Are the traditions you hold dear built upon the solid rock of Scripture, or are they resting on the shifting sands of ancient compromise? It is time to peel back the heavy curtain of history and tradition to confront the reality of syncretism and see if your worship remains pure.
This teaching gives you a clear, God Honest look at how syncretism has influenced the world around you, often without you even realizing it, revealing how ancient practices blend with Christianity today. We explore how historical blending has shaped modern Christianity, empowering you to reclaim the unmixed reverence due to the Creator.
This teaching gives you a clear, God Honest look at how Syncretism has influenced the world around you, often without you even realizing it. This is a vital teaching for anyone who values sound doctrine, historical awareness, and spiritual integrity. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about syncretism.
#Syncretism #Interpretatio #ReligiousSyncretism #FaithAndCulture #GodHonestTruth
AI Research Papers
Notes
Transcript
Teaching Introduction
Imagine discovering that some of the traditions handed down to you, some of the traditions that you intensely cherish were shaped by gods and cultures that don’t honor Yahweh. What if the practices of biblical faith that we hold dear are permeated by rituals that undermine what you believe? One of the most dangerous concepts in all of religious history is a heresy built on the blending of faiths. It’s called syncretism, the cultural mechanism and historical tool that hid pagan idols within biblical names. syncretism is not just an academic word. It’s the downfall of pure worship. The Greeks blended foreign gods into their own system, and the Romans mastered the practice, and it’s still one of the driving forces behind religious shifts that affect modern Christian practice today. In this video, we are exposing the longstanding system of syncretism, the deliberate mixing of truth and myth that reshaped many of your sacred traditions. If your desire is to serve Yahweh with a whole heart and an undivided faith, then keep watching because what you learn in this teaching may change how you see the Bible forever.
Video Start
So this teaching is going to be all about syncretism. what it is, how it’s been implemented in the past with other cultures within the faith that we hold that supposed to be the faith of Messiah, how syncretism has kind of worked its way in there. Some examples of that, even some modern-day versions of syncretism within Christianity, it is still going on. This is not something that happened way back in the past. It’s still going on today. And you’ll see some examples of that as we get in more into the teaching. Now, before we get into that, I just want to give the same disclaimer that I always give and the same information I always give that if you would like some more information than what you learned during this particular episode or what you see here on your screen, there’s going to be a whole bunch more in the notes that we have provided and took for this particular episode that you can find on our website at godhonesttruth.com. If you go to the website, click on the post for this particular episode. there on that article post you’ll be able to find the on demand video that you see here on your screen. You’ll also be able to see the draw slides you see here on your screen and go through the draw slides at your own pace. You can stop at a particular point and or go forward, jump ahead, however you want to do it. It makes it so convenient having it right there at your fingertips. But not only is the on demand video and the draw slides going to be there, but you’ll also find the notes that we took for this particular episode as well as some academic research reports or research papers that we had some AIs do. You can read those as well. They’re fairly interesting, but um yeah, some of the more meat and potatoes is in the notes that we took that we gathered from other sources. So go check that out. all that information there if you want to study even more and get more information than what you get here in this particular teaching. It’s all right there on one particular post makes it all convenient for you and it’s all available from our website and a convenient way to go instead of going and typing in all that stuff and looking for it, searching for it. All you got to do go down below where it’s got the description. We provided a convenient link right there for you. Just click on that link and it’ll take you directly to the post and that link should be there in the description whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. Go down there in the description and check it out today. Like I said, our website is godhonesttruth.com. There you can find information about our ministry and also find the article post for this particular episode.
Syncretism Specified
Now, starting out during the research for this particular episode, I ran across a several good quotes, but one that really stuck out to me is a quote from Tertullian. And this is from a writing he called de Adoll Adolatria. Adolo Latria. Anyways, it’s on idolatry, the translation of it. But in this particular writing, at the very end of it, this is chapter 24 of that writing, Tertullian writes the following quote. Amid these reefs and inlets, amid these shallows and straits of idolatry, faith are sails filled by the spirit of God navigates. Safe if cautious, secure if intently watchful. But to such as our washed overboard is a deep w is no outswing. To such as our run of ground is instricable is inextricable shookwreck. To such as are engulfed is a whirlpool for there is no breathing even in idolatry. All waves thereof whatsoever suffocate. Every eddy there thereof sucks down into Hades. The reason why the Holy Spirit did when the apostles at that time were consulting relax the bond and yoke for us was that we might be free to devote ourselves to the shunning of idolatry. End quote.
And so here this is a common theme you’ll find within especially a lot of the early writers and when I mean early I mean before 325 before Nicaea a lot of these writers they would absolutely abhor the bringing in of pagan ways the bringing in of idolatrous practices and idolatrous dates and stuff like that. They did not like that. They did not agree with syncretism. they wrote against it vehemently a lot of times. So this is not the first time you’ll hear someone shunning the practice of syncretism and unfortunately there as history goes on there is some people who adopt syncretism and use it to their own benefits and we’ll get into that more as we go.
