Obama a "Devout Christian"?

[Straw Man]

I think I get it now

Judge not lest you be judged......unless you really want to then go ahead a judge.

That's about all I can figure out from all the mumbo jumbo and non answers that you've given me

[Colossus_500]

Bum/Colussus,

Your God has told you not to judge others yet here you are (one of you) judging the faith of another Christian.

WHY?

Simple fucking question

pump the breaks...pump the breaks....no need for a temper tantrum  (lol, for a second there, I thought my 2yr-old was ranting...hahaha)

here's the quickest think I could find that best articulates my point.  It's a devotional from Harvest ministries (Greg Laurie) or harvest.org  It's up to you to read it though:

Tolerance

America has cut her eyeteeth on the philosophy that mankind’s greatest goal is to be happy—no matter what the cost. We have become a society that has put happiness above holiness. As individuals we decide what is wrong and what is right, we decide our own morality. Man’s philosophy is, “You have your morality, and I have my morality. If your morality makes you happy and if my morality makes me happy . . . that’s all that matters!”

The fact of the matter is people who think this way have no morality at all. You tell them that and they might say, “I have a morality. I do whatever I please. That’s my morality.” Doing whatever one wants is not morality. Morality is doing what is right based upon a rule of conduct, a set of standards, moral absolutes. These people either can’t or don’t want to distinguish between right and wrong, or they simply choose to follow their own set of standards and live according to their own rules. As Dr. Francis Schaeffer once said, “These people have both feet firmly planted in the air.”

This philosophy of living according to your own rules of morality is encouraged by many. Today teachers, school administrators, and politicians will encourage our students to choose from a smorgasbord of what they term as morally equivalent life-styles such as homosexuality, adultery, premarital promiscuity.

This smorgasbord morality tramples on anyone who holds to moral absolutes, particularly the Christian. Yet, in many ways they are fulfilling the words of Paul in Romans 1:32, “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (emphasis added).

Today we live in a society of mixed-up and messed up priorities. We as a nation are so eager to work on our national economy, and so afraid to work on our national morality. Our problems are not the result of our economy, but the result of our immorality. Someone once said, “People are not committing crimes or engaging in rampant immorality because the capital gains tax is too high or interest rates aren’t where they should be. People commit crimes because they willfully choose to commit crime.” Money, or the lack of, is nothing but an excuse for committing the crime.

A word we hear often, and one that is used so casually in newspapers, the media, the workplace, and even our children’s classrooms today is the word tolerance. In fact, it’s almost mandatory now-a-days that all employees attend Sensitivity Classes in order to learn tolerance. But just what is tolerance? Webster defines tolerance as, to allow or to permit; to recognize and respect the beliefs and practices of others without sharing them; to bear or put up with someone or something not necessarily liked.

Tolerance involves permitting or allowing a conduct or point of view you think is wrong, while respecting the person in the process. Someone defined it this way, “Tolerance is the ability to let other people be happy in their own way.”

If you stop and think about it, that’s a very frightening definition. If you saw your child playing with a rattlesnake even though he appeared to be happy, would you be tolerant and say, “Look at my little child how happy he is playing with the little rattlesnake?” Of course not! You would run and snatch your child from the presence of the snake, or do what you could to kill the snake. Why? Because the snake just might harm, if not kill your child. And yet society has taken pride in this word—tolerance, because after all, “Who are we to pass judgment on others? We need to tolerate them.”

Stop and think with me for moment. We cannot tolerate others unless we disagree with them, or to use their own words, pass judgment on them. We don’t tolerate people who share our views because we agree with them. Instead tolerance is reserved for those we think are wrong. Therefore if we think someone is wrong because we disagree with them we’re called intolerant.

This presents us with a problem. For me to be intolerant, I must judge someone as wrong. Yet, I must first think another person as wrong in order to be tolerant. It’s a catch-22. According to this approach true tolerance is impossible and cannot exist.

