The Position of the Bible on Freedom

Using freedom of choice in the Bible for selfish motives ends up in spiritual death (Genesis 2:17 and 3:3) and the loss of unity and peace. God showed Adam, the first man on the earth, what was good and what was evil. He pleaded with Adam to take His advice and use his freedom of choice in a way so as to not fall into evil temptation and lose his freedom as a result. Adam ignored God’s advice and was deceived by an alternative thought. We know the rest of the story of how Adam and his wife Eve were tempted by a new idea without evaluating its consequences and subsequently they lost their intimate fellowship with God and with one another.  The new idea should have helped them to enjoy a continuing healthy unity if it was right, but it wasn’t. 

The new idea came from Satan, anti-God or anti-Christ, according to the Christian doctrine. This anti-God is the god of disunity who injects lies into the human mind by tempting people to think that they are each eligible to do everything they desire without thinking about the rights of others. He twists the doctrine of pure freedom by adding to it some selfish or unknown things in order to make people self-centered and to create disunity among them all for his domination. The central mission of God is also to wake people up to the schemes of Satan and provide the way of salvation for them. Since God Himself is free by nature and respects freedom of choice, He therefore has no other way than to plead with people to enter a dialogue with Him, allow Him to reveal the truth to them and free them from the atrocities of self-centeredness.

We see that both God and anti-God speak about freedom. But their definitions of and approaches to freedom are different. It takes an heroic effort to distinguish the difference between these two tactics. Let me give you a few contemporary examples to see where God and Satan have been trying to take us.

The establishment of political atheism in the 20^th century shifted many people’s attention from Christianity to the formation of Communism, the arrangement of a social organization which was supposed to free people, mainly the working class, from any discrimination or exploitation so that they could have access to all things equally. Theoretically this looked convincing and attractive since it aimed to free people from bias and the misuse of power and to provide everything for everyone. However, soon after the institutionalization of Communism in some countries, everything, including freedom, took on a new definition and became subject to the power of the central government. As a result, people were only allowed to speak or act in accordance with whatever the dominant Communist government espoused. Therefore, the desire for equal social, political and economic justice ended up in another version of dictatorship which restricted freedom in numerous ways to house favoritism, mistreatment and misuse of power. Later on, millions of people were killed by Communist governments simply because they questioned the authenticity of Communism. 

Likewise, in the West, because of the influence of Post Modernism, many Western politicians have adopted a different kind of social construct which has fueled the growth of relativism and skepticism, especially towards Judeo-Christian beliefs and, in particular, the freedom that is central to the Gospel and the purpose of Jesus coming to earth. This trend has led Western societies to a place where they now put their hope in unsustainable notions like multiculturalism and/or pluralism. These ideas are full of fantasy. They are, in fact, an enemy to true unity that can only be found in the transformed life that Jesus opens up for us.

A third reason for the limitation on freedom is that the church in the West has not been discerning enough or courageously vocal enough in evaluating secular ideas about freedom and defending authentic, Biblical freedom. Negative views broadcast about Christianity have led many to reject the Bible without any personal knowledge about its true position of freedom. Now, there are many prominent leftist elites whose criticism about the Bible via YouTube are sadly indications of their illiteracy about the teachings of the Bible. Imagine the enormity of these scholars’ negative impact on people, especially on the young generation of our time who are not interested in personal investigation. The church is called to teach the manifold wisdom of God to the world (Ephesians 3:10), but most evangelical churches have fallen short in revealing the manifold wisdom of God to their own congregations. Churches mainly speak about a few parts of God’s wisdom such as prayer, unconditional love and salvation or spiritual freedom. Other significant parts of God’s wisdom are not taught so that people can learn to defend their true freedom in God with convincing reasons against the bogus freedom that has confused many in every way and created enemies of the church.

Biblical freedom does not only include the spiritual realm, but every aspect of life on earth. In its first pages, the Bible teaches us the significance of using our freedom of choice in a way to establish a unified society (the first family on earth).  Adam used his discerning power, named animals each according to their instinct and evaluated whether he would be able to establish a unified and free society with animals. He discovered that he wouldn’t be able to do so. Adam was convinced that none of the animals he named would become a suitable companion for him or have an intimate fellowship with him for a long-lasting unity. Animals have no creativity or organizational purpose. We can teach the cleverest among them to do only primitive things for entertainment, but they are unable to understand a plan, the ways for achieving it or the purposes behind it. They are therefore unable to enter a planned partnership with us. They are by nature subject to the law of wildlife and that law can in any moment escalate even among the most teachable of them to attack people. It is because that law of wildlife does not recognize any difference between good and bad. 

