Preached by Andrew Smellie; October 7, 2007

Part 1 of a Series on Religiously Transmitted Diseases (RTD’s)

Are you suffering from Syncretitus?

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syn·cre·tism (sĭng’krĭ-tĭz’əm) noun.
1. Reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief, as in philosophy or religion, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous.

Romans 12:2 warns disciples not to ” . . . conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The Bible is full of examples of how much courage it takes to go against the grain and how much power God gives to those who undertake this kind of sacrificial life. However, history is also full of examples of how easy it is for God’s chosen people to get sucked back into the world, so that there is no longer any clear difference between those in the light and those in the dark. What is lost is God’s holiness . . .replaced by a powerless form of godliness created by men to serve their own appetites. (2 Timothy 3:4-6) This is the difference between religion and relationship, between the letter of the law and the spirit of liberty, and between compromise and truth. Many religious people somehow forget that although Jesus lived and loved perfectly, he was brutally killed for confronting the hypocrisy of the mainstream religion of the day. Why would we think it would be any different today? Are we better than Jesus? Or are we just nothing like Jesus?

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