Christian Philosophy 

Syncretism:

Mixing the Unmixable[1]

 

by Robert Grant

 

 

Recently a friend shared a statement with me that had a deep ring of truth to it. He said,

Ø      "We have whole new frontiers of covenant life and covenant living in front of us." The implication of that statement is that there are unexplored areas we have yet to enter in our Christian experience.

 

One of the ongoing concerns facing leaders­ in the Body of Christ is how to bring our­selves and God's people from where we are to where we need to be - the place God has destined for us.

Ø      In order to progress as we ought, we need points of reference, clear anchoring points along the way to orient us and direct us to God's planned destination for us. In this complex age in which we live, we especially need these clear points of reference and these anchoring points.

Ø      We are presently witnessing the practical con sequences ­ of a society which has removed God from its center - a society relegated to a downward trend toward preoccupation with personal fulfillment and self-preservation.

Ø      That is all that is left when you don't have God - the rash pursuit of personal pleasure.

People are saying, "Let's just be fulfilled now," forgetting the lessons of history which document the demise of societies with that motto.

 

The Demise of our Society

 

Longstanding traditions within our own country are approaching a state of atrophy.

Ø      Atrophy is the condition of muscle tissue when it is not exercised or utilized and thus becomes depleted and useless - totally un­able to function.

Ø      That is the present condi­tion of many traditions which formerly meant something to this country.

One of the tragic marks of the time in which we live is the drastic loss of credibility among authority figures.

Ø      The political arena of our country had traditionally been a refuge for principles we could believe in. When all else was going crazy, we could at least look to the political arena and the government of this great country to give us something to count on.

But now we are watching that go down the tubes.

 

What we are seeing a whole­sale confidence loss, in which people are becoming insecure over the circumstances surrounding them. The result is an intensified preoccupation with self-preservation and immediate self-fulfillment.

Ø      Now why do I bring all that up? Simply to point out that out of this milieu are coming many voices which influence the way we think and live.

 

All kinds of ideas are being proposed by that insecure crowd which are specifically intended to influence the way we live our lives.

Ø      For ex­ample, television bombards us with certain concepts of

-         what family is all about,

-         what a husband is (or rather what he isn't),

-         what the mother is (or isn't),

-         what relationships are,

-         what moral values we should adopt,

-         how to spend our money,

-         what a hero is like,

-         what we do with material things.

 

Ø      Concepts in these and other areas are being communicated through media.

Ø      Did you ever consider that the advertis­ing we encounter on TV is for the most part designed to minister discontentment to you and me? The whole object is to show us better products to make us dissat­isfied with what we presently have so that we'll go out and buy the item they are offering.

 

The educational environment which surrounds us is forcing us to decide what to do with our children, and by and large,

è public schools are being carried by the momentum of humanistic philosophy .

We often use that term "philosophy" rather randomly, so I want to put some content into it for us.

 

What is Philosophy, and

what the Mass Media inoculate in us

 

Philosophy is an attempt to take all existing knowledge, bring it together, tie human experience up in it, and come up with a system of thought that can interpret life and its meaning. Simply stated,

Ø      humanistic philosophy is a system of thought that says,

"Man's personal fulfill­ment and his well-being are the highest goal and justifies the highest cost."

Everything that originates from humanistic philosophy has that motivation at its base.

 

Colossians 2:8 is an apostolic injunction to the Church on the subject of philosophy. It says,

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

 

As the people of God facing the generation and age in which we live, we must make our journey through it without picking up a lot of garbage along the way. The big question is, how are we going to do that?

 

Diluting God's Truth

 

I am aware that throughout biblical history one of the great shortcomings of God's people has been syncretism. That word comes from a Greek root which means "to mix," and it is defined as an

Ø      "attempt to blend opposite and contradictory tenets into one system to produce union and accord."

Ø      So, "syncretism" or "mixture" would ap­ply to the propensity of God's people to try to combine God's thoughts with man's thoughts.

 

The lessons of biblical history and the nation of Israel tell us something of God's point of view towards mixture, especially when we find Him reacting by opening up the earth and swallowing crowds, inflicting pestilences and famines, or allowing nations to be carried away into captivity.

Thing like that ought to give us a hint as to how God feels about mixture or syncretism.

Ø      Although I don’t entirely understand why the Lord reacts that way to mixture, I believe I know a few reasons.

 

1.     One is that mixture dilutes truth and reality and reduces its potency and effectiveness.

-         Like a rich, choice wine that has been watered down three or four times, the potency is so reduced that it's not recognizable as wine.

-         When a person is only forty or fifty percent clear in his thinking about how to live, the statement which proceeds out of his life is unclear.

 

2.    A second reason for God's concern about mixture is that it causes His reputation to be clouded over.

-         Some months ago I felt the Lord speak to me personally to deal with syncretism - first within myself, and then with those for whom I was responsible.

-         I had to hear the Lord say it a few times before I responded, because I did not regard myself as one who was highly influenced by what was going on in the society around me.

-         But then I realized that if the church of the Col­ossians needed to be warned not to be taken captive by philosophy, then I needed to recognize that I might be more influenced in my thinking than I would suppose.

 

As I examined myself in this light, my thoughts went back to the beginnings, to the foundation days of the Church and the days of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to consider what was God's provision to those people to get them through their age.

 

Downward Trends in Society

 

Actually the environment surrounding the first-century Church was very similar to our own.

Ø      There were downward trends in society towards lawlessness and indul­gence, declining domestic values, and a high incidence of divorce.

Ø      As in our day there were moralists then who preached lofty ideals about living a better life without being able to impart any kind of spiritual dynamic to make it effective.

