Could Spirituality with no religion be the "Anti-Christ"?

Question

I was reading an article about spirituality vs. religion and it was very opposed to the "spiritual but not religious" phrase.

The writer expressed concerned that the "new" spiritual view leaves out the importance of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins. And that we dont need a savior because we can save ourselves. Hence, Anti-Christ. That there is no sin that we need to be saved from.

Primarily their main point was that an Atheist can be spiritual, but that will not save your soul.

I could understand why one would come to this conclusion. What do you think about this?

Answer 1

in that sense you can say that spirituality without religion ( i don't think such a thing exists... but ....) is not anti-Christ but it is anti-(the idea that we can not be saved on our own, and that we need a higher power to descend and save us.) in other words we don't climb up, the higher power comes down to our level and picks us up. because it is not only Christianity who preaches that. many other religions preach that too. Some Christians may be rigid about the blood of Jesus though. and that is what you must question. If Lord Jesus Christ is a pure devotee of God, does God need the blood of his pure devotee to wash other people's sin with? if God is all powerful does he NEED anything at all? God can not purify you and i (or as you put it save us) without the blood of Lord Jesus? if God is God, i say he can. and believing in this is not at all to minimize Lord Jesus's messages.

Answer 2

No. In fact I think the only way that Jesus is "returning" is in "spirit" of people who let go of religion and god belief and discover deeper morality. It can only be taken seriously as a metaphor. The same is true of "spiritual salvation". When everyone is a "christ" or "anointed one" unto themselves, the world will be a far more peaceful place. There is no hokey magic land called heaven. There is no nasty creepy hell. Those are myths. To lead an examined life without such silly and selfish concerns like "Will this get me a reward in heaven." is really the only path to any kind of enlightenment. Jesus can make a great model for this sort of spirituality, if that suits you. So can Buddha. But neither is necessary to the process. You can discover it on your own.

Answer 3

I can understand why spirituality to Christian fundamentalism would be considered atheistic and anti-Christian, because fundies aren't spiritual but political, and politics basically forces people to do what a dominating group of people want you to do, like pay taxes, or they threaten you with being locked up. So someone who is spiritual, like a yogi, in search of God, would come in conflict with the church's authority, even if the yogi knew more about the spirit than the church.



However, seekers of God aren't atheist or against Christ. Atheists believe that God doesn't exists. spiritual seekers of God obviously do, they just don't have a belief, except that there is a Truth that transcends normal consciousness. Belief is actually an impediment to finding God, and has to be dropped if someone truly loves God and wants to actually know Him

Answer 4

My dear precious Jewel...



Well...if that's the case...then...I must be the "Anti-Christ"-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- because I am dan sure a spiritual person....yet do not "practice ANY religion" at all !!!



Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to believe.

Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)





Nor....can I go along with such a concept of "a sin to be saved from " !!! WHAT "sin"???? Sorry, but I just do not go along with such a deceptive concept which produces "fear" and frightfulness into people ! That's plain ridiculous to me !



I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. Wishing you all the best for the future and send you all my love*

Answer 5

It's the old EITHER / OR thing again.



You know the old Law vs. Grace - Faith vs. Works - which one is most important for being a Christianity?



Which is more important spirituality or religion?



The answer becomes more obvious if one were receptive of the idea of one being just as important, essential and required as the other.



You cannot be saved by keeping the Law. You cannot be saved by works "Save by grace and not by works lest no man should boast" the law being binding and restrictive as well. And there's liberty and freedom in Grace. But there's also the liberty of the law. Confusing.



To drive home a point one of the next verses says "should we then disobey the law? God forbid!!"



Another verse points out "Faith without works is dead"



And on.. and on.. and on.



AGAIN.... The answer becomes more obvious AND LESS CONFUSING if one were receptive of the idea of one being just as important, essential and required as the other.





So it is with the old argument of religion vs. spirituality.



Religion serves to regulate and provide structure to your spirtuality.



Spirtuality without religion seems to point at a lawless type of thing.

Religion without spirituality seems to point at an ungraceful, unmerciful thing.





On the question of Christ's resurrection - the entire Christian faith is built upon and hinges on Christ's resurrection because if he did not... it's all in vain.



As a christian or non-christian you kind of get the gist that CHRIST-ian is bast upon Christs' promises concerning His death and resurrection and consequently our own resurrection as He is the Lord of the Resurrection.. indeed the Lord of Life.



Hence.. no other name given to men whereby we might be saved.



I'm assuming you already know all these verses and know where they can be found.



The writer of the artickle was right concerning the antichrist is one who denies the divinity of Jesus. I think that you would have to concur that subscribing to some religion where the divinity of Christ is not important, minimized, discredited or otherwise denied fits that description of it being a religion AGAINST Christ - an antichristian religion.



It is worth considering that the word antichrist is not used one time in Revelations or the Book of Daniel - each containing endtime prophecies.



The anitchrist spirit - attitude - mindset - philosophy is alive and well right now and has been for quite sometime. The cruxifiction of Christ was definitely and inarguably ANTI Him.



Assuming you have scriptural knowledge and can look up the verse I quoted above, I am going to list the 4 verse containing the word antichrist - one who denies that Christ is the Son of the Living God.



The following scriptures concern the things I have just pointed out.





1 John 2:18

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, EVEN NOW are there many ANTICHRISTS; whereby we know that it is the last time.

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1 John 2:22

Who is a liar but HE THAT DENIETH THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

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1 John 4:3

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

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2 John 1:7

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

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There is a huge difference between the antichrist that everybody is looking for to come in the future and is not even mentioned in Revelations - and the beast who is the boogyman. We can't get them confused. For if God is not the author of confusion - where does it come from?



