Most often tolerance seems to be about racial characteristics. To be certain, intolerance for different races is unfair by any standard because no one can change their racial inheritance. At best, people can only change the makeup of their offspring. Is it fair to want your children and grandchildren to have your own characteristics? That is debatable. Who can decide fairly what is meaningful to each individual? Thus it seems that it is unfair to be intolerant of people of different color, but maybe not so clear for interracial marriage. Thus, toleration for that decision process is best left up to the individual.
Racial differences are from God. In the beginning everyone was alike - possibly not black nor white but a earth-tone color. We do know that God scattered the races because of sin, and as they dispersed, races of people developed. The cause of racial differences cannot be determined, but it was either by genetic mutation or environmental adaptation. People of different races have different genetics. However, the genetics of all humankind are human. Thus, the accusation of one race being less human is foolishness. Who, without prejudice, can determine what is the original DNA of mankind?
Not only were there a change in skin colors but language groups as well. Thus different races have different languages. Although not specified in Holy Scripture, it seems that the different races came from three different people: Ham, Japheth and Shem, all sons of Noah. Perhaps their wives carried the dominant color gene. They were certainly products of the intermarriage between the "sons of god and the daughters of men" (Gen 6:4). If genetics were the cause of racial differences, it could be because of the intermarriage of Seth's line and Cain's. Cain, because of sin, received some type of "mark" (Gen 4:15-16). The mark could be anything including color. If so, the resultant race of that intermarriage would have been what we think of today as Mediterranean - swarthy and not black nor white. To be honest, like Jesus.
There are dominant genes and recessive. Fair people can have black children, and black people can have fair children. Black is the dominant color and white recessive. That in itself creates prejudice because since we are "as gods" we all want others to be as us! Intolerance is not handling that very well. Because people are different incites hatred. After all, we're the true gods (sic)!
Racial intolerance is not a white problem; all races of people can be intolerant and are! Last night I saw the intolerance of one black woman on Survivor who wanted favoritism from her black "brother" just because she is black. Using race for an advantage is prejudice. She showed intolerance by using her race as a bargaining chip. That type of prejudice is as wrong as one person using their race against another.
Like it or not, God cursed mankind for disobedience. Intolerance is mankind's curse on himself because Adam (Man) caused it by disobedience. Tolerance is God's way of testing mankind? Can we tolerate each other? Love is hard work manifested by how much people tolerate others who are different from the normative. Unfortunately, the world has no norm! However, God assigned the norm. He chose the Jews as His people. "For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be His own treasure out of all peoples that are upon the face of the earth" (Deut 14:2). Because God favored this race, perhaps a non-race because of their mixture, both white and black people have always hated the Jews. It is because of jealousy that people hate Jews so badly.
On the other hand, God gave His "chosen race" a greater burden to bare. They had 613 commands whereas the rest of mankind has only one: to love God and show it by loving others (The Greatest Commandment and the one like unto it). Sometimes, there is a handicap in being special or peculiar people! Because they were special, God had special requirements for them. They were required to obey the laws of Moses. Many of those laws influenced the other races. One specific one was to not marry "foreign wives" (Deut 7:3). That seem to be institutionalized intolerance by God. People often hate God because of His favoritism for the Hebrew people.
God's Purpose was to provide a way for Himself to take on flesh. He chose the Jews because Abraham made a deal with God. By circumcision of the flesh, Abraham signed the covenant. It could have been any race of people, but God chose Shem's line as "special" because Abraham had faith. You see, racial favoritism on God's part wasn't racial at all, but spiritual. By having faith in God, anyone can be "Jews"! There was no difference between Judaism and Christianity because faithful Jews believed in the Messiah. They spoke with Jesus before he was ever born!
Sinners hate Jews because they are not Jews in race nor spirit. Hatred is jealousy of not being favored. I am a spiritual Jew and so is the black man who accepts Christ as Savior. It's not the color which sinners hate, but the spirit within those who covenant with God. Ultimate love is wanting that "none should perish" (John 3:16). Love is what happens toward the souls of other humans. Wanting that some should perish is hatred. Haters don't really care about skin color; it is about the colorlessness of the soul. Haters use color, nationality, gender and other physical characteristics to hate the soul.
To be honest, because of geography, in my youth, I saw Christianity as the religion of white people because I knew mostly white people. I doubted that a Oriental could be born again because that is not what they did. Now, South Korea, for instance, is the hotbed of Christianity. They are quickly becoming spiritual "Jews". I admire them for that, and their acceptance of the same God as I have allows me to love them more!
