No Room for Compromise

Religious tolerance is not always a sign of good will. It can be a sign of careless, perhaps hypocritical religious indifference of the most high-handed philosophic relativism. It can also be a mask behind which to hide downright malice. During the Nazi era, for example, arguments for Christian openness to other perspectives were used by German Christians in an attempt to neuter the church’s protest against the neo-paganism of Hitler and his minions. The Confessing Church in Germany found in John 10 (God's sheep listening to his voice and not that of a thief) a theological basis to stand against Hitler.

 There are times in which the only way to keep alive the non-vindictive, nonjudgmental, self-sacrificing witness of Jesus Christ is to stand with rude dogmatism on the rock that is Jesus Christ, condemning all compromise as the work of the Antichrist. [Ronald Goetz in "Exclusivistic Universality" (Christian Century, April 21, 1993)]

Many things are worse than defeat, and compromise with evil is one of them.   This is the warning of Jesus to the church at Pergamum.  This is the warning to the church of Jesus Christ today.   Already some denominations have succumbed to social pressures and compromised on the deity of Christ, the inerrancy of the Bible, and reclassifying sexual sin as a legitimate lifestyle.  The thief of compromise is always putting on the pressure to rob believers of their commitment to Jesus Christ.

Yet, to him who overcomes, endures until the end, the Lord promised great rewards.    Come see us Sunday.  We will continue our study on "Overcoming in the Last Days," a look into the seven churches of Revelation.

Pastor Jeff