Is God More Tolerant Than He Used To Be?

My topic today: “Is God More Tolerant Than He Used To Be?” Just about two years ago, there was an article in The Economist, and it was by Catherine Nixey. She’s actually a British correspondent in which she wrote saying that God is becoming more liberal. As a matter of fact, the Anglicans in England are beginning to say God is so liberal that He’s now even approving of same-sex marriage. The online version of her article is entitled Nearer My God to Me. In other words, God is becoming just like us. He’s approving all the things that we are approving of. Really? Of course, when you read the New Testament, it does sound very different from the Old Testament, doesn’t it? No more stories today of Nadab and Abihu, some seminary students who were trying to just have an experiment, whatever that fire was they offered to the Lord and boom, dead.

No more stories like that today. You can be as irreverent as you want and live a long life. No more stories like Uzzah. He wants to steady the Ark of God as it is taken across and he’s trying to do God a favor. He doesn’t want the ark to fall on the ground and he steadies it, and God says, “Levites only are supposed to touch it. You’re dead.” And he’s finished. No more stories like that. No more stories of the sons of Korah and the earth opening up and swallowing up all of the wicked people. We don’t have that anymore.

So the question I want to answer is, “Is God more tolerant? Is it safer to sin under grace than it was under law?” That’s an important question for us and a related question is this, “Is God going to let people who have done you in justice get by? Because after all, He’s loving and gracious and He is becoming more mellow as time goes on.”

Now, there’s no way that you can unhitch the Old Testament from the New. Liberals for years said that the Old Testament God is an awful God. In fact, Catherine Nixey said this, “Nobody believes in the ‘Smighty Almighty’ anymore. The God who smote the Egyptians. The God who smote the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Nobody believes in that God anymore, that God has passed.”

So, liberals have looked at the Bible for years and said, “There’s the God of the Old Testament, and people thought of Him as harsh and they wrote all these awful stories. Then there’s the God of the New Testament who is love and who is nothing but tolerant and we prefer the God of the New Testament.” You can’t unhitch them.

However, like Andy Stanley thought that he was able to do [so] because there is a connection here. The Old Testament, I learned long ago is in the new—let me get this straight now—The New Testament is in the Old concealed and then the Old Testament is in the New revealed. I mean you have the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart; you have all of the stories. Think of all those times when it is written — Jesus frequently quoted the Old Testament, as did the other writers. So, it is like a hand and a glove.

Before I give you three changes, I think will help us to answer the question whether or not God is more tolerant, I do want to deal with the issue that is most controversial. That has to do with Old Testament sexuality. If you take time to read the Leviticus 18, you find there that God is speaking about sexual sin.

I read it this afternoon and line after line and verse after verse speaks about incest and God condemns that. The abominations of the Old Testament. Then of course He gets into the controversial issue today of homosexuality. So, if you quote the book of Leviticus, people say today, “Oh, so you actually quote the book of Leviticus. Well, could it be the clothing you are wearing, it has mixed fabric? Because in the book of Leviticus you’re not supposed to mix fabric. Ny the way, have you eaten fish recently? Fish even with fins. What about that?” So, they say “You don’t accept those, why do you accept the teaching of the Old Testament regarding sexuality?” Well, that’s a very good question to ask and it’s one we need to be answered.

Many of us already know the answer, don’t we? There are three kinds of laws in the Old Testament. There’s civil laws. Civil laws had to do with life in the desert. What do you do when your donkey goes across on your neighbor’s property? How do you manage life together when you have various things happening there in the desert and somebody steals somebody else’s property and on and on? Well, that can’t apply to us.

Then you have the ceremonial law with all of the offerings that were made. The book of Leviticus brings this offering and if you’ve committed this, then bring this one. You and I read this, many people who attempt to read through the Bible in a year, they never get past the book of Leviticus. It’s hard for us to understand. Obviously, those laws don’t apply because that would be an insult to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and therefore we do not use and participate in Old Testament sacrifices.

But there is such a thing as the moral code and even the laws of sexuality have transcendent application as we’ll see in a moment. So, we must understand just because those laws are in the Old Testament, that doesn’t mean they can’t be applied today. As a matter of fact, when the Bible says in the book of Proverbs, “There are things that are an abomination onto the Lord, a proud look…” (Proverbs 6:16–19) Then it goes through that whole list. Those are still abominations even today because the sins of the heart, the sins that were committed back there are still sins today because God is God and He has not changed.