But you may be thinking okay well they opposed and prohibited and did not like syncretatism but what is syncretatism itself? What is this subject, this word that we keep talking about and which this whole devotion or this whole teaching is dedicated to? Well, syncretism define this comes from Miriam Webster. syncretism the combination of different forms of belief or practice or the fusion of two or more originally different inflectional forms. From the Cambridge dictionary, quote, “syncretism is the combining of different religions, cultures, or ideas.” End quote. So this is a pretty good secular overview of what secretism is. It’s a blending of two different beliefs or practices. And that can be political, that can be cultural, that can be religious or beliefs. And of course for our practice in our context, we are studying the syncretism within belief or religion.
And as such, let’s get a definition of syncretism from a modern-day writer, and his name is Tim Hegg. Most of you who are in the messianic mindset probably have heard of him before. He does a lot of Messianic writings. Anyways, this is a quote from Tim Hegg. And he says, quote, “The term syncretism means to attempt union or reconciliation of diverse or opposite tenants or practices, especially in philosophy or religion. In short, syncretism is mixing things that essentially differ. From the beginning of God’s revelation to man, he has made known the simple fact that he does not accept syncretism. The central issue of holiness is bound up in the concept of separation. End quote.
And he’s exactly right about that because that whole concept that whole word of holy or holiness some the word in itself in the original language the original Hebrew means set apart not to be blending not to be like not to be similar to but to be set apart from that’s what holy means and the translation that we use here God honest truth that’s the scriptures 2009 translation they don’t use the word holy instead they translate it as set apart to make it more obvious of what the word actually means. So yeah, when Tim Hegg writes the central issue of holiness is bound up in the concept of separation, it hits the nail right on the head because holy in scripture means set apart or separation and we’re separated from the world to Yahweh.
Now to better understand this concept of syncretism, here’s some analogies real quick. We’re talking about the tainted well first. This is just an analogy. Okay. Anyways, according or uh going by the analogy of a tainted well, syncretism is like a village with a single pure well. Think of this village and they’ve only got one well and it’s got good pure water in it. That’s how we start out. But over time, people began pouring small amounts of water from other sources into it. sources like river water or swamp water or whatever other water they may find out and about in the woods or in the travels or whatnot. And the people they pour it in there, they think it’s going to be okay. They think it’s going to stretch the supply that they’ve got and it’ll last longer. They think that the water they’re pouring in there will be purified by the water that’s in the well, the good pure water. And they think it’ll all work out in the end just to be a wash. However, eventually the well still looks like a well, still looks like it always dead and it still seems like water. When you take it out and you look at it, it still looks like the exact same water that you got in the very beginning. However, now it carries contamination that slowly poisons the village. So, the villagers insist the well is the same, but its nature has changed. Syncratism here is the truth gets diluted into the mixture and destroys what was once pure.
So you take something that’s pure and holy set apart and then you start implementing syncretism and you start bringing in things that are not good that are not holy that are not set apart things from paganism things from other fairy tales like Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam etc etc. start bringing this stuff in and it’s going to pollute and poison the good and puress of the faith that was handed down to us. That’s the problem with secretism is it dilutes the faith and it’s been going on for so long that people have come to accept what has been synretatized into Christianity. They become to accept it as truth and as something that’s pure and holy and the way it’s always been done. That’s the way they think a lot of times. That’s the way I thought about some doctrines until I started studying and questioning for myself. And it’s really eye opening to see all these different things that were brought into the faith through this process called syncretism.
Another analogy, this is about some currencies. You got some metal coins, right? Secretism is like taking genuine gold coins and melting them down with cheaper metals because someone thinks the coins will still be of the same value, but they’ll have a lot more of them because they’ve in essence cut it, right? They made more by blending in these cheaper metals. And after mixing the alloys, the coins are still the same color, same size, and they still bear the same images. They still have the same heads and the same tails, and they still they look exactly like they did before they were mixed with these other metals. However, in reality, their value has diminished and dropped massively because you take away the gold, you start polluting it, and the value obviously goes down from pure gold. So, their value and their integrity, it’s all compromised. Again, it’s been diluted and poisoned just like we saw with the well.
Another analogy that I’ve heard from time to time is you take a glass of water and you you got to have water to live. You take a glass of water and you drink it. It’s good for you. But you take a glass of water and you put one drop of arsenic or strick nine in there. Is it still good for you? One drop. Is that going to hurt you? Well, that’s a compromise. And hey, let’s give it to you. Maybe one drop won’t hurt you. You can survive one drop. whatever is put in there. Then you start thinking, okay, well, let’s put a few more in there. And you start putting a few more and a few more and eventually it gets to the point where it is no longer good for you. And in reality, it wasn’t good for you from the first drop either. What you want is the pure, clear, clean water that you started with without any pollutants.
That’s what syncretism does to the faith. We start out with the pure whole faith that Messiah exe exemplified for us and made an example for us that we are to follow. He had it down to his disciples and the apostles and the hand it down to their disciples that they were teaching and stuff like that and it was supposed to continue. But as different people came in from different backgrounds, especially the hellenistic backgrounds, they started bringing their ideas in with them and they were supposed to leave their old ideas and their old faiths, their old ways of thinking behind them and instead be renewed to the new man and Messiah. They they did not do that. They did not leave all that stuff behind. They brought it with them and they incorporated it into their former Christianity which then went and spread out into the rest of Christianity and became tradition eventually because it got voted in by some council and then as they say the rest is history and we now think it’s all biblical when it’s actually not.
