The group that claims to be on the side of tolerance is displaying itself to be the side of increasing intolerance (just Google the CEO of Mozilla, Chick-fil-A, etc).
Jesus was, and is very tolerant of your “right” to sin. If you don’t believe in sin, you are entitled to that belief. You have the “right” to do whatever your heart desires while it still beats on this earth.
In a fight, there are usually only two sides: The red coats vs. the blue coats, the blue vs. the gray, etc. In the gay rights or the “equal rights for all” fight, one side fights against gay marriage and the other fights for gay marriage.
God may oppose your decision to engage in homosexual marriage, but He does not currently oppose your right to marry whomever you desire.
A fair amount of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Roman soldiers who opposed Christ were intolerant to the point of committing physical violence or oppression. Christ’s true disciples, followers, and most of those who agreed with Christ did not seek to physically harm those who disagreed with them.
Is there not a difference between spiritual/mental intolerance and physical intolerance?
Spiritual/mental intolerance means although you disagree with a group, you will not physically force them to yield to your point of view. You may vote on the side of “freedom” yet you will not physically attempt to remove or change an individual who’s position does not affect your right to sin in any way.
Physical intolerance is pretty self-explanatory: you will actively seek to physically enforce your point of view against those who oppose your point of view. You will not stop until the physical removal of the individual that disagrees with your beliefs is accomplished. Whether that is their removal from public government or a private company, etc., the end goal is the same.
Very unfortunately, many will march and wage physical war under the banner of “Christianity.” Whether they are true believers, or whether they have just hijacked the name of Christ, they actually march against the example of Christ’s love for mankind.
“Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Although the verse above references laying down one’s life for his “friends,” it is still an amazing concept of true love. God further exhorts His children to:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
At the very least, those who claim to be followers of Christ should aim to accomplish their endeavors through Christ’s example of love, and not Satan’s example of hate. (Below, this article will reference the Antichrist’s coming example of a fake and hypocritical love, an example followed by many of today’s politicians.)
However, make no mistake, even if you love the enemies of Christ with the love of Christ, they will still seek to destroy you! After all, it was Christ Himself whom the world attempted to destroy. The only physical embodiment of the truest love that ever walked on this earth was brutally murdered.
Christ is on no one man’s side, He is too holy for that. (A man is capable of being on Christ’s side, but God is no respecter of persons as it relates to our own righteousness.) He did not come to this earth to enforce His commandments. He came to this earth to die in our place because we do not keep His commandments. We all still live under the authority of His grace.
God is too holy to hate people in the same way that people hate people. He knows the intimate thoughts of every heart of every person on earth. He is far “above” our own understanding of our fellow human (Proverbs 3:5-7). Yes, one side or the other may proclaim an alignment with most of God’s commandments, but that does not necessarily mean that they are representatives of God Himself.
God will not declare a single person on earth to be righteous based upon their own works. (If we publicly perform good works, God still sees all of our privately performed bad works.) We are all sinners.
We are all tangled up in a giant ball of varying degrees of unrighteousness together. The devil splits us up according to the flesh, one side against the other. Christ splits us up according to the Truth, those who support Him and those who don’t.
Mankind is split by the blade of the sword that Jesus brought to this earth (Matthew 10:34). Satan is the blade that divides the hatred of both sides. Christ is the blade that divides those who love Him against those who hate Him.
To end up as the blade of Christ, you must accept His righteousness for you. That’s it, plain and simple.
Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7)? If you have then you likely know that the phrase was uttered by Jesus Himself. A woman was brought before Him after she was caught in the act of adultery. The hate filled religious leaders sought to trap Jesus with the ultimate goal of condemning Him for being soft on her sin.
Her punishment according to the law was execution by stoning. The Pharisees deliberately prodded Jesus to decide her fate. As stated above, His judgment was that among their group whoever was perfect should throw the first stone. As none of the accusers were perfect, each left, one by one.
After all of the woman’s accusers had departed, Jesus was left alone with her. He concluded His judgment of her by asking where had all of her accusers gone and by asking her if anyone was left to condemn her. She replied that no one was left to condemn her. He replied that neither did He condemn her.
However, His last phrase spoken to her is the key, He told her to: “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). He clearly does not want her to sin but He doesn’t physically try to stop her. God is a God of liberty, freedom, and choice. He leaves the choice as to whether you will choose Him or choose sin, up to you.
In America, we have laws and a form of governance based upon biblical morality. Most citizens would agree that when the majority of our laws are broken, the resulting crimes could also be called sins. Crimes like theft, fraud, vandalism, arson, assault, rape, murder, etc. are usually viewed as sins. It is by God’s grace that the American justice system is in place. Unfortunately, through the choices of human beings, it is far from perfect and filled with injustice, but as a whole, it keeps most of our communities safe.
However, God does not advocate His church to institute itself as the head of a theocratic form of world government. Yet that is exactly what some true Christians find themselves supporting at the behest of many untrue Christians, and that is exactly goal of Satan. He will accomplish his goal of a new religious and world order through the deceptive “love” of the Antichrist.
Satan certainly understands that he has to use a fake hypocritical “love” to deceive mankind. One can only surmise that Satan tried to accomplish his own brand of theocracy through the brutality of the Roman Catholic inquisition, and that did not work. According to Satan’s definition of heresy, if you stand against him you are a heretic and you must die.
It is not until the coming millennial reign of Christ that the world will be under direct, divine physical rule. When King Jesus rules over all the earth from His throne, the earth will be at peace because its Ruler will institute perfect justice.
Until then, we American believers can thank God for what remains of justice, peace, and prosperity in our country and continue to keep our faith in heaven. We can continue to trust that God is storing up treasures for us in heaven, and not necessarily here on earth.
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).