|
The Perils of Syncretism
Open any Sunday magazine, tune in to almost any
twenty fours of networked television and it’s not hard
to discover the ‘gods’ our society worships. Study how
these things are presented to our consciousness!
Consumerism itself is a religion that has its rituals
and expectations. In one form or another, idolatry is
every bit as active today as it was in the ancient
world: it is simply more sophisticated.
Keeping ourselves pure in
spirit from the prevailing spirits of our time is a
major topi in its own right, but I am more concerned
here about an altogether subtler threat to the purity of
God’s people: the watering down that occurs when
elements of other faiths are assumed to be compatible
with Christianity and taken on board uncritically. Yes
we can learn from everyone; yes there is a sense in
which ‘all truth is God’s truth’, but . . .
About a decade ago I came
across a man who had heard his first word from the Lord.
Quite literally, it was just one word: ‘syncretism.’
Only the other day I met a teacher who had had the same
experience. Both had been startled to hear the Lord
speaking to them so clearly: both had had to reach for
their dictionary to find out what the word meant
Syncretism is ‘the attempt
to blend elements of different faiths together under one
banner’. As such, it challenges the heart of the gospel,
and the first of the commandments: that we are to love
the Lord our God – and Him alone – with all of our
hearts. Just as the Jezebel-directed priests in Elijah’s
day doubtless encouraged the thought that the traditions
they received from Baal worship actually enriched their
worship of Yahweh, so similar lies abound in our own
day. Many years ago
Rosalind and I were out walking one day, somewhere in
the hills and valleys of Wales.
 |
We
were reflecting on how Lord has often allowed us
to share in the launching of quiet places of
retreat – as precious places of hospitality and
spiritual refreshment– effectively a lay
equivalent of the service that monasteries have
so long provided. But then the Lord warned us
that everything that He was doing in this
respect has direct equivalents from others who
are fuelled and driven by very different
ideologies.
|
A few minutes later we
saw two young men walking towards us, their faces aglow
with the particular sheen of those who have found a
purpose and a mission in life. The reason soon became
apparent: they were from a nearby Buddhist centre.
The simple fact is that many
theoretically Christian groups are now openly using
elements of Sufi mysticism (a charismatic offshoot of
Islam) and Hindu mantras in their meditations. But a
mantra is an incantation to a Hindu god, and hence
nothing less than a direct invitation to the powers of
darkness!
It is a startling pointer
to there being a vital layer missing in the Church’s
present ministry that it should feel the need to turn to
eastern religious systems in search of contemplative
direction and inner ‘enlightenment.’ Why should this be
when Hinduism believes in a multitude of impersonal
gods, who demand servility, yet offer neither the
forgiveness nor the practical help that Jesus Himself
provides to those who seek Him? Yet Christians through
the ages who have opened their hearts to the fullness of
His presence have found that what the y receive
interiorly, translates itself so very powerfully
externally. Nowhere do we see the spiritual bankruptcy
of liberal Christianity more clearly than in this
willingness to import eastern spirituality into its
self-made vacuum. That, in part, is why I wrote
Intimacy and Eternity; to help us develop the
richness of this inner life.
New Age teachings are
increasingly combining with the liberal views of many
bishops and clergy in proclaiming complete untruths
concerning the nature of Jesus. We need to be very clear
how God feels when He sees people setting up a rival
god, and then presenting him as being equal to Himself.
This is not pique, it is a matter of eternal truth. Yoga
is not of God and people who travel by this, and many
such roads, are opening themselves to a terrible
deception. It was for such reasons that I wrote a
booklet entitled ‘The Hindu Challenge to the Church,’
for Hindu ideas in one form or another have made
sweeping inroads into the more contemplative parts of
all too many mainline churches.
Such teachings have no place
in the Church of God. As the Vatican succinctly warned,
‘Sitting cross-legged on the floor thinking peaceful
thoughts is not to be confused with the authentic
consolation of the Holy Spirit.’
 |
A couple of
simple analogies
Here are a couple of simple ways to demonstrate
just how preposterous is the idea that we can
tack on bits of other religions to our own,
without doing harm to the whole.
Suppose a man were to go to his local railway
station to find out which trains go to London.
He is delighted when he is informed that
every train goes there. Imagine his
discomfiture ten minutes later when he discovers
that he is on a non-stop express to Glasgow! All
trains do not head in the same direction:
he had been wrongly instructed.
|
Another example. if we are deeply in love with our
husband or wife, how would we feel if someone else came
along and claimed them as their own? This is effectively
what is happening when people place Krishna or other
so-called deities on a par with the Lord Jesus. Christ’s
claims about Himself stand as a litmus test for the
Church for all time: ‘I am the Way, and the Truth and
the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me.’(7)
It is not, in a pluralist
society, that we are to hold up our hands in pious
horror, and shun those who have embraced such ways of
thinking. One of the great joys of Rosalind’s ministry
in the decade she worked as an independent midwife was
that it regularly brought her into close contact with
those who involved in New Age practises. As a midwife
she was able to come alongside people who, as a
Christian worker, it is most unlikely that she wold even
have met, let alone befriended.
Time and again she was able
to share and pray with such people, enabling them to
experience the presence and reality of the Lord for
themselves. Such outreach is so precious to the Lord,
and often finds a ready response, because such people are
often seeking far more actively than the average person
consumed by consumerism. But just a word of warning: we
do need to be extremely clear in our own beliefs before
venturing far into such a field, lest we find our own
faith being watered down by the sheer persuasiveness and
plausibility of what we come up against, made the more
vivid by the Church’s lack of spiritual depth. May the
Lord make up shortfall, fill people with intense desire
for more of Him, and demonstrate the richness of His
Kingdom to a watching world!
|