Are we to stand by and watch a parent beat his child or a husband beat his wife? Are we to observe a liquor store robbery without calling the police? Shouldn’t we just tolerate these things? Of course not! Why not? Because these things are wrong. As a society we have never tolerated wrong behavior, nor have we ever had to tolerate good behavior. We simply accept it.

The word tolerance can be equated w/ the word—respect. We’re to respect people who hold different views than our own. We’re to treat them courteously even though we may strongly disagree with them. We’re to always respect the person, but tolerating the behavior is a different story. Our laws demonstrate this very fact.

People today say that we shouldn’t legislate morality but that’s exactly what we do, and so we should. All laws impose a moral code. For example, there are certain drivers who might want to drive too fast all the time, but a responsible government will nonetheless set speed limits. These speed limits are boundaries set in order that the speeder will be protected as well as the other drivers on the road.

No one knows better than you that the government restricts the actions of people all the time. We pass laws against murder, rape, assault, child abuse, stealing, etc. Why? Because these things are wrong. Not only does our law say they’re wrong, but God’s Word says they’re wrong. They have always been wrong, they will continue to be wrong, and we are not to tolerate these acts.

When it comes to dealing with evil behavior in our society that destroys others, tolerance is the one thing we cannot tolerate. Tolerating harmful behavior is not only wrong, but it’s unloving. Love requires more than tolerance. It requires action. The Bible says, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9; emphasis added). The truth of the matter is if we don’t fight evil behavior that destroys innocent people, then our families, our communities, our society will not survive.

Tolerance might be looked at as a virtue to some people but love is a greater one. Tolerance says, “Hold your nose and put up with the behavior.” Love says, “Reach out and help them to change their behavior.” Tolerance is not the answer. Love is. We love others not by giving them what they want, but by giving them what they need in order that they can live a safe and productive life.

Are we to be tolerant? Or are we to be intolerant? The answer to those two questions is — yes and yes. Let’s see what the Bible teaches about tolerance.

The Bible teaches tolerance and intolerance

God is a God of tolerance, and a God of intolerance. His first act of intolerance was in heaven when Lucifer wanted to be like God. What did God do? He cast him out of heaven.

We see God’s tolerance and intolerance in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. God showed intolerance to sin by removing this couple from the garden. And He showed His tolerance by not killing them. He had told them not to eat from the tree because the day that you do, “you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

God was intolerant to the sin, yet He remained tolerant to the man. How? By putting him outside the garden. Had God allowed Adam and Eve to stay in the garden they would have eaten from the tree of life, and thereby would forever remain in sin separated from God with no hope of ever having fellowship with Him again. God remained tolerant to man by providing a way back to Him. As it’s been said, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.”

In Exodus and Deuteronomy we read about the Ten Commandments. God says if we obey His commandments, He will bless us, but if we disobey them, He will not. Instead we will reap His wrath. God said, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you obey the commandments. . .and the curse if you do not obey the commandments. . .” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28; emphasis added). God’s blessing upon our lives is dependent upon our obedience to Him.

God’s final act of intolerance will be seen at the Great White Throne Judgment when Death and Hades are cast into the Lake of Fire along with all those who have rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord (Revelation 19). The Bible teaches that we are to tolerate the sinner, but we are not to tolerate the sin.

Jesus showed tolerance and intolerance

Jesus showed tolerance to the lepers, the paralytics, the deaf and blind, to Zachaeus the tax collector who was ripping the people off, to His disciple’s even when they lacked faith, to Peter when he denied Him three times, to the thief on the cross. He showed tolerance to those who arrested Him, tried Him and crucified Him. He prayed, “Father forgive them. . .” (Luke 23:34), instead of, “Father obliterate them.”

I find it interesting that the people Jesus did not tolerate were the religious leaders. He condemned them for their hypocrisy and He wasn’t the least bit afraid to get in their face. He showed no tolerance towards them at all.

