Is God tolerant? (Dec 2015)

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a joy filled New Years. As we approach yet another new year, I have been reflecting on something I have been wrestling with. It is rather complex and does not lend itself to a one sentence Facebook post, but I hope if you read this you will find it interesting and worth the read.

This is the heart of what I have been wrestling with. Is it loving to share ideas with people when those ideas may be something they strongly disagree with? What if they find my conclusions offensive, does that make it unloving to share those conclusions and thoughts? Is my mere sharing my conclusions with someone “forcing my belief system” on another? Is this intolerant? Is tolerance and seeking to never offend others a goal I should seek? Is tolerance the same as love? Is God tolerant?

Those are difficult questions that I think all of us as human beings wrestle with. We each have to come to our own conclusions on these questions, but I wanted to share some of the conclusions I have reached on this very difficult topic.

When raising my kids, which is more critical, teaching obedience or teaching tolerance?

I have reflected back on my own childhood when my earthly father disciplined me. My earthly Father was not tolerant of my disobedience. My happiness was far less important to him then was my obedience. I never remember my father saying “As long as my child is happy, then I am happy.” I can assure you, at the time, having my butt spanked was a severe interruption to my current happiness. That being said, as I look back, if I could pick any one thing I am most grateful my earthly Father ever did it was disciplining me. I would not be the husband, friend, father, employee, son, etc. I am today without this anchor in my life.

My earthly Father always told me he took no pleasure in spanking me. He always told me he loved me and that he was doing this for my own good. He even said this hurt him more than it hurt me. Now, as a kid I knew my dad loved me and I believed him when he said he did not like doing this. However, that last part made no sense to me. I was the one left with a sore behind and crying. How could this hurt him more than it did me?

Now that I have been a parent myself and am raising two daughters, I understand better now what my dad meant. I have never taken any pleasure in disciplining my kids. I always loved playing monster or gorilla with my girls. I loved running around and being silly. I loved reading to them. I loved hugging them, kissing them and telling them how much I loved them. Never once however did I enjoy spanking my girls.

Yet, my daughters learned that to disobey their mother or to disobey me had consequences. Bad consequences they wanted to avoid. So: was my punishing them and being intolerant of their disobedience unloving? Why was it so important I made their obedience to me a priority over their happiness? Why was I willing to have them be upset with me in order to get this obedience?

I think of it this way. Imagine I am at a busy intersection. I tell my 3 year old they must hold my hand and stay with me. Now suppose my daughter does not understand the purpose for my command and thinks I am keeping her from doing something that will make her happy. Suppose she screamed out NO! I want to run and play! Suppose she then runs out into the busy road.

Now, let’s suppose I get her back, no harm done. Let’s suppose I extend her tolerance and ignore her disobedience. The next day, at the same intersection, after having been trained she can ignore my command, she repeats the same thing. As I look on with complete tolerance, rooting for my daughter to find her own path to happiness, I am shocked to watch as a truck runs over her little body. As I attend her funeral, I ask myself, if I had valued my daughter’s obedience above her temporary happiness, would she be alive still? Maybe blanket tolerance is not always the loving thing to do. At least this is what I have concluded.

Is God tolerant?

This is an important question we all have to decide on. I have talked to a lot of people who see God as some type of benevolent Santa Grampa in the sky. They say God just wants us all to be happy. However we seek our happiness is fine with good old Grandpa Santa God. If we are happy, God is Happy. That sounds lovely to me, but it does not seem to line up with what I observe.

I have been told we can know about God apart from the bible, and to a degree I think this is true. So, if I am willing to be honest, what can I observe about God? All I have to do is look around at creation and I know several things:

A) God is far more powerful than I am. I am dust compared to the creator of the universe.

B) God is an excellent engineer and thinks of everything. I.E., if the earth’s tilt shifted 1 degree we would all freeze/burn up. If I examine a single cell, the eye, the human body, the environment, the planets and the universe closely, I am amazed at how perfectly everything works together.

C) God cares about us individually. I.E. Why create such beautiful sunsets, waterfalls, etc. for our enjoyment? Why is chocolate so wonderful to taste? Why do each of us have unique fingerprints, retina, DNA if God does not care about each of us individually?

So, if God is all powerful, If God is an excellent engineer and plans everything down to the last detail, and if God loves us, then why do we experience death? We each have to come to our own conclusions here, but for me Grandpa Santa God has no good answers here. If God only wants us to be happy, I must tell you I am not happy when I attend the funeral of someone I love. I am not happy when I see tornadoes come and kill people I care about. I am not happy when I watch loved ones suffer with illness and disease. No, after seeing all of that, I can’t agree or conclude that the main thing God cares about is our short term happiness.

