You may hear people throw around the term "Unity in Diversity." The idea behind this is that everyone should accept everyone else just as they are and not try to change them. Used in the religious sense, one might hear, "We're all going to heaven, we're just getting there by different roads".
We see it in our schools, in our television shows, and from our politicians. In their minds, anyone who would presume to try to change someone else is arrogant, intolerant and unloving.
Jesus proclaimed, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me". (John 14:6). There is only one way for anyone to get to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ. Those who follow anyone besides Christ will not make it to heaven.
This principle is true for all men everywhere and not just for those who live in countries where "Christianity" is the major religion.
It says that we should try to get people to change their lives in order to get in line with what God desires of them, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20).
To do any less would be a disservice to them and to God. Many feel that it is unloving to try to change someone. The very opposite is the case when it comes to Christianity. Those who love God and their neighbor, will try to convert that neighbor.
The Bible also teaches that we should all teach the same doctrine and be united in spirit and in purpose, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." (1 Corinthians 1:10).
One of the major stumbling blocks for many people is the fact that there are so many different groups of people who call themselves Christian and yet teach different doctrine; all the while claiming "Unity in diversity"! Jesus said that the world would believe that God had sent Him if His followers were united (John 17:21).
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-- Ralph Price --
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