Jesus showed intolerance when He went into the temple and turned over the tables of the moneychangers (John 2). Was he wrong in His behavior? Absolutely not! Did He anger people because of His actions? Yes! These people were being ripped off by the priests whose hearts were filled with greed. The poor were being shamefully cheated, and the worship of God was hindered by these religious con-men. His Father’s House was supposed to be a house of prayer, but instead had become nothing but a giant flea market. Jesus was intolerant to the enemy, and He stood up for what was right.

In John 8 we read about the woman caught in adultery who was brought to Jesus. Who was the tolerant One? And who were the intolerant ones? Jesus was the tolerant one. He showed love to this woman by not condemning her, yet telling her, “. . .go and sin no more” (vs. 11). Jesus tolerated the woman, but He did not tolerate the sin.

If these guys had been tolerant they would never had brought the woman before Jesus in the first place. They would have simply said, “Woman! Do whatever makes you happy.” They would have ignored it and turned a blind eye to it. Instead they showed their hypocrisy by only bringing the woman to Jesus. Where was the man? The last I heard it takes two people to commit adultery.

The fact of the matter is this, most people are tolerant only when it suits their own convenience, and most people demand tolerance only when it suits their own personal lifestyles.

Jesus’ last act of intolerance will be as He speaks to those whose name is not found written in the Book of Life because they have rejected Christ as their Savior and Lord, “Depart from Me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you” (Matthew 25:41).

We are to practice tolerance and intolerance

The Bible says that we’re to love one another, that we’re to love our enemy, that we’re to forgive one another, that we’re to show compassion to one another, that we’re to do good to those who hate us, and that we’re to pray for those who persecute us. Each of these things are acts of tolerance.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Pastor Steve, I don’t know if I can do that. There are a lot of bad people out there. Sometimes I get angry and I feel like kicking their tail. It’s not an easy thing to tolerate the intolerable.” I’m not saying it’s easy, but I am saying we can do it with God’s strength in our live. The Bible says, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

As a Christian we need to separate ourselves from evil just as Abram did in the Old Testament (Genesis 12). Abram’s father, Terah, was a worshipper of idols and therefore Abram needed to separate himself from these people in order to follow and be obedient to the True God. As long as he remained, he would be influenced by the wrong people.

In the same way, in order for us to follow God and be where He wants us we must be willing to separate ourselves from the rest of the world. In the literal sense that’s impossible because we would have to die in order for that to occur. The Bible says, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (1 John 2:15). We separate ourselves from the world by dying to the things of the world.

Just as Joshua said to the people of his day, “. . .choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. . .But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15), we must do the same. Tragically many people have chosen to follow the god of this world whose name is Satan, instead of the God of creation—Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me. . .” (Matthew 12:30). And we can only follow Christ as we separate ourselves from the ungodly, and give ourselves totally and completely over to Him.

Only as we separate ourselves from the world can we stand up for God. However, the moment we do that’s when the enemy will come along and say, “You’re being unloving and intolerant!” Just the opposite is true. You’re being loving and tolerant to the truth of God’s word in the truest sense of the word.

Paul gives us an illustration of this in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul writes about the immorality that was taking place in the church of Corinth. It was an immorality that could not even be named among the Gentiles—a man was having sex with his father’s wife.

The church was allowing this sin to take place. Did Paul say to the church, “No problem. They’re both consenting adults. They’re simply following their own morality. Lets all remain tolerant”? Not hardly! He said that he had already judged this person and that he should be delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

If you follow the thinking of society today, that’s pretty intolerant of Paul. Was Paul intolerant? Yes! Why was Paul so intolerant? Because he knew that, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (vs. 6). In other words, a little bit of sin produces more sin.

This man’s sin was like a cancer in the body that needed to be removed. By removing him from the church Paul was protecting the rest of the people from being poisoned by his sin as well as allowing God to deal with this person in order to restore him.

The Bible says, “. . .if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sin” (James 5:20). For this to happen we must be intolerant to sin.

