Word of the Day

Here's a word for you: "syncretism." The dictionary defines it as "the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion." Notice that it has particular reference to religion. Think, for instance, of Santeria. Practiced in Cuba and parts of the Caribbean (and in the U.S. when brought by people from those places), Santeria is a religion that merged Roman Catholicism with the local worship of Yoruba deities -- basically, voodoo practices. Santeria is classic syncretism.

Syncretism is an art that many Christians and many churches have indulged, embraced, and skillfully advanced. From practices and strategies to actual beliefs, we've become quite adept and incorporating the world in the church. On the face of it that doesn't really seem too bad, except that Jesus calls it "My church" so it would seem unwise to mix the systems of the god of this world with the Bride of Christ.

Still, we've really dipped into it, and not just today. There is the syncretism of philosophies, where we adapt God's Word to the perspective of the day. In earlier times it was Gnosticism and legalism addressed as early as the first century in Scripture itself. Others incorporated the "evils of the flesh" in the sense that "physical is evil," a view from Plato, not God. That's carried over into the Victorian era and even floats about in the Roman Catholic world today. And, of course, we've got our own modern versions. "The Bible never said anything about homosexuality," they tell us today. "What makes you think that the world was created in seven literal days," you're sure to hear. None of these are because the texts support them. They are pure syncretism.

In Paul's day there was a syncretism of salvation. He wrote his epistle to the church at Galatia over that. We're beyond it; we know we're saved by grace apart from works ... but we keep wanting to sneak in that whole "saved by works" thing to one extent or another. We're pretty sure that there are things we need to do in order to be saved. Surely you can't drive a beer truck and be a Christian, right? So we buy into the world's "mode of salvation" -- salvation by works -- and build unbiblical standards which, amazingly, genuine Christians often don't meet.

Very popular in more recent decades is the syncretism of marketing practices. Jesus said, "I will build My church" (Matt 16:18), but we're here to fill in the gaps that He has. So we treat the church like a business. We run the numbers, employ the marketing techniques that grow a business, and build churches with cool, worldly components to draw people in. Of course, that's not the purpose of the church (Eph 4:11-16) or even our job, but, hey, we're going to run with it.

One I've seen in growing numbers is the syncretism of feminism. Feminism on the face of it was to simply seek for the equality of women. All well and good. But in the hands of sinful humans, it couldn't go well. Much of it turned anti-male. It's the fault of men that women aren't seen as equal. While men edged out of churches, women surged in, and much of our common practices these days are directed by and aimed at women, excluding men. It doesn't take a super-genius to read the Bible and see God's handprint of patriarchy in there (e.g., 1 Cor 11:3), but our perspective today is that patriarchy is evil. Women will tell women, "Ladies, we run the church." And by no means should you suggest that women shouldn't be pastors ... you know ... like it says in the Bible (1 Tim 2:12-14). Why? Because we've managed to incorporate the world's version of feminism instead of God's version (e.g., 1 Peter 3:7; Gal 3:28).

We think we're doing okay. We call it "progress" and think we're coming up with new ideas, improvements, better plans. We don't even notice we're doing it because we're too immersed in the world's views to realize that these are coming from there, not God's Word. So we need to remind ourselves that we are called to be different. We are called to be separate, to be holy, to be renewed in our minds rather than conformed to the world, to be something new, not something old. If you think about it, dragging stinking carcasses from the world into our churches as if they're an improvement really makes no sense, does it? So we need to be aware, conscious, and careful. We should be "examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11) rather than aligning our views and our churches with a world that is the enemy of God.