Is God more tolerant than He used to be?

We continue to study about the "10 Lies About God," using Erwin Lutzer's book book as our study God. Last Sunday's lesson focused on the question, "Is it safer to sin today than in the Old Testament?" The answer is no; God says in Malachi 3: that He is unchanging. Read on to se Josh Hunt's approach to the discussion.

David Ashcraft

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1. How do you answer those who say God is more tolerant today than he was in the Old Testament? Is it safer to sin today when compared with the Old Testament days?

It is possible to look at a few isolated events like Uzzah and say that doesn’t happen anymore. It didn’t happen very often back in the day. Ananias and Sapphira are a New Testament example of the idea that God times says enough is enough, even in the New Testament.

2. Why does it matter whether God is more tolerant today?

Lutzer speaks of those who want to live without the consequence of sin. God sometimes does punish sin, but even if he did not, sin would not be a good idea. Sin is the stuff that messes up your life. Even if God did not punish, sin usually brings its own consequence. This is the central message we want to present each week: God is good. Sin is bad. It is bad for us. It ruins our lives. God is a rewarder. It is always in our best interest to live the Christian life.

3. How would you respond to a critic that said Christianity was too intolerant?

Whenever you hear Christians criticized as intolerant, ask, “What do you mean by ‘intolerance’?” True tolerance doesn’t mean accepting all beliefs—the good and the goofy—as legitimate. After all, one who disagrees with Christians doesn’t accept Christianity; he thinks Christians are wrong! Historically, tolerance has meant putting up with what you find disagreeable or false. You put up with strangers on a plane who snore or slurp their coffee. Similarly, you put up with another person’s beliefs without criminalizing him. — The Apologetics Study Bible: Understanding Why You Believe.

4. What are those that wave the flag of tolerance intolerant of?

A sophisticated presentation of this point is found in Stanley Fish’s “The Trouble with Tolerance” in the November 10, 2006, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. This is a review of Wendy Brown’s Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire (Princeton University Press, 2006). Her point (and Fish’s) is that the Western idea of “tolerance for all views” is itself a very particular set of assumptions about reality that is then used as a criteria to determine who society will tolerate and who it won’t. Fish says that our society has its own set of holy, unquestionable beliefs, like “the sanctity of choice.” Brown and Fish argue that many historic, traditional beliefs have only become “intolerant” in our society because of the new construction our liberal Western society puts upon them. “It assumes that people do things not because of what they believe, but because they are Jews, Muslims, blacks or gays…they are immune to rational appeal.” Therefore any religion that values its own truth ahead of tolerance is considered “over-attached” to their culture and incapable of being rational. “Once a group has rejected tolerance as a guiding principle and opted instead for the cultural imperatives of the church or tribe, it becomes a candidate for intolerance that will be performed in the name of tolerance.” — The Reason for God (Timothy Keller)

5. What do we learn about God from Psalm 90.2?

The love of God is eternal. The psalmist expresses the greatness of God’s fatherly care in the imagery of birth. It is not entirely clear who is giving birth; is it God (NIV, “you brought forth the earth”) or the earth (“before the earth and the world gave birth”; cf. Prov 8:25)? The metaphor of God’s giving birth is possible (cf. Deut 32:18; P.D. Miller, Jr., “Psalm 90,” Interpreting the Psalms pp. 125-130). It is more likely to render the phrase in favor of the earth giving rise to mountains, while not denying the creative role of the Lord in the process of the formation of the earth (cf. Gen 1:11, 20).

The confessional statement “you are God” (v.2) affirms both God’s kingship over creation and his otherness. The designations for the Lord in these verses have been carefully chosen, as the psalmist sings praise to “the Lord,” the Ruler of the world, who alone is “God” (El; cf. Isa 44:6; 48:12). The Canaanites believed in El as the father of the gods whose supremacy had gradually been taken over by Baal, his son. The psalmist states that there is no other Lord than the God who is eternal and who is the “dwelling place” of his own. — Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.

6. Page 87. How would you respond to someone who said, “God just keeps getting better and better.”

I wouldn’t be too hard on them. Although I understand it is technically not true, my experience with God seems to keep getting better and better.

