Syncretism: That Ever-Present Danger

(Image courtesy of heritagebooks.org.)

An Age-Old Threat

When Jotham’s son Ahaz became king of Judah, the kingdom entered a dark period of spiritual decline. Ahaz was twenty years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. Unlike David, his forefather, Ahaz did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God. Instead, he followed the wicked practices of the kings of Israel, even going so far as to make his own son pass through the fire, imitating the detestable customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before Israel.

Ahaz did not merely tolerate the idolatry of the surrounding nations; he embraced their practices. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hills, and beneath every green tree. The king of Judah, who should have led his people in the worship of the LORD, instead led them further into rebellion.

During Ahaz’s reign, Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came against Jerusalem to wage war. They besieged the city, although they could not conquer it. Faced with this threat, Ahaz sought help from an unexpected source. Rather than trusting the LORD to deliver Judah, he sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria.

Ahaz sent the Assyrian king a message declaring himself his servant and son, pleading with him to come and rescue Judah from the hands of Syria and Israel. To secure this alliance, Ahaz took silver and gold from the house of the LORD and from the treasuries of the royal palace and sent them as a gift to the king of Assyria.

The Assyrian king accepted the offer and marched against Damascus, the capital of Syria. He captured the city, carried its people into exile, and put Rezin to death. Ahaz had received the military assistance he sought, but his dependence upon Assyria came at a significant cost. Rather than relying upon the LORD, Judah's king had placed himself under the power of a foreign ruler.

While in Damascus, Ahaz met Tiglath-pileser and observed an altar that stood there. Impressed by its design, Ahaz sent a drawing and a detailed description of the altar to Uriah the priest in Jerusalem. Before Ahaz returned, Uriah had constructed an altar according to the king's instructions.

When Ahaz arrived in Jerusalem, he approached the new altar and offered sacrifices upon it. He presented his burnt offering, grain offering, and drink offering, and he sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. The king had brought a foreign religious design into the temple worship of Judah, further demonstrating his disregard for the worship the LORD had commanded.

Ahaz then ordered Uriah to transfer the offerings from the great bronze altar to the new altar. The bronze altar, which stood before the LORD, was to remain available for the king's personal use in seeking divine guidance. Thus, Ahaz did not simply introduce a new altar; he subordinated the established worship of the LORD to his own preferences.

The king continued making changes to the temple furnishings. He removed the panels and basins from the movable stands, took down the bronze sea from its supporting oxen, and placed it upon a stone pavement. He also altered other furnishings within the temple, apparently to accommodate his own purposes and the demands of the Assyrian king.

Ahaz made these changes under the shadow of Assyria's growing power. The king who had sought foreign assistance now faced the consequences of his dependence. The sacred treasures of Judah were being surrendered, and the temple itself was being altered under the direction of a king who had abandoned the LORD's commands.

The account concludes by noting that Ahaz died and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

Ahaz's reign stands as a testimony to the destructive consequences of unfaithfulness. He rejected the LORD's ways, embraced the idolatry of the nations, sacrificed his own son, sought security through a pagan empire, and altered the worship of God to conform to foreign practices. Although his political maneuvering brought temporary relief from his enemies, his reign revealed the spiritual ruin of a king who trusted human power rather than the LORD.

That Ever-Present Danger

While it may seem superficial to move a lampstand or cut off the frames of the stands and remove the basin from them, what Ahaz and Uriah were guilty of was corrupting the worship of Yahweh and leading others into unfaithfulness.

These are serious accusations against a couple of unassuming men. But, in fact, their actions were erroneous presumptions against the holy God of heaven and earth. We, humans, tend to presume that if it’s not bothering me, then it must not be wrong. For instance, at the end of 2 Kings 16, the writer tells us that Ahaz dies. Seemingly nothing bad happened to him, so God must have been okay with him changing up the altar and the temple.

In reality, what we do in the body (i.e., the physical) impacts what happens in the spiritual world, which is what the commentary in 2 Kings 17 implies: “But they would not listen, but were stubborn… [and] did not believe in the LORD their God” (2 Kings 17:14). The writer goes on to say that this made them guilty of sin: “They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandments that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel” (2 Kings 17:34). Their corrupted worship was the breaking of an exclusive relationship between God and his people.

What is described in 2 Kings 16 and 17 is best summarized as the heresy of syncretism. Syncretism is the blending of different religious beliefs, practices, or systems into a combined form of worship or belief. It is considered a heresy by orthodox Christians because such practices violate the first and second commandment of Exodus 20: There is only One God, and you shall worship no other gods besides him. By adding to the prescribed way in which God has commanded his church worship him, or by subtracting from it, the church is guilty of idolatry and false worship. The lesson is perhaps more clearly grasped in an analogy.

