Syncretism

One of the most significant issues Christianity faces around the world is syncretism, when Christian beliefs and concepts are mixed with those of other religions. In many parts of the world, people practice Christianity while holding onto folk religious beliefs and attitudes.

Someone may attend church every week, singing hymns and praying to God, yet turn to a shaman for help conceiving a child. Converts may continue to fear dark supernatural forces rather than fully trusting in their supremely powerful Savior. Others may claim to believe in the Bible but also accept modern concepts, such as evolution, that go contrary to everything the Scripture teaches about origins.

In many cases, when Christianity is introduced, people see the Christian God as just another god among others. Even today in some places one may witness folk religious rituals performed openly in Christian churches.

Perhaps the most common form of syncretism in Christianity is when someone converts, yet their worldview doesn’t change. They may view their new church worship service with a ritualistic mentality, insisting that services be conducted precisely as they first experienced it. They may view Christianity as simply a more powerful method of magic and attempt to manipulate God to do what they want, rather than prayerfully trusting in God’s will for their lives.

Syncretism had been a great problem in ancient Israel; they were constantly bringing in pagan forms of worship into their religion. This attitude often stems from a desire to be like the world, to be like those around us. Then, as now, we are not to seek differences just to be different; rather, we are to “Seek good and not evil, that you may live” (Amos 5:14).

The Protestant Reformation helped free Christians from the results of syncretism with ancient pagan concepts. Despite the Bible’s command to not speak to the dead (Deut. 18:11), the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches encourage people to pray to, and honor saints (righteous people who have died), whom they believe intercede on our behalf, a leftover from ancient paganism and folk religion. In the same way that the gods of various ancient religions were associated with places or activities, many saints, though not believed to have a supernatural power of their own, are associated with specific needs, places, peoples, or occupations. In some parts of the world Christians still venerate supernatural figures from non-Christian religions, either associating them with a Christian figure such as Mary or simply holding onto them. In contrast to such beliefs, the apostle Paul declares that “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

As Christians, we must learn to sift through the cultural baggage that we all carry and do our best to separate ourselves from anything contrary to our faith.

For a deeper understanding of the issue involved, we suggest people go to the following link: https://www.adventist.org/en/information/official-statements/guidelines/article/go/-/engaging-in-global-mission/