EXPOSING THE FOLLOWERS OF A TOLERANT ‘JESUS’ WHO TOLERATE EVERYTHING BUT INTOLERANCE! ~ EXPOSING HYPOCRISY ~ Part 6

Dictionary.com defines tolerance as: (1) a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry. (2) a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from one’s own. (3) interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one’s own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint. (4) the act or capacity of enduring; endurance.

 

According to these definitions, was Jesus tolerant? What percentage of those who profess to follow the biblical Jesus would say this is an apt definition of Jesus’ character? What percentage of those who profess to follow the biblical Jesus actually know who He is or what they profess to believe?

 

Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019. In a 2015 survey, 75% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians, 70.6% in 2014, 78% in 2012, 81.6% in 2001, and 85% in 1990. (Wikipedia)

Survey Article 

In this fascinating article from October 2016, linked above entitled, Survey Finds Most American Christians Are Actually Heretics, a survey of 3,000 people conducted by LifeWay Research and commissioned by Ligonier Ministries found that “although Americans still overwhelmingly identify as “Christian”, startling percentages of the nation embrace ancient errors condemned by all major Christian traditions. These are not minor points of doctrine, but core ideas that define Christianity itself. The really sad part? Even when we’re denying the divinity of Christ, we can’t keep our story straight. Americans talking about theology sound about as competent as country singers rapping.”

 

The article went on to further state that seventy percent of the participants ranging from across socioeconomic and racial backgrounds agreed there’s only one true God. Yet sixty-four percent also thought this God accepts the worship of all religions, including those that believe in many gods. Sixty percent agreed that “everyone eventually goes to heaven,” but half also checked the box saying that “only those who believe in Jesus will be saved.”

 

The author, G. Shane Morris, says, “It’s one thing for Americans in general to lack basic theological knowledge. After all, many of the 75 percent of the country who call themselves Christians don’t take their faith that seriously, and the rest are either members of other religions, or have no religion. But what about those who wear their Christianity on their sleeve? Surely such a group—evangelicals, for instance—would perform much better.”

 

So, they used more stringent criteria for evangelical faith and polled only those who called the Bible their highest authority, said personal evangelism is important, and indicated that trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross is the only way of salvation, and were labeled “evangelical”. There were 586 who took this survey. The results were shocking.

 

Seven in ten evangelicals said that Jesus was the first being God created. Fifty-six percent agreed that “the Holy Spirit is a divine force but not a personal being.” Twenty-eight percent, up from 9 percent, indicated that the Third Person of the Trinity is not equal with God the Father or Jesus. “As before, it’s really the contradictory answers, not the outright heresies, that should most concern us.” By definition, the evangelicals in this survey believed that “only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation. Yet nearly half agreed that “God accepts the worship of all religions including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”

 

Two-thirds of the evangelicals said heaven is a place where all people will ultimately be reunited with their loved ones. Many see no contradiction between their casual universalism and the evangelical creed that salvation comes through faith in Christ alone.

 

Many will say, “Does it really matter what I believe as long as I believe in Jesus? As long as I believe in God?” God’s Word tells us that it definitely matters what one believes in order to have saving faith. When the repentant, Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” their response was: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”  What does it mean to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

We already saw in James 2:19 that the demons believe that there is one God. If someone only believes that there is a God in heaven, he or she has the exact same faith as the demons. Obviously, that’s not saving faith. Simon the sorcerer ‘believed and was baptized’ under Philip’s preaching (Acts 8:13). Later, Peter’s testimony about Simon was that his heart was not right before God. Judas appeared to follow the true Jesus for several years before his lack of true saving faith was evidenced by his betrayal of our Lord without a repentant heart. We saw in Matthew 7 that many who have professed to do great things in His name on earth will one day stand before Him, and His words, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness,” will ring in their ears for all eternity. There are so many more proof texts I could cite here.

