Can Anything Really Unite People?

NO MATTER what your beliefs, you probably agree that there must be lovers of truth in nearly all religions. People who deeply appreciate what is true and who are willing to search for it can be found among Hindus, Catholics, Jews, and others. Yet, religion seems to divide mankind. Some even use religion for evil ends. Will it ever be possible for sincere people from all religions who have a love for what is good and true to be united? Could they be gathered together for a common purpose?

How disturbing it is to see that religion is increasingly the cause of division! Consider some of these conflicts. Hindus fight Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews have shed blood in various conflicts. “Christians” fight Muslims in Chechnya, Indonesia, and Kosovo. And in March 2000, two days of strife linked with religion left 300 Nigerians dead. Indeed, religious hatred has fueled the ferocity of these conflicts.

Sincere people are often dismayed by the evils practiced in the name of religion. For instance, many churchgoers are shocked that clergymen who have abused children sexually have officially been tolerated by some churches. Other believers are greatly embarrassed by divisions within many so-called Christian sects over such issues as homosexuality and abortion. Clearly, religion has not united mankind. Yet, there are genuine lovers of truth in many faiths, as the following experiences show.

They Yearned for the Truth

Fidelia was a sincere and devoted worshiper in the Catholic Church of San Francisco in La Paz, Bolivia. She prostrated herself before the image of Mary and placed the best candles she could buy before the crucifix. Each week, she donated great quantities of food to the priest to distribute among the poor. However, five of Fidelia’s babies died before they could be baptized. When the priest told her that they were all suffering in the darkness of Limbo, Fidelia wondered, ‘If God is good, how could that be?’

Tara, a medical doctor, was brought up as a Hindu in Kathmandu, Nepal. Following the centuries-old customs of her ancestors, she worshiped her gods in the Hindu temples and had idols in her home. But Tara was perplexed by such questions as these: Why is there so much suffering? Why do people die? She found very little in the way of satisfying answers in her religion.

Panya, on the other hand, grew up as a Buddhist in a canalside house in Bangkok, Thailand. He was taught that suffering results from acts committed in previous lives and that freedom from it can be attained by ridding oneself of all desires. Like other sincere Buddhists, he was taught deep respect for the wisdom of the yellow-robed monks who came to the house each dawn for alms. He practiced meditation and collected images of the Buddha in the belief that they brought protection. After being involved in a serious accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, Panya visited Buddhist monasteries, sincerely hoping for a miraculous cure. He did not find a cure or spiritual enlightenment. Instead, he was exposed to spiritism and started dabbling in it.

Virgil was born in the United States and joined the Black Muslims in college. He zealously distributed their literature, which held that the white man is the Devil. That, they thought, was why the whites committed so many atrocities against the blacks. Although sincere in his beliefs, Virgil was disturbed by questions: How could all whites be bad? And why did so much of the preaching revolve around money?

Even though Charo grew up in predominantly Catholic South America, she was a sincere Protestant. She was pleased to be no part of the idolatry that surrounded her. Charo enjoyed going to church every Sunday for the emotion-charged service, where she shouted “Hallelujah!” and joined in the religious singing and dancing that followed. Charo sincerely believed that she had been saved and was born again. She paid a tenth of her income to the church, and when her favorite TV evangelist asked for contributions, she sent him money for children in Africa. When she asked her pastor why a God of love torments souls in hell, however, she realized that he had no meaningful answer. Later, she also discovered that her contributions were not used to help children in Africa.

Although from different backgrounds, these five individuals had something in common. They loved truth and sincerely sought truthful answers to their questions. But could they really be united in true worship? The next article will answer that question.

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Is it possible for people of different backgrounds to be really united?

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G.P.O., Jerusalem

True Worship Unites People

ALTHOUGH religion in general tends to divide mankind, the worship of the only true God has the power to unite people. When Israel was God’s chosen nation, many sincere Gentiles were attracted to true worship. For example, Ruth abandoned the gods of her native Moab and said to Naomi: “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16) By the first century C.E., a large number of Gentiles had become worshipers of the true God. (Acts 13:48; 17:4) Later when Jesus’ apostles began traveling to distant places with the good news, other sincere people were united in the worship of the true God. “You turned to God from your idols to slave for a living and true God,” wrote the apostle Paul. (1 Thessalonians 1:9) Does worship of the true God have such uniting power today?

Skeptics insist that it is wrong to speak of “true worshipers” or “the true God.” They may feel that way because they are unaware of any source from which truth can be learned. But seekers of truth from many backgrounds have realized that worship is not a matter of preference. The only one worthy of our worship is the Creator of all things​—Jehovah God. (Revelation 4:11) He is the true God, and he has the right to decide how he is to be worshiped.

To help us discern his requirements, Jehovah has communicated with us through his Word, the Bible. Nearly everyone on earth today has access to the entire Bible or portions of it. Moreover, God’s Son said: “If you remain in my word, . . . you will know the truth.” (John 8:31, 32) The truth, therefore, can be known. And millions of honesthearted people from different religious backgrounds are courageously embracing this truth and are being united in true worship.​—Matthew 28:19, 20; Revelation 7:9, 10.