But here’s a question: Why is it that we still believe and how do we answer the objection that we should not be talking about using the Old Testament for the purpose of speaking against issues such as homosexuality?

I’ll tell you exactly why we have another reason to do it, and that is because of the teaching in 1 Timothy 1:8–11. This is the New Testament. “Now we know the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjures, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

Paul shows there the transcendent of Old Testament sexuality and along with that, a lot of other sins. They were sins in the Old Testament, they were abominations. They are still abominations today. So, if somebody says to you, “Oh, you can’t use the book of Leviticus.” You point out even if we didn’t have the book of Leviticus, we would find out exactly what sins are abominable to God just reading the New Testament. Of course, you recognize Romans 1 and so forth.

Now there’s another question that we sometimes are asked and that is there was an article, I think it was the New York Times that asked a very good question: “Why are Christians all hung up over the issue of homosexuality and say virtually nothing about divorce?” That’s a good question. Al Moeller answered this question in one of his “Briefings”. The fact is this: Number one, divorce is terrible and sinful and breaks up homes and you and I know its effects which are very negative and we have to speak about it as pastors though we're hesitant to because of the number of people that we have in our congregation who have been divorced. Sometimes it may be necessary, but always sin is involved. But at the same time, we do speak a lot more about the issue of homosexuality.

Why? Because even adultery and divorce are based on a stable understanding of the relationship of marriage between a husband and a wife. Homosexuality however is contrary to nature as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1. So, in that sense, it’s in a category by itself. When the Supreme Court decided to legalize same-sex marriage, they took that word “marriage” and gave it a brand-new meaning, which it’s never had throughout history. And maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I will. It’s like renaming something. You can take a weed, and you can say that it’s a flower. You can use very many illustrations of taking something and giving it a brand-new meaning. And the Supreme Court did that by fiat. They just decided that it was time that the word “marriage” be applied very differently than it’s been applied throughout history actually in all cultures.

Now, all that by way of introduction because the question that you are still asking is this: “Okay, we have the Old Testament law, but why aren’t we stoning people?” Old Testament, you get stoned for this and that even though believe it or not, we have no evidence of anyone ever being stoned for these sins. And this is a little deeper discussion, but the reason is because there could be ransom as we learn in the book of Numbers. There could be ransom paid instead of being stoned. But nonetheless, the question is: “Why are the punishments of the Old Testament not applied today?” Thank you so much for asking that question because what I’d like to do now is to give you three changes between the Old Testament and the New. Three changes. And the passage of scripture actually comes to us from the book of Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter 12. And what we’re going to do is to look at three changes that will help us to see the difference and to answer the question, “Is God more tolerant than He used to be? Is He becoming mellow with age?”

I pick it up in Hebrews 12:18, “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’ But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:18–24).

The first difference I want you to see is that the Old Testament emphasizes the earthly and that, of course, is represented by Mount Sinai, whereas the New Testament, because of Jesus emphasizes now, the heavenly because Jesus has come. Old Testament, “Stand away.” When God came on Sinai, the people were terrified and God says, “Get out of the way. Don’t you dare come close to the mountain.” And the mountain shook and there was fire. Sinai was God coming without a mediator, without someone who had placated His wrath. Could you imagine a progressive Christian standing at the base of Mount Sinai and saying, “I’d like to come to God on my own terms, thank you very much.” I don’t think so. That’s the way Sinai was. “Stay away.” Moses [said], “I tremble with fear” Rather, now things change and what you have is we come to the heavenly Zion. Old Testament mountain—Sinai. New Testament mountain—Mount Calvary. Zion, a poetic word for Jerusalem and of course it’s there in the outskirts where Jesus Christ was crucified and died.

Now we come, [the writer of Hebrews] says, to Mount Zion, to the heavenly city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festival gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven (probably the church) and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of righteous made perfect (possibly the Old Testament saints). So Old Testament, “Stay away.” New Testament says, “It’s okay now to approach God” because we have a mediator, because Jesus came from heaven to redeem us. And so, we can actually enter into the presence of God boldly by the throne of grace—because Jesus has come. So, we say to people today, “Don’t stay away. You come to Christ, you come to God, but come making sure that you understand you need a mediator because we cannot come to God directly on our own.” We need someone to stand in for us and to be our mediator. One of the differences that we notice is simply this: There’s a difference between the earthly and the heavenly.

