Mike Novotny - What Does God Say About "Coexist"?
"Coexist" is a very popular school of thought. What does God say about coexist? Ooh, are you familiar with the theme? Have you seen the bumper sticker? Coexist, I don't know a ton about the origins of the movement, but the word itself, they take all, like the images from the major world religions, You know, the "T" in Coexist is like the cross of Jesus Christ. And the crescent moon, I think, of Islam makes up the "C" of Coexist. And there's symbols from Judaism and from the Hindu religion.
And part of it, I think there's all these, you know, holy wars, there's been Christians on crusades in the last 2,000 years who've killed Muslims, and there's Muslim extremist who are killing Christians, and there's Hindus who kill Buddhists and Buddhists who kill Hindus and there's witch hunts even in American history where Christians were going after and drowning people who practiced kind of New Age spirituality and Wiccan religion so I think a little bit of the Coexist movement would be affirmed by the Bible, that a Christian's job isn't to go on the hunt and persecute and hate and kill people who aren't Christians. That would kind of be weird, huh?
Unfortunately, in the history of Christianity, terrible, terrible stuff like that has actually happened but God does want us to co-exist. Jesus said in Matthew 5, Jesus loved his enemies. He gave up his life for them. Jesus said we shouldn't hate people and persecute those who persecute us. Instead, we should pray for them, that they would see something really unique in Christianity. So if you have a Muslim neighbor and you're a Christian, I hope you're the best neighbor that neighbor has. We're going to coexist and we're going to live a life of patience and love. Now the one spot where maybe that school of thought would not jive with Jesus' teachings is that if by coexist we mean that all religions are equal, Jesus just couldn’t have it.
Jesus said in John 14:6, All other religions that rely on karma or on good deeds or, you know, Islam is when you die, Allah puts your good stuff here and your bad stuff here and it better be like this otherwise you're condemned. Hindu has a teaching of karma, that you do enough good works so you can escape, you know, this cycle of bad reincarnation. Buddhism has the idea of nirvana, that if you're a good enough person and clear your mind from the evils of this world, so it's all about you. And Jesus knew that was a toxic way to view God.
You would always minimize the sins that you commit, you would always think too much of the good works that you do, so instead he was insistent that the only way to actually get into the presence of God who's perfect and good is by grace, by pure gift. And so, Jesus said, "No, no, no. If you try to earn it, you don't get it. If you fall on your knees and confess your sin and reach out your hands to a merciful God, you'll get more than you ever imagined". So if coexist says that Jesus was wrong, then Jesus doesn't value coexist. But should we be tolerant and loving of our neighbors no matter what they believe? Jesus' answer would be "Absolutely".