John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father, except through me.”
Are you a tolerant person? It’s a loaded question, isn’t it?! The above pronouncement is one of many in the Bible that most people in our relativist post-modern age find totally outrageous and offensive.
A few generations ago, tolerance involved disagreeing with someone but insisting on their right to have and express an opinion contrary to one’s own. I might not agree with Muslims, or Communists or Neo-Conservatives or whoever, but they had a right to express their own beliefs, which could be challenged in open debate. Tolerance was directed towards the individual, even if they were advocating something so abhorrent as paedophilia, because under the modernist paradigm, it was assumed that the truth would come out from amongst whatever proliferation of competing ideas.
Under post-modernity, however, toleration itself has been redefined, such that you cannot say that anyone is wrong. How totally intolerant that would be! Now tolerance involves all viewpoints and positions, not the individual’s viewpoint. We’re no longer in a position to say that any viewpoint is wrong; indeed such thinking becomes the only thing that is not to be tolerated.
With such a pervasive redefining of what constitutes tolerance, followers of Jesus – indeed anyone who believes in absolute truth as they see it – cannot avoid being labeled intolerant. We come along and say this view of tolerance is wrong, but under this view of tolerance we are being intolerant and therefore should not be tolerated. We are thus labeled bigots.
When unpacked like this, we can see how flawed a foundation our culture now rests on. Everything is up for grabs, and can be redefined – indeed we can see this taking place under our very eyes. We can feel intimidated, cowed, or ashamed. But no! “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:5). Stand firm on the Rock of Ages.
Unchanging God, help me be unashamed in speaking the truth in love today. Amen!
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