Unity, Relativity and Exclusivity in Christianity

Unity is the natural virtue that comes as a result of affection and common aim between two or more individuals. One way that Christians live is by having the zeal to preserve the unity among each other through the bond of peace (Burley 145). Unity among Christian is more than just a means by which God will heal the people. It is considered as the reflection of the nature of God, the faith, the church and also the people who know God.

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The Christian hope to abide in one spirit, one hope, one faith, one spirit and one baptism. No matter how much the Christians differ on the concepts of theology; it is evident that there is one God, one Spirit and one Lord (Burley 147). Unity in Christianity focuses on the relationship that is within the Christian denomination. Unity is not an option for the Christians, but it is rather considered as the necessity aspect of living within the same kingdom and with the same Lord and Jesus Christ.

It is that same unity and fellowship among Christians that articulates and demonstrates the presence of Gods kingdom in the kingdom of this world. Growing into the union is of sound instinct and three features which are the organic, visible and sacramental. Unity is considered as mission and local oriented. It is considered that the Holy Spirit has a place in guiding the church towards its unity (Hick 181). Paul, the apostle, claimed that unity is not one which the Christian need to create, but it is the one that exists and must be diligently preserved. Unity is based on sharing life in one body, one Christ, and universal church. Christians are sealed, possessed and indwelt by one Spirit and they look forward to the same hope. The fact that they have one supreme commander and one faith, therefore, one unity.

Although unity is created by the Christian, it must be preserved and be pursued diligently by an attitude of humility demonstrated by the gentleness and endurance of suffering. Unity does not imply that there will be uniformity. It does not also mean that Christian thinks alike and perform the ministries in an identical way (Hick 183). It implies that a common purpose and interdependence is there between the Christians and the body of Christ. All the gifts given to the Christians enhance the necessities of unity. Functional unity is considered as the goal of Christian endeavor into training both men and women to have faith, hope and love to all.

Relativity is considered to be a philosophical position in which all points of view can be equally valid and the truth can be relative to the individual. All the positions be it oral, religious systems and political movement, they are all truths that individuals use to relate themselves with the people rejecting Christianity and God, absolute truth is abandoned (Stannard 1985). Some theologians have divided the relationship of God and Christian with time. There is usually no unique and no universal time that exists now. Each inertial frame is regarded to have had its own present moment whereby there is no overarching absolute time in which all the diverse times can be combined into one.

The defender of divine timelessness considers that there is no specific explanation for the controversy of which time God might be in. One cannot pick an inertial frame and claim that God's time has been manifested since God is not a physical object in a uniform motion. It is difficult to see God and therefore His time frame cannot be wholly arbitrated (Nahin 49). It is therefore difficult to see how God could be casually sustained in the events that are relative to the inertial frame which are either of future or past. The knowledge of God on what is happening would be restricted to the temporal perspective of His frame, leaving what is happening in other frames to be merely ignored.

God's knowledge of what is happening at this time could be restricted to the temporal perspective of His frame. No time is considered to be privileged and so it means that the plausible identity cannot be identified as the inertial frame of God's time. If one indicates that God exists in the now, then the associated time of every inertial frame would be the unity of God's consciousness (Nahin 51). In order for Christian to preserve God's personal consciousness, they must fragment and scatter the inertial frame in the universe. If the time of God cannot be identified, then God must not be in time at all. It is therefore right to conclude the fact that God exists timelessly. God is eternal and therefore Christians believe in the everlasting duration and since he is omnipresent, there is an existence of infinite space. Absolute time and space are therefore relational in that they are contingent upon the existence of God.

The identifying feature of pure Christianity is characterized by its exclusiveness. Christians have what is called the doctrinal strictness which does not withstand any form of complaints and they remain insistent in only the fellowship that brings the doctrine of Christ. They are determined not to engage in sins of the others and therefore they exclude them from their life (Nahin 57). Most of the Christians consider other religious followers to be holding a wrong or deluded belief and they therefore assess their behavior as immoral or heretical. The situation is what is referred to as exclusivity. Different faith continues to learn about exclusive position whereby they deny any form of legitimacy to the denominations and to other religious that are not like their own.

Christianity believes in the form of exclusivity whereby even in the New Testament, Paul the apostle directs a blast of religious propaganda against all the Jews, blaming them for the murder of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul requires the Christians to separate themselves from the unbelievers (Burley 157). To strengthen exclusivity, Paul advised the Christian to avoid forming a close relationship with the non-believers. Other forms of religious exclusivity include the fact that Jesus is considered as the only way through salvation.

The author of the Gospel of John indicates that nobody can go to the Father unless they pass through Him. Christianity has used this biblical passage to devalue and denigrate the non-Christian religion. The exclusivity indicates that the only way to God is by believing in Jesus Christ and His teachings. Many skeptics consider the Christianity exclusivity as a stumbling block and cannot believe that He is the only way to heaven (Burley 161). Some examples of exclusivity are; Jesus alone died in a penal and a substitutionary death, Christ alone qualifies to be the savior, Christ alone is the incarnation of God and Christ alone rose from the death and had victory over sin.

Work Cited

Burley, Mikel. "Eternal Life as an Exclusively Present Possession: Perspectives from Theology and The Philosophy Of Time." Sophia 55.2 (2015): 145-161. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

Hick, John. "The Theological Challenge of Religious Pluralism." Dialogues in the Philosophy of Religion (2010): 179-194. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

Nahin, Paul J. "Time, Space, GodS Omniscience, And Free Will." Holy Sci-Fi! (2014): 49-67. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

Stannard, Russell. "Relativity." Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions (2013): 1985-1993. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.