Most of us have probably seen the bumper stickers, but what is the significance of them and of each of the symbols that are used to spell out the word? Below is one representation of the concept, although one finds that variations exist. The originator of the idea is Piotr Mlodozeniec, a graphic arts designer from Poland, who first strung the symbols together.
The idea is that all human beings should be able to get along with each other since we allinhabit the same earth. Coexistence is something we all have a vested interest in but have never learned to do in thousands of years (millions, for evolutionists) of man’s history. Can a bumper sticker accomplish what diplomats have failed to achieve? Such would be highly optimistic. Al-though 98% of people may be peace-loving and tolerant, it only takes that other 2% with a desire to rule the world to keep things in a state of unrest and uncertainty. (Did someone whisper the name Putin?)
So what does each of the symbols chosen for the idea of co-existence mean? The first is a symbol of Islam, consisting of the crescent and star. This inclusion is laughable since no religious group has ever been more violent and determined to conquer than this one. From A.D. 630 to A. D. 730, Islam spread by means of force. Unlike Christianity, this religion did not spread by preaching sermons and winning the hearts and minds of people—but through violence. To this day, a significant portion of its adherents are terrorists who are willing to be killed if it means killing many others in the process. Surviving terrorists express no remorse but would do the same thing again if given a chance (as some have demonstrated). They have apparently never heard of or else rejected the second greatest commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-40). What makes Mlodozeniec think that Muslims have any desire to co-exist?
The second letter is an o with the peace symbol inside. Peace is a wonderful idea and prominent in New Testament writing, but in the world it is elusive. The e has male and female gender symbols attached to it; sometimes a scientific equation is substituted. Does this symbol imply that the battle of the sexes is over? One might think the e stands for evolution (or equality of the sexes). The star of David, representing Judaism, fills in for the x. The i is a wiccan symbol; sometimes a pentagram appears inside the i’s dot. Certainly, we could not leave out paganism. So the wiccan symbol includes all forms of it. No one wants to hurt anyone’s feelings. After all, cannibals live on this planet, too.
For the s, the Chinese symbol of yin yang was selected. According to Wikipedia, the symbol is used “to describe how opposite or contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world.” They represent in part “natural dualities,” such as good and evil, light and darkness, sweet and bitter (Isa. 5:20). Is that what the Beatles were trying to express in “Hello Good-bye” (1967-68)?
The t is a cross, which represents Christianity although what “version” of it is anyone’s guess. Does it represent Catholicism’s theology, Calvinism, or the truth taught in the New Testament? With more than 200 denominations (some estimate in the thousands), it ought to be obvious that Christian groups cannot even co-exist with each other. Everyone, it seems, has problems. Even the “co-exist” crowd cannot get along with each other. There is a lawsuit over the copyright of the co-exist symbol.
Creating the Perfect World
People were asked to comment recently on what they thought it would take to make a better world. One person suggested that it would help if everyone could see the truth; thus a truth-detecting device might be helpful. Members of the Lord’s church would love that invention, but we should not assume that it would change a great deal because it is an assumption that, if people knew the truth, it would make any difference. Who has not observed situations where people knew the truth but (because of emotion) rejected it anyway? One must have a “love of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:10) for a truth detector to do any good.
Another person suggested that everyone’s IQ be raised by 20 points over a period of a few years, but all that might produce is more intelligent stubborn people. Intelligence does not necessarily improve character. Perhaps the best suggestion was to find a way to keep people from having closed minds. Everyone would be able to understand other people’s viewpoints, but just understanding it would not compel agreement with it. Besides, it might be better not to understand the way certain individuals think.
But the suggestion pertinent to the topic of coexistence was to eliminate “the negative complications of religions.” The writer did not totally disdain religion; he knew that some elements of most of them could inspire people to be kind, caring individuals. But, he asserted, they inflict too much negative “stuff” on humanity. Hold on for a moment. First, it is inappropriate to lump all religions together. Judaism contains a set of laws that God gave for a certain people for a certain time in their history. God did not intend for them to be applied after the cross. Christianity is therefore far different in its nature and its applications. Islam practiced violence from its inception; how can these three be spoken of in general terms as if they were alike?
Second, the individual making this assessment (in this case, Ed), may not be aware of it, but he has just made himself a judge of all religions, which might be all right if they were all equally invalid and worthless. But if one of them (say, Christianity) is true, then he shall be judged by its teachings—not the other way around. We have the liberty to judge error, but when it comes to true religion, God is the One Who judges us; the Word which He has given us shall judge us in the last day (John 12:48).
The only way to approach religion in general is to establish which, if any, have evidence to back up the truth of its claims. Christianity does via its fulfilled prophecies and teachings, which were backed up by miracles (John 20:30-31; Heb. 2:1-4; et al.). What other religion possesses such a great number of prophecies—if it has any at all? Was someone else besides Jesus raised from the dead—in fulfillment of prophecy and with several eyewitnesses? Does any book besides the Bible provide genuine hope for those who love God? Christianity stands as unique.
Fear, Ignorance, Intolerance
Mr. Ed laments the fear, ignorance, and intolerance that “religions” breed. Every religion must plead guilty for propagating fear. It is generated by the very existence of God; a Being powerful enough to create the universe ought to inspire fear and awe in all of us. A self-sufficient atheist might be smug enough to be fearful of nothing, but such an attitude is scarcely realistic. It cannot deal adequately with the hardships and setbacks of life—let alone death. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Pr. 1:7).
Furthermore, those who despise and reject God will not enjoy the consequences of their actions. Even unfaithful Christians are warned: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). Yes, God did create us, and we are obligated to do His will. If we choose not to do so, we must be prepared to face the consequences. However, no one need fear Christians on earth. We are not enforcers; we are encouragers—for people to obey Him. God did not tell us to persecute and put to death those who disobey Him. Our task is to love all—including the enemies of God. He loves them and gives them multiple opportunities to repent. Christians would not take away that possibility even if we could. No one ever needs to fear a true follower of Jesus.