Isn’t it strange that we are asked by many of our contemporary, so-called intellectuals to pursue a kind of freedom or live a life that does not recognize any difference between good and evil and has no ethics? It is shocking that such irresponsible ideas stem from the minds of intellectuals who are employed using our tax-monies to teach discernment to our children. Instead they put pressure on students to leave their God-given freedom behind and follow this mindless alternative. Until our young are taught to correctly understand the teaching of the Bible on the issue of freedom, they will not be able to resist these silly ideas that aim to chain them with confusion. We are face-to-face with many silly ideas daily and we need to make our Biblical stand in God clearer and free people from misperception. 

The freedom in the Bible is a creative freedom which encourages people to use their minds, hearts and consciences to compare ideas and choose the one that establishes life with productivity, long-lasting unity and peace. The God of the Bible respects this creative freedom and calls upon people for reasoning and conscious decision making:

Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18, MKJV)

I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19, MKJV)

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32, MKJV)

Because of our freedom of choice, everything is within our reach for a reason. We are capable of basing our lives on reason or rejecting reason. We have autonomy to evaluate and reject a false idea or blindly bow down to it. In a comparable way, we are also free to respect the rights of others and avoid ending up in jail or breach others’ rights and go to jail. We are free to accept life and live eternally or follow the path of death and end up in hell. It is all based on our own conscious decision-making. We are free to use our brains, become creative and be a blessing to many or to remain indifferent and fall into the miseries of a random life. The path that lacks a consistent position on freedom will lead progressively downwards to a place where people will be hurt immeasurably.

Not many people in the world are able to grasp that an unstable and man-made freedom is the gateway to a progressive failure. It is for this reason that the freedom of the Bible supersedes the unstable man-made freedom which is 1. not reciprocal, 2. limits people’s ability to speak their minds and hearts and 3. lacks sound principles. No one with such limitations or ambiguities will be able to face the reality of life, hear the truth and thereby act freely. We have every solid reason to stand for Biblical freedom.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1, MKJV)

'Reasoning through Dialogue' may Help our Generation

What is the best way to respond if someone or a community deceives, betrays, belittles you, or lies about you, or aims to destroy you and your interests? Would you want to search for any possible way to dialogue with them?

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 1:18, KJV)

It is amazing that the most powerful God who is superior in justice and everything else sees the solution in dialogue. This sentence from the Almighty God is full of grace,mercy and love. Otherwise, who will be able to reason with the holy and spotless God if God chooses to assess short-fallings with His absolute justice? This is because God’s judgement is His last option in His approach to those who betray Him or lie about Him. God puts His justice into practice only when people shut the door forever to their ability to reason. For this reason, He is commending and surrendering His whole being and the entirety of His Kingdom to dialogue before the Judgement Day arrives, so that people may be able to see that He is interested in reconciliation not condemnation.

This bilateral culture of reasoning from God started to manifest itself in remarkable wayssince the Protestant Movement in the West. It progressively flourished into every part of life and brought about astounding changes for good among western nations. This was the first broad welcome to God’s culture by many nations after over two thousand years from the time of the prophet Isaiah to the Protestant Reformation. Westerners started to discover that it would be their fundamental responsibility to give reason for what they had and also sought reason even from their top leaders since they were divinely ordained for two-sided reason. By pursuing this Judeo-Christian culture, western nations grew rapidly, qualified their family, community and organizational cultures and thereby became the most creative nations in the world. For this reason, the West became the most favorite place for many people to migrate to.

Now, there is little interest in Judeo-Christian culture in the West since authoritarian socialism started to make its roots stronger under the freedoms ushered in by postmodernism. Because of its centralized, evolutionary leadership, socialism intentionally targeted the hearts and minds of western politicians and academics with the intention of aligning their policies with the unfriendly approach to reasoning and freedom that is the true face of socialism.