The church itself has tolerated sin and it is spreading like a cancer within its walls. Many churches today allow couples that are knowingly living in adultery or fornication together to attend church. Many churches are now accepting homosexual behavior. These churches are not only sending a strong message, they’re sending the wrong message. They’re telling not only the church, but the rest of the world that these sins are ok, that God’s Word no longer applies, and that God’s attitude towards them is more lenient. That simply is not true.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Now Pastor Steve, if we tell others they’re in sin isn’t that judging them? You bet it is! “Now wait a minute pastor! Doesn’t the Bible say, ‘Judge not lest you be judged’”? No, it does not. The Bible says, “Condemn not lest you be condemned”, and there is a great difference.

To judge means, to agree with God in the Divine assessments of a particular action that is known as sin, and to distance ourselves from that individual until he repents. To condemn means, to call into question the motives, actions or personal convictions of a person. In other words, we’re not to judge another persons motives but we are to judge their conduct. And when their conduct is wrong we are to let them know. We are to practice intolerance to their sinful conduct.

But let me also say, when we judge the conduct that we’re not to tolerate, we’re to always approach the person in a, “spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1), being “sensitive” to them (Matthew 10:16), and always, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

Perhaps you’re thinking, “But Pastor Steve, you’re talking about dealing with the Christian who falls to sin. What about the non-believer”? When Jesus was speaking of false prophets to His disciples, He said, “You will know them by their fruits. . .” (Matthew 7:16). The Apostle Paul said, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11; emphasis added). To expose their sin means to be intolerant to their sin.

Our responsibility as Christians is twofold. First, we are to love the sinner. Second, we are to hate the sin. Let me also say, we are not to tolerate hatred against anyone involved in a lifestyle different from our own. If we see others displaying hate towards the individual, we are not to tolerate that either.

No sin is acceptable to God, nor should it be to us. Sin is an offense against God and it should be an offense against Gods people, whether it’s occurring from another Christian or a non-Christian. We are not to tolerate it but rather expose it.

The Bible says that we are to be tolerant but not at the expense of truth. What is truth? Jesus said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). God’s word is truth and is filled with moral absolutes; those things that are right and wrong; those things that tell us what we ought to do. In other words, tolerance is to be based upon the moral absolutes of God’s Word. He has told us what is right and what is wrong for our own protection, and the protection of others.

God demonstrates tolerance and intolerance even in the act of salvation. God is tolerant toward all, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” yet, He is intolerant by refusing to accept man’s way for salvation. But He’s only intolerant to man’s way because man’s way leads to death. The Bible says, “There’s a way that seems right to a man, but its way leads to death” (Proverbs 17).

God is intolerant toward us only because He loves us and wants only the best for us. And the best for us is to walk with Him by giving our life over to Jesus Christ.


God bless you,
Pastor Steve

[Straw Man]

Can't any of you guys speak for yourself?

[calmus]

"Colossus" was supposed to be leaving because we weren't mature enough for him.

Instead he sticks around and tells people they're acting like two year olds (but it's a joke, hahahahaha).

then he does a massive cut and paste.

Karl Rove would be proud.

[Colossus_500]

Can't any of you guys speak for yourself?

didn't read it, did you? 

Well, it's there for you to read, bro.  I picked that, because my own words were not working for you.  Be honest, any answer given wouldn't change your mind, right?  You're too far dug in.  I ain't mad atcha, bro.  I gotta go.  Catch me on the religion board sometime if you truly want to talk about this.  Later.

[OzmO]

I remember 8 years ago, thinking to myself, how could this get any worse......BUSH or GORE, the 2 tards we've been forced to vote for......and now we have Obama and Bomb Bomb and now it's actually worse.  These two(or hilary instead of obama) will polarize our country even more.   

sigh.


We should put this into perspective:

If you want to find something about a current candidate you don't like it's like going to a all-you-can-eat buffet wth this group. 

and to comment on the topic at hand.   It really doesn't matter to me too much how "Christian" Obama is.   You don't have to be Christian to be a good person who is interested in the good of their country.  Goodness and Evil know no bias when it comes to religion.  It's just that the extremes ones tend to emulate evil a bit more underneath.