Interpretatio Graeca/Romana
But yeah, that is syncretism and it’s been going on for a while. And in my research that I was doing for this particular episode, it seems like syncretism is actually the norm and not the exception. Seems like a lot of people, especially the pagans and ancient cultures, did a lot of syncretism when they would come in contact with other people. And this is where we start getting into the concepts or the phrases of interpret especially interpreta referring to the Greeks and interpret Romana referring to the Romans. After that we get into interpretio christristiana but we’ll save that because that’s another section coming up after this. Anyways, interpretio grea or interpretio romana. What is that? Well, according to Bril’s new poly, interpret Graa or interpret Romana is the identification of a foreign divinity with a member of the indigenous pantheon widespread in the Greco Roman world. The little research phenomenon is originally a sign of the natural interreationships between polytheistic systems. End quote.
So that’s what interpreta or interpret Romana is. I’ll give you some examples here in a minute. But the Greeks, they it was definitely going on before the Greeks. The Greeks really gave it a good start as far as this whole interpret thing goes or syncretism thing goes. But in a nutshell, interpret Graa is the Greek form or the Greek style, Greek method of syncretism. and interpret Romana is the Roman style or the Roman method of syncretism. The Greeks kind of really gave it its start, its heyday because you start out with Alexander the Great. He goes and conquers all the known world and as he does so they start incorporating these various things, the Persian ideas and Egyptian ideas and etc etc. But relatively speaking, especially now to what we know of today, Alexander the Great did not conquer all the world. He it was the biggest empire of his time. Give granted, but even then it didn’t extend all the way up into all of Europe. It was just the very top portion of Africa even. And he didn’t even make it to China as far as I understand. But he did do a lot. and he didn’t get as far as we would think of today as far as the whole world goes.
However, after the Greeks came the Romans and the Romans were roadbuilders and they went all the way up through Northern Europe, all the way up into Britain and the British Isles and Ireland. They went all the way to the east of Europe, to the west of Europe, and they went and they orient and went to Africa, etc., etc. So they built all these this grand empire that spread much farther than Alexander the Great. And so they interacted with a lot more people and they had a better system of roads and interconnections between these various places, various cultures. So they really, how should I say this? They really accelerated this whole syncretism and interpret Romana that really got its heyday with the Romans.
And you can see that as they go, you read some of the writings. Um, I forget the name of it now, the name of that guy. Anyways, he went up to uh I remember his name here in a minute. Anyways, he was one of the generals or one of the people who went up into the Europe and around where the Germans are nowadays. He was writing about the Germans and how they worshiped Mercury, but they called him another god. And it was really a blending. And that’s what the uh interpretative Roman really comes down to and where we get a lot of that from the Romans. But it happened all over the place. It wasn’t just the Romans. It was happening before the Romans. It’s happened after the Romans. And like I said, the Greeks are the ones who really gave it a good start as they went into various places. They adopted various things and they brought it into their pantheon of paganism. And of course they gave it different names because they tried to associate everything together.
For example, they take Ammoon from Greece, I’m sorry, from Egypt. And they associate Ammoon with Zeus. They associate Osiris with Dionius or Dionis, Horus with Apollo, etc., etc. They do Anubis with Hermes, Ball with Zeus. They counter some of the Ball religions. We also have Tamuz with Adonis. Yeah, don’t go too far there. We uh we we know we want to, but uh yeah, we’ll hold off for now. That could be a whole another tangent. But they the Greeks associated or tried to reconcile these various other gods with their own gods they had. And they it’s kind of the example or the thought process of well all the gods are the same just when you go to a different area they call them by different names. It’s kind of along that line which is absolutely untrue because all these pagan gods are made up in the first place just like Allah or Buddha or etc etc. These are all just things people’s made up of time. So they’re not all the same except in the fact they are made up. But that is interpret. is the synchronizing or synretatizing of other ideas, other religious views and beliefs with their own beliefs.
And this transferred and went into Roman times as well. And the Romans actually more or less idolized the Greeks. And yeah, they went and took them over, but they really respected and adored their education and their philosophy and their thinking. So they copied a lot of the things that the Greeks did. And if you ever start looking at these pagan gods from Roman and Greek times, a lot of them are very very similar. And it’s because of this whole syncretism or what’s known otherwise we’ve learned here as interpret Romana. And interpret Romana is the same thing as what the Greeks did. It’s just the Romans doing it. It’s the way that in the method the Romans synretatized other people’s beliefs, other religions, beliefs into their own.
