TOLERANCE IS NOT THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY – LOVE IS
Power of the Mass Media to Influence and Corrupt

Dr. Ted Baehr

HOLLYWOOD, CA - June 17, 2004 - (ANS) -- After slamming Christians, knocking the head off a poster of Jesus, and reducing God to a distant cosmic watchmaker in his movie SAVED!, director Brian Dannelly said that, while the movie attacked fundamentalism, it promoted true Christianity, which is tolerance.

Balderdash!

This worship at the altar of tolerance is what killed the mainline churches and has reduced them to apostasy. Having served on the board of the National Council of Churches Broadcast Film Division, I watched the confused bureaucrats buy into this hogwash.

For those who don’t understand, the best talk I’ve heard on this subject is by the late agnostic Steve Allen, who said if God spoke to you in a burning bush and told you to have no other gods, you would be an idiot to be tolerant of other gods. Intolerance would be demanded by God’s command to you.

Not only is the Old Testament filled with God’s commands not to tolerate other tribal groups who worship false gods, and, in fact, to destroy anyone and level anything that worships these false gods, or witchcraft, or other religions, but the New Testament is just as forthright. In the New Testament, God tells us not to tolerate Jezebel or the Nicolaitans, or any of the false gods and false spirits that other people worship. In fact, Jesus says in Rev. 22:15 that people who do so will not get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, if we really love our neighbor, we will try to rescue everyone and anyone from the worship of false gods, because we love them enough not to want to have them to stew in the juice of their own sins.

Thus, while we are called to love our neighbor, we are also called not to tolerate his false religion or sin. In fact, we’re called to be highly intolerant and let them know the Truth that will set him free. Christians who think otherwise are apostate, defectors of their faith. Like a chicken with its head cut off, they may run around the church for awhile, but they are already dead because they have been cut off from the Head, who is Jesus Christ.