Other than that who cares?

We are plunging into a likely recession or depression.  Housing sinks lower, Inflation gets higher, the dollar sinks, we are stuck in Iraq.  Only the die hard zealots still support Bush.  Even if the Dems win, it's too big a fucking mess to clean up.

[Straw Man]

didn't read it, did you? 

Well, it's there for you to read, bro.  I picked that, because my own words were not working for you.  Be honest, any answer given wouldn't change your mind, right?  You're too far dug in.  I ain't mad atcha, bro.  I gotta go.  Catch me on the religion board sometime if you truly want to talk about this.  Later.

I don't want to read a long ass article of someone else's words.  I've asked a simple question and two pages later none of you has been able to answer it your own words

 

[Dos Equis]

pump the breaks...pump the breaks....no need for a temper tantrum  (lol, for a second there, I thought my 2yr-old was ranting...hahaha)

here's the quickest think I could find that best articulates my point.  It's a devotional from Harvest ministries (Greg Laurie) or harvest.org  It's up to you to read it though:

Tolerance

America has cut her eyeteeth on the philosophy that mankind’s greatest goal is to be happy—no matter what the cost. We have become a society that has put happiness above holiness. As individuals we decide what is wrong and what is right, we decide our own morality. Man’s philosophy is, “You have your morality, and I have my morality. If your morality makes you happy and if my morality makes me happy . . . that’s all that matters!”

The fact of the matter is people who think this way have no morality at all. You tell them that and they might say, “I have a morality. I do whatever I please. That’s my morality.” Doing whatever one wants is not morality. Morality is doing what is right based upon a rule of conduct, a set of standards, moral absolutes. These people either can’t or don’t want to distinguish between right and wrong, or they simply choose to follow their own set of standards and live according to their own rules. As Dr. Francis Schaeffer once said, “These people have both feet firmly planted in the air.”

This philosophy of living according to your own rules of morality is encouraged by many. Today teachers, school administrators, and politicians will encourage our students to choose from a smorgasbord of what they term as morally equivalent life-styles such as homosexuality, adultery, premarital promiscuity.

This smorgasbord morality tramples on anyone who holds to moral absolutes, particularly the Christian. Yet, in many ways they are fulfilling the words of Paul in Romans 1:32, “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (emphasis added).

Today we live in a society of mixed-up and messed up priorities. We as a nation are so eager to work on our national economy, and so afraid to work on our national morality. Our problems are not the result of our economy, but the result of our immorality. Someone once said, “People are not committing crimes or engaging in rampant immorality because the capital gains tax is too high or interest rates aren’t where they should be. People commit crimes because they willfully choose to commit crime.” Money, or the lack of, is nothing but an excuse for committing the crime.

A word we hear often, and one that is used so casually in newspapers, the media, the workplace, and even our children’s classrooms today is the word tolerance. In fact, it’s almost mandatory now-a-days that all employees attend Sensitivity Classes in order to learn tolerance. But just what is tolerance? Webster defines tolerance as, to allow or to permit; to recognize and respect the beliefs and practices of others without sharing them; to bear or put up with someone or something not necessarily liked.

Tolerance involves permitting or allowing a conduct or point of view you think is wrong, while respecting the person in the process. Someone defined it this way, “Tolerance is the ability to let other people be happy in their own way.”

If you stop and think about it, that’s a very frightening definition. If you saw your child playing with a rattlesnake even though he appeared to be happy, would you be tolerant and say, “Look at my little child how happy he is playing with the little rattlesnake?” Of course not! You would run and snatch your child from the presence of the snake, or do what you could to kill the snake. Why? Because the snake just might harm, if not kill your child. And yet society has taken pride in this word—tolerance, because after all, “Who are we to pass judgment on others? We need to tolerate them.”