1 Corinthians 14:32-33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.



My Final answer:

Don't get caught up (confused) in those either / or arguments when most people (even you) can point to both as being valid and viable - it's probably BOTH that are equally necessary. One can't have spirituality w/o religion or religion w/o spirituality. We have to have a religion in which provides rules to govern our spirituality



One is lawless (by itself) and the other is unforgiving (when practiced by itself)

Answer 6

Too many contradictions. An atheist does not believe in anything supernatural which is what the spirit realm is. We can be spiritual and have a relationship with Jesus but not have a religion, remember religions are man made, Jesus never taught religion.

Answer 7

An atheist doesn't believe in soul, why he/she needs Jesus to save his/her soul.

Heaven or hell exists in this world. Let us use our knowledge to make this world become heaven for every body. Science, knowledge and altruism can change the world without arguing about whose religion is absolutely right.

Atheism is inherent in altruism, logic and science.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

A wide response of answers here!..Good question..



We are not the physical body we see in our mirror, but the spiritual being within which animates that spiritual body..Thus we ARE spiritual whether we like it or not!..The spiritual being we are is a tiny aspect of God energy which can never die, even though our body eventually does..God is not a man in the sky but Divine Consciousness which is within all beings and all things..



Our Soul is pure God energy, making us Children of God, made in God*s image!..Thus we always have two *voices* within when faced with an action or decisional choice, one coming from our spiritual loving God-self within and the other from our separate 3D physical human brain/ego which is strongly connected with 3D Earth and the world around us..



So as we live our lives we create a frequency or energy within us which reflects the degree of loving we live our lives with, and at death, the separation of our physical shell and real self, spiritual us naturally gravitates to that level in the world of Spirit, or Heaven, which equates to our frequency level of God/Love/Light expression..There is no judgement, save later when we ourselves are shown our lives in detail and realize how well or otherwise we have done, but that only happens when we have let go the ego which, while on Earth, often prevents us from seeing our truth selves as we really are..



So yes, WE, are our saviours, for as we live our lives 24/7 we are literally creating the quality of our future day by day..



I love the Being that Jesus was and endeavour to live as he did (according to what we are told, some of which I do doubt as the Bible has been so extensively altered, subtracted from and added to over the centuries) but see him as an *older Brother*, an example, someone who came to show the way of God, which is unconditional LOVE and FORGIVENESS without limit..



Religion often teaches the very opposite of Love which is fear, for people in fear tend to do as they are told, and the collective church of old always desired total power over the people, even murdering those who dared to disagree with their teachings!..Great Love indeed and, patently, the very opposite of what God stands for..



I*m not referring to the billions of people within the church of course, the vast majority of whom are genunie and loving, but the organizational heirachies and teachings of the church which still constantly threaten and judge people even now, although they are no longer allowed to kill people for not believing, and substitute that with ridicule and fearfull threats about the life hereafter, which I, as a medium, KNOW are not correct..

Answer 10

No, if you know scriptures properly you can decipher revelation easily.

The anti Christ/beast arises from the abyss, where he was bound by god

(SEE the book of Enoch that jesus quoted from churchers)

His name is Azazel

He is the one who is the counterfeit (anti) Christ

Actions can be the same as the anti christ,

A counterfeit religion as the church is right now.

Having a form of godliness but denying the power...

Talking about jesus, but not following his teachings

Matth 5

teach and keep the law!

Chris T

Answer 11

Religion with no spirituality is mere waste of time. It is surely anti-God for it only begets ego.

Answer 12

the bible teaches that the anti-christ will be one man, a charismatic leader. but i definitely agree 100% with the article! if people don't see their disease, they don't believe there's anything to be saved from. they think they can save themselves, or worse-- that they don't need saving at all. being "spiritual, not religious" is the new cool thing, but it leads to death. as christians our job is to lovingly show the world that we are ALL sinners, and get them to see christ's cross as a legal transaction which paid our fine.



great article... where did you read it?

Answer 13

The underlying arrogance is astonishing here, the belief that there is no spirituality except through Jesus. I can't imagine how it feels to be locked into such a one-eyed worldview.

Answer 14

The problem with designating any thing -- as opposed to person -- as the Antichrist is what happens in due course about the death and resurrection of the Antichrist? I believe that we are looking to an individual -- and that individual is among us now.

Answer 15

I think the AntiChrist would be one who claims to be Christ, but goes against many things Christ stands for. That's all I can say, because I can't really formulate my decision.

Answer 16

i consider myself atheist, and i just never really understand why anyone should have died for MY sins, why would someone else dying mean anything for billions of other peoples sins?



what about all the other people who have died for someone else? no one remembers them for thousands of years. i just think its silly.



i also never understand why god basically denies people entry, and they have to go to hell, because it seems to me that since satan used to be an angel and he got sick of god and decided to make his own hang out spot, shouldn't he be the one denying access?



i just think its silly that christians believe god created man in his image but he only likes some of us lol. that's dumb. personally i hope i get a ticket to hell, i think it would be more fun there lol



(i dont actually believe in hell or heaven... im just mocking)

Answer 17

It a good example of Christians demonizing what they don't understand. It happens all the time.

Answer 18

Without Jesus, you die with your sins (separation from God) since there is no forgiveness of sins unless we accept the blood of Jesus.



The only place left is hell.



We need Jesus - he is the life and resurrection!

Answer 19

Sounds like your typical religious nutjob trying to push his beliefs on others.