For instance, uh when the Romans went up north and they started getting in Northern Europe and places like Ireland and stuff like that, they encountered what’s called the Kelts. And we’ve covered this before in this particular series, the Kelts and some of the things they believe. But when they encountered the Kelts, they started synretizing or reinterpreting these various other pagan gods with their own pagan gods. And they take Lugus, which is a Celtic deity or Celtic god, and they associate him with Mercury. Associate Sulus with Manurva. They associate Woden or Odin as most people are familiar with the name. They associate Odin with Mercury or with Jupiter which is then they associate people like Astarte with Venus. I made sure to include that one because that is important in our Easter study if you haven’t already heard some of our Easter teachings. You will coming up here in a couple months. But the Romans associated a startate with Venus as well as other spring fertility goddesses and they identified and synchretatized interpreted Mithris with soul invictus.
Now, this is a big one that I definitely made sure to include in here because this is directly relevant to our study in this particular series about the Christmas holiday and in particular the previous episode that we did on the selection of December 25th as the birth of Christ and how that came about. If you’ll remember in our study there, we learned that Mithriism come came from Persia and very little is known about Mithriism and when Mithris’s actual birthday was and even though most of the time it’s generally understood to be the winter solstice which was December 25th on the Julian calendar. Anyways, Mithris comes in and he is identified and merges with or rather becomes soul invictus. Now before all this there was even a sun god within Roman paganism called soul. Not soul invictus but soul. And of course academics and scholars have to get into a tussle about whether it’s all the same thing or whether these are different gods. It’s all made up fairy tales. So it doesn’t really matter anyways. But some people say that sol mithras and sol invictus are three different gods. Other people will say that soul and soul invictus are the same. That they just they’re split by absence there. I don’t know. Decide for yourself how you think of that. But anyways, let it be known for the purposes of this study that the Romans interpreted or tried to syncretize or synchronize Mithras with their son god which was soul invictus.
Did you ever think that as you started studying your belief, you started studying Christianity or Messianism or whatever you want to call it, did you ever think that paganism would play a big part in the beliefs that you hold today? I mean, I didn’t. I learned a whole bunch of things I probably didn’t want to know about Christianity from studying Roman paganism. I don’t know if I’ve gotten to this before in a previous episode or not, but look into Roman paganism and you’ve got this concept of vestal virgins and there’s so much similarities with the way that nuns are done today within Catholicism that I don’t think that it came from anywhere else. They some people try to say it came from this aestheticism from the men in deserts back in the early days and it kind of evolved into the nunnery now. But no, there’s way too many similarities between the vestal virgins and the nuns that Catholicism does. It’s just it’s uncanny. Really is. Along with a lot of other things like the holiday that we’re studying in this series. But that is a brief overview of what syncretatism is and what interpret Romana and interpret Grea is that is relating to both the Romans and the Greeks respectively and the way they encountered and synretized and interpreted other belief systems when they came into contact with them.
Interpretatio Christiana
Now we’re going to move into a concept called interpretatio christristiana. And again this is all syncretatism but interpret Christristiana is the Christian method or way of synretatizing or interpreting other belief systems other religions etc etc. So like always let’s go ahead and give a quick definition for interpretio christristiana. This comes from wikipedia.org. Quote, interpretio christristiana is an adaptation of non-Christian elements of culture or historical facts to the worldview of Christianity. The term is commonly applied to recasting of religious and cultural activities, beliefs, and imageries of pagan peoples into a Christianized form as a strategy for Christianization. reformatting traditional religious and cultural activities and beliefs into a Christianized form was officially sanctioned. End quote.
Now, when it says officially here, who are the officials that sanctioned such syncretism? It wasn’t Jesus. It wasn’t Yahweh. We’re going to look at some of those scriptures coming up here in just a moment. It wasn’t the disciples or the apostles. It wasn’t even the first century believers. No, the authorities that officially sanctionized this and I use that that term authority and officially loosely here in this context. The authorities that officially sanctionized this syncretism or this interpretiana is the Roman Catholic Church or just simply the Catholic Church which was the church for many many centuries and even though they thought they had the power and ability to change various things or to bring in other stuff in reality they didn’t. They cannot change the Bible. They cannot change the word of Yahweh. They were not supposed to be bringing in pagan stuff into Christianity, but they did. Then a lot of times they even said they did and sanctioned it and try to justify it. We’re going to read some of that here coming up.
But you get things I didn’t I meant to put this in there, but I didn’t. As in my opinion anyways, the Catholic Church didn’t get started until 3:25, the Council of NA. really kicked off the whole Catholic thing and that lasted up until today’s day and age. Of course, they split off into Eastern Orthodox and eventually split off into Protestantism, etc., etc. But the Catholic Church really got started in 325 in my opinion. And also, in my opinion, I don’t think that or I don’t believe that Rome ever fell, that Rome ever disappeared. In my opinion, Rome just transformed into the Catholic Church. took all its pagan ways or most of its pagan ways and pagan dates and pagan ways of thinking and they slapped a Jesus sticker on it and tried to call it holy and it’s not. I mean Sunday is a great example. Sunday is a Sabbath. The church church the Catholic church thought they could change the date of the Sabbath in the council of Leodysia. Didn’t happen in Asia. Happened in Leodysia in about 363 364. But anyways, there in the council of Leodysia, they said that Christians must not rest on the Sabbath, but instead resting on the first day or the Lord’s day if they can. And it’s they’re not even hiding it. They go on to say other things, too, that Protestants are actually still continuing to obey Catholicism when they keep the first day as the Sabbath. And we’ve went over this in our Sabbath study and we’re going to be doing an entire series on the Sabbath coming up next year. And we’re going to get into all that, too. So, if you are a history buff and you want to learn more about the Sabbath or Shabbat, then make sure to stay tuned for our Sabbath series coming up next year.