It is at this point, simple observation about God is not enough. We need answers. I have found the answers that make the most sense to me are written by human men in a book called the Bible. A book where the New Testament was written exclusively by those who lived while Jesus walked the earth and knew Him personally, and a book where the Old Testament was quoted often by Jesus. As such, the Bible is the only true book Jesus (Who claimed to be God) ever gave His authority to. In the end then, the authority of the Bible does not come from the human writers, it comes from Jesus. It is the message of the bible I evaluate to determine if it seems true, not the human writers which the bible makes clear are also flawed sinners like us.

What does the Bible have to say about Gods tolerance vs Obedience?

A) God cursed the ground:

When Adam disobeyed God and broke the one rule he was given, God cursed the ground according to Genesis Ch 3, vs 17. So, we wonder why a God who we can observe from creation that is such a precise engineer could be so sloppy as to allow tornadoes, floods, landslides, etc. The Bible gives the only explanation that makes sense. These are no random accident. God deliberately cursed the earth. God showed no tolerance for disobedience.

B) God allows us to die:

We read in Genesis that God told Adam and Eve that to disobey his commandment would lead to death. Sadly they did not trust him or believe him. When they disobeyed God, the consequence God put on them was death. In fact, the bible says this is what we all have earned.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Romans 6:23A “For the wages of sin is death”

So we have seen Adolf Hitler die and Mother Theresa die. It is obvious God has not reserved death for those we consider truly evil. God has judged all of us and found all of us guilty.

So once again, the God we observe that loves us, that is all powerful and is a precise engineer has deliberately chosen to allow us to die. In the end, God offers no tolerance for our disobedience. This is what the bible says and it is the only explanation I find that makes sense.

C) God values our obedience above what we think will make us happy:

1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”

To God’s people who lived as they pleased and then went to confession just to clear the books; God said this was not pleasing to him. Our obedience is what pleases him.

Jesus said: John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Where do we find Jesus commandments? It is not from the Church or the priests. Remember it was the chief priests that connived and schemed to have Jesus crucified. It is not in our minds or nature. Jesus has set down his specific commands in the Bible. Jesus did not say obey my commands you like and agree with, He said obey my commands period.

We can justify lying, sexual immorality, bitterness, etc. and even claim we love God or love Jesus, but Jesus said if you flat out reject my commandments laid down in the bible, you are rejecting not just the bible, you are rejecting me as these are my words.

In fact Jesus said:

Mathew 7:22 ““Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

7:23 ““And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

D) God takes no pleasure in punishing us:

Eze 33:11 “Say to them, ‘As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?'

John 11:35 “Jesus wept”

The Bible says that God does love us, and that God hates to punish us. Just as I never enjoyed spanking my children, the God of the bible does not enjoy punishing us.

E) So if watching us die really brings pain to God, why does God let us die?

This is a profound question we all wrestle with, and for me I am led to a very strange place as I try to wrestle with this. In the Clint Eastwood Movie, “The Outlaw Josie Wales”, Josie has a very interesting conversation with the Cherokee Indian Chief Ten Bears. Josie says to him, and I am paraphrasing, “I came to you this way so you would know my word of death is true, and thus you would also know my word of life is true.” While this movie is not in any way a Christian movie, I find this sentence fascinating because I have found this is exactly what the God of the bible is saying to me.

God says to me here is my word of death:

Romans 6:23A “For the wages of sin is death”

Revelations 20:14 “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Conclusion on the Word of Death: God says to me I have not removed initial physical death from you so that you can’t claim I am a tolerant God. I allow you to suffer illness, disease and die so you understand just how seriously a Holy God takes sin and disobedience. I also have left this so you will take seriously what is to come, that any who knowingly reject my son Jesus as their only chance at salvation, and all who try to save themselves instead based on their own good works will be cast out into darkness forever and will have no part in the my eternal kingdom. You may not like this or want to believe I will do this, but initial death should make you understand I am very serious and I am not a tolerant God!

God then says to me here is my word of life:

Romans 6:23B “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Revelations 3:5 “‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

Conclusion on the Word of Life:

God pleads with me to simply humble myself before Him, admit I am not a good enough person to save myself, admit I am a sinner, repent, ask God to forgive me, seek to make Jesus my Lord and savior. If I will honestly do this, submit to the authority of Jesus, believe Jesus died on the cross, was raised from the dead, that his innocent blood paid the eternal price for my sins and Jesus has purchased eternal life for me with God, then I will be saved.

Our Heavenly Father will not base my eternal salvation on my deeds where all of us would stand condemned for just a single sin, but rather through my faith I will rise and share in the righteousness of Jesus. Our Heavenly Father will see me not as a guilty rebellious sinner, but rather as a forgiven adopted child of a God who loves me beyond my comprehension.

The overall message of the bible can be seen as intolerant that is true, but I share it as it is also a message of love, written in the blood of a God who loves us beyond measure. God says choose, choose my word of death, or choose my word of life. Which will it be?

As for me and my Family, we have chosen life in Jesus. It is a work in progress, but He is truly faithful day by day and year by year to clean us up more and more and to forgive us our sins. I pray your family will also choose life and find the freedom and peace only Jesus can deliver this year.