7. 1 Peter 1.15 – 16. How does this command to be holy make you feel?

It tends to not make us feel so good because we don’t think holiness is so good. We don’t think it really is good for us to live the Christian life.

8. What exactly does it mean to be holy?

Continually restate to yourself what the purpose of your life is. The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness. Nowadays we have far too many affinities, we are dissipated with them; right, good, noble affinities which will yet have their fulfillment, but in the meantime God has to atrophy them. The one thing that matters is whether a man will accept the God Who will make him holy. At all costs a man must be rightly related to God.

Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe God can come into me and make me holy? If by your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I resent your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it must reveal that I am unholy; but it also awakens an intense craving. God has one desfined end for mankind, viz., holiness. His one aim is the production of saints. God is not an eternal blessing machine for men; He did not come to save men out of pity: He came to save men because He had created them to be holy. The Atonement means that God can put me back into perfect union with Himself, without a shadow between, through the Death of Jesus Christ.

Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied talking with the tongue, unsullied thinking with the mind—every detail of the life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me. — My Utmost for His Highest.

9. What is the difference between holy living and good Christian living?

I see them as the same.

10. Malachi 3.6 What difference does it make to our day to day lives that God doesn’t change?

Even when our hearts grow cold toward God and our devotion to Him weakens, His love remains steadfast. We may forget God, but He remembers us.

God was concerned because the people of Judah had allowed their hearts to drift far from Him. In a powerful moment, God shared His heart with His people, recalling what it was like when they first began loving Him. He remembered how they had loved Him, as a new bride loves her husband, with excitement and enthusiasm for the future. He recalled the kindness they had expressed as they willingly followed Him wherever He led them. God reminded them of the love they had once had for Him, so that the memory might rekindle feelings of devotion and their hearts might return to Him.

If you do not guard our heart, you will grow cold in your love for Christ. A time may come when He approaches you and reminds you what your relationship was once like. Do you recollect the joy that permeated your life when you first became a Christian? Do you recall the youthful commitments you made to Him, pledging to do anything He told you to do? Do you remember the thrill you experienced each time you came to understand a new dimension of His nature? Spiritual memory is important. You may not realize how far you have drifted from God until you contrast the love you are expressing to Him now with that of earlier days.

God has not changed. He is the same Person you gave your heart to when you became a Christian (Mal. 3:6–7). If your love for God is not as intense as it once was, return to Him. He will restore the intimate fellowship you once shared with Him. — Experiencing God Day by Day: A Devotional and Journal.

11. What is not attractive—to some—about God’s unchanging nature?

Men and women wish that they could get God to change. They do not like him for his godly attributes: sovereignty, holiness, omniscience, justice, wrath—even love, because it is a holy love. But they could endure these perfections if it were possible to think that given time God might change in some of them.

We could endure God’s sovereignty if we could think that given a bit more time God’s grip on the universe might weaken and another strong personality might take over. Perhaps we could take over. Maybe men could be sovereign.

We could endure God’s holiness if we could think that given a bit more time his tough moral standards might change. What we are forbidden to do now we might be able to do then. We could wait to sin.

We could endure omniscience if given the passage of years it might be possible for God to forget. We could wait for him to become senile.

We could endure his justice if with the passage of time it might become more of an abstract ideal than a reality.

We could even endure his love if it could cease to be the perfect and properly jealous love the Bible describes it to be.

But God does not change. God is the same today as he has always been; he will be the same in what we would call billions of years from now. God will always be sovereign. He will always be holy. He will always be omniscient. He will always be just. He will always be loving. It is appropriate that we be reminded of this in the closing pages of the Old Testament. — Boice Expositional Commentary - An Expositional Commentary – Philippians.

12. Doesn’t it seem like God has changed—that he is meaner in the Old Testament than the new? How would you respond to someone who suggested that God changed in this way?

“Isn’t there a big difference between the often-cruel God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament?”

Geisler smiled. “It’s interesting you ask that,” he replied, “because I just did a study of every time the Bible uses the word that the King James Version translates as ‘mercy.’ I found it occurs 261 times in the Bible—and seventy-two percent of them are in the Old Testament. That’s a three-to-one ratio. Then I studied the word ‘love’ and found it occurs 322 times in the Bible, about half in each testament. So you have the same emphasis on love in both.