But as the church went on, they brought in all these different things and they try to rationalize them as to why they were doing it, why it was okay to do it. And they even put out there in plain sight. We’re going to get into some of that here in just a moment as we go through some of the historical words and historical writings that some people wrote.
But as far as interpretiana is still going on today. For instance, we look at something going on that you may not know about. This is something called Chryslam. And chryslam is the blending or merging of Christianity and of course Islam. This comes from Christian Research Institute. Quote, “In Nigeria, Chryslam’s church mosque members practice running deliverance and believe both the Quran and the Bible as hol are holy texts. Islam others suggest is the merger of Islam and Christianity as evidenced by the common word document. It is pastors speaking in mosque, imams preaching in churches and the Quran read to Christian congregations. The chrylam of this article is an actual missionary strategy for Muslim ministry. End quote.
There’s a whole bunch more that goes on in that particular article talking about Islam and etc, etc., But it’s just an example to go on and show that this whole form of syncretism and diluting the pure faith that was handed down to us is still going on today. It’s not just a Catholic thing that happened way back when in 325 and forward. No, it’s still happening today in various parts of the world, even various denominations and stuff because it’s just not in Africa. It’s not just in Nigeria. It’s also happening all over the world. It’s even happening here in America. Yeah, obviously because there’s some things Americans do really well and sometimes that’s just taking a good thing and just looting the heck out of it. And Christian syncretism is no different.
For instance, we have nowadays Christian yoga. And for those of you who don’t know, yes, I know ignorance is bliss. I’m going to bust your ignorance right here. But yoga comes from far eastern belief systems. It comes from uh Hindu. Yeah, there you go. Comes from Hindu practices and some of the stuff they say, some of the words they use. It’s all straight paganism from this whole Hindu fairy tale stuff. And it’s a blending, it’s a syncretism with demonic things like Hinduism. So, Christian yoga is an actually oxymoron, something we should not be doing or taking part in. And yes, you can stretch without doing yoga. You don’t have to have yoga in order to stretch. Okay? Educate yourself. There are plenty of ways to get good exercise without dipping into pagan practices like yoga.
We also have other new age practices in various churches. These are usually the mega churches that have little to nothing to do with actual scripture. But you can see some of these new age stuff that comes into some of these churches and they use things like these healing crystals and all. Oh my gosh, there are actual Christian tarot cards now. I’ve seen that before and it’s it’s sad and it’s irritating and all at once too and I wish it wasn’t going on but it is.
We also have and this is probably something you’ve heard of before and probably know people who actually do this but astrology for Christians. Astrology of all things people look in news well when I was younger they looked in newspapers but now you just go online or have an app for it. But he can get your whatever it is. It’s um horoscope. That’s it. Get your hor daily horoscope. And it’s all astrology. It’s all fairy tale pagan stuff. Astrology is no bueno. It’s no good. Stay away from astrology. That is syncretism in a modern context. Trying to bring astrology into Christianity.
Then of course we got the whole prosperity gospel. And this is blending Christianity or at least the name of the Bible and Jesus with this whole concept of greed and materialism that the world puts out there. You try to it’s not necessarily a pagan thing this time. It’s more of a secular thing I guess. So greed and consumerism, but they try to blend that with Jesus and the Bible. And it’s still a form of syncretism. It’s still wrong. It’s still diluting and perverting the actual faith. Some notable prosperity people are Kenneth Copelan. Um, I don’t want to say the wrong name, so I want to think about this before I say it. Kenneth Copelan, Joel Ostein, and uh Benny Hinn. Those are some of the three biggest ones. And Mike Winger’s actually done a very long episode exposing Benny Hinn for the deception that he’s put out there over the years. And if you haven’t seen that from Mike Winger, go check that out on Mike Winger’s channel. But yeah, this whole prosperity gospel is modern secretism still going on today.
Then we got universalism that has crept its way into Christianity. And universalism, this is basically the idea that it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you are basically a good person, you’re you’re still going to go to heaven. It’s taking Yeshua out of the the equation. It’s taking the Bible out of the equation. It’s just saying be a good person because all roads, they eventually lead to God and all religions worship the same God. They just got different names for the same God. And that’s not true. That is totally false. And that’s why when you read through the Bible, over 6,000 times Yahweh gives his name Yahweh just in the Tanakh. Over 6,000 times. How important do you think it is that we know his name and know which god we are talking about when we say the name of Yahweh? It intentionally distinguishes him and makes him distinct from all these other false pagan gods like Allah or Buddha or Zeus or Thor ex etc etc. No, not all religions worship the same God. And universalism is just another example of syncretism that has come into the church.
