Updated: 12/16/2022
The COEXIST Movement
The coexist movement began in response to increasing tensions between religious and cultural groups around the world. Throughout history, there has clearly been wars and violence related to religion. While war should be avoided if possible but is sometimes necessary depending on the situation (e.g., self-defense), given the fact that God probably does exist, how can they all be right? Certain religions have similarities but they also have stark differences. Therefore, even though we should get along as best as possible as a human race, the truth of the matter is they cannot all be correct given the existence of God.
Moreover, is the war and violence stemming from religion as bad as it seems? The religious war page of Wikipedia states the following:
According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, out of all 1,763 known/recorded historical conflicts, 121, or 6.87%, had religion as their primary cause.[6] Matthew White’s The Great Big Book of Horrible Things gives religion as the primary cause of 11 of the world’s 100 deadliest atrocities. (“Religious War”)
Only 6.87% of wars are primarily caused by religion? Is the phrase, “religion is the cause for most wars,” blown out of proportion? How about non-religious violence? In the book “IS ATHEISM DEAD?” Eric says “…those executed by the handful of atheist regimes amount to about 150 million” (Metaxas).
As the world heads towards future chaos and despair, the coexist movement seems to be helping humanity head towards the one world religion governed by the Antichrist. Instead of Christianity being the truth, people of other religions will find commonality among each other and ally together against the truth: Christianity. Religions aside from Christianity will be tolerated, whereas intolerance will be shown towards the truth: Christianity. As Pierre Teilhard says in a YouTube video, “I didn’t know that the world would go in this direction. That, you know, this coexist is, you know, a must. You have to do it” (“The Big Fight over Coexist“ 00:05:48 – 00:05:00).
Finally, Michael Youssef states the following in his book, Is the End near?: What Jesus Told Us about the Last Days:
When he appears, the Antichrist will offer a message that the masses are eager to hear—a message that people are basically good, that all religions lead to the same destination, that those who claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven are narrowminded dogmatists. (171)
The conditions will be to just the right tune so that the masses play right into the hands of the final Antichrist. We are already seeing the world paint Christianity as intolerant and evil towards those who don’t want to live by the standards God created. While Christians should be loving and have understanding, and not be hateful and fearful, sin is sin. And, that obviously applies to each and everyone one of us so that no one is excluded.
Works Cited
Metaxas, Eric. Is Atheism Dead? Salem Books, 2021.
“Religious War.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Dec. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Encyclopedia%20of,the%20world’s%20100%20deadliest%20atrocities.
Voxdotcom, director. “The Big Fight over Coexist.” YouTube, YouTube, 8 June 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm6na9tz4-s. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.
Youssef, Michael. Is the End near?: What Jesus Told Us about the Last Days. FrontLine, 2022