God does not want all people in the world to have the same religion. Evidence?
The Tower of Babel
11Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Perhaps I am reading things I ought not.
Which books do you suggest I read, and which should I not read?
God requires people worship him on his terms, not theirs. He requires pure worship - not tainted by idolatry, exclusively offered to him in the way he says, and the place of worship he says.
Deuteronomy 12 NIV
The One Place of Worship
1These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.
2Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.
3Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
4You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.
5But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go
1 Kings 12 NIV
Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan
26Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.
27If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”
28After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
29One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
30And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.
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1 Kings 13 NIV
The Man of God From Judah
1By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.
2By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’ ”
3That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
1 Kings 13 NIV
33Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places.
34This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.
4When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.
5Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
2 Kings 23 NIV
King Josiah, in obedience to God, pulled down all the places of worship, the people made for worship, and he slaughtered all the priest of Baal worship.
2 Kings 17 NIV
34To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
35When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: “Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them.
36But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices.
37You must always be careful to keep the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods.
38Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods.
39Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”
40They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices.
41Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.
Numbers 33 NIV
50On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the Lord said to Moses,
51“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,
52drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
53Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.
54Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.
Isaiah 2 NIV
The Mountain of the Lord
1This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
5Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
