Christ preached without Christianity

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer, world famous for writing books such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He came from a wealthy family. As a youth and in his successful writing career he was a "playboy", a drinker and a womanizer. He was also deeply interested in philosophy of an atheistic sort. He saw life as meaningless and pointless. He had a conversion experience in which he realized that no one could make statements about "life" in general, but only about their own life. With this insight he realized that "life" in general was not pointless or meaningless, but the life he had lived up to that point had been meaningless and pointless. This was his lightbulb moment and he turned to Christ as his saviour from his meaningless way of life. He was not a Christian in the sense of conforming to the beliefs and doctrines of Christianity. He refused to be part of the "official church organization". He believed that the whole Christian religion was based on ideas that were contrary to the message of Christ. He started his own little commune of Christ-followers. He rejected church authority and government authority. He was building his own little community of people following the teachings of Christ as he understood them. After his conversion experience he labelled all his writings that were (and are) world famous and highly praised, as rubbish. He wrote new faith based books that are lesser known after this point. Lesser known I say "literally", but the impact of such books have been known and felt through their impact in the world.

One such book was called; "The Kingdom of God is Within You". This is a book that Mahatma Gandhi read before he became a Mahatma (great soul). He was enthralled with the book, and it made a lasting impression upon him. While still living in South Africa, and after reading the book and writing letters back and forth with Tolstoy, he started up his own little commune based on Tolstoy's, and called it "Tolstoy Farm". At this "farm" Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jews, all worked towards a common goal of peaceful co-existence. Gandhi read the New Testament seriously and thought deeply about the message of Christ. He took the message very seriously and came to have faith in that message. It also caused him to state famously: "I like your Christ, but not so much your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Gandhi continued to explore the teachings of Christ and it's powerful implications for human nature and human society. These clips below are taken from the famous movie about his life:

A perfect example within this clip is how Gandhi attempts to encourage the Christian minister to put the teaching of Jesus to "turn the other cheek", into practice, and the Christian minister seeking to avoid difficulty by suggesting that the meaning was metaphorical. Gandhi doesn't accept this and insists that not only has he "thought about it a great deal", but also insists on practically trying it out. He found his experiments with the concept successful, and the more he put this teaching into practice, the more his movement and fame in India snowballed. This led to the giving of this famous speech:

What a sight! Gandhi, a Hindu, preaching the message of Christ to a mixed group of Hindus and Muslims. Not the message of Christianity, the message of Christ. What happened? These Muslims and Hindus were enthralled with this "new teaching", they were in awe of this profound concept, they took a solem oath to put this teaching into practice. And they DID put it into practice and the simple masses of the Indian people overcame the greatest empire on earth without any warfare. This had never been done before in the history of the world. And how was it done? How was this great feat accomplished? By following the teaching of Christ.

Christianity fails because it preaches CHRISTIANITY, not the teachings of Christ. Here we have a non-Christian, preaching the message of Christ and bringing about truly miraculous results.

It was not a Christian who led the movement, nor was it in any way focused on the belief system of Christianity. It was the power of God, through the message of Christ being put into practice. If people who called themselves Christians focused more on sharing and putting into practice the teachings of Christ, rather than the teachings of Christianity, they might find the world transforming before their very eyes.

One is left to ponder how Christ, through his word, effected such a positive change in the lives of millions of Hindus and Muslims without the aid of either a Christian, or Christianity. It should make a Christian wonder as to the value of their usual focus on the typical spots vs. stripes priorities, their external and superficial insistence that all humanity submit to their accumulated doctrinal baggage. Christianity must look in the mirror and renounce it's superiority complex if it wants to make a meaningful impact on the world. God does not need Christianity to accomplish his task in the world. Christ's teaching is sufficient for performing the works of God, for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Looking at the news all over the world these days, the debate rages on over who has the right to kill whom. Who is justified in their killing of others. I ask, who will take seriously the message of Christ, the methods of Christ? Who will put them into practice? Gandhi did, and look what that one man did to overcome injustice in the world?

The world will not change until we- each of us as individuals- change.