Tolerance in and of itself, is neither good nor evil. To be tolerant is therefore not necessarily a virtue! In our "politically correct" atheistic/pantheistic environment, we are led to believe otherwise. Somehow, by saying "I'm tolerant" one is supposed to have claimed the moral high ground and is, therefore, exempt from the necessity of taking an unpopular stand for truth. If you disagree with someone on the basis of absolute truth you are likely to have someone call you intolerant.

Tolerance must be defined by what one is tolerating before a judgment can be made about whether a particular act of tolerance is good or evil. Imagine a hospital administrator knowingly tolerating drug abuse, or patient abuse, by his nursing staff. Imagine the supervisor of air traffic controllers being tolerant of drunkenness on the part of his people. Is this tolerance good? We would be appalled at that kind of tolerance! However, when it comes to truths that affect our eternal destiny we are expected to play by a different set of rules that affirms tolerance as an end in itself.

TOLERANCE CONFUSED WITH LOVE

There was a seminar sponsored by a liberal ecumenical group that was entitled, "Tolerance is Next to Godliness." I didn't attend the seminar so I can't comment on what was said, but I found the title a possible indication of people confusing tolerance with love or other virtues of God.

Jesus was much more than simply tolerant of people, He was loving toward them. Sometimes this love displayed itself with gentleness and forgiveness as with the woman caught in adultery and the many people healed of various diseases. Other times this love demonstrated itself with verbal and physical rebuke. He addressed Peter as "Satan", called the Pharisees a "brood of vipers", and made a whip for use on the money changers in the temple. All of these were acts of love, though some were probably not perceived as such at the time. Much of what He did would today be considered "politically incorrect" and completely intolerant by those who have changed the cultural and pop usage of the word. Society changes and sways in the winds of political expediency. This doesn't alter the eternal nature of the example of Christ shown in His Word - the Bible. To know when to be strong and speak out as He did requires having His Spirit living inside of you giving you wisdom. His Spirit encourages us to be either gentle or forceful when appropriate. Jesus said that "Greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for a friend" so whatever actions or words we take must reflect this ultimate ethos of real love, and not just a sentimental or vague notion of it.

The basis for American civil rights originates with the founding fathers' belief in the Biblical concepts of God and man. On the one hand, they recognized the evil in men. Therefore, they knew the necessity of restraining evil through law and balanced government. On the other hand, they also knew man to be made in the image of God. They believed in the sanctity of life and the need for laws based on the love God commands all men to exhibit toward one another.

The idea of tolerance only came into play as it was defined by that which the law commanded for the common good. A Puritan family had to be tolerant of the Roman Catholic family's right to earn a living and to go about their business without being molested. However, it was not a requirement of good citizenship to agree to never publicly or privately challenge the beliefs of others.

As can be demonstrated, an unconditional notion of tolerance is not the basis for our civil rights in Western culture. Man-made walls of hatred and prejudice are not brought down by vague idealism. It was the Bible's Divine Authority, in defining ight and wrong, that America's founders relied on in making their laws. They also relied on the consensus of a pious, God-fearing populace to make their laws effective. When that consensus is eroded (as it is today) the effectiveness of our government is as well.

Jesus delighted in tearing down false man-made barriers to human interaction. The religious leaders of the Jews of His time had constructed a system that would not have allowed Him to interact with women as He did. Jesus crossed the gender gap by allowing a "sinful woman" to minister to him through physical contact. A Rabbi allowing this was unheard of in the community of the Pharisees.

As a first century Judean, Jesus was not supposed to interact with the hated Samaritans. Even so, He made the "good Samaritan" the centerpiece of His story about being a good neighbor. He also sat and talked with a Samaritan woman at the well. This shows God's desire for all people to be loving and kind toward each other, regardless of superficial racial or ethnic differences.

The Bible, unlike evolution, teaches that mankind originated through one man and one woman (see Genesis 3:20). Since all human beings are of one blood, God ommands all alike to come to repentance (see Acts 17:26-30). This universal absolute is the basis for true equality. God's ownership of human beings, by virtue of His creating them, gives God the moral right to decide how they ought to behave and what He will do with them if they don't.