Our "race" is Christ's race. He died for all mankind. Gentiles (non-Jewish people) can become "peculiar people" (1 Pet 2:9), and become equivalent to the Jews. Jews were not any more chosen than we all were, but they were first chosen because they were to be the "womb" for the Messiah. When Jews quit being peculiar people, God expanded His chosen to include Gentiles (Acts 18:6). Gentiles became "chosen people" as well. Jesus died to remove intolerance toward and from the Jews but Gentiles became intolerant of them!
In spiritual matters, God is intolerant and tolerant in that His patience is tested. If God uses His own advice, and He does, He tolerates "seventy times seven" (Mat 18:22). That is rhetorical for God tolerates us until we die! On the other hand, we kill ourselves when we fail to consider God. He is not the judge... people decide their fate when they either choose iniquity or not. Of course, failing to choose life, is acceptance of death by default. In other words, God is the epitome of toleration!
On the other hand, God has standards. He is extremely intolerant of those who don't live up to them! He gives every chance in the world, but when people choose the law of sin over the Law of God, they damn themselves. Jesus - God manifested - will judge. That seems unfair because God will not tolerate sin and we sin. People desire salvation but on their own terms. God is intolerant of that! My point is that God is tolerant (grace) but is intolerant as well (judgment and punishment). However, each person, because of their attitudes toward God determine whether He is tolerant or intolerant.
God tolerates sin. He understands our flesh because He created ours and His own. That's why "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Mat 26:41) has so much meaning. He tolerates us because of our will to please Him even when we fail. God is intolerant when we aren't willing to love and respect Him and His Laws. Thus, tolerance and intolerance depends on the reference.
Who sets the standard for intolerance? God does. Scripture is all about hating sin and loving sinners. That is the theme of the entire Bible! Hating even sinners is intolerable, but hating their flesh is tolerable. I'm not writing of the color or beauty of their flesh, but whether people live for the world or not. It's okay to hate sin, but it's hateful to hate sinners. We just need to be careful what it is we hate!
Using the extreme, we aren't to hate Hitler or Stalin. On the other hand, it is perfectly Christian to hate socialism because socialism is based on sin. My desire should be as God's; that none should perish. That includes Stalin and Hitler. We must love Marx but should not tolerate Marxism. Why? Because Marxism and socialism diminish God as they elevate the state to godhood. Sometimes I err in hating Hillary. I don't truly hate her; I do hate her ideology because it is unrighteous. It is not intolerant to defend God's Law but pragmatic. We should want that all love God and correct them if they don't. That is the purpose of scripture.
The worst brands of socialism may be neither Nazism nor Communism. Democratic Socialism is a mix of fairness and injustice. People buy into democratic socialism because it seems the right way. That seeming-ness is deception. It is not what it is claims to be! The most prominent man in American socialism is George Soros. If you do not know who he is, you need to learn about him. He is the de facto leader of America's socialist shadow government. His mentor was Karl Popper.
His type of Democrat Socialism is based on the philosophy of Popper. Why should you know that? Popper's philosophy of tolerance was based on intolerance of those who are intolerant of his world view. In my own words: It is acceptable to hate those who disagree with you until their viewpoints are insignificant. Then it is easier to tolerate because there will be no one with which to be intolerant. Wikipedia says this about Popper's Paradox of Tolerance: "Although Popper was an advocate of toleration, he said that intolerance should not be tolerated, for if tolerance allowed intolerance to succeed completely, tolerance would be threatened."
According to that paradox, it is okay to be intolerant of those who are not as "tolerant" as yourself. The problem with that is by whose standards are used. I submit the propagation of hatred is right out of the law of sin. The Devil authored Popper's Paradox. It is never okay to hate people!
That paradox is as important today as when it was written. Popper thought it up, but Soros uses it. He propagates hatred, and the left in America are his fools who do his bidding without understanding why. Christians are hated because we seem to get in the way of pleasure and take all the fun out of life. That's how we are perceived. I once thought that way. Now, after a new attitude, my idea of fun has changed: It is having joy rather than ecstasy; happiness and contentment rather than chaos.
The Bible teaches judgment. It's okay to judge people, but it must be done with tolerance:
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. (Jas 5:8-9)Tolerance does not mean acceptance but patience. If change is not forthcoming, we are to wipe the dust off our feet and let God do His judging (Mat 10:14). God will not tolerate those who are not willing to love Him and others. The penalty for that is death! You see, tolerance is time dependent: God is patient but will not tolerate sin forever. God's Paradox is that he is tolerant and intolerant. It's not doublethink but grace and justice!
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