king james bible concordance

Religious & Intolerant

By Ernie

Jesus discovered it, the Bible affirms it, and I have experienced it. The more RELIGIOUS a person becomes, the greater the chances are that they become more INTOLERANT. And it doesn’t stop there. They also become rigid in their doctrine, inflexible in their methods, and not teachable to anything that does not agree with their established doctrines. I know. I once lived that lifestyle.

Once upon a time in a denomination very large and a religion very sure of itself I plied my religious wares with steadfastness. I KNEW! My eschatology was perfect, my Christology immaculate, and my theology a beauty to behold. So I thought!

If there is anything we should surely see from the life of Jesus it was that the most religious of people (can you say Pharisees?) were the ones who were the least tolerant of the teachings that Jesus brought. And, that’s really an understatement. The most religious actually aggressively fought to refute his message. Further the leaders of the established religion sought to have him killed.

Let me use a bit of logic here and say that just because one professes to be “religious” and even acts “religious” (sometimes that’s the tone with which one speaks of course) does not mean they are open to Jesus, God, or anything else that they of course don’t agree. Dogmatic and rigid (thus saith King James and concordance #666) people always resist change. Jesus is recorded to have said (John 16:12) that there were many more things to tell us but we simply could not BEAR them.

Okay, that was 2,000 years ago, give or take a decade or two. Can we possibly comprehend, understand, or bear them now? Will we listen to them now? DO we want to hear anything NEW or just stick with what was understood centuries ago. Listen, Jesus came as a subversive teacher, a revolutionary spiritual leader reminding us that many things that his religion stood for and believed were not necessarily so. His kind way of stating it was, “You’ve heard it said, but…..”

Let’s cut to the chase! Is there anything that “you’ve heard said”, maybe even written in the Holy King James Bible, that you’re open to changing your mind on or even being open to discuss?