The Coexist Movement
In order to defend the apathy of our society toward matters which are most significant (topmost being man’s relationship with our creator), it is often claimed that it doesn’t matter what you believe about God as much as it does that you believe it sincerely.
In this way, it is argued, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Atheists, and every other belief lead to the same divine reality by the person’s conviction in what they choose to believe. Contradictions between these beliefs, then, shouldn’t result in conflict. Sure, it may mean one (or both) are wrong, but being right or wrong is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter where you place your focus. Only that you’re really focused.
Focused On Wealth
Jesus addressed men in his time who were focused on material wealth. Many people throughout all of history have placed their faith in their possessions. He points out the hopelessness of such a faith.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
How fruitless a faith in one’s wealth quickly becomes. We live in a temporary world. All that we have is destroyed by time, if it isn’t taken from us first. Only in Christ do we find eternal things which are worth obtaining. The whole world that now exists is a passing thing. There is no lasting value in any of it.
Look To Christ
He then expands this concept from wealth to any other hope but faith in the true God.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Matthew 6:22-23
Our eyes are how we observe light. We don’t feel light. We can’t hear or taste it. However, if we use our eyes to look around a pitch black room or if they aren’t working properly, we have no other way of observing it. Similarly, if our focus isn’t on the light of the world or if that focus is disordered, we have no other means through which to take in the light.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
Those who follow Christ walk in light but any other way is stumbling in darkness, and how great is that darkness! There is no hope at all in any other way leading to the creator.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.”
John 14:6-7
The exclusivity of Christ is not negotiable. Either Jesus is the only way or he is not a possible way at all. Either he is the truth and everything else is false or he is a liar. The unity people want cannot be obtained by imagining every way is valid. Like our material possessions, such unity is destined for destruction.
Do not stumble in the darkness of subjectivity. Many do in all sincerity, but they are sincerely wrong. Instead, seek the one who promises he will be find by those who do.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8
