Hi Marni Arnold

Thank you for your comment at Provoketive Magazine (http://provoketive.com). We’re creating a space of rich conversation about life, faith, justice and culture without judgment. Our desire is to provoke the reader’s imagination through conversation and open up spaces of dialogue, learning, and hope.  We want to invite you to come back soon and continue to participate in the conversation. 

Thank you,
Jonathan Brink
Provoketive Magazine

You posted the following comment:
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I am going to actually have a slightly different voice in this conversation, for I actually come from a background in which I was not always a Christian. First and foremost, I was born and raised Jewish. Secondly, however, I opted to leave Judiasm at the age of 20 to explore the avenues of Paganism that lead me down a six year path in the realm of witchcraft. Toward the end of my time practicing such a life, I found myself in the practices of Buddhism. The reasons I did this was to basically start segregating myself from Paganism because I had a very negative experience with it right before I embraced such ways into my life...and for a year prior to my accepting Christ, I was deeply involved in the Buddhist studies and practices.

From such an experience, I learned one thing in reference to what you are asserting here...God is a jealous God. While other world religions preach the life of synchronicity...to have all of us live harmoniously as one...Jesus didn't come for such goal. 

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword." (Matthew 10:34 NKJV)

Those are pretty intense words straight from Jesus' mouth Himself. God Himself.

The crying out in praise that God is above all other gods...is scrituprual. Going all the way back to Exodus in which we are informed..."thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Again, God is a jealous God...and will not be shared with another. No matter how nice another person in another religion speaks of Jesus. 

He is not about making nice here...He is about penetration of the sinful hearts of mankind so they will be saved. Period. Love...grace...mercy...kindness...compassion...allieviation of suffering...they all reside in Him. Anything else that touts otherwise, is truly outside of God and not how He instructs His children to live.

I understand this viewpoint rubs against the very grain of society...but when push comes to shove, God cannot be watered down to satisfy the opinions we hold even as Christians ourselves.

He is almighty God...el shaddai. And if we can get out of our own way to truly embrace this truth, casting aside even what we think we understand, and our own opinions, about how we are to articulate and live out life as Christians, it is then we will experience the true freedom He tells us about in scripture...the only true freedom found in Christ.

So why not proclaim from the rooftops this truth? Why not sing it, preach it and live it? We are different in Christ because He is not of this world...and we were not created to be a part of this world, but in His everlasting embrace. The created harmoniously unified with our Creator...that is what this is truly all about; not if, and how, we should be unified with other religions in this world.