Christianity is not Religion:
We talking about two different things: Christianity and Religion. Most people still have not realized that Christianity and religion are different. Christianity knows no religion. There are no “denominations of Christianity”, these groups are religions. But, people will say “Chistianity is religion”, everybody told me so. It seem so obvious, that Christianity is religion. “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck ... but: Whales look like fish. Whales are not fish, as we know ... Whales are mammals, just like you and me ... Christianity is living a Christ centered life.
Religion is man made legalism. Religion and Christianity are as different as night and day. For many, the word “religion” conjures images of priests, rites, liturgy, rules, legalism, dogma, and institutions- that, according to Western history, are responsible for racial inequalities, wars, bigotry, hatred, and exploitation of the populace through superstition and fear. With good reason! Christianity is not about ornate buildings, flamboyant preachers, or traditional rituals.
Historically the clearest line between religion and Christianity is drawn by the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth. In his voluminous Church Dogmatics, Barth wrote that "The revelation of God is the abolition of religion." "It is always the sign of definite misunderstanding when an attempt is made to systematically coordinate revelation and religion ... to fix their mutual relationship." "In opposition to all "religionism" the proclamation of the grace of God is introduced as the truth..." "Religion is unbelief. It is a concern of ... godless man." "Religion is clearly seen to be a human attempt to anticipate what God in His revelation wills to do and does do. It is the attempted replacement of the divine work by a human manufacture." "It is a feeble but defiant, an arrogant but hopeless, attempt to create something which man could do. In religion man bolts and bars himself against revelation by providing a substitute, by taking away in advance the very thing which has to be given by God. It is never the truth. It is a complete fiction, which has not only little but no relation to God."
The first officially accepted so-called “Christian denomination” was the Orthodox church, later on Catholicism split from it forming its own hierarchy of clergy. A later attempt to reform the then active Christian church dogma was Protestantism, with its various modern variations. These are both religions. Christianity is not.