Religion doesn't matter. You just need to know Jesus!

[McKevin]

The statement “religion doesn’t matter, you just need to know Jesus” is the biggest challenge that I have as a convert trying to lead my protestant family and friends to the Catholic Church. They even go as far to say that religion binds us while Christ sets us free.

How do you answer this?

 

[scriabin]

NAB: 1 Tim 5:4: “…learn to perform their **religious **duty to their own family…”

1 Tim 6:6: “Indeed, **religion **with contentment is great gain.”

2 Tim 3:1-5: “…there will be terrible times in the last days…people will be irreligious…they make a pretense of **religion **but deny its power. Reject them.”

2 Tim 3:12: “…all who want to live **religiously **in Jesus Christ will be persecuted…”

somewhere, I can’t find chapter: “…pure, unspoilt **religion **is…helping widows…”

etc. etc. etc.

Scripture defines religion as good. Ask, “Why do Protestants re-define religion as bad when the Bible says religion is good?”

 

[Ahimsa]

The statement “religion doesn’t matter, you just need to know Jesus” is the biggest challenge that I have as a convert trying to lead my protestant family and friends to the Catholic Church. They even go as far to say that religion binds us while Christ sets us free.

How do you answer this?

Well, religion most likely comes from “re-” and “ligare”, meaning “again” and “to bind/to fasten”. So religion literally is meant to “bind” you. It is meant to restrict you. Sort of like marriage.

 

[Guardian]

This poll is a fallacy because if you KNOW Jesus you WILL BE religious.

 

[scriabin]

You want a personal relationship with Christ? Well
religion is a relationship with God.

 

[jmcrae]

If you don’t have religion, then you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, because the religion is the relationship stuff.

Imagine someone saying to a girl, “You can be married to him without having to sleep in the same bed with him, or pick up his socks.” I don’t know what that would be, but it wouldn’t really be a marriage, would it?

We are the Bride of Christ. Our husband is Christ, and our relationship with Him is to love Him and serve Him in the Church.

 

[McKevin]

NAB: 1 Tim 5:4: “…learn to perform their **religious **duty to their own family…”

1 Tim 6:6: “Indeed, **religion **with contentment is great gain.”

2 Tim 3:1-5: “…there will be terrible times in the last days…people will be irreligious…they make a pretense of **religion **but deny its power. Reject them.”

2 Tim 3:12: “…all who want to live **religiously **in Jesus Christ will be persecuted…”

somewhere, I can’t find chapter: “…pure, unspoilt **religion **is…helping widows…”

etc. etc. etc.

Scripture defines religion as good. Ask, “Why do Protestants re-define religion as bad when the Bible says religion is good?”

The protestants I know say that religion is bad because Christ broke the Jewish “law” by working on the sabath and that Christ came to “set us free” - they interpret this as setting us free from the constraints of religion - such as fasting and doing good works - and they quote verses on being saved by faith and not by works that are dictated by the Church. That there is nothing we can do that has an impact on our salvation - our salvation was made perfect in the sacrifice on Calvary and we should live a life “free from the puppetry that religion imposes on us”.

 

[McKevin]

If you don’t have religion, then you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, because the religion is the relationship stuff.

Imagine someone saying to a girl, “You can be married to him without having to sleep in the same bed with him, or pick up his socks.” I don’t know what that would be, but it wouldn’t really be a marriage, would it?

We are the Bride of Christ. Our husband is Christ, and our relationship with Him is to love Him and serve Him in the Church.

This is a neat analogy that I have never heard before…I’ll give it a shot and let you know their response.

Thanks!

 

[scriabin]

Paul is writing to Timothy about the good of religion. His meaning is not implied, they are blatantly pro-religion.

Scripture cannot contradict itself.

If your Protestant friends have an interpretation of another verse that they *think *contradicts Paul’s approving use of the term religion—they have to be wrong, which is why I inferred that they must have re-defined the term to fit their theology.

