Tolerance - Acceptance - Affirmation - Celebration 🌈

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be discussing the evolution of sin and false doctrine. Here is how it goes. It goes from tolerance, to acceptance, to affirmation, and then to celebration.

So at first, people tolerate it. Oh, they don't like it. It's sin. They're against it. Or with heresy, they disagree, but they're not really willing to take any hard action. So after a while, the sin, the heresy, it just starts to become normal.

That's when it moves into stage two, which is acceptance. So it starts with tolerance, then it moves to acceptance. You know, it is what it is. Maybe it's not really that bad, and you start hearing the excuses coming.

People start to make space for sin and heresy. And after some more time passes, people's attitude begins to shift, and now it's full-blown affirmation. So now it's no longer sin. Now it's a good thing.

Now the heresy is no longer heresy. It's just what I believe, and it's how I feel that it's true, you know. That's the way it works. That's what the devil is doing. This is his strategy. And once somebody reaches that stage of full affirmation, that's apostasy.

And then they treat the Bible like a wax nose, where they can kind of shape and mold it to fit whatever they want it to say. 2 Peter 3 .16, the apostle warns of unstable men who twist the scriptures to their own destruction.

And speaking of destruction, that sounds like another word we're used to hearing these days—deconstruction. And one leads to another. Once people start to affirm things that God hates, the whole concept of repentance and forgiveness is just out the window.

So that deconstruction really puts someone on the road to destruction, the road to perdition. Jesus said in Matthew 7 .13, Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

So you have to understand that with sin, with false doctrine, there's a progression. You can't move from someone being against sin to then they're celebrating it. You can't have that happen overnight.

You need to take them step-by-step. That's what false teachers do. That's what the deconstruction movement is doing. It's step-by-step-by-step. You're dismantling your faith. You're leading people into apostasy one step at a time.

So again, it starts with tolerance. You're tolerating sin. You're tolerating false doctrine. Then it moves to acceptance. Then affirmation. And then the final step is celebration. I mean, why not? You're affirming it.

You're just being consistent. So let's celebrate it. This is exactly what we've seen with the so-called LGBTQ movement. And someone will say, no, no, now it's LGBTQIA+. And you say, well, what does the plus stand for?

Well, you don't want to know what the plus stands for. I mean, right now that behavior is illegal, just like all the other behaviors were illegal a generation or two ago. But what are they doing? They are preparing people for the next step.

Because you can't jump from sound doctrine, or just as you can't jump from sound doctrine to heresy, you can't jump from 1950s America, one man, one woman for life, the nuclear family. You can't jump from that to trans surgeries for kids.

No, you have to take it one step at a time. You need to prepare people for what's coming next. You need to groom people, right? This is what they're doing. Right now, you know this is true. Little kids are being indoctrinated with the most perverse things you can imagine.

Actually, it can get worse and it will get worse if people tolerate it, which people are tolerating it, which is the whole problem with this, right? But it's being celebrated, all this stuff, by the progressives, but what's happening with the conservatives?

Well, they're starting to tolerate it, and of course, you have like Fox News now celebrating Pride Month, and many evangelical pastors are not preaching on it, so they've sort of accepted it. It is what it is, you know, there's not much we can do.

And besides, all sin is sin, so this stuff really isn't any worse. You're already hearing that from evangelicals. So the compromise has already started, and unless there is a massive move of the Spirit of God, just wait 10 or 20 years.

You think things are bad now? Yeah, you haven't seen nothing yet. So this is clearly how it works. Again, there is a process, tolerance, acceptance, affirmation, and then celebration. But actually, there is another step, and we're already starting to see this, that those who celebrate sin, once that goes on for a while and they realize that they're in charge, then they want to persecute those who disagree with them.

So persecution is then the fifth step. Now what are they saying? They use words like tolerance, but they don't really want tolerance. They want you to tolerate their behavior, because that's step one in compromising.