Worldwide Unity in Our Time!

A remarkable prophecy in the Bible book of Zephaniah speaks of the coming together of people of diverse backgrounds. It states: “Then I [Jehovah God] shall give to peoples the change to a pure language, in order for them all to call upon the name of Jehovah, in order to serve him shoulder to shoulder.” (Zephaniah 3:9) What a beautiful picture this is of changed peoples serving God in unity!

When was this to happen? Zephaniah 3:8 says: “‘Keep yourselves in expectation of me,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘till the day of my rising up to the booty, for my judicial decision is to gather nations, for me to collect together kingdoms, in order to pour out upon them my denunciation, all my burning anger; for by the fire of my zeal all the earth will be devoured.’” Yes, during the time that Jehovah is gathering the nations but before he pours out upon them his burning anger, he gives to the meek ones of the earth the change to a pure language. That time is now, for the gathering of all nations to the war of the great day of God the Almighty at Armageddon is already under way.​—Revelation 16:14, 16.

To unify his people, Jehovah gives them a pure language. This new language includes a proper understanding of Bible truth about God and his purposes. Speaking the pure language involves believing the truth, teaching it to others, and living in harmony with God’s laws and principles. It calls for shunning divisive politics and rooting out of the heart selfish attitudes, such as the racism and divisive nationalism characteristic of this world. (John 17:14; Acts 10:34, 35) All honesthearted ones who have love for the truth can learn this language. Consider how the five people mentioned in the preceding article​—once so far apart religiously—​are now united in the worship of the one and only true God, Jehovah.

They Are United in True Worship

When Fidelia, the devout Roman Catholic, bought a Bible for her daughter’s schoolwork, she asked her priest to explain from it what had happened to her five dead children. “What a disappointment!” she says. So when Jehovah’s Witnesses called on her, she asked them a similar question. Upon reading in her own Bible the truth about the condition of the dead, she realized how the church had deceived her. She learned that the dead are conscious of nothing and therefore are not suffering in Limbo or anywhere else. (Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5) Fidelia discarded all her religious images, left the church, and started studying the Bible. (1 John 5:21) For the last ten years, she has enjoyed teaching Scriptural truth to others.

Tara from Kathmandu moved to a country where there are few Hindu temples. She therefore visited a Methodist church in hopes of satisfying her spiritual needs. But she found no answer to her question about human suffering. Then Jehovah’s Witnesses contacted her and offered to study the Bible with her. Tara says: “I came to realize that a God of love could not be responsible for all the suffering in the world . . . I was delighted with the prospect of a new world of peace and harmony.” (Revelation 21:3, 4) Tara got rid of her Hindu images, stopped following the religious customs of her native land, and found genuine happiness in helping to satisfy the spiritual needs of others as a Witness of Jehovah.

Panya, the Buddhist, was a fortune-teller when Jehovah’s Witnesses first called on him in Bangkok, so the prophecies in the Bible fascinated him. Panya related: “When I learned why present conditions are different from what the Creator originally purposed and how he has arranged to undo the damage caused by those who reject him and his sovereignty, it was as if a veil had been removed from my eyes. Everything about the Bible’s message was so harmonious. I came to love Jehovah as a person; this gave me the motivation to practice what I knew was right. I was eager to help others to see the difference between human wisdom and godly wisdom. True wisdom has really changed my life.”

In time, Virgil began to have serious doubts about his religious beliefs. Rather than praying to God for a way to help black people and for what he considered was a racist organization that seemed to produce hatred for whites, he prayed for the truth, whatever it was, wherever it was. “When I awakened the next day after my fervently praying to God,” recalls Virgil, “I found a Watchtower magazine in the house. . . . It must have been slipped under the door.” Soon he was intensely studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. He continues: “For the first time in my life, I felt satisfied. . . . A ray of hope began to dawn inside me.” Virgil was soon united with those who offer people the only true hope as set out in God’s Word, the Bible.

Charo from Latin America was impressed when a Witness named Gladys saw that she was having difficulties with her small children and began helping her by taking her to market. In time, Charo accepted an offer made by Gladys​—a free home Bible study. When Charo learned from her own Bible that not all good people go to heaven but that Jehovah will also bless humans on earth with everlasting life, she was amazed. (Psalm 37:11, 29) Charo herself has been sharing this hope with others for the past 15 years.

Imagine the whole earth populated by sincere people united in the worship of Jehovah, the only true God! This is not a fantasy. It is what Jehovah has promised. Through his prophet Zephaniah, God declared: “I shall certainly let remain in the midst of you a people humble and lowly, and they will actually take refuge in the name of Jehovah. . . . They will do no unrighteousness, nor speak a lie, nor will there be found in their mouths a tricky tongue; . . . and there will be no one making them tremble.” (Zephaniah 3:12, 13) If this promise appeals to you, take to heart the Bible’s exhortation: “Seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you may be concealed in the day of Jehovah’s anger.”​—Zephaniah 2:3.