 

The question becomes, how does one believe in the Lord Jesus? How do we come to believe in anyone? We must get to know them. Notice in the Matthew 7 passage we looked at that the first thing people will try to offer Jesus on judgment day is the good deeds they have done in His name. Their whole confidence of salvation is in these good works. They called Him ‘Lord’ in life, but only those who call Him Lord and do the will of His Father will enter the kingdom of heaven. We can only know what the Father’s will is when we study His Word. Jesus puts His finger on the one thing that will shut all mouths on that day when He says, “I never knew you.” In other words, “I never had an intimate relationship with you.” We can claim to know a lot of people, but to have an intimate relationship with them is far different. In John 14:23, Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.” Only those who are in Christ can do good works (that are truly good works) by His power and strength in them. No one apart from Christ would ever even have a desire to do good works in His name for His glory.

 

All false religion is works-based. All religious hypocrites have one thing in common. They are trying to save themselves. But they do not understand that the chasm is too deep. We have fallen too far. We are born dead in Adam, and anything less than new life in Christ will not make the slightest difference to our eternal destiny. The reality is that man’s efforts to save himself are futile and will result in eternal death. To believe anything outside what the Bible tells us is to deceive ourselves.

 

Often when we evangelize, we ask: “Why should God allow you into His kingdom?” The response often given is, “Well, I hope I have lived a good life. I hope on that day my good works will outweigh my bad works. I hope I am good enough.” But how good is good enough? No one is able to live a good life apart from Christ because only God is good. According to God’s standard of righteousness, we must be perfect or holy as He is holy. That’s why in Matthew 5:20, Jesus taught His disciples, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” The people viewed scribes and Pharisees as the religious elite—THE most holy or righteous people in their world.

 

No amount of good works can outweigh our offenses against a holy God. We can’t begin to understand the depth and magnitude of sinfulness that is in each one of us. We can deceive ourselves and rationalize all we want. For those who want to stand in their own righteousness on judgment day, know this: When your sinful heart is exposed—every thought, every deed, every word—there will be no excuses before the Judge. Only God’s standard of righteousness will stand. Only those who stand before God in the righteousness of Christ will enter His Kingdom.

 

The Almighty will judge the deeds done in this life because our works reflect what we value. We do what we want to do; we act according to our desires. Wrong desires that lead to wrong deeds confirm the fact that hearts are wicked. Those who don’t stand in His presence perfectly righteous are headed for eternity apart from Him. The words, “Depart from Me…I never knew you,” will echo in the minds of those who were a law unto themselves for all eternity. In order to do good deeds, we need a new heart, a heart after God’s own heart that desires righteousness. We must be born again from above! This is the truth of God. Yet, many see it as judgmentalism and dogmatism.

 

Jesus did say, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-6) In verses 12 He says: “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” In verse 15 He warns His disciples to “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” Obviously, Jesus was not saying we are not to have good judgment or be discerning, but we are not to be self-righteously judgmental. There’s a difference, as we shall see.

 

“Foul! Jesus said we are not to judge!” is often proclaimed loudly against Christians who attempt to speak the truth in love. We live in a society that demands that we tolerate everyone’s viewpoints…when it comes to religion. We are supposed to believe that tolerance is the theme of the day. But is it really? Just how much tolerance is given to anyone who has been accused of a crime in this country before they have been tried and convicted? We are encouraged to be tolerant of each other’s political viewpoints until we actually voice that viewpoint to the other party. There is a reason why we’ve all been taught at some point that there are two things we should never talk about—religion and politics. Is the world really tolerant? Or is there another agenda to shut the mouths of just some? According to the definition above, people are not to be dogmatic or exclusive. True Christianity is both. In order to further the antichrist agenda in this world, to avoid being labeled intolerant themselves, those who are allowed to voice their politically correct viewpoint accuse those they deem to be intolerant as speaking out a false narrative. Apparently, it’s better to couch ‘intolerance’ under a label of liar. Why? Because morally nobody tolerates a liar! The agenda is to shut the mouths of or cancel those who should not be tolerated! The first step in shutting us down is to make it clear to us that we need to keep our beliefs to ourselves. However, that is contrary to what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. And we must obey God rather than man. History reveals the next steps.

 

Jesus was not tolerant when it came to false religion, false prophets or teachers, the lies they spewed forth, or anything under the realm of the kingdom of darkness. Jesus said, “Beware of them!” We must remember that whenever anyone spoke error or lies in the presence of Truth, never did Jesus say, “Let’s have a conversation about that.”