So now hopefully you’ve got a good overview of what syncretism is, what some of the modern equivalents are, how the Romans and the Greeks did it. And hopefully you’ve got a good idea of why this is not particularly good because it dilutes and pollutes the actual real faith.
Early Writers
And there throughout history there’s lots of people who tried to convince and teach against syncretism. They weren’t able to fully stop it. Maybe they did in their time, maybe they did in their region, but overall syncretism still came into the faith. And a lot of what we believe nowadays within at least mainstream Christianity is stuff that has been synretatized from other faith, other religions.
So here is some early writers that were writing against syncretism and what they had to say. We’re going to start out with another quote from Tertullian and this comes from his work again from on idolatry. is de Adel adria end quote in this place must be handled the subject of holidays and other extraordinary simnities which we accord sometimes to our wantedness sometimes to our timidity in opposition to the common faith and discipline. The first point indeed on which I shall join issue is this. Whether a servant of God ought to share with the very nations themselves in matters of his kind, either in dress or in food or in any other kind of their gladness. If we re if we rejoice with the world, there is reason to fear that with the world we shall grieve, too. For why should you skull with all when you contaminate your own conscience by your neighbor’s ignorance, whether in the latter or the former way, you are guilty of being ashamed of God.” End quote.
And I think he’s on to something there. We should not be like the pagans and unbelievers around us. And that when we do compromise, we do synretatize, we do bring in all these external things that are not good, that are against scripture, we bring it in, we it is like us being ashamed of God because he handed us down the scriptures, the Bible, his holy word to guide us and to instruct us and to show us the way. There’s no need to bring in anything else. And saying that we should bring in other stuff is saying that the Bible is not sufficient. And I don’t know about you, but for me, the word of Yahweh is sufficient.
Now, we look at the council of Trulo. And this is a lesserk known council uh especially amongst the wider audience, but it was a a council of the Catholic Church. And here they actually go against secretism even though they had already engaged in forms of secretism. But anyways, this is from the council of Trulo in 692. Quote, the so-called kalins and what are called Ba and Brumalia and the full assembly which takes place on the 1st of March. We wish to be abolished from the life of the faithful. Nor may men invoke the name of the exorbal backas when they squeeze out the wine in the presses. Therefore, those who in the future attempt any of these things which are written, having obtained a knowledge of them, if they be clerics, we order them to be deposed, and if layman, to be cut off, end quote.
So, here they’re going against Ba and Brumalia and uttering the name of Bakus, which was a it was a pagan god, name of pagan god. But here they’re going against secretism trying to wipe out these pagan festivals and these pagan gods and stuff like this. But unfortunately this I mean this was 692 and we saw in our last episode about December 25th that December 25th was adopted as the date for Messiah’s birth back in the middle of the 4th century. So this is like 300 years since they used syncretism to create what we now know as Christmas. So maybe they forgot that it was syncretism that had got them Christmas in the first place. Or maybe not. Maybe they’re just trying to put on a good face. I don’t know.
But as you read these excerpts and these writings from Catholicism, you’ll find it going back and forth. Sometimes they will bring in secretism and they’ll try to justify it and rationalize it and we’ll see that here in just a moment. Other times, like you see here with the council and Trulo, you’ll see them going against secretism. So, it’s really it’s really confusing sometimes, but when you look at the whole picture, it’s really not. They think they have the authority to do whatever they want regardless of what God says and regardless of what they themselves done in the past. And it’s it’s nuts. Really is. It’s nuts.
This one this one article I was reading about Catholicism in China. Apparently for some time they had been allowing the converts in China to still worship and this whole Confucious thing. But then they write against it. Tell them they shouldn’t do that and writing essentially writing against secretism in China. But then they go on to say that they shouldn’t call God by this other name that the Chinese were calling him. They should instead call him Deus, which is just the Latin generic title, not name, but title of God. It’s like God in English is a generic title, not a name. So even in that, they’re they’re blotting out the name of God. They’re blotting out the name of Yahweh. And this probably goes back to Jewish tradition, but I haven’t really fleshed that out yet either. But either way, we should not be hiding the name of Yahweh. We should be using it, proclaiming it, and how powerful and mighty and awesome it is. That’s a story for another day. In fact, it might be an episode coming up this next year. Stay tuned.
But yeah, as far as Catholicism goes, you read these various writings and cannons and councils and they go back and forth. Sometimes they’re against syncretism or they make it look like they’re against syncretism. Other times they bring in these pagan ideas and they try to rationalize it. They try to think that simply slapping a Jesus sticker on it makes it okay, but it doesn’t. And this is some of the early writers we heard from Tertullian. You can hear you can read some other excerpts from people like Origin, from uh lots of others. I cut it down intentionally tonight for the sake of time. Hopefully get a little bit shorter. Once again, you can go check out the notes that we took for this particular episode to read a whole bunch more quotes about this early writers and also later writers.
Later Writers
And this is later writers by the concept or context of reformation and later on after that. But according to some later writers like Martin Luther, this comes from his writing a commentary on St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians and he says, quote, “The false apostles taught that in addition to faith in Christ, the works of the law of God were necessary unto salvation. But the papist omit faith altogether and teach self-devised traditions and works that are not commanded of God, indeed are contrary to the word of God. And for these traditions, they demand preferred attention and obedience. End quote.