In socialism only one group, the working class, is entitled to have a voice - not the business owners or the wardens of the free market economy. This is because socialism’s conviction is that a business owner shouldn’t be able to make more money than the salaries of his workers.  To do so would be evidence that he had abused the workesr. A worker in a free market economy is therefore seen as a victim and his voice must be assisted so that he may dominate the owners of business. But business owners on the other hand must be made voiceless until their wealth disappears and society has become totally egalitarian. This is the definition of freedom in socialism; it is a one-way freedom – the freedom of the ‘victims’. 

It is funny that the first socialists rose to find a better solution against the money cartel’s one-way freedom and exploitation in 19th and early 20th Century.  But it is interesting to note that, by the late 20^th century, they themselves had fallen into the same trap and ended up embracing the principles they once disliked. Interestingly though, Socialists of the 21st Century are still living with the 19th Century  mindset (even though it is out-of-date according to their own evolutionary philosophy). Ideologically speaking, they are immeasurably confused, perverted and thereby unable to think deeply.  They see that the conditions of workers in 20th and 21st Centuries changed for good. Western business owners solved their problems with workers by listening to their reasoning and ideas through Bench-Marking and Enterprise Agreements and other innovative initiatives. Workplaces became characterised by financial incentives for increased productivity. In many businesses workers were given representation on Boards and in management. To this day, the conditions of workers in western countries are way better than the conditions of workers in socialist countries. The old unjust ethics that had been evident in many organizations of the 19^th century  have given way to the work ethics that flow out of the the teachings of Jesus Christ. Industrial laws were no longer shaped by the principles of the bad old days of exploitation.

Sadly, it is now the socialists who aim to erase good functional western laws by spreading their socialist ideology and ethics. One is their primary tactics is the use of the “victimhood” ethos in order to claim for themselves the higher moral ground of being the superior thinkers. Socialists leaders like Lenin, Stalin,  Mao, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro and many others slaughtered millions of their fellow citizens (many of them downtrodden workers) under a justification of socialist ideology.  Yet they still claimed that the workers were ‘victims’ in order to emotionally justify their violence and secure their political dominance. They were always afraid to lose their moral high ground and therefore had no choice but to play the self-righteousness game using the ruse of victimhood. The truth is that this victimhood has always been accompanied  by bluff and deceit.   For both followers and defenders of socialism, the goal and effect of this strategy is the accumulation of more power and control.

So, the second powerful ethos in socialism is bluffing or lying. Almost a century of practice has made socialists expert in lying about their critics while cleverly attributing their own flaws and failures to others. 

A third deceptive ethic of socialism is its overt support for any group that has the potential to claim victimhood - even if they have little knowledge of or sympathy for socialism. According to socialism, victims should have more rights than others in everything, even to the point of destroying the rights and freedoms of others.

For this reason, socialists, and all their allied leftists love to create or champion victims in any way they can since ‘the End Justifies Means’. Victims must always remain victims so that socialism is able to survive in western democratic societies characterised by Judeo-Christian principles and values which have nurtured a culture where there is reasoning between both sides. Socialists know that, if they lose the leverage of ‘the victim mindset’, it will be the end of their ideology.   Even if they avail themselves of the countless opportunities for bilateral reasoning in conversation with non-socialists, they will lose their ascendency. This was what happened between Regan, a defender of the free market economy, and the socialist Gorbachev. Gorbachev’s openness to dialogue and reasoning brought socialism to an end in Russia. Genuine dialogue changes the landscape for socialists.

Most socialists of our time are slaves to their old ideological principles.   They therefore have zero tolerance for creative mutual conversation. By drawing the media into their service, they have had remarkable success in reshaping the minds of many westerners. They have skilfully used journalists to  spread the victim mindset and, in so doing, have largely silenced the Christian voice in community dialogue.

Socialists and all their quasi-socialist sympathizers know that ‘victim’ propaganda is a most effective tool in winning people’s minds and enlisting their advocacy for socialist causes. Socialist leaders rejoice in being ‘stage-managers’ rather than ‘lead players’  in the socialist march that is sweeping through western nations.  Interestingly, one of the victim groups that they champion is fundamentalist Islamic activists.