Stop and think with me for moment. We cannot tolerate others unless we disagree with them, or to use their own words, pass judgment on them. We don’t tolerate people who share our views because we agree with them. Instead tolerance is reserved for those we think are wrong. Therefore if we think someone is wrong because we disagree with them we’re called intolerant.

This presents us with a problem. For me to be intolerant, I must judge someone as wrong. Yet, I must first think another person as wrong in order to be tolerant. It’s a catch-22. According to this approach true tolerance is impossible and cannot exist.

Are we to stand by and watch a parent beat his child or a husband beat his wife? Are we to observe a liquor store robbery without calling the police? Shouldn’t we just tolerate these things? Of course not! Why not? Because these things are wrong. As a society we have never tolerated wrong behavior, nor have we ever had to tolerate good behavior. We simply accept it.

The word tolerance can be equated w/ the word—respect. We’re to respect people who hold different views than our own. We’re to treat them courteously even though we may strongly disagree with them. We’re to always respect the person, but tolerating the behavior is a different story. Our laws demonstrate this very fact.

People today say that we shouldn’t legislate morality but that’s exactly what we do, and so we should. All laws impose a moral code. For example, there are certain drivers who might want to drive too fast all the time, but a responsible government will nonetheless set speed limits. These speed limits are boundaries set in order that the speeder will be protected as well as the other drivers on the road.

No one knows better than you that the government restricts the actions of people all the time. We pass laws against murder, rape, assault, child abuse, stealing, etc. Why? Because these things are wrong. Not only does our law say they’re wrong, but God’s Word says they’re wrong. They have always been wrong, they will continue to be wrong, and we are not to tolerate these acts.

When it comes to dealing with evil behavior in our society that destroys others, tolerance is the one thing we cannot tolerate. Tolerating harmful behavior is not only wrong, but it’s unloving. Love requires more than tolerance. It requires action. The Bible says, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9; emphasis added). The truth of the matter is if we don’t fight evil behavior that destroys innocent people, then our families, our communities, our society will not survive.

Tolerance might be looked at as a virtue to some people but love is a greater one. Tolerance says, “Hold your nose and put up with the behavior.” Love says, “Reach out and help them to change their behavior.” Tolerance is not the answer. Love is. We love others not by giving them what they want, but by giving them what they need in order that they can live a safe and productive life.

Are we to be tolerant? Or are we to be intolerant? The answer to those two questions is — yes and yes. Let’s see what the Bible teaches about tolerance.

The Bible teaches tolerance and intolerance

God is a God of tolerance, and a God of intolerance. His first act of intolerance was in heaven when Lucifer wanted to be like God. What did God do? He cast him out of heaven.

We see God’s tolerance and intolerance in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. God showed intolerance to sin by removing this couple from the garden. And He showed His tolerance by not killing them. He had told them not to eat from the tree because the day that you do, “you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

God was intolerant to the sin, yet He remained tolerant to the man. How? By putting him outside the garden. Had God allowed Adam and Eve to stay in the garden they would have eaten from the tree of life, and thereby would forever remain in sin separated from God with no hope of ever having fellowship with Him again. God remained tolerant to man by providing a way back to Him. As it’s been said, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.”

In Exodus and Deuteronomy we read about the Ten Commandments. God says if we obey His commandments, He will bless us, but if we disobey them, He will not. Instead we will reap His wrath. God said, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you obey the commandments. . .and the curse if you do not obey the commandments. . .” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28; emphasis added). God’s blessing upon our lives is dependent upon our obedience to Him.

God’s final act of intolerance will be seen at the Great White Throne Judgment when Death and Hades are cast into the Lake of Fire along with all those who have rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord (Revelation 19). The Bible teaches that we are to tolerate the sinner, but we are not to tolerate the sin.

Jesus showed tolerance and intolerance

Jesus showed tolerance to the lepers, the paralytics, the deaf and blind, to Zachaeus the tax collector who was ripping the people off, to His disciple’s even when they lacked faith, to Peter when he denied Him three times, to the thief on the cross. He showed tolerance to those who arrested Him, tried Him and crucified Him. He prayed, “Father forgive them. . .” (Luke 23:34), instead of, “Father obliterate them.”