Jesus taught us to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He also said to "love your enemies." Since Jesus was God, these pronouncements are universally applicable absolutes. When you pursue these simple formulas to their logical conclusions you will arrive at an excellent list of civil rights. This is all the mandate we need for civil rights protection to be extended to all men, regardless of their race, creed or religion.  We all want to be allowed to work, own a home, practice free speech, buy groceries, teach our children our values and have freedom to travel about unmolested. We consider these liberties good for ourselves. As Christians we should, therefore, want to see them applied to others, even to our enemies! This shows the graciousness of the Christian Gospel that has characterized the laws of all nations that have availed themselves of its influence. The law of love found in the Golden Rule, not the current notion of all-encompassing tolerance, is the ethical base on which our civil rights rest.

Not so long ago I spent a day with two very pleasant, interesting, and all-around nice individuals. One was a Deputy Consul General of the Israeli government and the other was the Vice President of the Illinois Zionist Organization. We arranged for them to address the Evangelical Ministerial Association, hold a press conference, and be interviewed on two Christian radio stations. Neither of these men profess a faith in Jesus as Saviour, yet we talked very openly and honestly about what we believed and what we held in common. We shared agreement on what Christian denominations were anti-Israel and which ones were not. Some would say we tolerated each others differences. It would be more appropriate to say we accepted each other's humanity by affirming our areas of agreement without ignoring our areas of disagreement.

Later in the day we arrived at a synagogue where the rabbi is liberal in his theology. He began by saying how he could get along with members of the very denominations that the three of us had agreed earlier were anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic in nature. He also said he couldn't get along with Evangelicals because of the disrespect we have shown the Jewish community.

How could this be when most Evangelicals love and support Israel on a Biblical basis? I believe the answer lies in the fact that liberal theologians usually don't ake a literal hermeneutic approach to interpreting the scriptures. This means that a liberal Catholic, Protestant, or Jew can find common ground in their denial of literalism. The disagreements are diffused because the seriousness of the points of contention are almost non-existent. At least they are not as important as a humanistic ideal of unity at all costs. Evangelicals and Orthodox Jewry cannot do this because they have sharp disagreements about Jesus and take the Biblical Word of God very seriously.

The rabbi referred to one of our Evangelical pastor's statements that Yom Kippur was a "sham holiday". I stated that I had heard that same pastor say we should stand by Israel, but I had never heard the "sham holiday" remark.. I said that it ay have been reference to the fact of Jesus being the final sacrifice for atonement . I went on to say we have a two thousand year old disagreement over Jesus. I told the rabbi that I affirmed Israel as a people, Jewish ethnicity, Israel's Biblical right to the land, and the Tanach. What I could not affirm was Rabbinical Judaism's Talmudic definitions and rejection of who Jesus is.

The rabbi asked me how I could go on radio and tell people not to attend the ecumenical prayer breakfasts he supports. I told him that as a leader in the Christian community I could not encourage my people to engage in idolatry. I said, "You invite Moslem clerics to lead in prayer to Allah, but Allah is NOT the God of Israel!" Finally, the meeting ended with some common ground found regarding general social ethics and morality.

God expects his followers to be as intolerant of evil as He is. Daniel was intolerant toward the command of the King to forsake his prayers. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not tolerant of the idol set before them. Jesus did not tolerate the Pharisee's man-made rules. The Apostle Paul did not tolerate error in his fellow Apostle Peter, but he publicly reproved him!

When you read the Bible, the first thing you run into is a holy God Who calls us to righteous discrimination. We are commanded to understand the differences between Him and false gods, God's people and Satan's people, and good and evil. We are also told that on judgment day God will discriminate between those who are saved and those who are not.

This type of discrimination has nothing to do with being hateful or violent toward people. It has everything to do with being obedient to Christ by being concerned about people's spiritual welfare. Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matt. 7:13,14) (NIV) This statement alone should stir our hearts to warn as many as we can of the impending destruction most people face. Christians have a more direct reason for doing this found in Christ's command to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...."

There are lots of excuses people give to get out of our obligation to witness to the lost. They say things like: "I'm tolerant and therefore I accept people as they are." "If I don't tolerate their false religion and keep quiet I might lose their business!" "If I confront that person about their going to hell I might lose them as a friend."

Keep in mind that Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me before men I will be ashamed of you before my Father" (Mark 8:38). We are also told that cowards will find a place in the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8). If cowardice governs your life you should question your relationship to Christ.

