Pray for Bono

[Sothenes]

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/pc_article.php?id=7089

About five songs into their set, Bono stopped the show and strapped on a headband with writing on it. I stared up at the JumboTron to see that the handwritten lettering said: COEXIST.

Coexisting sounds like a great idea. I fully support the peaceful philanthropy that Bono has encouraged, and this seemed like another way that he was trying to spread the message.

Except, it started to feel like more than a political message. The “C” in “coexist” was the Islamic crescent moon, the “X” was the Star of David, and the “T” was the cross of Christ. Bono pointed at the symbols on his headband—first to the cross, then to the star, then to the crescent moon—and he began to repeat:

“Jesus, Jew, Mohammed—all true. Jesus, Jew, Mohammed—all true.”

He repeated the words like a mantra, and some people even began to repeat it with him. I suddenly wanted to crawl out of my skin. Was Bono, my supposed brother in Christ, preaching some kind of universalism? In just a few seconds, I went from agreeing with him about Christ-like “coexistence” to being creeped out by the ungodly, untrue thing he was saying. What’s going on here? What if he believes that all ways are the same, and he just thinks of Christianity as his particular way? Aren’t universalism and true Christianity mutually exclusive?

[Sothenes]

BUMP

This should be reviewed in light of your blog post.

[Sothenes]

http://worldviewweekendfoundation.co...cle.php?id=519

[admin]

Hi Sothenes,

Just copied and pasted what you wrote here over at my blog. This is crucial evidence that heresy and apostasy can slip in under the radar of those who do not know the Bible and true gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have the uneasy feeling that perhaps Bono has always felt this way. But this is a blatant demonstration of how those who are not genuinely born again in Jesus Christ can be misled into error. It is certainly a sad, but true reality for many in this world today. It is part of the "falling away" that was prophesied in Scripture. The closer we get to the end times, the more heresy, apostasy, and abandonment of the true Christian faith (e.g. falling away) will be seen happening in the world.

[GMpilot]

Perhaps Bono was thinking about Voltaire's words:

"If my land knows a hundred religions, there will be peace. If my land knows only two, they will cut each others' throat and consume me."

Voltaire's land,was, of course, France, which barely a century earlier had been consumed by Catholics and Huegenots, slaughtering each other in the name of God. France is still predominantly Catholic today, because neither they nor their foes could find reason to coexist.

Fact is, religions,subsisting as they do of absolutes, cannot coexist with each other unless there is a greater power watching over them...and by that I mean the civil power. We have many such religions here, from Santeria to Pentecostalism to Buddhism, and because the civil power is supposed to be neutral toward them all, there is peace.

I have seen the sticker. I don't agree with it. History has shown that few religions tolerate the existence of a second one in its vicinity. Add to that the supposedly divine command to go forth and 'spread the word' by any means available, and much of the time, misery will ensue.
Most religions survive only by spreading over more and more people. Such religions do not realize that the more they spread, the more prone they are to dilution--witness the so-called "emergent" church.