Biblical Christianity stands totally opposed to ignorance. We strongly desire that all be knowledgeable and have access to the truth. Ignorance destroys people politically, socially, and especially spiritually (Hosea 4:6). Some who call themselves Christian thrive on keeping their followers in ignorance. They discourage reading the Bible for themselves; they all but forbid them to read history; or they tell them to use their hearts and not their minds. God is the one, however, who told His people to reason with Him (Isa. 1:18). Christians promote reason, logic, critical thinking, and rational thought; ignorance is an enemy of truth.
God is holy, holy, holy (Isa. 6:3) and does not fellowship sin. Does that make Him intolerant? Perhaps. When those who love sin create their own universe, they can be intolerant toward righteousness. But for now, because God loves us, He tells us the difference between the two. Once again, however, Christians have no authority to punish sinners. We neither arrest nor imprison the ungodly. Christians have a responsibility to treat all men with love and kindness; we cannot, however, participate in wrongdoing.
Ed accuses “religions” of practicing hatred and violence against those who don’t share their beliefs. That may be true of Islam, but it is not the case for Christianity, which charges its adherents to love one another (Matt. 22:39). God is benevolent, having created a universe that was “very good” initially. Violence is inconsistent with His character; in fact it was the violence of those who rejected God that led to the worldwide flood as judgment (Gen. 6:5).
Differences
Does Christianity emphasize the differences in people instead of their similarities? Mr. Ed so accuses religions of doing so, but before we look at his example, we ought to consider the charge in general. The Bible in some ways puts every human being in the same category: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10); “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 2:23); “For the wages of sin is death…” (Rom. 6:23). “For God so loved the world…” (John 3: 16). Yes, we have all sinned. We are all in the same category. We all stand condemned as sinners before a holy God, and we are all in need of salvation. How’s that for unity and togetherness?
The good news is that all can have forgiveness of sins. The gospel invites everyone to be cleansed of sin and to become part of the everlasting kingdom that God has prepared for those who love Him. No one can be excluded from this offer. Since it includes the promise of eternal life, why would anyone reject it? We all chose to sin, and we can all choose to be saved. All who obey the gospel find themselves united—not divided. However, the fact is that all do not appreciate righteousness and do not accept the offer of salvation. Is that the fault of God or the Christian religion? No. If we are divided, then, the reason is that people often make awful choices.
The author of this would-be improver of all mankind concludes by providing examples of what he specifically meant in this last point. As proof he cites “the Shiites versus the Sunnis versus the Jews versus the Christians versus the Scientologists, etc.” Okay. How open-minded are the Shiites and the Sunnis? Are they taught to consider Christianity as a viable option? No, they are taught the Qur’an, and in many of their countries the Bible is banned—along with Christianity. One can be thrown in prison or expelled from some Muslim countries for even talking about the Bible or Jesus. They have been taught to hate Christians and Jews.
Jews are generally not hostile to other religious groups unless they are attacked. Do they persecute Christians? It may have occurred in isolated incidents, just as some alleged “Christians” in time past have looked down on the Jews, but today that attitude does not appear to be common. In fact, many Christians have an affinity for them because they were once God’s chosen people. Even though our beliefs conflict with each other, we share no mutual hostility.
We would have no problems with Muslims, either, if they were content to co-exist, but peace is not the nature of the religion. In short, Christians do not hate or persecute anyone, although in the Middle Ages those posing as Christians did so. They tortured and put men and women to death, but they could not justify their actions if they had a million years to do so. They acted totally contrary to what the Bible teaches and, in fact, were probably ignorant of what it does teach. Christians love all mankind—even their enemies.
Divisions
Although divisions need not exist, Mr. Ed is correct in observing that they do. They always will as long as human beings remain human. Divisions do not imply that human beings cannot get along. If everyone possessed the outlook that Christians (as defined in the Bible have), the entire world could be harmonious—within limits. Obviously, if some pagan group wanted to offer up their children as human sacrifices, we (and presumably) all others would oppose that action. We have such things as Jessica’s Law (except for five states) to protect children because the vast majority of people believe some acts are so heinous that they must not be allowed.
By the way, Muslims do not share that perspective about children. 40-year-old men are allowed to marry little girls. According to the Orlando Sentinel of September 11, 2013, “An 8-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age…” (A4). This is criminal. He is worthy of the death penalty, and the Muslim society that allows men to legally behave in this manner ought to be ashamed and change it laws immediately! This outrage should not be tolerated by any decent society, and Mr. Ed will just have to pardon the rest of us who are not willing to co-exist when it comes to matters such as sexual abuse involving children. Wedding night, indeed! Why haven’t the TV media picked up this story and lamented it? If only they had as much indignation for an innocent child as they do for Sandra Fluck possibly not having the government pay for her birth control pills! Some division between human beings (and the term is used loosely of that Yemeni monster) is necessary.
While Mr. Ed fantasizes about a perfect world, the fact is that many religions and false concepts do exist in the world. For that reason Christians do challenge other belief systems and the various divisions within so-called “Christendom.” How else will people come to an understanding of the truth? Faced with the current divisions we see around us, we have two alternatives. The first one is to keep quiet and say nothing—and that is what we all should do if we believe that all the options are equally valid or equally false. The second option is, having discovered what the truth is, to share it, which is what all Christians ought to do. We do not accomplish that goal, however, at the point of a gun (or a scimitar).
Ideally, Christians could live in a climate that allows tolerance for different views (when they do not threaten people’s lives). But all should have the freedom to show others the only place that has the answers for mankind.