DIVINE INTOLERANCE

By Curt Tilleraas

”This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those in whom he is well pleased!” (Luke 2:12-14)

     When I was a child I was taught that there is only one God, and that people either worship false gods or they worship the one true God. In the Old Testament it is made clear from the get-go that (1) our God is a jealous God, and (2) that anyone who desires to receive the Lord’s protection and promises must abandon the worship of all other gods.
     The revelation of God as a jealous God was not lost in the New Testament, either. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find Jesus speaking about the equality of the gods or saying anything that might be construed as meaning that all paths lead to His Father. In fact, He says just the opposite: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.” In both the Old and the New Testament there is never any doubt about the fact that the worship of false gods is an abomination – and it’s a sure recipe for disaster.  
     Today we hear the word “tolerance” shouted from the rooftops by religious and political leaders, as if the word “tolerance” were another name for God. We are told that we must, at all costs, be tolerant of those whose beliefs are different than our own. This is well and good for us as citizens of a free country, and the Christian virtue of humility ought to make us tolerant enough to satisfy almost any civil libertarian. But let us never forget that we serve a loving and intolerant God – the God who reveals in Holy Scripture that the only way to reach Him is through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We may put up signs telling God where He can and cannot go – what He can and cannot say – and what He can and cannot do -- but God Himself is free to travel wherever He pleases – to do whatever He pleases – and say whatever He pleases. Our signs mean little if anything to Him; but His signs ought to mean everything to us. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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