So What About Syncretism

August 8th, 2023

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.
 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

-1 Corinthians 8:1-8 (NIV)

This is another tough one and a grey area for many.  Before I continue, I’m reminded of a talk I had with a gentleman a few Sundays ago.  He mentioned he visited a church while travelling and the resident minister there holding various and I would say non-Christian beliefs told him, “We want people to feel comfortable here.”  After telling his story I immediately smirked and replied, “Really? I want people to feel uncomfortable.” – so be warned!

It’s true that a number of Christian themed events, holidays, symbols and celebrations have been paganized, whereby the original concept was Christian based in origin and later distorted.  The distortion changed the intending purpose, with parts of the important and salvific concept removed, to be repackaged as a pagan product.  Easter and even with eggs were from Christian origins.  Later on, paganism scrubbed the Christian and resurrection message away from it.  Halloween actually had some Christian roots relating to All Saints Day and that became paganized.  Christmas became greatly paganized whereby most of the world only thinks about Christmas trees, gift giving, Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and reindeer.  The rainbow is the new and distorted symbol that originally came from Judeo-Christian roots.  In these cases and others, the salvific meaning is lost and the pagan world has adopted them, glorified them and celebrated them, while removing anything Christian related.

To be clear, what I’m going to talk about is not any of these cases and is actually the reverse situation.  Can pagan events, holidays, symbols, celebrations and even practices be Christianized?  To put it shortly, some yes, but some no.  Some can be redeemed and others cannot.  We cannot redeem anything that had its origins in pagan, witchcraft or the occult world with the sole and intended purpose of separating us from Jesus Christ, and those that scripture says to avoid.  We’re clearly instructed that mediums, spiritists, psychics, diviners, necromancers, sorcerers, witches/wizards/warlocks, anyone who casts spells, anyone that practices astral projection, anyone who practices child sacrifice and so forth are condemned. (Lev. 19:31, Lev. 20:27, Deut. 18:10-11).  Obviously, this means that we’re to avoid their practices and beliefs too.  By this logic, I think it’s safe to say that tarot cards, Ouija boards, zodiac readings, reading tea leaves, reading hand palms, using healing stones and a bunch of other practices are condemned too.  None of these symbols, items and practices can be redeemed.  They were all created and used with the intended purpose of ultimately separating us from Jesus Christ. All of these were also created to direct our hopes, focus and prosperity into the hands of the demonic, either by influence or giving partial or full power and authority to the demonic.

Can some other pagan practices be redeemed?  Yes!  I may get into “hot water” here with some religious fundamentalists, but I know cases of pagan or worldly music stripped of its worldly lyrics and infused with Jesus inspired lyrics, thus making it Christianized.  Ray Charles was scrutinized for this behaviour.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m still very much of the strong belief that in a church and worship setting, use gospel songs only and with the original intent of the song to be gospel oriented and not distorted.  Let’s not reinvent the wheel unnecessarily.  If there’s originally composed gospel music around and when dealing with a worship setting, use it joyfully!  I’ve been around churches where the music director would use a number of worldly songs in a church on a Sunday, where the lyrics are not specifically Christian and “generally spiritual” at most.  When asked about the songs the music director would say, “Well it can be Christian if you think of it that way.  See, it all depends on your intention.”  Let’s be real here!  If you really wanted to elevate Jesus in worship (which is what worship is, as it’s the highest form of elevation of God), then you’d actively seek after the best sources conducive to worship.  You don’t take filth, clean it, then polish it a bit and say it’s presentable to God.  May I also add that in reference to a recent Sunday sermon I shared and in response to Romans 12:1, if we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, then everything becomes spiritual!  We cannot separate our minds, emotions, bodies and souls, and thus, every action we make becomes spiritual, yes EVERY ACTION!

Finally, let’s get into syncretism.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines syncretism as “the combination of different forms of belief or practice.”  There are many Christians that go to church, sing in the choir, say prayers, etc., and still regularly read the zodiac horoscope column of the newspaper.  Other Christians go to psychic fairs.  Many Christians say, “I’m sending you good vibes” or “You’re a bad person and a bad thing happened to you; what goes around, comes around - that’s karma!”  When I see Christians behaving this way, I wonder how close of a relationship they have with the real Jesus and not a fake Jesus.  I’ll be honest with you and share that I feel awkward even attending any Chinese New Year event filled with lucky dragon performers and lucky red pockets, celebrating Chinese zodiac ideology. I also don’t buy the idea when people say, “Oh, don’t be so stiff! I do this for fun and I don’t really believe this stuff.” Well, if you don’t believe in it, then why dive into it in the first place? I got a wisdom tooth pulled-out recently, but I’m not going to place it under my pillow before I go to bed, in hopes that the tooth fairy will exchange it for a billion dollars. I don’t believe in that, so why indulge in it? You also want fun? Try going to a sports event, watch a good movie or a number of other things - which reminds me, I’m disappointed that the Moncton Motion basketball team is now defunct!

