There are many books coming out about how Jesus is against religion. I am not sure I am totally there but I will say Jesus was certainly against bad religion. If Jesus started a revolution, maybe the issue today is the church needs a revolution? Jesus never came to start a new religion! When Jesus said I will build my church, he was not talking about Christianity superseding Judaism. He was talking about a new community of Israel who would be Jesus' community!
One revolution that church needs to have a conversation on is a restoration of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. We can see how this has even crept into our translations of the Bible. Lets take the book of James as an example. Can somebody explain to me why we call this the book of James when in the Greek it is clearly the Jewish name Jacob? The book of James was written by Jewish believers who met in Jewish synagogues. Every place in the Bible the word synagogue is translated synagogue except for here in the book of James.
James 2:2 in our English Bibles says "suppose a man comes into your meeting" or some translations say assembly. Why is synagogue translated this way? The influx of Gentiles over time tried to get away from their Jewish roots because of so many divergent factors, and it must of been a embarrassment for Christians to be meeting in synagogues. This is the only place in the New Testament where synagogue is translated like this where Christians often read this as the early Christians met in Christian churches or simply house churches. Maybe it is time for the church to get in touch with its Jewish roots?
(Insight came from Michael Brown, Revolution in the Church)
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