#4 What does God expect us to do for other cultures and faiths?

In the world we live in today, there are many cultures and faiths that people choose to follow. As everyone has different backgrounds, everyone has different perspectives and attitude toward many things since, by logic, different backgrounds value different ideas. The ideas that a particular group of people honor are valued because, according to their beliefs, they carry utterly important significance. Hence, it is not appropriate to affirm that one’s culture and faiths are insignificant, unethical, or unrighteous.

As Christians, we should not only pursue lives in accordance with God’s teachings but also spread the gospel of God to the nonbelievers. In other words, our mission on Earth is to evangelize the nonbelievers in order to ‘save’ them from sinful nature. Evangelization is all about leading the nonbelievers to accept Christian values, ideas, and customs in order to convert them to Christians. To draw the nonbelievers to the Christian world, inevitably, the Christians would have to prove that their concepts are more logical and attractive than any other faiths. Thus, they are faced with a situation where they belittle other faiths in order to justify their faiths. Although this is not the case for many Christians, there are extremists who strongly disapprove of other faiths and deride other religions.

However, in my opinion, faiths other than Christianity also have significance and hence should not be considered unimportant. Therefore, we need to find a way to coexist. I believe that God has created the followers of the other religions for a reason and purpose, thus it is not within our rights to insult them in any way. Consequently, I argue that God desires and pursues peace, in other words coexistence, among different faiths. Nevertheless, the truth remains unchanged – believe in God and receive salvation, then the doors of the heaven would open with eternal glory. Everyone has the rights to make decisions in their lives, hence choosing the entrance to the heaven is for them to choose. Although God cares for them, if they choose not to follow him, then they will face the cnosequences of their decision.