Ø      Society as a whole in the days of the early Church was characterized by an inability to lift itself above its own dilemma. They had their corruption in politics and their problems in business. They even had their religious environment which was filled at that time with cultic activity perhaps sur­passing that of our own day.

 

All of these conditions confronted those first-century believers, and there was also a growing awareness of society's impotence to solve its own problems, resulting in a pessimism and depression from which it could not escape. Does that sound familiar?

    

Upon Whom did the Power of God come?

 

After the ascension of the Lord Jesus, as recorded in Acts chapter 1, a small group of 120 people, responding to the command of the Lord, had to turn and face the generation that they lived in.

Ø      They had to face a journey into the place that God had set for them, just as we have to go through our age and our time.

 

What was God's provision? Most often the provision we focus upon, when we look at Acts chapter 2 and the opening chapters of the book of Acts, is

-         the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and

-         the anointing that came on those first believers - the power of the Holy Spirit manifested in signs, wonders and miracles.

-         It is right and good that we focus our attention on that because it was the fulfillment of the promise of the Father of which Jesus had spoken.

However, I would like to draw our attention to another aspect of this particular event which is extremely significant to us at this time, and that is the people upon whom the Holy Spirit fell.

 

Upon whom did the power of God come? It is an important issue because it wasn't just anybody; it was no arbitrary group of people.

Ø      It was a company of select, called-out people, specifically chosen by the Lord.

They were stewards entrusted with the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.

Ø      We must remember that in that day they didn't have a New Testament. Their hearing of the Word of God and the proclamation of the Kingdom were vitally related to the lives of those upon whom the Holy Spirit came - those early apostles who had been anointed to declare the Kingdom of God.

The extension of the Kingdom of God among the early believers was upon the lives of those men.

 

Devoted to the Apostles' Teaching

 

The effect of their proclamation is extremely significant. In Acts 2:42 it says, "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. . . ." They were continually devoting themselves.

Ø      Those people hearing the apostles' instruction weren't just casually listening; they were approaching it from the point of view of devoting their entire being to what was coming forth. The response evoked in them is signified by the ques­tion, "Men and brethren, what must we do?"

Ø      They weren't just saying, -"Tell me something to believe." Their point of view was, "I'm here for some behavioral changes. Tell me how to live my life."

That line of thinking is not altogether popular in some places, but it was popular in Acts. It's apparently popular with the Lord also, and that settles it for me.

 

I thank God that we have that record of those first apostles documented in the Scriptures.

è I thank God for the Bible - for by it we measure all things, and in it we root our faith. (Either we substantiate our beliefs in it, or we make some changes in what we believe.)

è In addition, we have reference tools – many  helpful translations and advanced academic resources available to us to help clarify the meaning of the Bible.

Ø      We have commentaries available to us to interpret what is written. We have available to us all the tools and equipment we need to discover and understand the truths which we need for this day and time.

 

And God sends us prophets - But along with these resources, I feel a stirring in my spirit which is alerting me to this fact: God has never dealt with His people without sending a messenger bear­ing His present word. Even when His word was engraved on tablets of stone, He still had an authorized and appointed messen­ger to carry it.

Ø      Although the prophets who emerged and spoke to the nation of Israel during its hours of crisis referred to what was already written, they were authorized and sent in such a way that what they referred to from of old became new as they spoke it.

 

Just because someone speaks a word doesn't mean the Lord sent him to declare it.

Ø      When one whom the Lord has sent says something, there is a different effect from when one whom the Lord has not sent says something. Different things happen.

Ø      In this day and age when many voices are vying for our attention, I hear a call in the Spirit of God that says,

è "You need to distinguish between the voices that you listen to.

è You need to have discernment and understanding concerning who it is that I am sending, because they will say what you need to hear."

 

What is written in Scripture is the measure of all things, but I believe that the fresh application of that truth to our generation and our age is vitally related to those whom the Lord authorizes and sends and anoints to be His "sent ones."

è I believe our attitude toward those whom God sends and authorizes is a very significant factor for the days ahead of us, for

è our attitude toward His authorized messengers is going to determine what we hear, how we hear it, and what we do with it.

 

There is a difference between listening to a word and listening under a word, and our attitude toward the one who bears that word will determine how we posture ourselves in relationship to it.

Ø      It is a serious matter to fail to place the same value on something that the Lord gives to it.

Ø      To fall short in our estimation of what God has set esteem upon is to miss what God meant for us to have. How would you like to have been part of the group that only heard thunder when God spoke?

 

I am speaking to the issue of apostolic function, apostolic ministry. I am not going to do that with great authority because I am still asking a lot of questions myself.

Ø      But I believe there is something in God that is coming: there is something on the horizon which is closer than it used to be. There is something of the Spirit of God that is stirring.

The lines are being plainly drawn so that what is true and what is established in God is becoming manifest for what it is.

 

Let us prepare our hearts to properly receive those appointed sent ones. Let us come into a new place. I felt a personal exhortation from the Lord which I would like to pass on. It applies to me, but I will pass it on to you and trust that it will help you.

Ø      I felt the Lord speaking to me not to let the familiar face and the regularly heard voice lose its place of proper estimation in God's economy.

Ø      Keep God's gifts and callings set apart into their proper function and so govern your attitude and the posture of your heart that God would be pleased to let the anointing of it come through to us.

Just as the apostolic com­pany and the apostolic ministries were the anchoring point that brought the first ­century Church through the fog, they will also get us through the fog.

 

Let me close by saying that we are going to have a reputation. Whatever it will be like, we will have one. As we are carried through, let us hope that if anything has to be said about us, it will be said that we were continually devoted to the apostles' teaching.