“Ironically,” he added, “you could make a case that God is more judgmental in the New Testament than the Old. For example, the Old Testament talks very little about eternal punishment, but the New Testament does.”

“There’s no evolution in God’s character, then?”

“That’s right. In fact, the Bible says, ‘I the Lord do not change.’9 In both testaments you’ve got the identical, unchangeable God—the one who is so holy he cannot look upon sin, and yet the one whose loving, merciful, gracious, and compassionate heart wants to pour forgiveness on all people who repent.”

Compassionate? I thought to myself. Merciful? The time had come to get to the crux of the character issue. — The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity (Lee Strobel)

13. Hebrews 12.18 – 24. How did Mount Sinai differ from Jerusalem?

Whereas Sinai was forbidding and terrifying, Zion is inviting and gracious Sinai is closed to all, because no one is able to please God on Sinai’s terms—perfect fulfillment of the law. Zion is open to all, because Jesus Christ has met those terms and will stand in the place of anyone who will come to God through Him. Zion symbolizes the approachable God.

Sinai was covered by clouds and darkness; Zion is the city of light. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth” (Ps. 50:2). Sinai stands for judgment and death; Zion for forgiveness and life, “for there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever” (Ps. 133:3). — MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Hebrews.

14. What is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant?

Forgiveness was different under the law (also called the Old Covenant). It was a good news/bad news situation. Let’s say that you are an Israelite living under the law. All year long God is keeping a record of your violations of the law, and the entire nation’s as well. All year long you feel the guilt of your sins; you live in fear of God’s punishment, which was threatened for transgressions of the law. But the great Day of Atonement is coming! The annual day of fasting and praying and confessing your sins. The day each year when the perfect bull is sacrificed on behalf of the nation. The one and only time that a single mortal man, representing the whole nation, can enter into the most holy room of the temple, the Holy of Holies, which represents the very presence of God. Taking sacrificial blood, the high priest fearfully enters behind the veil and there sprinkles the blood which covers the nation’s—and your—sins for the previous year.

Two goats are sacrificed as well: One is slain at the altar; the other, called the scapegoat, becomes the subject of an unusual ceremony. Elders of the nation place their hands on the head of the goat, symbolizing the transfer of the nation’s sins to the animal. Then, before thousands of witnesses lining the streets, the scapegoat is driven from the city, out into the wilderness, symbolizing the removal of your sins. You watch with relief and thanksgiving, the innocent animal symbolically taking your guilt away. What relief! That’s the good news.

A man under the law could enjoy the blessing of God’s forgiveness, but that system provided no final solution.

What’s the bad news? Tomorrow your sins begin adding up again. Next year there will need to be another sacrifice. And the next year. And the next. — Classic Christianity (Bob George)

15. Were the sins of Old Testament saints paid for by the blood of animals?

God graciously gave this system to Israel as a means for man to experience relief from the guilt he experienced under the law. The key Old Testament word is atonement, which means a covering. Those sacrificial offerings did, indeed, cover sins, but they could not take them away, “because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). A man under the law could enjoy the blessing of God’s forgiveness, but that system provided no final solution. It is similar to the use of a credit card, which enables a person to have the benefit today of the coat he wants to buy, without paying cash. That’s the good news. But the bad news is that somebody is going to have to pay the tab! The card didn’t pay for the coat; it only transferred the debt to an account. That account will still have to be paid.

Sin Is Taken Away!
Then in God’s perfect timing, Jesus Christ was introduced to Israel by John the Baptist: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). From that point on, the finished work of Christ is presented in the New Testament in total contrast to the old system:

And by [God’s] will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:10-12).

Relentlessly the New Testament hammers home the message that Jesus Christ offered Himself as one sacrifice for all time. When will we believe it? In contrast to the Old Covenant priests who are pictured as “standing” and making continual sacrifices, Christ is shown as having sat down. Why is He seated? Because “it is finished!” (John 19:30). The writer of Hebrews reaches the climax of his argument in 10:14: “Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Jesus Christ has done it all!

