The Peril of Spiritual Compromise

The church is under great pressure to compromise and accommodate the faith of other religions and participate in inter-faith movements. The World Council of Churches in the Ecumenical Movement is one such example of a great jeopardy facing evangelical churches today. The thrust of the liberals, RCs, and Neo-evangelicals is accommodation and dialogue with other major faiths. It is a syncretistic strategy to merge all religions together to form that one-world church organisation. This would be a perfect fulfilment of the one world church in these last days, ready for the Anti-Christ to use (2 Thes 3:3-5).The malevolent New Age Movement and the questionable Charismatic Movement, together with the Ecumenical thrust of the WCC, are heading for the great ecclesiastical compromise of this millennium.

The one world ecumenical movement is still alive and growing and its tentacles are reaching out even to conservative churches today. The Charismatic or Word of Faith Movement (with the unbiblical contemporary worship and healing and prophetic utterances) has done much harm, detracting from biblical truth and practices in these last perilous days with the latest craze of line and prophetic dancing during and after worship.

The Peril of Spiritual Complacency and Lethargy

One of the churches that was censured in the book of Revelation was Laodicea and the reason is spiritual nonchalance. It was a lukewarm church, neither hot nor cold as in Rev 3:16 “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” She was chided for her ignorance, inactivity and lack of zeal and love for the Lord. This is the malady of the church today; no fervent desire for evangelism, missions, Bible reading, prayer and proper God-honouring reverential worship. It has changed the biblical agenda into lukewarmness and spiritual lethargy. Even Christian leaders can be phlegmatic and they may not be interested in eternal matters but concentrate on temporal affairs of life. Stewards can be rendered ineffective by spiritual stupor, slothfulness and nonchalance. Unwittingly one can be hardened in our hearts to spiritual things and become resistant to revival and awakening. Sin can eat into our lives as gangrene and infect us with worldliness, laziness and sin, rather than godliness, sanctification, spiritual and missionary zeal and love for the Word, prayer and the gospel. Do we not need a spiritual revival today? The answer is obvious.

Paul in Rom 12:11-12 says, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.” Let us be like the ant in Prov 6:6-11 and labour fervently for the Lord in these last days. Pray for revival as what Peter says in Acts 3:19, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”

The Peril of False Teachings

Paul warned the Ephesian church elders, as he left them after three years of ministry, to beware of spiritual predators that would come in their midst in Acts 20:28-29, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”

We are concerned not only about covert and overt cults and the occult but also those from within who taught contrary doctrines or extremist views. It is a fearful thing to think that some can be contaminated with a zeal not according to knowledge (Rom 10:1, 2 [i.e. prophecies, line dancing, tongue-speaking etc). Many have a tendency for novelties, itching ears that fall easy prey to spiritual predators who shall come and deceive and lead many astray. In Matt 24:24, Jesus warned, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” In 2 Pet 3:3, Peter warns, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” We need to heed 1 Tim 1:4, “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.” We need to warn, admonish and teach sound doctrines to the churches in these days of spiritual confusion and declension.

The other danger facing the church ironically is material prosperity and physical comfort of the saints. During the first three centuries, the early church was persecuted by 10 Roman Emperors but ironically it had led to the spiritual and physical increase of the church. The church grew and thrived on persecution but when Christianity became a national religion, spiritual decline set in during the reign of Constantine the Great (AD 313-337) and heresies abound (i.e. Arianism, condemned at the Council of Nicea in AD 325). The church languished and the people of God backslided spiritually. Today we live in an affluent world with many who are self-sufficient and who feel that they do not need God. Material prosperity and self complacency can be both a curse and a blessing. If we are not careful, it can be to our spiritual detriment and the world and its riches can draw us away from God (1 Tim 6:6,10) and cause us to falter and compromise in our devotion and service for Him. Work, family and leisure have drawn many away from the love and service of God. For some, it can easily become the idol of their lives which Christians need to be aware of (Matt 6:24, 33). 

Worldliness is a real menace to the spiritual health and vitality of the Christian and the Church. A sister shared recently at a funeral service that she regretted not spending more time with God and her family and concentrated on just her secular career alone. Above all, we ought to put God first in our lives and like Col 3:1, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”