The next day, because he wanted to know for certain why he was accused by the Jews, he released him from his bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down and set him before them." Acts 22:30
We began yesterday noting that the leader of the Roman soldiers who were detaining Paul was curious, “Why are these Jewish religious leaders so angry with this man, Paul, who like them is so religious?” Last time we argued that even among the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the beliefs of each are fundamentally not the same.
This time we’ll look more broadly at the myth that there is little or no difference between religions and religious people. Who hasn’t seen the bumper sticker made of religious symbols that spells out the word: “COEXIST”?
Let me share three observations about the myth espoused by the “COEXIST” bumper stickers that all religions are the same. If the bumper sticker was correct, it would say: “CONTRADICT” instead of “COEXIST.”
First, it is ironic that many of those those who display that bumper sticker are altogether intolerant of any who do not agree with them that all religions are the same—even though the evidence proves that they are not. In fact, the notion that all religions are the same only reveals how little some people know about world religions—that are not the same.
Second, I agree that it would be nice if people from all world religions would tolerate one another and “COEXIST.” By that I mean, refrain from hate and violence against each other. Let’s face the sad fact that many people have been killed by those from one religion for believing in another religion. That is of course, horrible. The world would be a better place if people from all religions simply allowed each other to practice their religions in peace. The sad reality, however, is that by nature some religions are violently coercive.
Third, we understand that some religions, including Christianity, are by nature, “evangelistically expansionary.” That means people from some religions are committed to converting people from other religions to join theirs. But how this desire to convert others is carried out matters. Many religions are violently coercive—meaning “convert or be killed.”
Christianity is by nature fundamentally different, however. We are evangelistic, but we are never to employ coercive (much less violent) force. Instead, we are to employ persuasive reason.
As Christians we try to persuade people to believe, knowing that (a) since we cannot force anyone to believe, we must never try to, and (b) that only the Holy Spirit change a person’s heart so that they willingly believe.
And as we try to persuade people to believe, because not all will believe, we must sympathetically continue to love and pray for those who do not believe.
Next time: how all religions except Christianity have one thing in common, and how Christianity is in that one thing fundamentally different from every other religion.