The new tolerance is an insidious danger which may damage communication between you and God. It is not enough today to “live and let live.” It is not enough to assert another person’s right to believe or say what he thinks is right. In order to be truly tolerant, you must now give your approval, endorsement and sincere support to their beliefs … AND BEHAVIORS!
THIS UNDERMINES THE VERY ESSENCE AND MEANING OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH!
Did you know that there is a growing consensus of thought in our society that it is improper to condemn the Chinese leaders who massacred dissenting students in Tiananmen Square, the Nazis who systematically butchered six million Jews, or those countries that allow child slave labor or the killing of unwanted children? They feel it is not anyone’s place to make such a “moral judgment.”
In contrast to traditional tolerance, which asserts that everyone has an equal right to believe or say what he THINKS is right, the new tolerance says that what every individual believes or says IS equally right. All values are equal. All lifestyles are equal. All truth claims are equal. BUT … THE LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION (basic logic) insists that two contradictory ideas cannot both be true.
THE BIBLE MAKES IT CLEAR THAT ALL VALUES, BELIEFS, LIFESTYLES AND TRUTH CLAIMS ARE NOT EQUAL! It teaches that the God of the Bible is the true God (
Jeremiah 10:10), that all His words are true (
Psalm 119:160), and that if something is not right in GOD’S SIGHT, it is wrong (
Deuteronomy 6:18). This is not just the view of Hebrew, Christian or Western culture – it is truth, according to the God who rules over all cultures!
The basic premise of the new tolerance is that there is no difference between who a person is and that person’s beliefs, behavior, culture or lifestyle. Written as an equation, it would look like this: WHAT I AM = WHAT I DO. Therefore, if you express any disagreement with someone’s beliefs, say that their behavior is wrong, or can’t accept their lifestyle, you’re judging and being intolerant of THEM! In other words, if you don’t approve of a person’s lifestyle, you don’t LOVE THE PERSON. But Scripture does not teach that what we do is equal to who we are! When Isaiah wrote, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (
Isaiah 59:2), he made a clear distinction between who we are and what we do (our iniquities). What we do is not the same as who we are, for otherwise God could not have separated our sins from us and thrown them into the sea of his forgetfulness! (
Micah 7:18-19)
In a society that regards all values, beliefs, lifestyles and truth claims as equally valid, there can be only one universal virtue – TOLERANCE. And if tolerance is the cardinal virtue, then there can be only one evil – INTOLERANCE. That is exactly the attitude we are seeing today!
The common idea is that to be a Christian is to be one who tolerates everything except intolerance therefore, any system that believes in ABSOLUTE TRUTH is by definition guilty of intolerance! You don’t even have to say anything. If you even THINK there is an absolute truth, then you are intolerant, and thus an appropriate object of intolerance! To the modernist, nonagreement is phobia, nonconformity is hate, and conviction is fanaticism.
The spirit of the “new tolerance” has in great measure infiltrated the church of the last days. That is why people have the false ideas that “to tell someone their belief or behavior is wrong is being judgmental.” The Bible contains ABSOLUTE TRUTH! The question is not “what does it mean to me?” but “what does it mean?” and “how do I apply it to me?” The meaning of the Bible is not DECIDED by the reader, but DISCERNED by him!
Paul did say “the servant of the Lord must not strive,” but he also said we must confront “those that oppose themselves … that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.” The New Testament Church was an intolerant church. ‘Intolerant’ is a scandalous word to use these days, for if there is anything that is in style among our ‘progressive’ churches it is that word ‘tolerance.’ You would think that intolerance was the unpardonable sin. We are majoring as never in all church history on being broad-minded. That we have become so broad we have become also pitifully shallow never seems to disturb us. We must ‘broaden or bust.’ Of course, some experts in tolerance can be amazingly intolerant of those who do not share their broad-mindedness, but that does not disturb them either.
“Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions.”
The spirit of tolerance has also corrupted many Christians, who believe “my opinion is just as valid as anyone else’s – I will live for God as I think best.” But the Bible is NOT a “tolerant book”! Others tolerate personal attitudes and sins, thinking “that’s just the way I am – I can’t change.” The spirit of the age says “My sin is not a big deal” but the Word says “You must be delivered!” And that God has ONLY ONE plan of deliverance—
Acts 2:38!
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