There is a second difference and that has to do with the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. Notice it says we come to the new covenant, I read it in Hebrews 12:24, and to “Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” We come to a new covenant. What he’s saying is this: Think through. In the Old Testament, you had a theocracy. God spoke directly to the children of Israel, and he ruled through the prophets, even through kings and it was a theocracy. And in the Old Testament there was no such thing as freedom of religion. Absolutely not. I mean if you were a heretic, you were to be put to death because God was ruling directly.

That’s the old covenant, but that’s not the way it is in the new covenant. There is no theocracy today. Even when Israel was taken into Babylon, God didn’t say to them, “Now you’re in Babylon. Try to establish a theocracy. No, you are now to be a witness in the midst of this pagan civilization and represent me well and pray for the city that you are in, that the city may be blessed and as the city is blessed, you’ll be blessed. You represent me in Babylon.” That’s the way it is. This was an image in the Old Testament of the new covenant when Jesus said, “Render onto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what is God’s.” (See Luke 20:25) It was really a break with the idea that there was such a thing as a theocracy. From now on, there isn’t going to be a nation that’s going to be a theocracy.

Rather God is going to have people who are a transcendent people in every single country of the world. There are going to be believers, and they are going to be asked to represent God as the church no matter where they are, no matter the pagan society in which they live, they are to be an island of righteousness in a sea of paganism. But there is no such thing now as one nation that is under God as a theocracy. And when it comes to the difference between the church and the state, I have to throw this in: There’s so much unclear thinking regarding the role of the state and the role of the church. I heard one pastor say, and I’m sure he had a wonderful heart, but he was very naive and he didn’t understand. He said, “The gospel says whosoever will may come. We should have open borders in America so that whoever wills should come to America.” Many years ago in the 1990s, a democratic senator, whose name escapes me, said that one way you can destroy America is to invite people here who do not have your values, who do not accept western values and who maintain their loyalties to some other ideology. And I think we have seen that recently as we see demonstrations in favor of what is happening in Israel in Hamas, where you have people with loyalties that are different than our loyalties of freedom and our understanding of Western values. Now here’s what I want you to write down: “The symbol of the church is the cross.”

When the good Samaritan met the man along the road, he didn’t say, “Now, are you here legally and what group do you belong to?” and all that. No. Wherever you find needs, you meet them. Wherever you meet people, you represent Christ to them no matter where they’re from, no matter their background, but the symbol of the state is the sword and it’s the responsibility of the state to maintain order, to keep borders, to know who it is that is among us. That’s the responsibility of the state. And just like we would like to know who comes into our home and we just don’t invite anybody into our home until we know who they are, we should, as a nation, know who people are who come into America.

Now what I’d like to do is to give you a third distinction and this will get to the heart of the question. The first distinction is the earthly to the heavenly, the old to the new covenant, as far as the new covenant is concerned. And now the difference is this: immediate physical punishment versus eternal punishment. In the Old Testament punishment was immediate. Somebody breaks a law; Aiken commits a sin, he’s put to death. In the New Testament, there is punishment, but it is always primarily future. It is also physical, it is also temporal, but ultimately it is really future where God is going to judge the world, and where we will see that and the difference is very evident. Let’s read for example, just turn the book of Hebrews a couple of pages back to Hebrews 10:28.

“Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” If you’ll forget everything I’ve said today, I want you to write this down: The greater the grace, the more severe the punishment.

In order to nail that home, I’m going back to chapter 12 where we began the book of Hebrews and now I want to begin at Hebrews 12:25, “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:25–29).

What we discover is this: The greater the grace (and the New Testament has much more grace. We know much more than they did in Old Testament times, of course) and the greater the grace, the greater the judgment. And as I indicated it is so easy for us to think that people are getting by today. But biblically, in the New Testament, judgment primarily comes in the future. Now, there was also future judgment, of course, for those who died as wicked people in the Old Testament. But I have to say that was really not the emphasis. The emphasis was on present physical judgment. And to some extent that was very gracious because people knew you were in trouble if you sinned. And the trouble would be very evident and you would possibly be punished right on the spot. If you sinned today, there is no punishment on the spot.