Actually, the union between the socialists and Islamists in the West is largely because of Islam’s identification with a victim mindset. Muslim communities all over the world have taken up the persona of being victims at the hands of non-Muslims. Their thinking is that this victimhood will not end until Muslims occupy the entire world and release the world from non-Islamic values. Victimhood is the life-long destiny of each Muslim shaped by Muhammad and it will never come to an end unless all other beliefs disappear. That’s why ISIS has risen. This victim mindset has always been there throughout the history of Islam. Muhammad rose because an angel forced him to follow Allah against other religions that were opposed to him (Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah, P.106-107); Sunnis rose because Shiites were at odds with them over the right to the caliphate; Shiites rose because of Sunni oppression; The Sunni Muslim Brotherhood rose because of colonialist oppression: Shiite, Ayatollah Khomeini rose because of Israel’s and America’s oppression; Palestinian fundamentalism - Hezbollah, Hamas - rose because of the creation of Israel which is an offense to Islam; and our contemporary terrorists have risen because of Islam’s core excuse - they see themselves as victims.

We can see how the tyrannical gamesmanship of ‘victimhood’ dominated thinking in the West. It produces pressure to repeal existing legislation. It is used to shame and  humiliate anyone who dares to disagree with it. Socialists use the gamemanship of 'victimhood' as a principle to belittle their oppositions, discriminate against them, call them haters or cause them to lose their jobs once their opposition has crossed the line and revealed the evil plans of socialists.

Christians are now forced to leave their Christian beliefs in their homes or their churches and bow down to the leftist credo almost everywhere you go.   Wherever they go, they will find themselves face to face with a legion of victims who will target them with accusations of bullying, insult, victimization, humiliation or racism.

Isn’t it shocking and heart-breaking that leftists have become the dire enemies of Christianity which originally gave them space and respected their rights to express themselves freely!? Such a wicked pay back to our beautiful Christian values. 

How should we respond to such wickedness? How about the response of Jesus Christ: 

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:24, MKJV)

We forgive them because they do not know. However, this appeal put forward by Christ for forgiveness does not mean we should ignore those who seek to manipulate our society in this way. Indeed, if this were to be the outcome, His church wouldn’t be established and His manifold wisdom wouldn’t be revealed by His Church (Ephesians 3:10).

Secondly, our forgiveness becomes sweeter and more meaningful if we stand to enlighten the minds and hearts of those who belittle us or want to get rid of us. That’s why God is pleading with his enemies to give their reasons and to hear our reasons:

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18, ESV)

Reasoning through dialogue helps.

Christ and the Relational Problems of our Generation (Part 2)

How can we manifest the truth about our faith in Christ to individuals in our contemporary generation who do not have the mind of Christ and are lost and incapacitated by the beliefs and ideologies they have adopted? Many are unable to or too busy to evaluate the values underpinning their own beliefs and ideas. Nor do they anticipate the outcomes of their actions which are shaped by those beliefs.  Only Christ can help them to pause and see what they have been missing and how they have been exposing their own lives and the lives of their communities to progressive moral bankruptcy. It is therefore urgent for us to reveal the mind and heart of Christ to them and become explicit in shining the Christ-light on all matters of life, but particularly the spiritual. 

Perhaps one of the most effective and legitimate tools in this light-shining endeavor is a creative conversation. Even though a person may be aware that Christ stands in opposition to many parts of their beliefs, they may not have experienced the challenge and stimulation of such a conversation. The revelation of Christ will fully engage a person’s mind, heart and conscience in such a conversation. The Holy Spirit often harnesses a person’s competence and capacity to discover the truth individually without the bias of pre-suppositions. Christ will help them to allow their consciences to become vocal about the truth since their freedom is closely linked to the awareness and declaration of their conscience about right and wrong. Christ wants them to experience a true testimony within themselves about the belief they hold which can give them peace. He knows that they will not be able to have a comfortable testimony in themselves unless they follow His model. 

This manner of creating awareness in people is inventive and productive because of the work of God in the Creation of humanity. The Gospel states that since God has created people in His own image, their conscience therefore bears witness to the principles which sprang from God’s image into their lives against their own conflicting thoughts, accusations or even excuses. 

