Q3. Religious Compromise

[linda biloni]

I believe it was spiritually destructive because it compromised Christian beliefs. It also weakens their faith in God by trying to take care of themselves financially rather then having faith that God would provide for them. This compromise would also go against the belief of not being a friend to the world---serving two masters so to speak

The compromises we face are sexual immorality, abortion, the tolerance of these as well as the tolerance of non scriptual teachings, while the teachings of the bible are tolerated less and less in our federal buildings, public schools, and the work place. Complacency and apathy are the dangerous compromises we are dealing with today.

[theleast1]

Why do you think the religious compromise required by

participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds

was so spiritually destructive?

A. Because it was an act of disobedience, comprimise is a spirit of it's own. One comprimises and then two. A little yeast leavens the whole.

What compromises do twenty-first

century Christians struggle with? Let's not settle for trite

legalisms about drinking and smoking. What are the real

compromises that dilute vital Christianity?

A. Unequally yoked marriage. Debt. Not witnessing for fear of job loss. Political polarity. Work vs. home committment. Material Accumulation vs. Spitual Devotion. Desire vs obedience. Many are similar throughout history but with the very material age we are in, it is easy to get lax about our spiritual condition.

.

[cct1106]

Compromising to me means when you worship or praise someone or something other the God more. The bible says "Thou Shall Have No Other God Before Me." When people start having more faith in other people and things rather than God, they should not expect anything happening in their lives good. Nothing becomes of this thinking except bad. This is not that way of life according to the Bible. And unfortuantely, some churches do the same thing. Some only are concerned with the amount of members that have come to worship, some are only concerned about the collection that was taken from that day. It should not matter whether there are two people in the pews or one hundred, teaching and spreading the word of God to those only two, you will be blessed and you have reached two out of many.

[Cath'rine]

- any compromise is destructive but w/trade guilds I would imagine there would be a monetary gain as well. Today's compromises include lying, stealing, back biting - and it's not necessarily big things but small compromises like office supplies (nobody will miss them) -or- embellishing on a time sheet (the company can afford it) -or- gossiping to anyone who will listen about anyone or anything. These types of compromises occur w/o even realizing it and those are vital in the dilution of Christian witness. If we are not set apart (different) from the rest of the world we are part of the world and not partners with Christ.

[ckgcarolehayden]

When the church body tolerates malignant growths it's own existence is threatened. We must expose and eliminate sin where we find it in our home, country, and all creation.

[Maxie]

Q3. Why do you think the religious compromise required by participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds was so spiritually destructive? What compromises do twenty-first century Christians struggle with? Let's not settle for trite legalisms about drinking and smoking. What are the real compromises that dilute vital Christianity?

____________________________________________________________

It was a way to lieu Christians into the pagan way of life, and by doing so they brough it into the Church. This is still going on in the the Church today. The compromisies they made then, we're making today. We struggle with the same problems today in the Church, preachers not preaching against sexual immorality. not preaching the blood of Christ, and the Cross, not preaching proper dress. We compromise our faith by not standing up for the truth. Jesus said,"And the truth will set you free". We compromise our salvation by interpreting the scriptures to mean what we want, not what they actually mean.

[Tom Nabors]

Participating in heathen religious practices violates the first and second commandments. Such participation makes us lose our focus on God. It breaks our relationship with God.

We compromise by confusing toleration and love of people with toleration of their non-Christian beliefs. We are called to love others but that does not mean condoning sinful life styles of others or ourselves. Yet we make compromises for those life styles daily by not speaking out against sin such as homosexuality, abortion, ***********, etc. Daily encounters with sins such as taking the Lord

[dantanc]

Pagan religious practices are more prevelent in bussiness organisations and even in Government departments, in countries where non-christian religions are a vast majority, especially in devoloping and under devoloped countries, eventhough some of them are technologically advanced and export skilled professionals. Many christians in these countries keep away from such practices, to the ire of their colleagues, sometimes impeding thier own growth in the organisation. Party drinking, smoking, eating foods offered to other so called Gods, accepting anything symbolic items from those religious practices are some of the evils. We can with our love for our soverign God and with the help of holy spirit, can resist such participation, stand firm and defeat the devil.

[linda bass]

Religious compromise is spiritually destructive because it takes the focus off the one true God.

We are told in Exodus that God is a jealous God and will not share our love with other gods or idols.

Some of the compromises modern Christians struggle with are TV shows, movies, and books-what is acceptable and what isn't. I have alot of Christian friends who see nothing wrong with the Harry Potter books or movies.

