…I came…” (pay attention – all these thieves and robbers do not compare to Me, the only God, Jesus Christ) “…I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance” (so that people may have life, eternal life, abundant life).
So we see here, children, that indeed Christianity is not a religion. What is it? Christianity is a revelation.
THE END – TO GOD BE THE GLORY