14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) (Romans 2: 14 – 15 NKJV) 

In other words, so long as we are prepared to introduce Christ to them and can get them into a dynamic conversation with us and help them to discover their own conflicting moral stands, they have inherent capacity to discover the Christ-light and be enlightened., Even a person’s own conflicting thoughts, when exposed by discussion and challenge can demonstrate the human capacity to differentiate between truth and falsehood. We can challenge a person, if we have confidence in Christ, to prove the authenticity of their belief to us if they desire us to follow their path. In being asked to verbally expound their beliefs, a person is forced to formulate and justify them which can expose the inadequacies and inconsistencies. Certainly, they will give their hearts to Christ if they continue to discuss with us.

How do we get people into a dialogue with us? What are the fundamental tools that bring a Christian and a non-Christian together for an open and creative dialogue? 

Each person in the world understandably desires to have the best of everything in life. For us Christians, this is a strong God-inspired tool that focuses our attention on the very nature of what is the best. Other people may not know what is truly the best. Nevertheless, their claim to have the best or their desire to search for the best is a powerful instinct to motivate them for a conversation. In my interactions with people over the years I have come face to face with individuals who claim their belief to be the best among all. My response to them has often been “I would love to have your belief if you can prove its greatness to me.” My rational appeal has encouraged some of them to evaluate their assertion and to prove the accuracy of their claims as we have exchanged emails in a logical dialogue. This has opened the space for us to discuss the approaches of our respective beliefs about life in comparison with the values of Christ. Praise God, this has resulted in some of them putting their trust in Christ. 

When it comes to us, as the followers of Christ, our tool is the identity we have in Christ. He calls us as His light for the world. His light in us has established us as His heavenly examples to shine among people, drawing their attention, edifying them and illuminating their hearts and minds for everything in life. The very reason for Christ shining through us is to make us wise, enabling us to share our wisdom with others, teaching and convincing them to allow Christ to shine through them too. The light and wisdom of Christ is closely linked to the teaching of the whole Bible. The prophet Daniel prophesied:

And those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the sky; and those who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:3, MKJV)

This verse is a prophesy about Christ and His followers. The true followers of Christ are called wise and asked to make the manifold wisdom of God known to people. 

8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,    (Ephesians 3: 8-11 NKJV)

The manifold wisdom of God is about the entirety of life - spiritual, social, moral, political, economic. The light of Christ is to fashion our minds and hearts with the beauties of Christ’s mind and heart about every aspect and stage of life so that we can teach people and prepare and mature them to teach others in a similar way. That’s why His Gospel calls us His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador knows his/her sender and can reveal and represent his values. For example, in a discussion about leadership we need to know why the leadership of Christ transcends the model of their leadership and how it unites people in family and society for a harmonious, creative and productive life. What principles are there in the leadership model of Christ which inspire people to understand and believe that their contribution for the success of others will result in their own success?

This is the kind of disciple Christ desires us to become, helping others to think deeply about life and grasp bigger pictures for enlightening others. He has commanded us to make disciples (Matthew 28:19) so that not only do they put into practice all that He taught but also teach others to do so. Therefore, as His ambassadors we are responsible to reveal His teaching about all things to individuals and nations on earth under His caring, loving and generous leadership: things about God, about His character, how relevant He is to the life of people, what kind of leadership model He has, how people deal with each other under His leadership, what life will look like without Him, what His concerns are about individuals and nations, what initiatives He has taken to draw people’s attention to reconciliation and a long-lasting peace and why people need to leave other models behind and follow His model.

Jesus not only revealed to us God and His plans with His manifold wisdom but also laid an unshakable foundation for teaching people to overcome all kinds of relational hindrances. This was to help people reach reconciliation and to live in peace. He taught us so that we could allow Him to use us as His examples to teach others. We need to honor Him by becoming His faithful disciples, His salt and light in a world that suffers from relational problems.

Christ and the Relational Problems of Our Generation

For over three decades I lived in two Islamic countries while I was a Muslim. I learned that practically speaking self-interest carried more weight than the family interest which carries a secondary weight and what is in the interests of the wider society comes last. Leaders, either amongst extended families or in other circles, speak to one another about their deeper desires and efforts for togetherness and the success of everybody, as if they are angels sent for establishing a harmonious life. But it is all to manipulate, overtake, leave others behind and gain more for themselves. Of course, there are a handful of people who want to have a simple life and stay away from these games as much as they can.

