Creeping Compromise Intro At the signing of the declaration of independence a compromise was made which would trouble the nation and embroil it in blood one hundred years later. Have other tragic compromises been made in the field of religion? I’ll be back in a moment with the prophetic perspective of Creeping Compromise. Message Hello, this is Cody Francis with Prophetic Perspectives. When Thomas Jefferson originally wrote the Declaration of Independence included in it was a passage decrying the slave trade as a wicked and detestable business. When presented before the entire continental congress, that passage was stricken. Probably in a compromise to be acceptable to the colonies benefiting from this cruel inhumane trafficking. Although is preserved peace at the time, we all know now of the horrors of the Civil War that it brought nearly one hundred years later and how many innocent lives were shed on the battle fields. Compromise, although at times important and beneficial, can frequently have disastrous results. Especially in the field of religion. Compromise is one the greatest foes to true Christianity that can be imagined. The Bible is full of tragic compromises. From Lot who compromised to live in wicked Sodom resulting in the loss of most of his family to Solomon who compromised with the nations around him to further his worldly greatness only to wreck havoc upon his spiritual life. Today we should turn our attention to one of the worst compromises in the history of the church as delineated by Jesus. Outline I. Seven churches A. Jesus appears to John – Rev. 1:12, 13 1. Walking among candlesticks 2. Candlesticks = churches – Rev. 1:20 B. Both John’s time & ours – Rev. 1:19 II. Four eras in Christianity A. Purity 1. Doctrine pure – Rev. 2:2 2. Laboring – Rev. 2:3 3. Apostolic Era – AD 31 – AD 100 4. Danger, left 1st love – Rev. 2:4 5. Have we left our 1st love? B. Persecution 1. False professors came in – Rev. 2:10 2. Cast into prison – Rev. 2:11 3. Era of Persecution AD 100 – 313 4. Are we suffering fiery trials? 5. PROMISE – Rev. 2:12 C. Compromise 1. Satan’s throne – Rev. 2:13 2. Balaam – Rev. 2:14 a. Forsook God through covetousness b. King allured him away from steadfastness to God c. Compromised & died w/enemies of God 3. Nicolaitans – Rev. 2:15 4. Era of Compromise – AD 313 – 538 a. Constantine’s “conversion” 1) Continue minting coins “soli invicto” 2) the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun – Gibbon b. Greatest danger from within – Acts 20:29, 30 1) Accepted pagan rites – idols, worship, etc. 2) “captive Rome captured her conqueror” D. Apostasy 1. Jezebel – Rev. 2:20 a. Wicked idolater at helm b. Church controlled state 2. Faithful in depths of apostasy – Rev. 2:24, 25 “Not a few pagan habits crept into the church, concealed by new names. In keeping of Sunday as it was introduced by Constantine, and still continues in Europe, the old cults of the sun-god, Apollo, mingles with the remembrances of the resurrection.” – Schaff, Church History, p. 375. “We are told by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred to it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own. It is not necessary to go into a subject which the diligence of Protestant writers has made familiar to most of us. The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastic chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.” An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, John Henry Newman, pg. 369. [quoted in Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating, pg. 149, 150, 1988, Ignatius Press, (Nihil Obstat & Imprimatur given)] “While Christianity converted the world, the world converted Christianity, and displayed the natural paganism of mankind.” Caesar & Christ, Will Durant, pg. 657, 1944. “When Christianity conquered Rome the ecclesiastical structure of the pagan church, the title and vestments of the pontifex maximus, the worship of the Great Mother and a multitude of comforting divinities, the sense of supersensible presences everywhere, the joy or solemnity of old festivals, and the pageantry of immemorial ceremony, passed like maternal blood into the new religion, and captive Rome captured her conqueror.” Caesar & Christ, Will Durant, pg. 671, 672, 1944.
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