So here Martin Luther is talking about the Catholics is bringing in these traditions and they want to be praised for these traditions. They’re not actually coming from the word of God. These are just traditions from Catholicism and generally a lot of times they come from paganism.
And another quote from his writing, a commentary on St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. Quote, “Nevertheless, God has punished the contempt of the gospel and of Christ on the part of the papist by turning them over to a reprobate state of mind in which they reject the gospel and receive with gusto the abominable rules, ordinances, and traditions of men and preference to the word of God until they went so far as to forbid marriage. God punished them justly because they blasphemed the only son of God.” End quote.
Martin Luther, he’s a firecracker sometimes and he gets off the rails at points and especially like in some anti-semitism or anti-semitic kind of works he did. But credit where credit is due. He’s absolutely on the point here when it comes to Catholicism, what he refers to as the papist and their traditions and bringing in things especially from pagan ideas and concepts. He’s absolutely right about that.
And another Reformation writer, his name is John Calman. And I am certainly no fan of John Calvin. In fact, if I had a time machine, I would go introduce John Calvin to a 2×4. But like I said, credit where credit is due. And here is what John Calvin writes on syncretism. This comes from his writing treatise on relics. Quote, “The principal cause of the corruption of the Christian church by the introduction of the pagan ideas and practices alluded to above was however chiefly the lamentable policy of compromise with paganism, which that church adopted soon after her sudden triumph by the conversion of Constantine. The object of this policy was to lead into her pale the pagans as rapidly as possible. And therefore, instead of making them enter by the straight gate, she widened it in such a manner that the rush of paganism had almost driven Christianity out of her pale. End quote.
So, here we’ve got John Calvin. Again, like I said, I’m no fan of John Calvin, but credit where credit is due. He’s absolutely on point here. And here he’s talking about how the these pagan ideas they came into Christianity through Catholicism through the papist as Martin Luther says it and this is corrupted the church according to John Calvin and he’s absolutely right and it says they started immediately after the conversion of Constantine i.e. the council of Naasa.
So that’s probably one of the few points that I and John Calvin actually agree on. But he also goes on to give a reason as to why the Catholic Church did this. And again, I think he’s spot on. He did it or he says that they did it for the point of conversion to try and bring in as many pagans as possible into the fold. And they wanted to do this because the more people they had, the more money they had, all those tithes, that tithe money coming in. And they also had more power. And for a long time there were separate countries but really it was all one country because there was this one church and that was the Catholic church and they running most if not all of the things behind the scenes pulling strings here and there and it’s all because they well not all because but a big part of it was because of the syncretism they adopted early on from the very beginning of the very first council of Nia.
So yeah there even the reformers like Martin Luther like John Calvin like Zwingley etc etc they all recognized these various things that the Catholic Church had brought in and some that was part of the things they railed against when they had the protestant reformation. The unfortunate part is that even as good a job as they did, Martin Luther and John Cal that loosely far as doing good, but John Calvin, even as hard as they tried, even with all the good they did, they didn’t get it all. Which is why we have ministries like this who are still out there trying to teach what comes from the actual scriptures and not just railing against Calvinis. I’m sorry, not railing against Catholicism. We’re bringing in all this synretatistic stuff because the reformers, they didn’t get everything. And now we’re trying to mop up and get all the bits they didn’t get and get back to scripture.
For instance, the reformers did not get Sunday. They did not get the Sabbath. They did not get Christmas. They did not get Easter along with some other things that we won’t get into here. But yeah, so the Reformation writers got a lot of things right, but they still missed a whole bunch of things.
But during this or actually is a couple hundred years after this and this is actually the well let me get to the article here. This is actually the article I was referencing earlier about the church in China and the converse in China. And this comes from a papal bull by Pope Clement the 11th in 1715. And he writes, quote, “The spring and autumn worship of Confucious together with the worship of ancestors is not allowed among Catholic converts. It is not allowed even though the converts appear in the ritual as bystanders because to be a bystander in this ritual is as pagan as to participate in it actively whether at home in the cemetery or during the time of a funeral a Chinese Catholic is not allowed to perform the ritual of ancestor worship. He is not allowed to do so even if he is in company with non-Christians. such a ritual is heathen in nature regardless of the circumstances. End quote.
In a nutshell, and just taking this particular section we just read, I’d absolutely agree that we should not be doing anything pagan related, whether it be Confucious or ancestor worship or anything like that. But I do find it rather hypocritical that the Catholic Church would go against pagan practices, go against bringing in pagan practices when they already did that from the helenic religions. So why is the Catholic Church bringing in all these concepts and stuff from Hellenism but not from Confucianism or Buddhism or etc etc is because some 1400 years it elapsed and now they think they’re better than everybody else and they’ve got it set and they got the power so they can just go against it and make themselves look good even though they’ve already got all the syncretism embedded within their beliefs.
