Compromise

Carl Bartholomew
November 1970

People today are satisfied to lead lives guided by compromise and half Truth. This is evident in international and national relationships, in politics, in the church, in family life, and in the life of the individual. Most people find it very difficult to stand firm for what is right but continually lower even their own standards to conform with the majority -- family, neighbors, friends, or some familiar television or stage personality. Compromise is an abdication of responsibility and an evil which is destroying our present society.

God never compromises. Our Leader, Sun Myung Moon, never compromises. God despises the lukewarm; He said if you are neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, I spew you out of my mouth. This refers to individuals, groups and nations, who try to be safe by steering a middle course, and stand for neither right nor wrong. The non-committed person is the most destructive: God said "if you are for me you are against me." What is not positively for God and good, is evil and claimed by Satan. Those who passively ignore the permissiveness and more aggressive forces of evil which are weakening and will finally destroy nations, are the very ones who will be held responsible.

Jesus never compromised. Although of little importance in the eyes of the Jewish people, being poor, uneducated, and a simple carpenter, he nevertheless had a tremendous love and concern for the Heavenly Father, and an urgent desire to establish the Kingdom of Heaven quickly. He challenged the Jewish leaders to look at themselves; he called the Pharisees, hypocrites and whited sepulchers. However, most Christians see Jesus as loving only in a gentle sort of way, but also Jesus was very harshly opposed to evil. If we examine the Gospels closely, we soon see how he constantly chastised his disciples to cut them away from evil, Satan. When Peter thought wrongly Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan!" He later displayed great anger when he recognized Satan working in the people. We read in Matthew Chapter 21 that Jesus cast the money-lenders out of the temple, overturned the tables, and whipped the people out. Christians find great comfort in seeing Jesus as a savior in love, but he was also a savior in judgment. His mission was to separate good from evil and guide man into perfection. He said you must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

Our responsibility is to be our brother's keeper. To change ourselves, society, and the nation, and restore them to God, it is absolutely necessary then to destroy evil. To compromise is to rationalize and to hold evil to ourselves. Then we will never break Satan's hold. In her concern for her chill's safety, a mother will sharply and angrily chastise the child for running in front of a car. To chastise from the heart is the greatest expression of love. A person with a cancerous growth would never think of leaving it for fear of wounding the physical body, but would have a surgeon's sharp knife cut it away. This same law applies to the spirit. We must sharply cut away the evil growth within us, no matter how painful the process. To compromise with evil leads to destruction and spiritual death. For the first time the history of man, God is revealing the origin of sin. This has never been exposed on the earth before, not even by Jesus. That sin which has held all people in bondage for centuries, so that St. Paul cried out in desperation, am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want, but the very thing I hate -- wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?'

To truly live by God's Principles, we must give up our Satanic loyalties to family, group, race, and nation and become loyal only to the will of God and the task He sets us at every moment. We must learn to love as God loves, that our thoughts may become like His and our ways like His ways, and so bring heaven on earth. Satan often holds us back by past and present loyalties, so that we become bogged down by issued which have no relevance in God's plan. Then, instead of being whole-hearted in all that we do, we only part of our hearts to God, and reserve the other part for Satan, just as Adam and Eve did at the time of the Fall. This kind of compromise frustrates God's will and destroys His plan. For as long as we are not whole-hearted in doing for God, Satan takes whatever we do. Satan has thoroughly corrupted and limited our hearts, and it takes tremendous effort and an adventurous spirit to bring back God. For six thousand years has He cried and worked for the return of His children. Now is the time for us to take His burdens and wipe away His tears. We can only do this by trusting in Him completely, giving our wills to Him, and by endeavoring our utmost to relentlessly destroy evil our brothers and ourselves.

This realization on compromising has only come to me in_ the last six weeks. On a certain issues God did not compromise with my limited thinking He struck sharply at my heart and said: This is my will and you do it. At that moment I humbled my heart, although I did not fully understand. And then God gave me greater understanding -- The scales fell away and I was able to move on from the past and to see more clearly His overall plan. We need to trust in God completely to be taken out of Satan's world and restored to God's, for we are blind and deaf and dumb. The greatest desire of the Father is to give us back our faculties, but first we must give ourselves to Him.