As sinful beings, there is a lot in God's word that offends us. The further you are from God, the harder His word becomes to read, or to hear. There are several ways we deal with this. For a consistent Christian, the obvious response would be humility. Give God the honor He deserves, understanding that when we disagree with God, we are in the wrong.
Of course, the opposite response is that of the unbeliever. Rather than humility, hearing the word of God tends to puff them up, strengthening their resolve against God. It's not that the unbeliever is wrong, it's that His word, if indeed they confess it to be His word, is wrong. You see this a lot in atheists in particular. Matt Dillahunty, for example, claims that if he went to Hell, he would go there believing he was "morally superior to the thug who sent me there".
While this is an extreme attitude, it is actually more consistent than option three: Compromising between the two. Some Christians, when they encounter a doctrine they don't like, are quick to doubt it. For example, on the topic of Hell, an in context reading of the scriptures clearly tells us that Hell is a real place, where the dead receive their just reward for all eternity. This is not a nice thought, and indeed it is so awful that God Himself does not prefer it. The very existence of the Gospel is proof that God wants all people to be saved. Nevertheless, the Bible makes it clear that Hell does exist, and it is truly justified. We should be sad that people will go there, but in no way ashamed of this fact.
Yet, some people are. They are so ashamed of the doctrine of Hell that they will compromise it. They will claim that Hell is merely an allegory, or that if it does exist, it will actually end. This is called "Annihilationism", and while it is a nicer thought than the eternal damnation of the wicked, it is not a natural conclusion from the scriptures. It comes not from a natural study of scripture, but from a spineless desire to make it more comfortable to read. But if you change the Bible to make it more comfortable, you're not really making it more comfortable, you're just making up your own nonsense in response to the fact you're not comfortable with scripture.
Annihilationism is not the only example of compromise. It's simply the nicest possible example. Unfortunately, wherever scripture conflicts with the culture, there will be those within the Church who seek to appease the crocodiles in hope they will be eaten last. Our culture believes in Evolution, and so we have Theistic Evolution and the like. Our culture displays rampant sexual immorality, and so we have created a laissez faire God who doesn't care what you do in your own bedroom. We live in a world where Islam is shielded from all criticism, and so we claim Muslims worship the same God anyway. We have so many areas of compromise that it seems the very term "Christianity" has lost all meaning.
But the scary thing for Christians is that Jesus tells us quite plainly how He will respond to them. "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 10:33). "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”" (Mark 8:38). "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:26).
Now, what do we notice about those verses? Specifically in Mark and Luke, we see that Christ inextricably links Himself with His words. Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words. It is a fact that all throughout the scriptures, accepting God is synonymous with accepting His word, and rejecting His word is synonymous with rejecting Him. How, then, can any truly faithful Christian justify any amount of compromise? In what universe do we expect God, who hates sin so much that He cannot forgive us without bloodshed, will be pleased with the utter blasphemy of the never ending compromise? My brethren, the absolute worst thing you can do when you encounter something in scripture that you or the world do not like is to transform it into something more tolerable. What you inevitably end up doing when you do this is turning yourself into God. This is the very sin for which Satan was cast from Heaven, and it is the very sin for which many of our brothers in Adam will perish with him. Let us therefore stand firm on the scriptures, knowing full well that when people are ashamed of our God, it is they who ought to be ashamed. As Peter, who thrice denied the Lord, was thrice redeemed, let us repent of our compromise, and grow spines thicker even than those on our Bibles.