Dakota Community Church
July 11, 2010
Tolerance – Part 1
We live in an age of tolerance.
Political correctness has obliterated common sense to the point that most people think it is a basic human right not to be offended.
Examples from the internet:
Another street preacher in the U.K. has been arrested simply for proclaiming Christian teachings about the sinfulness of homosexual behaviour. Dale Mcalpine says he was handing out leaflets in the Cumbrian town of Workington on April 20, when he was approached by passers-by and a police community support officer (PCSO) who identified himself as a homosexual. In the course of the conversation Mcalpine, 42, told them that it is his belief that homosexuality is a sin because it is contrary to the word of God in the Bible. The Daily Mail reports that police said he had said this in a “loud voice” that could be overheard by others.
The town of Spring Lake, Michigan, near Grand Haven, has become the front line in the ongoing war from Progressivism. Christ Community Church has changed its named to the C3 Exchange and has removed its cross. Pastor Ian Lawton claims this was done to reflect its diverse membership. “Our community has been a really open-minded community for some years now. We’ve has a number of Muslim people, Jewish people, Buddhists, atheists, we’re catching up to ourselves.” Removing the cross, as well as the name of Christ from the church may not be the only changes. Lawton is considering painting images of a heart and a globe on the exterior walls. On March 21 of this year, Lawton gave a sermon where he compared using the cross as a symbol of Christ to that of using a bullet to remember Martin Luther King, Jr.
Todd Bentley of Lakeland revival fame is now talking with the “banker angel”, already back in ministry despite his fall and the false testimonies of dead rising - At the height of what many called a revival, WORLD asked Bentley to talk about the healings, like Fogle’s, and asked for a list of people who had been healed at the services. His associates told me Bentley was out of the country and a list could not be produced. But six weeks and more than a dozen requests later, the ministry eventually sent a list of 13 names. Fogle was No. 12 on the list, along with this note: "Healed through the Outpouring and is back to fishing." - That was on Aug. 8, 2008. There was just one problem. Two weeks earlier, on July 22, Christopher A. Fogle—according to his obituary in the Keokuk (Iowa) Daily Gate City, "left this life . . . after a courageous battle with cancer."
Consider these intolerant sounding warnings from the Word of God:
Colossians 2:18
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
2 Peter 2:1-3
1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up.
Shane Hipps, who is now Rob Bell’s co-pastor at Mars Hill Bible church in Grand Rapids teaches that all religions are valid and that even Osama Bin Laden has the divine spark within him. In a recent sermon he said the Christianity is merely one of the “sails” that may be used to catch the wind of God’s Spirit.
According to any postmodern way of thinking, dogmatism is to be avoided at all costs; diversity is to be cultivated no matter what, and tolerance means never having to say anyone is wrong.
That’s not "tolerance"; that’s unbelief.
We avoid the truth claims of Christianity because we are afraid of being seen as narrow minded or intolerant.
An Issue of Definition
Tolerance has come to mean the acceptance of every viewpoint as equally true and valid.
THAT IS NOT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE TOLERANT!
True tolerance means treating with integrity dignity and humility a person whose opinion I consider to be untrue and invalid.
Tolerance says, “Although I strongly disagree with your position that isn’t going to stop me from talking to you, living beside you, or traveling with you on the bus.”
Christianity is not the only religion with “truth claims”.
Hindu’s believe in an eternal human soul – Buddhists’ do not believe in the existence of a soul.
A tolerant Buddhist is not one who accepts as true the Hindu belief of an eternal soul. That would require the Buddhist to cease from being a Buddhist.
The tolerant Buddhist rejects the Hindu teaching of an eternal soul but treats the Hindu with dignity and respect.
Quotes:
John Stott, whom Billy Graham called the “most respected clergyman” in the world today; teaches the importance of tolerance. Legal tolerance and social tolerance, but of intellectual tolerance, he says,
“Intellectual tolerance that cultivates a mind so broad that it can tolerate any opinion without ever detecting anything in it to reject is not a virtue, but the vice of the feeble minded.”
G.K. Chesterton said,
“Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions.”
It’s not arrogant to have firm, immovable biblical convictions. In fact, it is our duty to be precise and thorough in our doctrine, and to come to strong, mature, biblically-informed convictions.
Colossians 1:21-23
21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[f] your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
We are not to be "children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine"
Ephesians 4:11-14
11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
Stability is a good and precious virtue—a necessary virtue for church leaders especially.
2 Peter 3:15-18
Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It is not intolerance to stand firmly for the truth.
I will fight for your right to preach what you believe; I do not believe that other religious views should be silenced – that is tolerance in a free society; HOWEVER, it is not intolerant to disagree with those religious views or to call them false.
Inside the Church we must hold false teachers accountable.
1 Timothy 1:3,4,19,20
3As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith.
…19holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. 20Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
What about:
1. What about the “no judging” passages?
False teachers use the do not judge passages to avoid being held accountable.
A.) If you are going to do what I just did a few minutes ago to Shane Hipps or Todd Bentley, you have to go to them privately because of what it says in Matthew 18.
Matthew 18:15-17
15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ’every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
This passage is dealing with relationships between individuals in the church.
You go in private because the offense may not be true. “Show him his fault, just between the two of you.”
Maybe you are the one who is at fault; you may have misjudged the situation.
(Jake and I on Facebook)
If you cannot get satisfaction you call in witnesses and finally it becomes a church matter.
When dealing with a public teaching there is no need to establish the facts – they are public record!
Acts 15:1-11
1Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
6The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