What if I told you that what these men did – and what unwise, local church bodies and even whole denominations are doing today – is identical to adultery: “I’m married. I have a wife. I live with her. I take care of her… and I sneak a few occasional women on the side, so what?” The adulterer has corrupted his marriage by adding to it. It’s sinful. Likewise, the one who adds and subtracts from the prescribed worship of God has also acted sinfully and in an unfaithful way.

It’s easy to see this corruption in the story of Ahaz, but how are churches doing this today? In what ways has the Protestant church courted syncretistic elements and, thus, corrupted the pure worship of our Lord Jesus Christ? I will limit myself to addressing three ways in this article.

1) Egalitarian worship

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church (1 Corinthians 14:33-35).

Matthew Henry, a Puritan preacher, had this to say about instructions like these: “The woman was made subject to the man because she was made for his help and comfort. And she should do nothing, in Christian assemblies, which looked like a claim of being equal.”

Today, however, Protestant churches have pushed God’s Word off to the side and brought the egalitarian beliefs and practices of the world into the worship service of the gathered church. Women not only lead prayer, but they even lead apostate churches.

This syncretism has defiled the worship of God by his church. It is a clear violation of his created order and his New Covenant commands for the unadulterated worship of Christ. There is so much to uncover on this point, but I will point this out in defense: Christian society existed for millennia following God’s order of man as head and woman as helper. It was not the church who first introduced the contrary: it was the devil. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the key founders of first-wave feminism, re-interpreted the biblical account of Genesis 3 to say the following blasphemy:

As out of this allegory grows the doctrines of original sin, the fall of man, and woman the author of all our woes, and the curses on the serpent, the woman, and the man; the Darwinian theory of the gradual growth of the race from a lower to a higher type of animal life, is more hopeful and encouraging. However, as our chief interest is in woman's part in the drama, we are equally pleased with her attitude, whether as a myth in an allegory, or as the heroine of an historical occurrence.

In this prolonged interview, the unprejudiced reader must be impressed with the courage, the dignity, and the lofty ambition of the woman. The tempter evidently had a profound knowledge of human nature, and saw at a glance the high character of the person he met by chance in his walks in the garden. He did not try to tempt her from the path of duty by brilliant jewels, rich dresses, worldly luxuries or pleasures, but with the promise of knowledge, with the wisdom of the Gods (emphasis mine, The Woman’s Bible, 1898).

The egalitarian world, of which feminism is one prong of the trident, is founded on the premise that Eve is a “heroine” who valued “the promise of knowledge” as “the lofty ambition,” of which the devil himself is to be viewed not as the tempter of sin, but as the liberator of women.

2) Casual atmosphere of worship

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; [14] and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil (1 Timothy 2:18-3:7).

This section of Paul’s letter to the young pastor, Timothy, presents anything but a casual attitude toward gathered worship. Lifting “holy hands,” being “submissive,” and being “sober-minded” all speak to the reverent attitude with which we are to approach our holy God in worshipful humility – confidence, yes (Hebrews 4:16), but not with arrogance.

The casual attitude of our culture has been synced with the church’s worship. Baseball caps, blue jeans, and pop culture references within the worship of God in the church are all symptoms of the casual, lackadaisical attitude adopted by many professing Christians today. Even dressing in such a casual way influences how we bring our whole person to the worship of Christ, and it negatively affects the mutual edification of the saints in assembled worship.

3) Exegetical slop

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:11-16).

I recently heard a sermon preached on this passage; however, the preacher cut off verse 11 and started right in mid-sentence with verse 12. His sermon consisted of general calls for “us” to “equip one another,” which is completely contrary to what the Scripture actually teaches explicitly!

The apostle Paul makes it clear that it is Christ who gives gifts to men, according to his purposes. It is he who gave some (not all) to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors, and it is these men who are charged with equipping the church for ministry. While egalitarianism has leveled the playing field and made all people equal, God’s Word does not agree with this and, if we’re honest, reality doesn’t support this either.

When worldly culture controls the thermostat, the church goes cold; that is, when the church adopts the world’s view of sexual equity, when the church adopts the world’s view of unhealthy individualism that puts my feelings and preferences above all else, and when the church adopts the world’s view of orthodox unfaithfulness to Scripture, the church is going to be corrupted. When corruption of the truth occurs, then the church is not only guilty of worshipping idols, but it is also guilty of leading others astray from the One true God.

The story of the syncretistic church of 2 Kings is worth weeping over, and so is Protestantism’s obsession with “winning the world” through ways that are not in accordance with Scripture.