I find it interesting that the people Jesus did not tolerate were the religious leaders. He condemned them for their hypocrisy and He wasn’t the least bit afraid to get in their face. He showed no tolerance towards them at all.

Jesus showed intolerance when He went into the temple and turned over the tables of the moneychangers (John 2). Was he wrong in His behavior? Absolutely not! Did He anger people because of His actions? Yes! These people were being ripped off by the priests whose hearts were filled with greed. The poor were being shamefully cheated, and the worship of God was hindered by these religious con-men. His Father’s House was supposed to be a house of prayer, but instead had become nothing but a giant flea market. Jesus was intolerant to the enemy, and He stood up for what was right.

In John 8 we read about the woman caught in adultery who was brought to Jesus. Who was the tolerant One? And who were the intolerant ones? Jesus was the tolerant one. He showed love to this woman by not condemning her, yet telling her, “. . .go and sin no more” (vs. 11). Jesus tolerated the woman, but He did not tolerate the sin.

If these guys had been tolerant they would never had brought the woman before Jesus in the first place. They would have simply said, “Woman! Do whatever makes you happy.” They would have ignored it and turned a blind eye to it. Instead they showed their hypocrisy by only bringing the woman to Jesus. Where was the man? The last I heard it takes two people to commit adultery.

The fact of the matter is this, most people are tolerant only when it suits their own convenience, and most people demand tolerance only when it suits their own personal lifestyles.

Jesus’ last act of intolerance will be as He speaks to those whose name is not found written in the Book of Life because they have rejected Christ as their Savior and Lord, “Depart from Me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you” (Matthew 25:41).

We are to practice tolerance and intolerance

The Bible says that we’re to love one another, that we’re to love our enemy, that we’re to forgive one another, that we’re to show compassion to one another, that we’re to do good to those who hate us, and that we’re to pray for those who persecute us. Each of these things are acts of tolerance.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Pastor Steve, I don’t know if I can do that. There are a lot of bad people out there. Sometimes I get angry and I feel like kicking their tail. It’s not an easy thing to tolerate the intolerable.” I’m not saying it’s easy, but I am saying we can do it with God’s strength in our live. The Bible says, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

As a Christian we need to separate ourselves from evil just as Abram did in the Old Testament (Genesis 12). Abram’s father, Terah, was a worshipper of idols and therefore Abram needed to separate himself from these people in order to follow and be obedient to the True God. As long as he remained, he would be influenced by the wrong people.

In the same way, in order for us to follow God and be where He wants us we must be willing to separate ourselves from the rest of the world. In the literal sense that’s impossible because we would have to die in order for that to occur. The Bible says, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (1 John 2:15). We separate ourselves from the world by dying to the things of the world.

Just as Joshua said to the people of his day, “. . .choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. . .But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15), we must do the same. Tragically many people have chosen to follow the god of this world whose name is Satan, instead of the God of creation—Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me. . .” (Matthew 12:30). And we can only follow Christ as we separate ourselves from the ungodly, and give ourselves totally and completely over to Him.

Only as we separate ourselves from the world can we stand up for God. However, the moment we do that’s when the enemy will come along and say, “You’re being unloving and intolerant!” Just the opposite is true. You’re being loving and tolerant to the truth of God’s word in the truest sense of the word.

Paul gives us an illustration of this in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul writes about the immorality that was taking place in the church of Corinth. It was an immorality that could not even be named among the Gentiles—a man was having sex with his father’s wife.

The church was allowing this sin to take place. Did Paul say to the church, “No problem. They’re both consenting adults. They’re simply following their own morality. Lets all remain tolerant”? Not hardly! He said that he had already judged this person and that he should be delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

If you follow the thinking of society today, that’s pretty intolerant of Paul. Was Paul intolerant? Yes! Why was Paul so intolerant? Because he knew that, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (vs. 6). In other words, a little bit of sin produces more sin.