These relational and psychological problems are because the dominant belief has closed the door to humility, servanthood and self-sacrifice becoming the leading factors in leadership. It rather has opened the door wide for the accumulation of power in any possible way and through every means, as the saying goes, “The end justifies the means”. Under the authority of such belief you need to do everything it takes, ethical or unethical, to gain power at any cost and to establish yourself as the most authoritative figure. You need power to occupy the mind and heart of every person and thing, including media to become your political players for silencing others and to ensure the longevity of your rule. Then every truth-lover will be branded as betrayer or threat and all others will be called to rise, like a tribal movement, against the threat and destroy it at its conception. That’s why the Middle East has become the stronghold of bloodshed for centuries.

I also learned that leaders were always perfect and the most gracious ones. They do not need any opinion or advice to reform their leadership since they are faultless. Reformation falls only on the shoulders of followers in order to learn better ways to perform their duties that the new leaders expect from them. The leader is not accountable to anyone, but all are accountable to him. Nobody has the right to speak about the leader’s weaknesses or failure - everybody is obliged to present even the leader’s failures as his victories. The leader twists words and presents circumstances in such a way as to command praise from the people, such as presenting his leadership as extraordinarily good and that the country has never seen such a caring and gracious leader. Recently, I was listening to the comments of a self-established once-for-all-time president of a Muslim country on YouTube. This dictator was talking in a meeting, saying that his close companions were worrying that he had brought his country to a such a level of unimaginable overt freedom that it presented a risk of being confusing to the populace. Imagine that in a country where there is scarcely any freedom everyone is obliged to rejoice and say that they have abundant freedom.

Most contemporary Islamic countries’ laws speak in favour of freedom and equal opportunity, but they remain only inside the legal books just to give leaders a basis for lip service either nationally or internationally. Lip service has always been a practice in Islamic countries right from the establishment of Islam until now. It demonstrates how religious and ideological values and habits override laws in dictatorial ideologies, and how an authoritarian belief trains its adherents, directly or indirectly, to view laws and regulations as secondary to power.

Muslim leaders have always had two kinds of lifestyles, apparent and secret. The secret life is known to the immediate family members only and also to some extent to very close and trustable friends or companions. Whereas the apparent life is a show for demonstrating in a manipulative way that the leader is benevolent and ethical, all for him to pave the way for himself to penetrate and dominate endlessly. This dualistic lifestyle has become the cause of weighty psychological problems in all Islamic countries where people are forced to coat words with niceness and serve the interests of unjust people.

We see how Islam has affected the life of its followers negatively and endangered a harmonious life among its followers. It is impossible for Muslims to be cured of

these psychological and relational illnesses unless they leave Islam and come to faith in Christ.

Our jaws drop anytime we see similar kinds of psychological problems in the west, especially amongst many educated people who have turned their back on Judeo-Christian values. They too, like in Islamic countries, hide their real ideological colors behind talk superficially coated with democracy, freedom and equal rights. They do this in order to reach their goals in a hypocritical way as if it is too hard for them to invest their time, money and energy for the spread of their beliefs openly and with honesty. Not only this, they also react with coercion and intimidation, if a person standing true to his/her community exposes their insincerities.

Why do they do this? Because their ideas and beliefs, like Islam, cannot handle truth and reason. The followers are therefore unable to realize that in a democratic society actions and words need to be filtered for protecting the freedom and rights of all. Since these beliefs and ideas do not stand for the freedom and right of all, they push their followers to receive endorsement or allegiance via dishonesty and manipulation. We are all aware that dishonesty and deception are the two inseparable friends of discrimination, intimidation and war.

Anti-Judeo-Christian values in the west misled people with the notion of “all are true” in order to confuse people, create a cultural war between the national and minority cultures’ adherents for benefiting from these cultural clashes and thereby receive the support of people who fall into their traps. For them the power for domination comes from clashes among various people groups, like the “thesis and anti-thesis” of Socialism or “Muslims against non-Muslims” of Islam. This was the reason for the establishment of multiculturalism so that each cultural group could receive sovereignty for its culture and push its course until domination.

Unfortunately, their politics worked. Many surrendered to them blindly since they were unaware of their agendas and still are. As a result, they dominated and gave further legal power to minority groups to bully those who did not confirm their ways. Even many migrants, who have come to have a better life in the west, have learned from these narcissistic westerners that it is ok to disregard the fundamental values and constitutions in the west and stand for their own cultures, cultures that have failed in their own motherlands.

