The New Tolerance - Part 1

 

The New Tolerance - Part 1

 

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

 

Many years ago, I watch the late Pastor Kennedy’s sermon from 2003 where he stated, in case we missed it, we just passed into a totally new age. We passed through the Age of Modernity, and we are now in the Post-Modern Age. You may remember that modernism (aka rationalism) – the Age of Reason, is supposed tp have begun, of at least dated at the fall of the Bastille and the end of tyranny of France. It lasted until that new scientific, rationalistic world, no longer the Ade of Faith, but now the Age of Reason and modernism, reached its pinnacle in the atheistic, scientific evolutionary, socialistic world. The Age of modernism is dated to have ended with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, exactly 200 years from its inception. So now we are in the Post-Modern Age. I wonder how many of us noticed that? We all have surely noticed the division it created in our country.

 

We might want to look around and find out what is being taught to our children today. It is a new age and altogether different. If you think that things are the same as they were. You have a surprise coming. The one thing being taught to our children today that is the dominate theme of the post-modern curriculum. Tolerance. You may say, “Well, that’s wonderful. We are all in favor of tolerance.” Of course we are – at least tolerance as we have always known tolerance to be. And the dictionary defines it for us: “Tolerance is being willing to put up with, endure, bear with those whose views or lifestyles are different from others’ views witho9ut agreeing with them.” And every Christian should be tolerant in the correct and historic meaning pf that word. It is what the Bible means in the love chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, “Love endures all things”. Every Christian should be tolerant. It is the sign of a lady and gentleman to put up with people who have strange ideas or even strange habits or customs, even though you don’t agree with them. 

 

But, if you think that is what is being taught in the curricula of this country, you are very wrong. The future of this country, in a very strong way, depends on our understanding what is happening to young people today, and it has a great deal to do with tolerance. The “New Tolerance” means this: Not only do you put up with and endure and bear with those who have different views, habits, and/or lifestyles than your own, but you agree with their views, as well. Furthermore, you hold that their lifestyle is equally true and equally valid as your own and, therefore, there is no possible way that you could be intolerant because there is nothing to be intolerant of. Furthermore, you must even be willing to promote and endorse that other lifestyle, since it is every bit as good as yours. 

 

Now, you say, “That is a totally foreign ideology. Wrong is wrong”. I guarantee your children have heard about it. How can this be? Well, it begins with the idea that there is no absolute truth. There is a new belief being maliciously taught that there are no absolutes. Everything is relative. That is one thing they have learned. Therefore, one kind of lifestyle is as good as another kind of lifestyle. They say that you mustn’t judge because there is no absolute standard to judge by. Therefore, everything relative; there are no absolute truths or standards or morality in their book. Consequently, you can’t look on their views as inferior to yours. They say that you must agree that they are equal. Furthermore, there is a total concept of “feelings” that is involved in Post-Modernism. The Post-Modernist says, “Reason has failed. We must resort to feeling.” How often you hear people say, “Well, I feel that … so and so.” We don’t feel that, we think it. But, it is always not “I think,” but “I feel”. The only important thing for them is how they feel. 

 

We have even invented a new Civil Right – the civil right for my feelings not to be hurt. Part of the Post-Modernism is this universal individual or the global citizen. They say that we do not have countries. We don’t have anything except the individual. They say that there is no human race. There is just the individual and his or her feelings, and they must not be offended. We have gone from a democracy – government of the people, by the people, and for the people – to a government by the sovereign individual, by the sovereign individual’s feelings where there is no truth, there are no moral absolutes, and the important thing is my feelings. So, it is the end of all truth. Truth dos not exist in any objective sense, and it is always limited to a particular culture. 

 

That I why Pastor Kennedy has repeatedly said that tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society. When you have an immoral society that has blatantly, proudly, violated all of the commandments of God, there is one last virtue they insist upon: tolerance for their immorality. They will not have you condemning what they have done as being wrong, and they have created a whole world construct in which it is not, and in which they are no longer the criminal or the villain or the evil person, but you (Bible-believing disciple of Jesus Christ) are! And so the call evil good, and good evil … and that is just the beginning.        

Let's continue Pastor Kennedy's message on "the New Tolerance" in the net post.

In Christ, Brian