can you be a christian without being spiritual?

Question

i mean can someone believe all that nonsense and go through the motions and not have a hint of spitiuality and still be a christian. just blindly follow without rhyme or reason what they have been taught from an early age.

Answer 1

Yes.....they are 2 different things.

I'm very spiritual and I'm an Atheist.

Answer 2

You can have the values of religion, all of them , and still be considered a Christian. Christian = Christ's teachings = Christ's values. Every belief has has that. What you are talking about are church dogma, church rituals, church customs.The two don't necessarily compliment each other. Churches cloak the teachings, values, with their own 'brand' of rituals, to claim that they are the "true church". No such thing, but if you wish, you can claim any one church , or the church you go to , "The true church". I won't argue with you on that one.LOL

You have been told often enough that 2 plus 2 = 4. At age 60, would you then deny it? " Learning by rote " is an accepted method of brain washing , or forcing or re-inforcing belief. Nothing wrong with it . Its used by parents, teachers, law makers and cops, ministers and anyone who is or thinks he is , above someone ,in some way. It seems to work, and has worked for thousands of years.

As long as you question anything and everything , find out the whys and whatfores, I think you are probably a good person, at heart. Its a matter of making a comfortable, and right decision for yourself.

Answer 3

Yes. It's called tradition. I knew a pastor once who said he used to be a Baptist then got born again. He was a pastor for years before realizing he had never truly been saved. He was just going through the motions of a lifestyle he had grown up in. Lots of evil people go to church for the sake of appearances, as well.

I know the owner of one nursing home with over 4,000 pages of various abuses (as well as more that couldn't be proven, though known). She goes to church regularly and talks all the time about how she couldn't survive w/o the Lord. Dresses modestly. Yet she starves her patients, 1 was believed to be raped by her hubby, several were tied down and/or beaten, their money stolen, etc. She's always telling others how she tries to help so many poor old women& their relatives tell lies on her because they can't steal their money while she's taking care of them. She charges them $10. a month each for toilet paper and gives one $5. a month if she rakes all the leaves in the yard or cleans the home. By law she's supposed to give them $40. a month and not work them.

Living in a town with churches practically every block if you don't go through the motions your business will never get off ground and not likely to get a good paying job.

Plus there's a dr. here that's Syrian Christian. Not because he's saved but because the area in Syria his dad grew up was christian as opposed to muslim. Not really religious.

Religion is man's efforts to reach and/or use God for gain (both bad & good). But someone who has a personal relationship with the Lord (prayer, personal Bible study, trust, faith) is going to automatically be spiritual even when the Lord isn't being discussed. You just know something is different.

But as far as religion goes you can be christian w/o being spiritual. Same goes for any religion or tradition. I think there are going to be alot of surprises as to who's there when we get to heaven.

Answer 4

No. True Christianity isn't just about going through the motions. It's not even about saying a prayer of salvation. To be a true Christian requires faith, and this is only given by the Holy Spirit.

Read John 3:3-7
Towards the end it says,
" That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, You must be born again"

To be a Christian means to be a disciple of Christ. A disciple is a learner of who Christ is, he believes that Christ is God. He makes it his life work to know and serve Him. You can't possibly truly do any of this just by going through the motions. You have to have a sincere heart.

People go to Church all the time, read the bible all the time, but it's sad to say that their spiritual life is well....pretty much non-existent

Answer 5

Absolutely. They're called Baptists....

Just kidding!! I know some very spiritual Baptists (and they give me a hard time for being a liberal Anglican, but we're all ecumenical, really).

In his book Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences psychologist Abraham Maslow argued that in religion there are two broad types of consciousness - mystics and ecclesiastics. Ecclesiastics perceive religion as literal and its practice is about following rules and traditions, etc. hose folks tend to marginalize mystics, if not outright burn them at the stake. It is my belief that such people may go their entire lives without experiencing the spiritual ni any sense beyond the peak experience of the personal gratification of alleviating one's fear of non-existence.

Mystics, on the other hand, are primarily rooted in the spiruitual experience and the literal and practical elements of their religion are almost afterthoughts. The religion is always taken with a grain of salt because the mystic is acutely aware of their own finite ability to understand or name what is ultimately beyond all rational understanding and language.

Incidentally, the postmodern situation of rejectnig our childhood religions because they seem far-fetched and instead thinking all we need to do is be good to others (people who often call themselves spiritual but not religious) signals a consciousness shift, in my mind - humanity is becoming more mystic and less ecclesiastic. Which is wonderful in the sense that fundamentalism will become more and more marginalized. It is bad, on the other hand, in the sense that these time-tested religions do often work to connect people to God and this DIY religion of being a good person fails to support community and therefore charity, support, security, love, etc like a religion does. It is my hope that these two strains can in the end be reconciled to one another.

Answer 6

no , you can not be a true Christian unless YOU believe and know why you believe in Christ (Christian means Christ in Us)* and we are warned not to just follow blindly, but to search the scriptures to make sure it is really God's will as he sets out in the Bible* not some man made up "church" which has no basis on God's teachings but mans*

Answer 7

Yes, but it's called "carnal" christian: childish, divisional.
For there is no consensus among the carnal christians.
Those first called christian at Antioch were the likes of:
- Saul, of Saul-->Paul, who approved of killing Stephen.
- Peter, called Satan, but also told he'd get converted.
- Barnabas, got carried away by Peter's dissimulation.
They were obviously not in agreement: Galatians 2:11.

So the "higher" exhortation is "be no more children",
get "tossed to and fro" by winds(spirits) of doctrine.

Law is spiritual, but legalism is spiritual abuse.
Grace is spiritual, and it's never ever abusive.
Comparing spiritual things(laws) with spiritual(grace):

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 8

yes BUT that is only if you see "christian" as a title and not as a way of life. to be christian means to be christ-like. Jesus was very spiritual, so being christian and spiritual go hand in hand. Maybe you are searching to find true christians who worship God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. If that is so please visit www.watchtower.org or any local kingdom hall of jehovah's witnesses

Answer 9

You cannot understand spiritual things unless you are born of the Spirit. The Spirit of God gives supernatural awareness of spiritual realities.
I was once spiritually dead - separated from God by my sins - then one day when I least expected it God caused me to be born again through faith in the Name of Jesus.

"Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' "

John 3:3-7

Answer 10

I like that definition of RELIGIOUS. Practicing hollow man made traditions, repetitive prayer, and worshiping graven images. Its a far cry from having relationship with God through Christ, and I think thats why so many raised in the Catholic church fall away as they become adults.

Answer 11

Yes, look at the children who are born to the extremists, they just do as they are taught, even if it means killing themselves and others. Unfortunately most in religions, those that are to the extreme, do not allow their children to think on their own, or allow them to see other views. They only allow their beliefs to penetrate their children's lives. So when that is all you know, that is all you will ever know until hopefully as an adult you can branch out from that particular line of thinking. My sister is Jehovah Witness and her children can see no other way of thinking, even when confronted with facts that prove their belief inaccurate or irrational. One of her children dumped his fiance because she still wanted to celebrate Christmas even if he didn't participate. She wanted to have tree and decorations, so he dumped her.