Religious intolerance was common throughout the Middle Ages, and it found increased fervor in the 16th century. Religion fanned the flames of ghastly, bloody wars in such lands as England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Between 1520 and about 1565, some 3,000 people were executed as heretics in Western Christendom. Almost any questioning of values and ideas—particularly in the area of religion—was likely to meet with an intolerant reaction.
Yet, some in the 16th century chose to go against tradition and examine the Scriptures in an attempt to clarify such mysteries. Their motto was sola Scriptura (Scripture alone). Those who rejected the Trinity doctrine—some of whom were later called Unitarians, as opposed to Trinitarians—often became the object of intense persecution by Catholics and Protestants alike. They printed their widely read works under pseudonyms and hid themselves away to avoid persecution. Anti-Trinitarians were also at the forefront in the fight for tolerance. Some, such as the Spanish theologian Michael Servetus, even paid for their convictions with their lives
But it started FAR EARLIER than 1500s. In fact, I question if you can support Religious Tolerance, with Scripture. I find commands to NOT be tolerant of False gospels, False Christs, and False Doctrines:
Those commands started with the Inspired WORD of GOD that Paul penned:
Galatians 1:6-9 (ASV)
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6 [/SUP] I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto
a different gospel;
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7 [/SUP] which is not another
gospel only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
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8 [/SUP]
But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.
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9 [/SUP] As we have said before, so say I now again,
if any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received,
let him be anathema.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 (ASV)
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3 [/SUP]
If any man teacheth a different doctrine, and consenteth not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
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4 [/SUP] he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questionings and disputes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
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5 [/SUP] wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain.
1 Timothy 6:11-12 (ASV)
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11 [/SUP] But thou, O man of God,
flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
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12 [/SUP] Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal, where unto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
2 Timothy 3:1-7 (HCSB)
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1 [/SUP] But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days.
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2 [/SUP] For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
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3 [/SUP] unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,
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4 [/SUP] traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
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5 [/SUP] holding to the form of godliness but denying its power.
Avoid these people!
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6 [/SUP] For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions,
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7 [/SUP] always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 1:18-20 (NKJV)
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18 [/SUP] This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you,
that by them you may wage the good warfare,
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19 [/SUP] having faith and a good conscience, which
some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,
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20 [/SUP]
of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
And in the Inspired WORD of GOD that John penned:
2 John 1:10-11 (ASV)
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10 [/SUP] If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching,
receive him not into your house, and
give him no greeting:
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11 [/SUP]
for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.
And even the Inspired WORDS penned by Peter showed no Tolerance for False Teachers:
2 Peter 2:1-2 (HCSB)
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1 [/SUP] But
there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.
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2 [/SUP] Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and
the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them.
No, we are not to let debates elevate to the level of Arguments, and agreeing to disagree is sometimes the only way to avoid those arguments. But neither are we to be Tolerant of False Gospels, False Christs, and False Doctrines. It is the WORLD that is preaching Religious Tolerance, not the Word of GOD.
And even the Inspired Words penned by Jude, did not call for Tolerance:
Jude 1:3-4 (NASB)
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3 [/SUP] Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation,
I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
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4 [/SUP] For
certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and
deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.