Still, I see it a common practice for many great, sincere and authentic Christians to partake in yoga classes on a regular basis, but merely for physical exercise.  Yes, I’m actually going there and talking about yoga!  I told you in my opening paragraph to be warned!  You may disagree with me, but out of love, iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17), so please hear me out.  Dear brothers and sisters rooted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour that practice yoga, do you know about the awakening of the Kundalini serpent spirit during yoga practice?  Do you know that chanting the yoga term om also invokes false gods? You don’t chant om? Do you know that every yoga pose is an outward worship expression, designed to invoke and connect with a lower and false god?  Do you know the actual Yoga word means “to attach, join, harness and yoke” in ancient Sanskrit and thus, it actually originated with the purpose to yoke people to false gods?  Do you know that scripture tells us to be yoked to Jesus alone? (Mat. 11:30).  If it’s simply for exercise, would you consider pilates or other exercises instead?  I understand even the founder of pilates studied eastern, religious spiritual practices and that some poses are common to yoga, but modern pilates does not offer nearly the same level of spiritual involvement.  Pastor David, are you going to come down on me about everything?  What about acupuncture, cupping, mindfulness training, eating too much red meat (knowing our bodies are living temples – 1 Cor. 6:19), etc.?  I’m not going to be legalistic here.

Is this simply a case of food sacrificed to lower and false gods as mentioned in 1 Cor. 8:1-8 and that it shouldn’t affect me as a Christian?  Personally, I don’t think this is the case.  I eat salad often enough.  I wouldn’t go into a brothel or strip club just because they had the best plate of that around.  Sure, salad is nutritional and helps my body (just like good exercise), but I don’t want to be exposed to the rest of the “spiritual baggage” in that setting, if you catch my drift.  You can make your own judgments, but I’m trying to stress that since the fall of humankind, our eyes are completely blind to the spiritual world. 

To make a point here, I once spoke to a Christian Reformed minister two or three years ago and he shared about his missional trip to Japan.  During the trip, he preached about demon possession and Jesus casting out evil spirits.  At the end and to his surprise, a number of people from the crowd approached the minister and wanted to know more about Jesus and none wanted to know about demons.  The visiting minister (from Canada) realized that there, the Japanese people knew all about demons already and were exposed to them all of the time.  It was the concept of Jesus that they didn’t know about. 

You see in North America in particular, we have wrongly sterilized Christianity to a systematic and mechanical belief system that is void of the supernatural world.  Our five senses have become so dimmed to the supernatural and spiritual world compared to the non North American world.  I’m not a betting man, but I would guess that many or even most people in Africa know of or have experienced black magic, spells or the supernatural world multiple times in their lives.  The same could be said about many people in Asia, the Middle East, and South American as well.  Parts of Europe also have experience in this. First Nation people know all about the supernatural world.  Because of my Korean background, I can speak for Koreans and say that yes, even though much of Korea is highly advanced in technology and development, believe it or not, there is still a large contingent group of the Korean population that believes in witchcraft and black magic as a part of their daily lives. There’s even a resurgence of mudang shaman guides in modern Korea. I’d also be foolish to say something arrogant like, “We North Americans know better than the rest of the world..”

Let me remind you again that everything is spiritual!  I know I’m stepping on thin ice here and many authentic Christians may say a thing or two to disagree with me, but in terms of yoga and other syncretism related practices to Christianity, why would you take the risk and is that the highest form of the one, true God in practical worship and spiritual expression?  I’m not going to think any less of you if you continue to practice yoga.  However, perhaps you may want to take a few minutes and watch this video clip (one of many video clips on Youtube of former experts that have left practicing any form of yoga in pursuit of Jesus Christ, even if it’s just viewed as physical exercise for some):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjjbev4zWms

 To God be the glory in all things!