Solomon's Syncretism
Despite his many great qualities and his
deep wisdom and insight, Solomon had a weakness – a character flaw – which led
to his decline and downfall later in life. He was inclined to dabble with idolatry.
He never openly or fully walked away from Yahweh. Never fully rejected his Jewish
worship roots. Yet, due to the influences of the many women in his life, he was
drawn away into the worship of their “strange gods.”
While Solomon continued to worship at
Yahweh’s Temple in Jerusalem, he also undertook the construction of many pagan
temples in and around the city. Then he would join in with his wives in the
idolatrous and pagan practices of those temples. Thus Solomon, with all of his
wisdom, all of his blessings, and all of his Jewish roots, disobeyed the
commandment of the Lord and his heart gradually turned away from the Lord.
Rather than blatantly turn away from
Yahweh, Solomon attempted to create his “own flavor” of religion by blending together
the worship of Yahweh and the worship of idols. Thus, Solomon became the author
of SYNCRETISM – the merging together of two (or more) distinct and
irreconcilable principles into an un-blendable composite. Syncretism is the
attempt to harmonize differing or opposing ideas or principles. It is
the fusion of different belief systems. The inevitable result of attempting to
do so is that the composite no longer accurately represents the original belief
system which must be discarded.
The lesson for all of us is this: You cannot
merge God’s truth with any opposing ideas or belief systems and expect to stay
true to God. The Bible clearly teaches us that we are not to worship idols nor
adhere to their belief systems. To attempt to do so would be a betrayal of
truth and inconsistent with the worship of God.
Syncretism is not the total abandonment
of a faith. It is way more insidious and dangerous. It is taking
aspects of a different faith and merging it into another. Christianity is
the faith about following Jesus. Syncretism is overwriting the beliefs of
other faiths or cultures onto this practice. The intent may not be to
create something new. It may be simply to adapt to the culture. But
it is impossible to mix anything with Jesus without creating something new and
unholy. Adding anything to the life and teachings of Jesus and
Biblical truth simply creates heresy. A heresy which may go by the
label of “Christian,” but in reality, does not conform to the original article.
Jesus plus anything is not the real Jesus. We cannot create a new without
abandoning the old. God does not take idolatry – nor syncretism – lightly.
No comments:
Post a Comment