Sun 9:30a Class; 10:30a Worship; 11:35a Communion
Bible Bites
The Idol of Tolerance
“For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.” (Jeremiah 11:13)
Why did Judah have so many gods and idols? Didn’t they know better? Of course they did, but at some point they decided to be tolerant and open-minded instead of right.
Idolatry is so popular because it is so inclusive. Everybody gets to do what they want, worship what they like, and live how they please. In idolatry, everyone is right, and nobody is wrong.
But the problem is that “everyone being right” is a fairy tale. Every god can’t be real. If Jesus is God, then Allah isn’t. If pantheism is correct, then monotheism must be incorrect. Jesus can’t be both ‘Lord and Savior’ and ‘a good man, but just a man’. When we die, the atheist says there is nothing. The Bible says that when we die, we will see the throne of God.
They can’t all be right. And that is where idolatry breaks down – in the light of reality.
It sure sounds good to talk about being “open-minded”, “accepting”, and “inclusive”, but truth isn’t any of those things… and the truth is out there.
Idolatry is inclusive; it says “This AND that”.
Truth is exclusive; it says “This OR that”.
The myth that all religious beliefs are equal is just another type of idolatry which lures us away from fixing our eyes on Jesus
