Syncretism Since Adam (Part 1)

Introduction

Take a moment to imagine these two scenarios…

Scenario #1: You are a missionary overseas in Laos seeking to reach an unreached people group with the gospel, baptize new believers, plant a church, and raise up local elders in that church. You were raised up by your local church and were invested in over many years. You even received two years of theological and missiological training. The people group you are seeking to reach in the jungles of Laos is animistic, calling upon spirits to provide for them and protect them. You live in the capital city, Vientiane, and have met other Christian workers there. One of these Christian workers talks about a Lao friend he had met who loves Jesus. You are introduced to this Lao man over coffee and he is talking a lot about how powerful Jesus is in his life and has been in his ancestor's lives. He says “Jesus is so powerful that he keeps my crops from becoming damaged. We love Jesus!” At first, you seem impressed and encouraged by this man’s love for Jesus. He then goes on to tell you about other spirits that he and his family pray to for health, protection from disaster, for their wives to get pregnant, and for good fortune in the afterlife. Your time over coffee has ended and the other Christian worker who introduced you to him remarks, “Aren’t you so encouraged that he knows Jesus?” What do you say?

Scenario #2: You live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and have been a member of your local church for the past 15 years. You are a regular at the Sunday gatherings, your weekly community group, and you serve on the music team. You have a neighbor that you have been witnessing to for the past two years and have had plenty of spiritual conversations with them. You have even read the Bible together a couple of times. They grew up Muslim but haven’t practiced Islam since they were younger. They have no problem with Jesus as long as you can be a moral person. They tell you that “there are lots of different religions that are just different perspectives on the same human reality” and “as long as you are a good person we will all get to Heaven”. They don’t understand why there can’t be mutual coexistence of religions like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc. They continue, “God is love and we should treat others how we would like to be treated. Then there would be a lot more peace in this world!” You know that such a pluralistic worldview can’t actually save anyone, but some of their claims sound true. How should you think about this person’s worldview?

Syncretism is the mixing of a previously held system of beliefs with a newly introduced system of beliefs. These new beliefs are assimilated into an old set of beliefs or are blended together. The result is a weakening and fundamental change of both systems of belief. It often takes the shape of simply baptizing pagan beliefs and personal preferences. Syncretistic thinking isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s as old as Adam.

A Brief Biblical Survey of Syncretism

Ever since the allurement of the serpent in the garden, mankind has been tempted towards blending religious beliefs to suit their own fancy. The serpent never told Adam and Eve that God couldn't be trusted. He simply took what God had said and twisted it to fit what Adam and Eve thought would fulfill their desires.

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

—Genesis 3:4-6

The danger of syncretism was there from the beginning, and Adam took the bait (Rom. 5:12).

Throughout the entire Old Testament God has a concern that if His people are not diligent they will fall into syncretism. As the people of God moved into the Promised Land they were confronted with pagan religions. The Canaanite gods, Baal and Asherah, became objects of Israelite worship. Later, God’s people worshiped the gods of Assyria and Babylon. God’s law warned Israel not only against abandoning Yahweh for other gods, but against worshiping other gods in addition to the true God.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

—Exodus 20:3-6

And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

—Deuteronomy 8:19

The prophets warned of coming judgments as the people modified their faith to accommodate foreign doctrines and practices.

Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble.

—Jeremiah 11:12

The threat of syncretism continued in the New Testament era. Paul seeks to address this threat as he writes to the church in Galatia. False teachers were coming into the church to require that Gentiles submit to the Jewish law in the Torah, specifically regarding circumcision. Paul rebukes Peter to his face as his action of removing himself from table fellowship with the Gentile believers was setting up a double standard for them to achieve (Gal. 2:11-14).

With the spread of Christianity the threat of syncretism, blending belief in Christ with Jewish practices, was widespread. The late RC Sproul said,

But when different religions come together, inevitably somebody will say: “Well, look, let’s stop this conflict by, ‘We’ll find the best of this religion, and the best of this religion, and the best of this religion,’ and let’s be ecumenical about it. We’ll put them all together into one big happy family.” And that’s fine as long as you ignore the ultimate points of conflict and negotiate them, which no Christian can do, and no Jew was allowed to do.

—R.C. Sproul

Syncretism often creeps in when well-meaning Christians are rightly concerned about not unnecessarily offending others with different belief systems. Avoiding conflict in this case will only lead to a syncretized faith which is no faith that saves. When controversy comes, may we not be those who negotiate their loyalty to Christ. Syncretism can be a silent killer. Once the Christian faith becomes syncretized with beliefs that aren’t rooted in God’s authoritative Word, the cancer of unbiblical beliefs has already worked its way through the body and there is no hope of remission.

The good news is that there is a better way to understand, approach, and dissect different worldviews and religions of those around us. Contextualization is a necessary component of any gospel witness, whether it is when approaching our neighbors next door or an unengaged tribe in the deep jungle of Papua New Guinea. Stay tuned for more to come on contextualization in the next post.