Jesus told us that anyone who attempts to approach God apart from Him is a robber and a thief (John 10:1-9). WHY? Because they are stealing the authority and the divine prerogative of the Creator. It is God's place alone to set the terms of our interaction with Him! Therefore, the accusation of theft applies to any false prophet. It also applies to one who robs God of His right to execute justice. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.

The Apostle Paul tells us to have nothing to do with someone who calls himself a brother but engages in immorality (1 Cor.5:9-11). Jesus calls those who would teach a different approach to God immoral by using the terms robber and thief. This tells us we must not be a part of any organization or group of people that promotes false ways of salvation. We cannot tolerate being affiliated with those Christ would accuse of being accomplices to a crime.

Some say, "Who am I to ever say someone is going to hell?" The Holy Spirit tells us to not be yoked together with unbelievers (2 Cor.6:14-17). We are also told not to take a fellow believer to court (1 Cor.5:13-6:8). In order to obey these commands we must be able to know and say who is a Christian and who is not.  A non-Christian is, at the moment, on his or her way to hell as we all once were!

These scriptures also point out the fact that there is a difference between how we interact and relate with other Christians as opposed to unbelievers. "Do good unto all men, especially those who are of the household of faith." (Galatians 6:10 emphasis mine). This means that goodness and mercy should be shown to all people but there is a sense in which we need to especially go out of our way to make sure we love our fellow Christians.

The Apostle Paul does not forbid us to associate with the immoral of this world in normal social contacts (1 Cor. 5:9-10). However, only those who are believers should be allowed into the innermost parts of your life as close friends. Jesus said o, "Cast not your pearls before swine lest they trample them underfoot and turn on you and rend you." (Matt. 7:6) This tells us that there are things we can share with our brothers and sisters in Christ that will make no sense to those who are on the outside. If you try to share some of what's in this article with a non- Christian you will probably anger them and be called "intolerant."

UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT DANGER

Finally, we must understand where our culture is at spiritually. We are living at a time when men are calling evil good and good evil. We must not succumb to the foolish notion that tolerating every conceivable idea will bring peace and safety. Several years ago Dr. Wayne House and I attended a conference held in Memphis, Tennessee on anti-Christian bias in the media. Dr. House addressed the conference as did Columnist Cal Thomas, Congressman Bill Dannemeyer, and Rabbi Yehuda Levin, an orthodox Jewish rabbi from New York. The rabbi was there because he compares what is happening to Christians in America to what happened in the thirties to the Jews living in Nazi Germany.

We need to be supportive of efforts to protect our freedom in this country. While supporting the cause of defending political freedom in the judiciary, we must not do so to the neglect of apologetics evangelism. We must encourage the former ithout neglecting the latter.

In the name of "tolerance" zoning laws forbid churches to build lest they offend the non-christians, cities are forced to remove symbols of America's Christian heritage from official emblems, history books are being re-written to mock Christian heroes of the past and those who protest the killing of unborn babies are mistreated by police. A homosexual group in Oregon, touting their agenda under the guise of tolerance, issued a poster with the Christian fish symbol in the middle of a bulls-eye. The words underneath declare that if an anti-homosexual law is passed they will "shoot the fish."

Remember, it is many times those who stress the word tolerance that attack bsolute values about the Person of God and Jesus and those who hold them. Ironically in the name of promoting tolerance they undermine a person's devotion to "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you" which has been the chief cause of tolerance and kindly love in the western world. Even under their own humanistic definition of the word, they are very intolerant indeed! We must steel ourselves against their attacks and always be ready to de-fuse their use of the word "tolerance" as a way of silencing we who would disagree with them.

Speaking the Truth In Love:

THE DESIRE: To eternally exist in a consciously joyful and pleasant state after death. This necessitates the avoidance of any deserved punishment for one's individual sins against a personal, perfectly righteous and just Creator.

THE NEED: All men have sinned, and therefore, all are in danger of this judgment. Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God."

THE SOLUTION: Jesus, our Creator, the Second Person of the Triune God, allowed Himself to be crucified in payment for all the sins of mankind. By rising physically from the dead He showed us that God was satisfied with His sacrificial payment for our sins. An individual becomes right with God by trusting in Christ and His sacrifice. You can show this trust by asking Him to save you from the tyranny of sin and The Lord's just punishment of our sins. Since He exists everywhere you can simply talk to Him. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved " -Romans 10:13.

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