We can see how these beliefs and ideologies have incapacitated people and turned them to become the enemies of their own lives and the lives of people surrounding them. This is a spiritual war orchestrated by Satan. Otherwise, it wouldn’t encourage people to base their faith in deception, coercion and hostility. Satan has made these people sick from the top of their heads to their toes. They need proper treatment. They need the eye-opening words of Jesus Christ, His brain, reason, compassion, love and reconciliation in order to be able to know the truth and become free. For this reason, we, as the followers of Jesus Christ, need to look at them with the eyes of Christ and speak to them with the mind, heart and mouth of Jesus Christ. That’s why He told us:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. (Matthew 5:14-15, ESV)

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)

Light makes things visible, reveals their beauties for acceptance but their defects for rejection. We need to shine amongst deceived people so that they can discover the remedy for their lives. We are the adherents of the truthful belief. A truthful belief does not hide its own objects behind deceiving words. That’s why the Gospel of Jesus Christ says:

[We] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2, KJV).

What Unites Us Is Different from What Unites the Rest

Adherents of almost all beliefs and religions speak about unity, but in practice that unity ends up either in disintegration, with destructive fall-out among its own members, or it ends up in a long-lasting and constructive relationship.

All those beliefs that promote the theory of evolution and also the religion of Islam speak about an ultimate global unity, but all believe that they cannot reach unity unless their group strive against other groups and prevails over them.

All other beliefs that see the solution in the power of man and crown him as a god believe that they will reach unity by empowering individualism and self-centeredness, whereas self-centeredness is the major obstacle to unity.

There can be no hope of unification among individuals, groups or people or nations for a long-lasting relationship unless they are under a head whose belief is designed to unite people together from the beginning to the end. He combats the threat of conflict among them but establishes them in a path where they are able to unite their hearts, minds, feelings, plans, purposes and acts in such a way as if they belong to one another as the members of a healthy body. He not only unites them in all conduct of life but strengthens their zeal to love one another as their own body and further become the voice of this unity to others. This amazing unity is taught in the Gospel of Jesus Christ only:

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:2-5, ESV)

People need to follow Jesus Christ who is able to take the human race as a whole, bring people together from various national backgrounds, renew their minds and hearts so that they can walk together delightfully in His Path. Life which ensues from the message of the gospel practically and consistently nurtures unity despite differences in cultures, habits and laws. Cultural and habitual differences naturally force people into alienation and dominance. However a true belief enlarges people’s understanding of and commitment to taking personal responsibility for establishing unity. It enriches cultures so that people can unite their whole strength, wills, practices, cares and judgments together for following the best role model and thereby protect themselves from the forces of alienation.

In a truly unified group, people do not reject each other, but have unceasing peace which enables advancement in every aspect of life. This is because in peace the advancement of one also represents the advancement and benefit of others. There is no sense of competitiveness or personal gain at the expense of others.

The greatness of Jesus Christ is seen in His ability to establish such a unity among people of all colors, races, nationalities and ranks. For this unique task He deserves to be the commander in all things and among all nations and generations. The Prophet Isaiah defines the role of Jesus Christ very well:

…. the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. There is no end of the increase of His government and peace …. (Read Isaiah 9:6-7, MKJV)

Because He is the Prince of Peace, there is no end of His unity, and because He has the heart of an everlasting and loving Father, He does not allow war and hostility to run the lives of His followers. That’s why nothing is more important than the love and harmony in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel says:

Through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven. (Colossians 1:20, MKJV)

By virtue of the reconciliation through Jesus Christ, we are established for eternal unity and peace. Our friendship in Christ is not divided but perfect to the extent that not only do we share the joy of reconciliation here on earth but also hereafter.

We, as the followers of Christ, are called to be the messengers of this unity to the world. Let us exercise our role in this New Year faithfully, embrace His plan for unity with the full purpose of our hearts and thereby prove to others by our lives that He is the only One to unite people in eternal truth, love and peace. The practice of our unity on earth will make the unity plan of Jesus Christ relevant to all nations and will pave the way for us all for an amazing song of unity in the future (Revelation 7:9-12).