But they're not going to tolerate you if you dissent, right? So if you disagree with them, they have no tolerance for that. They want to crush you. They want to eliminate and stamp out all opposition.

So that's what's happening. The Scripture says in 2 Timothy 3 .13, Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Now I have sort of been blending what's happening in the culture with what we need to watch out for in the church, because it's really hard to separate the two in this sense.

Those in the church who fall away or deconstruct, it's the culture that's pulling them away.

From Christ.

And the culture, the world, is under the sway of the wicked one, 1 John 5 .19. So you really can't separate these issues. As Paul said to the Romans in chapter 12, do not be conformed to this world. So really, this is always the issue.

There are two kingdoms, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. There's the kingdom of God and the world system, Babylon, that is controlled by the prince of the power of the air, Satan, who is called the god of this age, 2 Corinthians 4 .4.

Paul also told the church in 2 Corinthians 2 .11 that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. And when he says we, he doesn't mean everybody. He's referring to those who have discernment, those who can read the signs of the times.

And those who understand what's happening, they then appeal to the church and to believers to heed the words of Christ and his apostles, because the world is trying to draw you away. So we need to make these issues clear.

This is the strategy, right? Tolerance, acceptance, affirmation, celebration. And once they got the celebration, then they try to destroy their opponents.

Okay.

Today in the Western world, in the 21st century, this is how it works. But remember, there's nothing new under the sun. This has been the devil's playbook all along. The verse that I like to quote on this podcast when we're talking about such things is what?

1 Corinthians 5, 6, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. As long as the devil can get you to tolerate a little leaven, guess what? Yeah, the tolerance goes to acceptance, affirmation, celebration. Paul was worried about the Corinthian church, that the leadership was refusing to excommunicate this guy who was sleeping with his stepmother.

So Paul tells them, if you don't do something about this, we're going to have a problem. And of course that problem will spread. 2 Timothy 2, Paul warned about the false doctrine of Hymenaeus and Philetus.

He said their message will spread like cancer. Paul tells Timothy in verse 16, those men need to be shunned. Oh, well, see people in churches today, they don't want to do that. So what do they do? They tolerate the sin.

They tolerate the false doctrine. It gets worse and worse. Paul says the same thing to Titus, Titus 3 .10. And if you experience someone like that, a divisive man who has sinful practices, preaching heresy, Paul says you admonish them once and then twice after that, they are to be rejected.

You are to have nothing to do with them. Romans 16, 17 and 18, Paul says about such people, mark them and avoid them. Do not continue to dialogue with them. I mean, if you continue to dialogue after the second admonition, you're already compromising.

You're tolerating them. You're holding meetings. You're putting yourself at risk because Satan is so subtle. And those who do his bidding are like their father. They are subtle. So with smooth words, Paul says, and flattering speech, they are able to deceive the hearts of the simple.

You know, the devil doesn't come with a pitchfork and his horns and, you know, enticing you. Hey, let's go do evil. Let's betray Christ. That's not what he does. He's like, Hey, look at this apple. It looks so good.

Just, just one bite, just one bite. You will be like God, you know, just one more meeting. God is gracious. You should be gracious. Let them into your church. Oh, they're in your church. You need to let them take communion.

Just a little more tolerance, a little more grace. Now by grace, the devil is swapping grace for licentiousness. But before you know it, long story short, you're at the Lord's supper at the Lord's table, taking communion with heretics and gay marriage supporters.

And that has happened and it is happening. And we've talked about this many times. So once you reach that stage where you have kind of accepted this and you're welcoming them in, then you get to second John nine through 11.

If you allow these people into your house, which includes your church house, you have now become a partaker of their evil deeds, tolerance, acceptance, which leads to affirmation and then celebration.

So to the faithful saints, keep fighting the good fight of faith. Remember Paul to the Galatians, he said about their false gospel, we did not give in. We did not tolerate it. Not even for an hour. And that's where we need to be.

So stand strong, hold fast to what is true. And until next time, may the Lord be with you and have a great day.