I find that few Christians can read that verse without flinching and trying to water it down. It is too bold, and the implications are too threatening. Notice that it doesn’t say we act perfect; this is talking about identity. But the Bible says that through Jesus Christ we have been made totally acceptable in the eyes of a holy God! — Classic Christianity (Bob George)

16. How does Hebrews 12.5 – 6 describe our relationship with God?

They had forgotten an important point: Scripture links suffering and sonship, as Proverbs 3:11-12 shows. The address “My son” is normal for a maker of proverbs who assumes a superior but caring position. The author, however, sees a fuller meaning in these words than that, for they are words from God to his people. When God speaks of discipline and rebuke, it is sons that he addresses. It is interesting that this warning is called “that word of encouragement.” The certainty of suffering encourages the believer rather than dismays him because he knows that it is God’s discipline for him. Incidentally, it seems not improbable that the words might perhaps be taken as a question: “Have you forgotten?”

The word for discipline combines the thoughts of chastening and education. It points to sufferings that teach us something. In v. 4 the striving was against sin, but somehow the hand of God was in it, too. No circumstances are beyond God’s control, and there are none he cannot use to carry out his purpose. So the believer is not to belittle the significance of his sufferings nor lose heart in the face of God’s correction. “Those he loves” comes first in the Greek, which gives it a certain emphasis. God disciplines people he loves, not those he is indifferent to. The readers should see the sufferings they were experiencing as a sign of God’s love, as Scripture already assured them. It is the son that is punished and “every son” (panta huion) at that.

In the ancient world it was universally accepted that the bringing up of sons involved disciplining them. Therefore, we should not read back modern permissive attitudes into our understanding of this passage. The Roman father possessed absolute authority. When a child was born, he decided whether to keep or discard it. Through out its life he could punish it as he chose. He could even execute his son and, while this was rarely done, the right to do it was there. Discipline was only to be expected. — Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Volume 12: Hebrews through Revelation.

17. How do we know if a trial that comes our way is God’s discipline on us or something else?

The question becomes: how do we know whether the difficult times we face are part of the discipline of the Lord or something else? For example, they could be the result of our own foolish behavior or attacks by Satan. Regardless of their sources, we can treat all difficulties as opportunities for us to grow and learn from God. The context of this chapter shows that these words apply to the suffering that believers face from hostile nonbelievers, those who mistreat Christians who stand for their faith. In many parts of the world, Christians face persistent persecution. Even if we are not experiencing persecution (and perhaps we should be if we are truly standing for Christ), we can pray for those who are. — Life Application Bible Commentary – Hebrews.

18. 2 Peter 3.9 What does God seeming slowness reveal about God?

Peter now explains why it is that the Lord has not yet returned. While from a human perspective he seems “slow in keeping his promise,” the apparent delay has nothing to do with being slow. The “some” who accuse God of “slowness” are undoubtedly the scoffing teachers.

Far from showing a lack of concern for people, the Lord is actually showing mercy. The theme is a common one in the Old Testament, as time and again God waits to execute his judgment in order to give people a chance to repent. Joel 2:13 provides an excellent example: “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” Peter does not deny that from a human point of view the return of Jesus seems delayed; but that apparent delay is actually patience, allowing for repentance.

The statement that God does not want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,” has always created problems for certain theologians. Those who believe that God has chosen some to be saved (and not others) have trouble explaining why God wants all to be saved but has chosen only some. A standard response is to ask who is actually included by the words “anyone” and “everyone.” Since Peter writes that God is patient “with you,” suggesting that some of his readers were in need of repentance, it is argued that Peter means “any of you” and “all of you.” That is, God wants all those he has chosen to repent and therefore shows patience in sending Jesus. However, it must be noted that some are apparently in real danger of being caught unrepentant when Christ comes “as a thief in the night.” And it is far from clear that “anyone” and “everyone” refer to God’s chosen ones. For what sense does it make to say that God wants his saved ones to repent so they can be saved? Surely it is more reasonable to think that God wants everyone to repent and be saved.

As explained above, Peter does use the language of “election” in order to reassure his readers (see comments on 1:3). However, this letter as a whole tends to resonate better with a free-will doctrine rather than that of predestination.-- College Press NIV Commentary – 1 & 2 Peter.