That is the big word these days. Everyone is taught to be tolerant. It is a much more limited tolerance than was taught in the 60’s and 70’s. In the old testament God commanded Israel to be intolerant of other people and their gods.
Deuteronomy 7:1 When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,
2 and Yahweh your God shall deliver them before you, you shall crush them, completely destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
That is pretty intolerant of the people who possessed the land. All that is different now in the new covenant since God loves everyone now right?
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship does righteousness have with lawlessness? And what partnership does light have with darkness?
15 And what agreement does Christ have with Belial (worthlessness)? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
17 Therefore come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing. And I will receive you
18 and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
Even after this verse I have still been asked, “but Christ loves everyone and is tolerant of everyone right?”
Luke 19:27 But those who are my enemies, who did not desire that I should reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.
I think that if you start looking through the new testament for other similar statements one might get a little different impression than the “God loves everyone” idea.
The Bible says that God hated Esau. Malachi 1:3, Romans 9:13
The Bible says that God does “hate all workers of iniquity” (lawlessness). Psalms 5:5
The Bible says that God hates “A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren”. Proverbs 6:16, 19
Our God is not tolerant of polytheism, but Christians these days praise such tolerance. There is a recreation of an ancient temple in the city nearby. According to God’s law that temple should not exist. As in Paul’s day we can walk through town as if it were Athens and see temples to just about any god one can imagine.
Ah, but don’t we all just worship the same God in different ways?
1 John 2:23 Everyone who denies the Son neither has the Father. The one confessing the Son also has the Father.
2 John 1:9 Everyone transgressing and not abiding in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son.
Does that sound tolerant? One must ask just how tolerant is “You shall have no other gods before Me.”, Exodus 20:3? Surely no one thinks that law has been done away by God!?
Tim