I mean there’s some but not a whole lot. The Bible says this in the book of Ecclesiastes. It says because the sentence against a sin is not carried out immediately (I’m paraphrasing), people think it’s okay to do wrong (Ecclesiastes 8:11). And so people today do wrong thinking either “God isn’t watching,” or “I’m not being punished.” Though, of course, in some sense they are. Sometimes people ask me, do you think that America will someday be judged? And my answer is that all sin has immediate judgments. All sin has immediate judgments. And so, to some extent, of course, we’re being judged. The very fact that about 30 million children will go to bed tonight with only one parent in the home is part of the judgment of God and they take their issues into their marriages. And so, you see the ongoing effects of sin, but at the same time people think that they are getting by, and they think to themselves that everything is going to be in the future even as it is today.

And they do not know that their day is coming. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31) “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29). So we ask the question, “Is God more tolerant than he used to be? Is it safe to sin?” You remember in C.S. Lewis’ the Chronicles of Narnia (and I am just pulling this out of my mind), isn’t it Lucy who asks about the lion Aslan (who represents Christ): Is he safe? And the answer is no. He isn’t safe. He is good and he is gracious, but he isn’t safe. And then the kids go, and they see the softness of the lion’s paws and they rub his paws, and they think, “Wow, what a nice lion!” But there’s another side to the lion and that is his claws.

You have Jesus as the lamb and then you have Jesus as the lion. And we all want Jesus as the lamb, the meek and the mild, but we forget there’s another side to Jesus. By the way, in the new book I’ve written, The Eclipse of God, the last chapter is entitled, “Returning to the God of Wrath and Grace, not the God of Unconditional Love.” God loves everyone, but unconditional love does not mean unconditional acceptance by any means. And we need to revise our view of God. Here is the lamb.

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen (that’s us, folks) white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Revelation 19:11–16).

And I’m not even going to read the rest of the chapter. You can read it on your own, but it is so heartrending when you see the description of the judgment of God. There’s nothing that I know of in the Old Testament as judgmental and as scary as this. “Our God is a consuming fire.” Fire should be respected. Fire is something that reminds us of judgment. It reminds us of the fact that there is an eternal fire coming. And all of that is clarified in the New Testament (Not so clear in the Old Testament, where you have the emphasis on the physical judgments) but now you have the eternal judgments.

Sobering. In fact, let me see if I can quote for you something that shows up in chapter 20 of the book of Revelation, “And I [beheld] a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11–15 KJV).

Many years ago, when America was being developed across the prairies, many farmers (many homesteaders) really feared that their homestead would burn up if there was a prairie fire. So I’m told that what they did is they took and they had what was called a controlled burn. When the wind was favorable and so forth, they would burn a large area all around the homestead because they know that when the fire would come, they’d be safe because they would be where the fire has already been. If you think that God is soft on sin and He’s becoming more like us, look at the cross of Jesus Christ. Where is the love of God most clearly seen? It’s seen on the cross. Where is the judgment of God most clearly seen? It is seen on the cross when Jesus Christ took all the torments of Sinai upon Himself on our behalf.

And it is because of that we urge people to run to Jesus as a refuge from the wrath of God. In fact, another passage comes to mind, “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:12–17 KJV).

I don’t know of anything in the Old Testament that terrifying. Why? More grace, more responsibility, more judgment.

Jehovah bad his sword Wake. Oh Christ, it woken thee. Thy open bosom was its ward. It braved the storm for me. Death and the curse were in our cup. Oh, Christ was full for thee. But thou has drained the last dark drop says Empty. Now for me.

Jehovah bade His sword awake;
O Christ, it woke ’gainst Thee!

Thy open bosom was my ward,
It braved the storm for me.

Death and the curse were in our cup:
O Christ, ’twas full for Thee;
But Thou hast drained the last dark drop,
’Tis empty now for me.

Excerpts from “O Christ, What Burdens Bowed Thy Head,” by Anne R. Cousin (1824-1906).

“I am the Lord. I change not.” (Malachi 3:6). Let’s bow together in prayer.

Father, in a day when we take sin so casually because we’re under grace, we ask that you’ll help us to see the seriousness of sin. We pray that you might help us to recognize that you’ve not changed your mind regarding wickedness, regarding disobedience, regarding sexual sins. You have not changed your mind. And we thank you that we can flee to Christ for protection. We thank you that He is the One who forgives us and we have fled to him many, many times. But at the same time, help us to communicate that it’s very serious to reject Christ and God is not changed. Judgment is coming. But thankfully, Jesus paid that debt for all who would believe on Him. May we teach our flocks to flee to him for shelter from the wrath to come. In Jesus name, amen.