Thursday, March 2, 2017

The Intolerance of the Gospel

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is intolerant, as a matter of fact, the whole Bible is intolerant, on purpose.  When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai, the first commandment was straightforward in its exclusive claim, "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3).  In a similar vein, the prophet Isaiah wrote, "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth." (Isaiah 37:16)  The fundamental understanding of who God is, clearly stated throughout the Hebrew scriptures, is that there is only one God, that no other gods exist.
The New Testament takes up this refrain and amplifies it even further with the exclusive "I Am" statements of Jesus, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)  There is absolutely no way to honor the words of Jesus other than admitting that this is an exclusive claim, one that is by its very nature, intolerant of other attempts to bridge the gap between the human and the divine.  Jesus exclusively claimed that he was the path to God, the only true God, and that all other paths must fail.  This is intolerant, it does not embrace the notion that people can believe whatever they want, for in that same sentence Jesus also declared himself to be "the truth".
Racism, hatred, cruelty, and unkindness have nothing to do with the Gospel, the people of God must always oppose them, vigorously, the exclusivity of the Gospel and such immoral behaviors have nothing in common.  The Gospel is indeed intolerant of false hope and false promises, it must be, for there is only one truth, to pretend otherwise would only harm those who do not yet believe.

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