The exercised child of God is not in darkness as to the character of the days in which his lot is cast. We are, without doubt, in the very last of the "last days" as many existing conditions around us clearly indicate. One sign of the approaching end of the age and of the iminence of our Lord's return is the amazing spirit of tolerance, especially in the religious world and the professing church. There can be no doubt that the present tendency in the major denominations is one of a more tolerant attitude in all matters of doctrine and practices which have been barriers to unity for many centuries.

Many in Protestant circles are calling the Reformation a hasty mistake, while the Roman Catholic system speaks with guile of her misguided brethren, and the religious joinup seems to be almost in sight. Such a union was unheard of even a very few years ago. What is behind this spirit? We have no doubt it is the power of the Devil at work producing a smooth and subtle pill of TOLERATION. The world is being carried away with this newest form of Satanic deception and everywhere the clergy of the various sects are shaking hands and forgetting old differences; with the platforms of both evangelical and modernist linked in an unholy alliance. The saddest result of all, it seems to us, is the baneful effects of this movement upon Assemblies of saints who are professedly gathered to the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The spirit to "agree to differ" in opinions on vital and fundamental issues is hailed by the misguided as Christ-like tolerance. The older brethren who taught the truth that marks out the assembly as distinct from the world's religions are dubbed as old fashioned, and any who still dare to minister all the Word of God are finding the path restricted. The popular path is to be tolerant and teachers are thus "heaped" who will meet with the wishes of the people. One wonders in a few years what things will come to if our Lord be not come. In the meantime let us encourage all who have a heart for God, His Son, His truth and His assembly to continue in the "old paths" of the Word and ways which be in Christ.

OUR GUIDE

Assemblies must ever be guided by the Infallible Word of God alone. We were accustomed by the watchword in earlier days, "IS IT IN THE BOOK?" and "WHAT SAITH THE LORD?" This should ever be the rallying cry of the people of God in assembly testimony. We cannot, to our peril, depart from this landmark. The opinions, thoughts, ideas of men, even those who are spoken of as leaders, can never take the place of the Holy Scriptures. It may seem strange to some that we advocate intolerance in a day of tolerance. Let the reader ponder the ministry of the Lord in Matthew 23 verses 23 to 33. What searching words!!! Here we see the intolerance of Christ to the hypocrisy of the religious world in His day. Was the great apostle tolerant in the firm stand he took against a Peter whom he withstood to the very face because he was to be blamed? Gal. 2:11. The loving John advocated intolerance to evil when he wrote... "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds". II John verses 10, 11, WHAT INTOLERANCE we hear the mild-mannered compromisers of our day say! Happy would it be for all the Lord's people if we closed the door against all false teachers and false literature now flooding this continent.

ATTITUDE IN DEPARTURE

Whenever there is a definite departure from "THE FAITH once for all delivered to the saints" the child of God and each assembly must adopt a spirit of intolerance. What is THE FAITH? It is the whole body of revealed truth contained in the Word of God. All the grand doctrines of grace are here. Solemn warnings of a real Hell of real fire are here. A final portion of all the unsaved in the Lake of Fire eternally is clearly defined herein, while all the redeemed through the precious Blood of Christ, shall share the eternal bliss of being with the Lord Jesus in the glory - cp. Rev. 21:1, etc. The Devil wishes men to believe that Luke 16, which clearly states the condition of the lost in hell, and other portions of the Word, are only parabolic. This is the opiate of Satan which lulls millions in the sleep of eternal death.

One has found that two things are common to all the cults operating in U.S.A. and Canada and the Homelands too:

1. Salvation by some merit of the creature other than
the Precious Blood of Christ alone.

2. The denial of the place located in the heart of the earth
called "Hades" and the final conscious punishment of
the damned in Gehenna.

May we be intolerant to any undermining of the truth of God.

"The Faith" also includes the path of the child of God from his conversion to the Glory. His path through a world of difficulty, as an individual, is all accounted for. He can never be in place or condition but the Word will give directions. The "gathering out of the saints" from all the ruin and wreck of Christendom is clearly seen. God intends separation to be taught and practised. One Name alone must be owned in the Church... Matthew 18:20. Alas! many who once taught and held this are now becoming more tolerant and associate His Name with the sects and missions and companies that long have ceased to bear any semblance to a scriptural assembly. When does an assembly cease to be one? When it practises the truth no longer and over-throws its distinct character, and becomes conformed to the religious world around, sharing their "movements" and interchanging their platforms. How sad when any company becomes tolerant to places where the Lordship of Christ is denied by human arrangement. This becomes so when the Lord's Supper is given a small place, if any at all; and Baptism by immersion set aside as something of little account, and plain ministry of the Word substituted by light entertainment, and instead of a rousing Gospel message, perhaps a film show. May we who seek to move along the simple lines of the early Church, be intolerant to all such apostacy and departure from the ways which be in Christ.

DISLOYALTY TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST

One of the worst forms of "tolerance" is seen in those who are downright disloyal to the Glorious Person and Work of our Blessed Lord - also: