Skip to content
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 1 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Secrets of the Kingdom Life  /  Chapter 3: Naysayers and Half-and-Half Christians  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 1
The chapter claims that before Constantine “living the kingdom life was the norm,” and that after 4th-century compromises it meant going against “both the world and the church”; what specific compromises do you think Bercot has in mind, and what would it look like today for the church itself to become “the flow” a disciple has to resist?
Another way to ask: What church “compromises” do you think Bercot means after Constantine, and what would it look like today if the church itself became the main pressure a disciple has to resist?

Direct Answer The transcript does not list specific 4th-century compromises, but it clearly says the church made “enormous compromises with the world,” so that kingdom living later threatened a “status quo of religious mediocrity.” Today, in Bercot’s logic, the church becomes “the flow” when normal church life accepts a partly worldly, partly surrendered Christianity and then pressures serious disciples to tone it down.

Support from Transcript:

  • “In the first 300 years… living the kingdom life was the norm.”
  • “In the 4th century, the church made enormous compromises with the world.”
  • Result: living it meant going against “both the world and the church.”
  • Kingdom living threatened “the status quo of religious mediocrity that enveloped the church.”
  • Other Christians may label serious obedience “legalistic or fanatical” and even “works righteousness.”
  • He later describes “half-and-half Christians” as the common pattern: obeying some commands while ignoring others.
Discussion Follow-ups If the transcript ties compromise to “half-and-half” living, what signs show a church culture is normalizing half-surrender rather than full surrender?

Jumpstarter 1 of 10
Back Questions Next