There were no compromises!
As a reminder, this part of the discussion is about how the socialization of revealed religion always (without exception) requires the price of compromise.
Always does the socialized religion of a new revelation pay the price of compromise with the established forms and usages of the preceding religion which it seeks to salvage. (144:7.1)
The religion of Jesus was incorporated into Christianity, which appeared as “a new order of living.” This socialization of revealed religion involved numerous compromises with evolutionary religion. The midwayer highlights some of the major compromises made in paper 195.
195:0.3. Upon such a stage of human society the teachings of Jesus, embraced in the Christian message, were suddenly thrust. A new order of living was thus presented to the hungry hearts of these Western peoples. This situation meant immediate conflict between the older religious practices and the new Christianized version of Jesus’ message to the world. Such a conflict must result in either decided victory for the new or for the old or in some degree of compromise. History shows that the struggle ended in compromise.195:0.6.1. Organization. Paul was a great organizer and his successors kept up the pace he set.195:0.7.2. Christianity was thoroughly Hellenized. It embraced the best in Greek philosophy as well as the cream of Hebrew theology.195:0.8.3. But best of all, it contained a new and great ideal, the echo of the life bestowal of Jesus and the reflection of his message of salvation for all mankind.195:0.9.4. The Christian leaders were willing to make such compromises with Mithraism that the better half of its adherents were won over to the Antioch cult.195:0.10.5. Likewise did the next and later generations of Christian leaders make such further compromises with paganism that even the Roman emperor Constantine was won to the new religion.
195:0.11. But the Christians made a shrewd bargain with the pagans in that they adopted the ritualistic pageantry of the pagan while compelling the pagan to accept the Hellenized version of Pauline Christianity. They made a better bargain with the pagans than they did with the Mithraic cult, but even in that earlier compromise they came off more than conquerors in that they succeeded in eliminating the gross immoralities and also numerous other reprehensible practices of the Persian mystery.195:0.12. Wisely or unwisely, these early leaders of Christianity deliberately compromised the ideals of Jesus in an effort to save and further many of his ideas. And they were eminently successful. But mistake not! these compromised ideals of the Master are still latent in his gospel, and they will eventually assert their full power upon the world.So, there were compromises and lots of them in the socialization of the religion revealed by Jesus. Since this always occurs, we should expect that compromises will have to be made as the religion revealed in The Urantia Book becomes progressively socialized. Or we can refuse to compromise like Abner, whose purer version of the religion of Jesus “never progressed as did the Hellenized version and was eventually lost in the Islamic movement.” (195:1.11)
