Tolerating the Intolerable

by R. C. Sproul, Jr.                                                                                     Vol. X, No. 8, Sep/Oct 1997

[R. C. Sproul, Jr. is head of Highlands Study Center (29073 Rhea Valley Road, Meadowview, VA 24361, 540-475-6035), and edits Every Thought Captive Newsletter from which this article is reprinted. He also edits Tabletalk, and — unsurprisingly — is the son of R. C. Sproul (who heads Ligonier Ministries). Bold print below has been added for emphasis.]

The church, we are told, has a black eye. We are told that we should be ashamed of ourselves. The world has determined that the root of the demon weed of intolerance is firmly imbedded in the sanctuary. Would that it were true.

We have pruned the weed of intolerance to death in the modern church. I offer two writings as evidence. The first is the sole letter we received responding to something specific in our previous newsletter. Now some wrote with vague encouragement, for which we are grateful. The one specific response, however, referred to this column, and my chastisement of the Church of England for jettisoning the Biblical doctrine of hell. The writer, however, did not take the time to make the case for abandoning hell (he would probably still be writing had he valiantly made a Sisyphisian attempt). Rather he castigated me for failing to be nice. He likes the Church of England, thank you very much, and wanted off my mail list because I mocked their foolishness.

This is the first step of tolerance. Presumably I should treat this heretical point of view with some respect, that is I should “respectfully disagree." Too often though we respect so much that we end up not really disagreeing. We hold up annihilationism as an option which is regrettably, probably, slightly, in error. We should, in the words of that great Christian Leon Redbone, shilling for Pat Robertson's cable network, "Accentuate the positive."

Far more troubling than one letter from an unhappy Anglican, however, is a recent book by Dr. Peter Kreeft, a self-styled "evangelical Catholic." The man who brings together evangelicals and Catholics all by himself, in his book Ecumenical Jihad, makes the case that we need to learn to tolerate not only evangelicals and Catholics, but the Eastern Orthodox, Muslims, Jews, and, oh what they heck, bring in the Buddhists, Taoists and Hindu's too. The toleration he calls for goes beyond peaceful co-existence, beyond even co-belligerency, to communion. That is, he argues that all of us worship the same God (you think believing in the Trinity is hard, try believing in the Trinity and not believing in the Trinity at the same time and in the same relationship).

More than even the doctrine of hell, the great sticking point of the Christian faith in the darkened mind of the unbeliever is the exclusive claim of Jesus Christ as the sole way of salvation. The problem with Christianity is not the intolerance evidenced by centuries old religious wars, but the current abiding claim of holding to exclusive truth. This is the offense of the gospel in 20th century America. ...

To be the church, the called out ones, we are required to draw lines in the sand, to make separations, to be intolerant. We separate from the infidel, declaring jihad, or holy war on those who will not bow the knee to the King of Kings. To be sure, we do not battle with literal swords and spears, but we do battle. Part of that battle is having the courage to call a spade a spade, a fox a fox, a white-washed tomb a white-washed tomb, and a heretic a heretic.