Also the internet can be a compromise if Christians become too involved with it. Some pastors and preachers claim that the internet is all bad and that it is a tool of Satan.

However, if it wasn't for the internet we wouldn't be able to participate in this on-line study of Revelation.

Also involvement in astrology can be a compromise.

Reading one's daily horoscope in the paper, getting one's astrological chart made, etc.

[kitty]

3a Because the compromise meant that a christian would be lukewarm turning cold spiritually instead of being hot.

b Staying bold, & hot for Jesus. Going to the world's standards; listening to no-christian music, not reading the bible but reading un-Godly books and magizines, cussing.

c. feeding our spirits with un-Godly material, Either by reading or listening.

[Omie]

Q3. Why do you think the religious compromise required by participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds was so spiritually destructive? What compromises do twenty-first century Christians struggle with? Let's not settle for trite legalisms about drinking and smoking. What are the real compromises that dilute vital Christianity?

+ When we compromise we become tolerant. This can lead us to lose "The Way". When we have lost that we have gone into a dangerous place from which it is difficult to return to the fold of our Lord.

+ As twenty-first century Christians are no different. We each must search ourselves so as not to be in the same position.

[Priscilla Ahin]

They are spiritually destructive because they include idol worshipping, human sacrifices and sexual activities.

In the 21st Century, Christians have to struggle with cultural, social and other involvement with other religious sects. Besides these areas, some Christians are also making excuses to do and take on more 'Church' work in the cost of neglecting their family members. Even in this present time, idol worshipping is still a very strong influence on members - especially status, money and prestige. Sad to say too, in our present age, there seem to more and more lesbian/homosexual relationships happening ... so much so that they feel that they have the right to 'marry'. The dignity of the human person is also exploited.

When one is caught up with what has been mentioned above, compromise set in and with time these would dilute the vital Christian values.

[Emy Oliveros]

The religious compromise required by participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds was so spiritually destructive because Christians were tempted to accomodate to these heathen practices since the refusal to conform to the guild practices could mean social isolation and economic hardship.

The compromises Christians of the twenty-first century struggle with are: sexual immorality, fornication, adultery, idolatry, work, family, money and beliefs.

[heatherdills]

Religious compromise was so spiritually destructive because the more you compromise the less one feels other things are wrong. Compromises 21st century Christians struggle with are taking out "in God we trust" of currency, not allowing prayer in schools, commercialism, etc. Real compromises that dilute vital Christianity are taking God out of everyday processes so non-Christians will be comfortable, social acceptance of adulterers, idolators, thieves, and the ever-present double standards.

[blb]

I believe the danger in copromisimg your Spiritual beliefs and the Holy Word that leads us threw this life, lead by the Holy Spirit is the fact that once we justify one incident of wrong we began to do it with every thing we do, and then that allows us to be lead by the God of this world instead of the Holy Spirit of the one true and real God of the creation. We as Humans want to compromise and barter with the word of God to have our way and then justiify it to make Gods holy word conform to our needs and make us feel that we are living the life that Christ called us out for. That is why there is so many Denominations in this world today, we have so devided Gods word that we have confussion and little understanding of the true word of God.

[Hungary Tom]

The compromise distracted them from worshipping the true God. They were satisfying their flesh rather than their Spirit. 21st Century Christians look to many things to replace God (money, power, sex, comfort). The real compromise is to look to things other than God to meet the true longings of our heart.

[Nannette]

I believe then as now that the business or trades will do anything to be rich and powerful. Christians are torn between what they know to be right and what they really want. I dont think it is sex, drinking or smoking as it is the materialistic desires

[dparker777]

Because to adhere to the word of God, would mean that they could not particapate in the sexual immorialy, or worship of the false gods of their neighbors, which might me being shuned, loss of business. By following the pagen practice they could not witness to other about the true God. It removes you from Gods grace.

Homosexulaty, open ***********, divorce.

We have waterdown Gods laws to allow our selves to feel better about committing sin. God will understand he loves us.

[Liza]

There are Christians who participate in certain things, saying it doesn

[Helen]

Compromise in guilds is introduced little by little, so that the ultimate purpose of the guilds was not revealed until much further down the track. The small compromises, for example, of secrecy- not discussing with one's wife, safeguarded the activities from astute assessment in terms of family values. ANYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE KEPT SECRET IS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! Nothing that is right has to be done in secret. This compromise seems attractive and seems a small price to pay for being able to do business in the local town or area. The alternative seemed to be that one was locked out of the business community by the all invasive guild! Peer pressure was also brought to bear. However, this compromise already busted family trust and unity, and constituted a compulsion to extend one's greatest loyalty to the guild, (money making fraternity). God and the family are firmly fixed in second place!

