Tolerance or nonsense

Acts 4:13-20 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. (14) But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. (15) But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, (16) saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. (17) But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” (18) So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. (19) But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, (20) for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John were told by the rulers , elders, and scribes to speak no more about Jesus. Why? They did not want the message about Jesus, that Peter and John were proclaiming to spread any further because their religion and their beliefs were being challenged. Their message about Jesus was a message that was in conflict with their religious dogma and it threatened their power. Peter and John were making exclusive truth claims. Peter and John boldly stated that they were compelled to obey God and not men and continue to proclaim the truth.

This truth is also under tremendous attack today in our post-modern culture. Truth is deemed relative and hard to know for certain. Freedom of religion has been a hallmark in America since the beginning of the country, and tolerance is the concept that freedom of religion rests. Religious tolerance means to have a permissive attitude toward beliefs that you do not agree with and consider wrong. However, an ever-growing number in our post-modern society consider this view to be intolerant. Since many claim truth is relative, it is considered intolerant to believe your truth is correct and someone with a different truth belief is wrong. Post-modern thinking asserts that two conflicting religious views must both be considered valid in order to be tolerant. This nonsense is pervasive in our country as most political, media and university leaders all affirm that accepting the validity of conflicting religious beliefs is necessary to be politically correct and tolerant. Perhaps this illogical nonsense reached a pinnacle when Bill Mahr said on the Bill O’Reilly show, “I hate it when people tolerate intolerance.” There you have it. The only thing left not to tolerate is intolerance. Bible believing brothers and sisters we are considered intolerant for not affirming other religions as being valid and true. Many that claim to be Christians have already adopted this PC view. For example, Larry King loves to ask Christians of all stripes if Jesus is the only way to salvation. It seems very few will say without reservation yes Larry that is true, and many will openly assert that God is so loving and big that he surely has provided many ways to salvation. The result of this politically correct gobbly gook is that everyone who claims Christianity as the only truth and only way are marginalized as fundamentalist, conservative, literalists, born again, intolerant, etc. Further those holding these views are called dangerous and in many cases compared to being as dangerous as Islamic Jihadists.

We are now faced with the same decision that Peter and John faced. Are we going to conform so as to be acceptable by the world or are we going to listen to God? The pressure to conform is increasing as we speak.

What do you think?