SEPTEMBER 24 "WHY BE TOLERANT OF OTHER RELIGIONS?"

         WHAT valid reason does any genuine Christian have to exercise any tolerance towards this LIE that there are other gods and salvation through them?  It can only be through ignorance or cowardice that we would succumb to such a lie. Over and over Jehovah tells us in our text, "I am the first and the last and apart from me there is no God".  And if this is not clear enough we go on to read, "....Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?".  So there it is!  We can squirt around the issue, we can try to be fake, tolerant or politically correct but at the end of the day, what we are supporting is A LIE!  Yes, after much discourse, God finally comes out and just calls it for what it is...A LIE.  Any other God, any Idol, any carved image of a god or anything else outside of Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Yahweh....is a LIE.  There is no room for tolerance here. We have enough of a hard time making tolerances for things that are real for which we may not agree with, but at least they are real and at times we must be tolerant to other people's opinions, stands and ideologies, but when we are dealing with a lie, we do not pretend not to know it is a lie, we don't pretend to except it and we don't in any way help and/or encourage anyone to believe in a lie just for the sake of peace and harmony, this is just short of insanity.

     It is one thing to share your glory with another when there is good cause, good reason. Perhaps others have helped in your success, they have contributed, even if only a small percentage, then it is right for us to share the glory, even if their contribution has been minimal.  However in the case with God we are wanting God, Jehovah, to share his glory with a lie.  We are wanting Jesus who left Heaven, came to earth in the form and likeness and frailty of man, to be rejected, tortured, crucified and die for the sins of humanity.... to share his glory with a....with a.....a lie?!  We are wanting God who did everything that was needed to save us, heal us, deliver us & break the curse....to share the glory with fictitious gods, all for the sake of peace?  This is why Jehovah says, "I am the Lord thy God, there is no other but me and I will share my glory with none other!".  This is not because He wants all the glory but because there is no one to share that glory with, it's insanity to try to pretend otherwise.
     This is not about being rude, insensitive or intolerant it is about being real. If my 18 year old daughter comes to me and tells me that she has another Father that she communicates to on another planet and tells me about how he helps her and how she is planning to go visit him someday, etc..etc....am I expected to allow her to continue in this delusion and be tolerant to her belief?  Would I be judged for being intolerant by not excepting this ridiculous notion, know I am the one that gave her birth and that she has no other Father?  We would say indecisively "no" but yet we are supposed to allow people to ramble on about these gods that don't exist and we are supposed to keep our mouths shut and let them continue in their delusions. Why is that? Why are we pressured when it comes to false god's to be tolerant and excepting when we would do that with nothing else?  Well there are many reasons for that, first and foremost, because the Prince of the Power of the Air (Satan) is the one behind those lies and he has sway over people and culture. Paul writes that when we sacrifice to idols we are really sacrificing to demons. There is a demonic element to this whole sway and pressure to be tolerant towards false gods, a spirit of Anti-Christ for sure, but at the end of the day; we the Christians are probably more culpable than anybody else because we know the truth, we are not under the sway of the spirit of this age, yet often times we succumb to the pressures and allow ourselves to be coerced into being tolerant towards what we know is A LIE.  So why would we be tolerant to other gods, the answer simply is we do it for peace, we do it to avoid confrontation and we do it to relieve ourselves of persecution we know will come if we stand for the truth. And we do it all at the sake of hurting the one true God and damaging our relationship with him, the one who did all to save us, the one who died for us while we were yet sinners. Is it really worth it?

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