Mammon continues to be in charge of the world today. Twentyfirst century Christians struggle also with all invasive forces such as media presentation of values - motivated of course by paying advertisers/sellers. Media revolve around outright materialism promoted with powerful sexual innuendo, directed increasingly towards feeding the young into the voracious mammon machine. Sexual malpractice, witchcraft (including new age and humanism) and the academically elevated and approved ability to criticise everything and everyone, are made to seem fun, funny and desirable in the interests of impressing other people. However, impressing other people only amounts to being moulded into the same unthinking, mindless roleplaying which suits the purpose of big business.

We have to be interceding watchmen on the wall, accountable over all our daily practices - reading, TV and computer use, values exhibited to children, clothing, body language, attitudes to spouse selection and marriage maintenance. We need to seek and block any avenues that may give satan and his demons any advantage. If things are not working for us, we need to seek for an area requiring repentance, because sin is inhibiting what God can do with us. The answer to absolutely everything is JESUS, JESUS, JESUS! and the presence of his Holy Spirit.

[jlemons]

Q3. Why do you think the religious compromise required by participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds was so spiritually destructive?

When we as Christian begin to compromise God's Truth, it will eventually start to feel like normal behavior and will slowly chip away at our beliefs until one day we are no different than the world.

What compromises do twenty-first century Christians struggle with? ".Let's not settle for trite legalisms about drinking and smoking. What are the real compromises that dilute vital Christianity?

Tolerance of bad language, sexual scenes on TV and movies. Tolerating our religious freedoms slowly being chipped away without raising a hand to defend them. Believing the lies being fed to us about "separation of church and state. And that is just touching the surface. Allowing our worship services to be al lthings to all people in order to increase our numbers. I have to wonder how hurt our God is at seeing what goes on in today's churches in the name of "religion".

[Mike Dickinson]

#2 Q3. Why do you think the religious compromise required by participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds was so spiritually destructive?

The term

[pablo pinel]

Yes, having to compromise with the heathen trade guilds in order to be able to work was spiritually destructive from the stand point that on the one hand one would be believing in Jesus, in the gospel and the Truth, and on the other wouldsaying to some one that they are not believers in order to maintain a position, some type of income. Those individuals would know that they were living a hypocritical life. In this 21st century a similar situation exists. Though there is still some sort of freedom here in the U.S., a Christian may find himself in a position where he thinks he may have to compromise his/her beliefs. In a work enviroment for example, encountering a situation where one would be able to witness for Jesus, another individual (non-believer) could file a lwa suite against the believer for imposing his views against the will of the unbeliver. It could be classified the same as a sexual harrassment standard. The other and more obvious situation where a believer may feel he may have to compromise is in a "Government" institution, building or work place, to include a school, (public), where it is still considered that if any institution or building that recieves funds from the government allows anyone to as much say Jesus, that there is then a violation of the Establishment Clause. Using though, the "diplomacy" tactics without violating the commandments of God, one can still go about his business and work and not compromise oneself to the ways of this world in order to live

[vickyt]

WE BREAK OUR BOND AND LOVE WITH GOD.

WORSHIP FALSE IDOLS-ABORTION IS NOT RIGHT IN MY EYES-HOMOSEXUALITY AND OTHER FALSE TRENDS.

PUTOTHER THINGS BEFORE GOD.PEER PRESSURE AND GENERATION GAP.

[Debora]

Q3. Why do you think the religious compromise required by participating in heathen religious practices in the trade guilds was so spiritually destructive?

1. Religious compromise waters down truth and dishonors the Lord God.

2. It puts a person's soul into jeopardy and breaches the relationship with God.

3. If we start as a committed Christian in business adding heathen practises makes us a convenient Christian leading to compromising in other areas of daily life.

4. The bottom line in heathen businesses/guild practises is money. When greed sets in there is control and power coming into play. Who is in control and in power, self is. God is left out of the picture in that part of the person's life.

Are we not to give all areas of our life to the Lord as He is King and Ruler in all areas of our life, in all areas of daily living and in the church. He abides in us and we are to have the mind of Christ. Transactions in business or personal conduct where one's actions gives into practises other than Lord's ways is being double-minded that of the world's and the Lord's.