This man’s sin was like a cancer in the body that needed to be removed. By removing him from the church Paul was protecting the rest of the people from being poisoned by his sin as well as allowing God to deal with this person in order to restore him.

The Bible says, “. . .if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sin” (James 5:20). For this to happen we must be intolerant to sin.

The church itself has tolerated sin and it is spreading like a cancer within its walls. Many churches today allow couples that are knowingly living in adultery or fornication together to attend church. Many churches are now accepting homosexual behavior. These churches are not only sending a strong message, they’re sending the wrong message. They’re telling not only the church, but the rest of the world that these sins are ok, that God’s Word no longer applies, and that God’s attitude towards them is more lenient. That simply is not true.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Now Pastor Steve, if we tell others they’re in sin isn’t that judging them? You bet it is! “Now wait a minute pastor! Doesn’t the Bible say, ‘Judge not lest you be judged’”? No, it does not. The Bible says, “Condemn not lest you be condemned”, and there is a great difference.

To judge means, to agree with God in the Divine assessments of a particular action that is known as sin, and to distance ourselves from that individual until he repents. To condemn means, to call into question the motives, actions or personal convictions of a person. In other words, we’re not to judge another persons motives but we are to judge their conduct. And when their conduct is wrong we are to let them know. We are to practice intolerance to their sinful conduct.

But let me also say, when we judge the conduct that we’re not to tolerate, we’re to always approach the person in a, “spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1), being “sensitive” to them (Matthew 10:16), and always, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

Perhaps you’re thinking, “But Pastor Steve, you’re talking about dealing with the Christian who falls to sin. What about the non-believer”? When Jesus was speaking of false prophets to His disciples, He said, “You will know them by their fruits. . .” (Matthew 7:16). The Apostle Paul said, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11; emphasis added). To expose their sin means to be intolerant to their sin.

Our responsibility as Christians is twofold. First, we are to love the sinner. Second, we are to hate the sin. Let me also say, we are not to tolerate hatred against anyone involved in a lifestyle different from our own. If we see others displaying hate towards the individual, we are not to tolerate that either.

No sin is acceptable to God, nor should it be to us. Sin is an offense against God and it should be an offense against Gods people, whether it’s occurring from another Christian or a non-Christian. We are not to tolerate it but rather expose it.

The Bible says that we are to be tolerant but not at the expense of truth. What is truth? Jesus said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). God’s word is truth and is filled with moral absolutes; those things that are right and wrong; those things that tell us what we ought to do. In other words, tolerance is to be based upon the moral absolutes of God’s Word. He has told us what is right and what is wrong for our own protection, and the protection of others.

God demonstrates tolerance and intolerance even in the act of salvation. God is tolerant toward all, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” yet, He is intolerant by refusing to accept man’s way for salvation. But He’s only intolerant to man’s way because man’s way leads to death. The Bible says, “There’s a way that seems right to a man, but its way leads to death” (Proverbs 17).

God is intolerant toward us only because He loves us and wants only the best for us. And the best for us is to walk with Him by giving our life over to Jesus Christ.


God bless you,
Pastor Steve

Good find Colossus.  

Also, keep in mind that Obama has placed his religious beliefs and practices at issue by calling himself a devout Christian and talking about his church attendance and prayer practices.  

[Straw Man]

My guess is that he'd probably prefer to talk about the real issues but he's been forced to address his beliefs because certain douchbags in the media have convinced other douchbags in the public that he's a Muslim.

I've mentioned before that I have a member of my family (they all live in Texas) who literally believes that Obama is a practising Muslim (as if that's a problem), and also an active member of Al Queda.   

Why don't we leave everyone's religious beliefs alone and just talk about the issues of our economy, health care, education, infrastruction, trade, etc.....

We have a lot of strengths in this country but we get driven off track on non-issues and it's really just to keep us diverted from the real issues at hand.