There is no room for a margin of error in Jesus’ words. He told the people plainly, “…for if you do not believe I am he, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
From the time I was a child in grade school until now, America’s view of Christianity has drastically changed. As a child most citizens believed in the Christian God and attended church at least on Christmas and Easter. Then sometime in the 60s we began to hear about tolerance of other cultures and belief systems. At that time tolerance meant, not attacking or taking actions against people of other persuasions while holding to the truth.
Tolerance has come to mean that no one can or should claim there is only one way to God. To do so is to say you and your beliefs are better than everyone else’s and to be ostracized from the culture at large.
In Jesus’ day it not only meant disapproval from both secular and political cultures; it meant death. Nonetheless Jesus did not hesitate to speak the truth. The eternity of others depended on it, as it does today.