Mixing heathen and Christian practises for the sake of conviences such as economic gain, wealth or social benefits is being double-minded, disobedient and self is in control and God is not. We open a doorway for temptation and sin to enter which leads to the Christian character to become tarnished by and dilutes vital Christianity. One convience if allowed leads to another and slowly we slip away, back into the world and its ways of living.

We are to keep the Word pertaining to operations in daily living otherwise it brings dishonor to the Lord God, to vital Chrisitianity. We have responsibility of our actions and will be judged at the end. I think of a handshake which at one time represented in the business as an honorable agreement between two people. A handshake in a deal was honored, like a seal to a matter, as good as gold. A person does not encounter man's honor by his word when it is given today as much which was a norm of yesterday. Competitiveness, control, power, greed all for money, drives the world market. The marketplace is played and governed by the world's rules. Large corporations have great power and control. There is high competition. People give in and bend to worldly values, with a make it or break it attitude for survival. Christian businesspeople do they comprise Christian values to play along with the world's rules. If you are a business owner and someone comes along with a better price for something which you offerred to another, do you break agreement with the first person and sell it to the other who will give you more money? Or is there integrity and honor in your relationship(s). We see Christian businesses advertised in directories, do others use these directories to advertise falsely or are they Christian businesses, run with intergrity. Do Christian businesses use their name as a label and play by the world's rules. If so, this dilutes vital Christianity, the integrity of Christians when the world views you playing their game by their rules.

Do we give in to the world and invite other practises or do we put complete trust in God. If you shake hands with Jesus in agreement to a commitment with the King of the Universe, who offers you for purchase which costs you nothing, eternal life, and God says stipulates you must do it my way though, do you forget about tomorrow and the commitment you made with Jesus. Do we compromise for the sake of convience and lose character as a Christian and faithfulness to the Lord God. We are to do according to the heart and mind of Christ in all areas of life and not compromise our values and standards in business dealings otherwise there are consequences, penalties to be paid.

What compromises do twenty-first century Christians struggle with? Let's not settle for trite legalisms about drinking and smoking. What are the real compromises that dilute vital Christianity?

1. Lack of commitment to the God and Jesus

2. Loss of intregity; giving outward appearance

3. Double-mindedness; mixing standards

4. Loss of credibility; conduction of business relationships

First that comes to mind is in the area of relationships that we make compromises. Do we honor an agreement made between another and keep the relationship or, if for greater profit drop one business relationship and take another's offer for economic gain. In our business can our handshake and our word be honored and standards kept. What is your motivation, is the intention to serve others or, is the bottom line money, power and control. Do we love people and use things or do we use people and love things.

Secondly comes to mind is our value system. What kind of stewards are we in our households, places of business. Do we put a high value on material possessions as the objective and set it as our goal to have more than we need putting ourselves in great debts to acquire it. Bigger houses, building.... Do we live beyond our means where all under our authority, in our homes, our children, our workplaces suffer in their basic needs for daily living such educational funds ... or fair wages.... Is our money managed well living responsesably paying debts, bills on time. Do we work honestly for what we have or do we cheat others to acquire our wealth.

Thirdly the standards we portray can dilute vital Christianity. Do we portray mixed standards, living as the world does and professing to be Christian. Does what we do match with who we are. Is there integrity. Do we have work/business and moral ethics that are Christian in our Christian business practises. I think of a Christian organization I was employed in. There was a case of injustice done to an employee. The person was terminated from the workplace. Biblical work ethics were not the established norm to follow up on nor the written standards for labor law in this Christian business, workplace. Rather this business used the world's code of business labor laws to deal with a case of termination without cause. It was contradictory for the employee who is a believer as to what the Bible says regarding relationship dealings. The person was given no right to be heard, nor allowed any channels of reconcilation. It was the word of one, the Boss, over the word of the employee in the situation where the Boss was a controller and sought personal power. Because the Boss in the eyes of the establishment brought in profitable assets for the business, the organization favored the Boss's opinion. When the case was taken to higher levels in the organization there was no regard for this employee for the practise of worldly labor laws were applicable. The Boss was a ladder climber and anyone in their way was knocked down. The Christian business can lose its face value when employees experience such occurrences within an organization and eventually lose their face value in the world around it. Compromising standards and values of Christian practises by keeping an dishonest employee of no integrity for the sake of profit gain eventually will be destructive. The person who is ungodly in his ways will rear its ugly head in the external marketplace as a representative diluting the Christian business's face. When a workplace holds a label to being a Christian business and does not live up to Christian standards it dilutes vital Chrisitanity. We are given responsibility for the name we carry and in this world, do we make a difference or do we dilute who we are?