The Enemy in the Camp Part 6: The Evil of Tolerance

I’ll begin with asking for your indulgence for this lengthy writing. 

Tolerance is not contained in any true translation of the Scripture nor is tolerance taught in any form in the Word of God! Yes, I know some of you are saying to yourself, “Hey, wait a minute,” but it isn’t! Sadly, in a great lie of confusion, society today has replaced an understanding of compassion with the wickedness of tolerance.

Yes—wickedness! Please allow me to give a simple example to illustrate the difference between compassion and tolerance: Imagine you have a small child and that child draws on the wall with crayons. Some will be aggravated but say nothing and clean the drawings from the wall, with a false hope that it will not happen again. This is tolerance. Now imagine the same scenario and the parent scolds and takes the crayons away from the child for a period of time as punishment, and then cleans the wall. This is compassion. 

I know this is a simple, and maybe even silly, example, but it does illustrate the basic principle of both tolerance and compassion. I will give a more complex example later on in this writing. Many have heard the adage, “hate the sin and love the sinner.” Although this sentence is not worded in the Word of God, it is however taught in Scripture. As Christians we should despise/hate sin—that is clearly understood—and we are told to love as God loves; to love our neighbor as ourselves. This explains hating the sin and loving the sinner.  

At some point mankind in a devious prompting from the adversary devised the word “tolerance” to appease themselves of the wicked act of accepting evil. I’ll repeat: “accepting evil!”

You see, tolerance is a permission slip for iniquity; it is not an act of compassion in any way, shape, or form. In actuality, tolerance is an open invitation for more evil than was first enacted, and being tolerant always leads to more and more bad behavior rather than quelling it.

I often explain it this way: compassion is intolerant love. Tolerance is the lack of consequence and the absence of love. Compassion should be the desire in the Christian and the understood rule of consequence the norm. Tolerance is the builder of monsters, the encouragement of bad behavior, and the threat of evil deeds. If there is never a punishment for sin, then sin will become the normality of the actor. A good example is the story of man eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from it, they would surely die. Satan lied and confused them by twisting what God had said, and they ate. God punished them not only with death, but with suffering in the lives of man for the duration of their fleshly existence because it was the flesh that became corrupted. In His love for them, God provided a way to seek forgiveness through sacrifice. This is the first example of compassion (love with consequence). 

Scripture teaches that if we spare the rod, we spoil the child, and a spoiled child is a disobedient and ill-mannered child. Sparing chastisement and corporal punishment because of a false sense of compassion is tolerance. 

A few years ago, there was a story that made national news: a young man was driving intoxicated and had a wreck that took the lives of those in the vehicle he hit. The defense in court was “affluence.” The man’s attorney claimed that because of the way he had been raised, he had no understanding of right and wrong. This young man had been raised in a tolerant household rather than being taught responsibility for his actions and the consequences thereof.

Personally, I felt the parents should have faced prosecution also. It is a tragic happening that Satan has completely deceived many into believing they are showing their children love by not punishing them for their unacceptable behavior. In fact, they are proving that they do not love the child enough to discipline them according to act or deed.

Another aspect of tolerance is that it is far more convenient or easier than the effort of proper rearing. Training up a child requires much time and effort, even forced discipline at times, but it is necessary in the compassionate parent. The Scripture teaches that God chastens and even scourges those He loves, and we should do the same. If given deep thought, tolerance could be seen as a form of hatred rather than love in that it exhibits the notion that the child is not valued enough to dedicate the time of lovingly raising. 

I know we live in a time where social mores lean away from discipline. We watch children rewarded for little or mediocre effort, teaching them it’s the participation that counts rather than putting forth their best effort. There is no shame in losing if you tried your best. There is, however, great shame in being rewarded for just showing up and not trying.

A tolerant society is a wicked and lawless society, where people end up living in fear rather than security. Tolerance has developed a modern life of repeat offenders and a nation of so-called correctional facilities that correct nothing and are not much more than zoos with zookeepers as opposed to what were once penal institutions that no one wanted to go to and certainly not return to.

The habitual criminal has no fear of consequence or punishment, and therefore no reason to not continue in their criminal behavior. 

Tolerance is a life of fleshly satisfaction and comfort rather than a godly way of life. If responsibility and punishment are the teaching methods in the home, then the child grows up knowing to do right and what is expected of them. It also teaches respect for others and for the enforcers of the law.

It is compassionate to properly teach responsibility and to punish when needed. Children in those families grow up to understand the depth of love their parents had for them during their formative years. 

Tolerance is far different than leniency. As I have stated, tolerance is acceptance of wickedness. Leniency is a lessening of punishment in the form of reward for prior good behavior. Lenience from time to time is compassionate behavior where tolerance never is.

Another aspect of tolerance many never consider is that tolerance is a compromise with wickedness as if seeking a truce between God and Satan, a halfway point in a manner of speaking. Tolerant behavior in compromising is a futile attempt at straddling the fence between Heaven and Hell and it cannot be done—God will not allow it! 

If you are over 50 years of age, you will fully understand what I am about to describe: this nation of tolerance we live in today is crime-ridden and people are fearful in every aspect of it. Our doors are always locked in our homes and vehicles. We are wary everywhere we go.

We do not trust people in general, and we watch over our children like hawks searching for food and restrict their movement, often to the point they have little social interaction and much inactivity. We view it better to have our children sitting in their rooms playing video games than riding their bicycles down the street to play with friends.

This widespread wickedness has even caused us to seldom have any even remote relationships with our neighbors. We have complex security systems, and many folks are armed constantly (a wise decision in these times). A quote from one of my favorite authors is, “an armed society is a polite society.” Why? Because those arms relate an understanding of consequence and repercussion. 

In closing, as I have elaborated on in depth, tolerance is not compassion. It also is not long-suffering, nor is it forgiveness. Tolerance is acceptance of a given amount of iniquity. If God were tolerant, Satan would rule us all without hope.

Kenneth Kellar
A Man Called by God to Teach and Disciple