 

[adrift]

Well, religion most likely comes from “re-” and “ligare”, meaning “again” and “to bind/to fasten”. So religion literally is meant to “bind” you. It is meant to restrict you. Sort of like marriage.

etymonline.com/index.php?search=religion&searchmode=none

c.1200, “state of life bound by monastic vows,” also “conduct indicating a belief in a divine power,” from Anglo-Fr. religiun (11c.), from O.Fr. religion “religious community,” from L. religionem (nom. religio) “respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods,” in L.L. “monastic life” (5c.); according to Cicero, derived from relegare “go through again, read again,” from re- “again” + legere “read” (see lecture). However, popular etymology among the later ancients (and many modern writers) connects it with religare “to bind fast” (see rely), via notion of “place an obligation on,” or “bond between humans and gods.” Another possible origin is religiens “careful,” opposite of negligens. Meaning “particular system of faith” is recorded from c.1300.

"The equal toleration of all religions ... is the same thing as atheism." [Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, 1885]

Modern sense of “recognition of, obedience to, and worship of a higher, unseen power” is from 1535. Religious is first recorded c.1225. Transfered sense of “scrupulous, exact” is recorded from 1599.

Webster
m-w.com/dictionary/religion

Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Anglo-French religiun, Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back

 

[McKevin]

This poll is a fallacy because if you KNOW Jesus you WILL BE religious.

Not true. I think the key is that they don’t look at their relationship with Jesus as being tied into the religious rules of the Catholic Church. To them, and they have professed Jesus as their savior, **they believe that they are to “work out their salvation with fear and trembling” and don’t need a religious institution to tell them how to go about it. ** This is a different way of thinking and if you’ve been raised in it it is a hard thing to be convinced otherwise…

 

[Fidelis]

I think this is one of those cases where Catholic and Protestants, while using the same word, are speaking different languages.

When Catholics think of religion, they mean following Our Lord Jesus’ commandments (including the precepts of his Church) out of our love for him, loving our neighbors as ourselves for Jesus’ sake.

When many Protestants hear the word religion, right away they think of legalism – following rules, and people slaving away under some man-made system where they have to do as many good works and obey endless rules out of fear of damnation. AND, they wrongly believe this describes Catholicism.

If Catholics thought this was what religion was, they’d hate it too!

 

[prv]

The protestants I know say that religion is bad because Christ broke the Jewish “law” by working on the sabath and that Christ came to “set us free” - they interpret this as setting us free from the constraints of religion - such as fasting and doing good works - and they quote verses on being saved by faith and not by works that are dictated by the Church. That there is nothing we can do that has an impact on our salvation - our salvation was made perfect in the sacrifice on Calvary and we should live a life “free from the puppetry that religion imposes on us”.

Protestants are correct----up to an extent. Christ himself merited salvation-----agreed. W/o him, no one can be saved at all—agreed. This is the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Where they go wrong is when they say that we do not need to respond to His most glorius offering, the Gift of eternal life. For, as it has been said, many times over and over, one can choose to reject His gift. Christ Himself made it clear what is needed----

“Lord, when did we see you naked…
when did we see you hungry…”

The hatred of this Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church will continue until Christ Himself returns. But all, Catholic and Protestant alike, will be judged. We can most solemnly be assured of that. Therefore, let the Protestants quote all the Scriptures they want; those of us who have already been taught the way of the Gospel should not be blinded.

 

[Pug]

Be aware that “religion” is a word that is used in a specific way by some non-Catholics. You’d need to ask the particular one you are conversing with, but perhaps they have in mind things like
various places in Mat:

They [scribes and Pharisees] tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

Whereas Catholics often look upon religion as a box you check on a form, or as following the greatest commandment, or as this quote from James:

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. [this means JESUS]. Reassure them that Catholics do accept this concept. Turn to the CCC to demonstrate this:

432 The name “Jesus” signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of his Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is the divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke his name, for Jesus united himself to all men through his Incarnation, so that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 

[kleary]

The statement “religion doesn’t matter, you just need to know Jesus” is the biggest challenge that I have as a convert trying to lead my protestant family and friends to the Catholic Church. They even go as far to say that religion binds us while Christ sets us free.

How do you answer this?

To believe in Jesus is to believe in religion.

Ken

 

[trogiah]

Be aware that “religion” is a word that is used in a specific way by some non-Catholics. You’d need to ask the particular one you are conversing with, but perhaps they have in mind things like

Whereas Catholics often look upon religion as a box you check on a form, or as following the greatest commandment, or as this quote from James:

There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. [this means JESUS]. Reassure them that Catholics do accept this concept. Turn to the CCC to demonstrate this:

That was a very good response.

Jim