Website owner:  James Miller

What is true Christianity?

   What is true Christianity?  To me true Christianity is defined 
   by the teachings that one finds in the gospels and epistles of 
   the New Testament.  No more and no less than that.  
   Specifically, it does not include bodies of tradition, custom, 
   belief and dogma that have been added on by various churches 
   over the centuries.  I don't consider these add-ons as 
   authentic, trustworthy or a valid part of Christianity.  True 
   Christianity is about love of God and following in his way as 
   taught by Jesus and his apostles.  You learn what it is by 
   reading from the source documents themselves (i.e. the books of 
   the New Testament) ---  and not by reading books or 
   commentaries about Christianity, or listening to people or 
   institutions purporting to tell you what Christianity is.

   Christianity is concerned with personal conduct, and at a more 
   basic level, with values, attitudes, outlooks and beliefs.  It 
   tells us how we are supposed to behave, especially how we are 
   supposed to conduct ourselves toward other people, and what 
   kinds of attitudes we are supposed to carry towards them.  
   Christianity is about living in a certain way.  It is about 
   changing yourself --- living by a higher law.  It is not about 
   changing the conduct of other people or trying to force them to 
   live by your rules as some seem to think.  It is not about 
   social or political activism.  Social and political activism 
   come from a completely different, non-Christian, philosophy 
   with its own assumptions.  Christianity is not about social 
   engineering or redistributing wealth --- taking from the rich 
   and giving to the poor. 

   Christianity is a body of values, outlooks and attitudes 
   characterized by love of God, fear of God, piety, goodness,  
   humility, meekness, temperance, self-denial, kindness, 
   peaceableness, integrity, morality, chastity, purity, justness, 
   uprightness and faith.  It is the rejection of the "natural 
   man" for a "higher man".  It is a rejection of the "way of the 
   world" for the "way of God". 


   Feb 2002