Bill O’Reilly: ‘Christianity is Not a Religion; It’s a Philosophy’

[Joel]

[skmo]

And he's correct. Christianity is too broad to be confined to a specific religion. Christianity commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ (at the wrong time of year, but so what-we're remembering it.) Jesus is an important historical figure beyond the religious aspect of His life. The Muslims recognize Jesus as an important figure. The Jews, for the most part recognize Jesus, not as the Messiah, but they recognize Him as an important teacher. All of the different Christian denominations recognize Christ as an important, even a central figure of their beliefs. Even atheists agree he lived and for the most part agree He had some great teachings. I have no problem with saying recognition of Christ geos beyond just one religion.

The name of our church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but the Baptists and the Lutherans are adamant that we are NOT Christians. I have a friend who is an ordained Lutheran minister, he and I have had some very in-depth discussions about this point in which neither of us swayed the other with our words. He's a good man and I'm glad to call him my friend, but the fact remains that he insists the LDS people are not Christians.

[freedomforall]

1 Nephi 14:10
10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.

Who and what is the "whore"?

Rev. 17:15 (5, 15)
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

D&C 88:94
94 And another angel shall sound his trump, saying: That great church, the mother of abominations, that made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, that persecuteth the saints of God, that shed their blood—she who sitteth upon many waters, and upon the islands of the sea—behold, she is the tares of the earth; she is bound in bundles; her bands are made strong, no man can loose them; therefore, she is ready to be burned. And he shall sound his trump both long and loud, and all nations shall hear it.

1 Ne. 22:23
23 For the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet.

Again, who are the members of the "whore"?

2 Nephi 10:16
6 Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against me, saith our God.

The chuirch of the Lamb:

1 Nephi 14:12
12 And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw.

3 Ne. 14:14 (Matt. 7:14)
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

[captainfearnot]

Does your philosophy posit the existence of a god? Does your philosophy espouse the worship of said god? Congratulations, your philosophy is a religion.

(Now if he wanted to claim that Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a religion, I could maybe get on board. It doesn't really fit neatly into either category, to be honest, but at least there is something to argue about there.)

Of course, we understand what O'Reilly is trying to do. "Religion" has come to carry a negative connotation. It implies unthinking fealty and blind obedience. So the culture warriors on the right love to slap the label on their enemies, resulting in absurd claims like atheism is a religion, science is a religion, humanism is a religion, etc. In doing so they must distance themselves from the label, so we get "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship," and the like. That's a fun game to play and all, but in the real world where words have meanings, it's not very useful.

[Original_Intent]

Bill O Reilly is a dumb donkey.

[skmo]

1 Nephi 14:10
...

Who and what is the "whore"?

Rev. 17:15
...
D&C 88:94
...

1 Ne. 22:23
...

Again, who are the members of the "whore"?

2 Nephi 10:16
...

The chuirch of the Lamb:

1 Nephi 14:12
...

3 Ne. 14:14 (Matt. 7:14)
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Great scriptures, what's your point on this topic?

I agreed with the idiotbox yapper on this one. Most Christians worship Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God. However, in addition to being the Savior, Jesus had the best teachings of how to live a good life out of anyone or everyone else. I have met some New Age types who accept Jesus' words as a great philosophy yet they reject belief in His divinity. It doesn't diminish His place of worship for those who believe, but there are some who accept Him as a philosopher without religious attachment.

Even amongst Christian churches there is a huge disparity of beliefs. The Church of Christ worships a very different version, belief, standard of Jesus than we do in the LDS Church. Some Christian churches believe that only when Christ was on the earth did He have any physical form, that it wasn't really God but just a manifestation of Him for other people to see, and when He left the earth He once again no longer had any physical form, that He went back to being everything and nothing at the same time, a being so great and yet so miniscule that our minds can't conceive it . That's DEFINITELY a different belief than we have.

[freedomforall]

Great scriptures, what's your point on this topic?

I agreed with the idiotbox yapper on this one. Most Christians worship Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God. However, in addition to being the Savior, Jesus had the best teachings of how to live a good life out of anyone or everyone else. I have met some New Age types who accept Jesus' words as a great philosophy yet they reject belief in His divinity. It doesn't diminish His place of worship for those who believe, but there are some who accept Him as a philosopher without religious attachment.

Even amongst Christian churches there is a huge disparity of beliefs. The Church of Christ worships a very different version, belief, standard of Jesus than we do in the LDS Church. Some Christian churches believe that only when Christ was on the earth did He have any physical form, that it wasn't really God but just a manifestation of Him for other people to see, and when He left the earth He once again no longer had any physical form, that He went back to being everything and nothing at the same time, a being so great and yet so miniscule that our minds can't conceive it . That's DEFINITELY a different belief than we have.

The fact that there are so many sects and the way they act, believe and practice or not practice Christ-like attributes, brought to mind the scriptures I posted.
The bottom line is that either people are for Christ or against him at some measure. So what Christ could be saying is "either you learn of me and do as I teach you"...or "otherwise, I know you not". We're either "for" Christ or "against" Christ by the way we conduct ourselves. Christ does not or will not allow men and women into the Father's kingdom whose mind and body haven't been changed and able to abide such glory. Thus...two churches.

1 Nephi 14:10
10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.

So it's obvious that people of all faiths are not necessarily under Christ's all powerful eye. In fact, in D&C 76 we read that the number of people in the Telestial kingdom is so great that the quantity is as innumerable as the sand on the seashore.

109 But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore;

Matt. 7:13
13 ¶Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

For those who acknowledge Christ, yet live their life as a carnal person, they may be a part of that overcrowd. This is not to say that there aren't many fine, people doing their best to live a Christ-like life. We only see the outer man, God looks upon the heart. Which, to me, implies that many good people will be blessed with higher glory than those living in mediocrity. And it also implies that many LDS will not be going where they think they're going due to their hearts not really being into the requirements.

I think this is a perfect example of God not being a respecter of persons. LDS's do not have a monopoly on being the first chosen for high glory.

James gives us a perfect explanation of what true religion is:

James 1:27
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

So those that are not unspotted from the world...well, you decide.

I think this is in line with the OP.