And the other hypocritical thing they said they should not the uh converts in China should not engage in ancestor worship but yet Catholicism is big on ancestor stuff. For instance, we look at the whole thing of saints and the praying and veneration to people who are dead. Is that not I mean correct me if I’m wrong, but is that not pretty much the same thing as ancestor worship right there? and they’re trying to rail against it even though they’re doing it themselves.
Here’s the thing. They can’t they can go against ancestor worship all they want to, but they’re still praying to dead people within Catholicism. And these dead people, according to scripture, are not conscious. They are not hearing your prayers. They do not speak. They do not praise God. They do not praise Yahw. They are simply unconscious and awaiting the resurrection. That’s both the righteous and the unrighteous. Catholics don’t get this or they think they can override it. But it’s like I said, it’s hypocritical for them to engage in a form of ancestor worship and then forbid others from doing their form of ancestor worship. If they were going to do it right, they would outlaw outlaw it all, even the saint veneration.
Well, like I said, it gets confusing within Catholicism.
Sanctioning Syncretism
You start looking at the various things they write and throughout history, and you’ll see a lot of times they’ll go against syncretism like you saw here and with the Council of Trulo that we read earlier, they seem to be going against syncretism, bringing in pagan practices. And then in other instances, they actually sanction paganism. They sanction this whole concept of syncretism and they try to justify it and give good reason why they should be bringing in pagan elements into Christianity into beliefs.
Here is some quotes from Catholicism as to why they think it’s okay to bring in these pagan elements. One of the most famous ones, you probably know this if you’re into historical research at all. One of the most famous ones is the letter from Pope Gregory to Abbott Malitus. And this happened uh 601. So was even before Council of Trulo. But here Pope Gregory writes, quote, “To his most beloved son, the Abbott Malitus, Gregory, the servant of the servants of God. Almighty God has led you to the most re reverend Bishop Augustine, our brother. Tell him what I have long been considering in my own mind concerning the matter of the English people to wet that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed. But let the idols that are in them be destroyed. Let water be consecrated and sprinkled in the said temples. Let altars be erected and relics placed there. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God. that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more freely resort to the places to which they have been accustomed. To that end, that to the end that whilst some outward gratifications are retained, they may the more easily consent to the inward joys. For there is no doubt that it is it is impossible to cut off everything at once from their rude natures because he who endeavors to ascend to the highest place rises by degrees or steps and not by leaps. End quote.
Now as a modern believer you may think okay that sounds acceptable. You think they’ve already the the pagans from what he’s writing here, the pagans have already got their temples. Why destroy something? We can just, you know, take it over, sprinkle some water on it, slap a Jesus sticker on it, and it’s all good. Right? That’s what they’re thinking here. And and he even says here that it is impossible to cut off everything at once because those who grow do by do so by degrees and not by leaps and bounds.
Well, number one, concerning the temples that are already there as he referenced in this letter. Concerning temples that are already there, what would be the biblical way of handling that? We’ll get into some scripture here in a minute, but just ask you real quick, what would be the biblical way of handling that? In scripture, Yahweh tells the people that when they get into the promised land, they’re going to find these high places of the pagans. They’re going to find the the temples. They’re going to find the houses, the tents, the holy places of these pagan gods that where the pagans did all their worship stuff. And what does Yahweh tell them to do when they encounter these places, these high places? He says to tear them down, destroy them, utterly obliterate every high place you find. So what Catholicism is doing with paganism is in stark contrast to what the Bible tells us to do with paganism.
Another point to make right here real quick without try not to extend this too much, but just a second point and then we’ll move on is that he says that the it’s impossible for people to do a 180 all at once. You advance by degrees, not by leaps and bounds. In a sense, I would agree with that. It is a matter of growth. When you become a Christian, when you get saved, you get born again. You’re not immediately perfect. I’m still not perfect. I still struggle and misstep all the time. And I get that. It is a process of growth. You start out knowing little to nothing and you learn and you grow and you get better at what you do as you learn more from the word and you apply yourself to doing the word. So in that context I agree we do grow by degrees or it is a walk and a path that we go on. However, and I I believe that is scriptural. We’ll get into those scriptures here in just a minute too. However, I disagree that we should retain our old anti-biblical, antichrist pagan ways when we come into the faith. Scripture tells us to run and flee from idolatry, to not have anything to do with it. Not even to eat the meat that was offered to idols. I mean, Paul says that if you don’t know and no one says, go ahead and eat it. That’s fine. But if they tell you and you know that it’s been offered to idols, don’t eat it. So not even eat the food that’s been offered to idols. It doesn’t tell us to, you know, just keep doing it and maybe one day you’ll get rid of it, but maybe not. It’ll be okay either way. No, that’s not what scripture says. Scripture says get rid of it all together. Like I said, we’ll get to that in just a minute.
So yeah, you do grow by leaps. I’m sorry. You do grow little by little, not by leaps and bounds, but you do not grow by holding on to your past, by holding on to your old gentile pagan ways. You have to let all that go and get into scripture. And like we say here in the south, you do that whole hog. Okay? I know that’s not a very kosher phrasing, but in the in the south here, we’ve got the phrase, you do it whole hog, right? That’s what you’re supposed to do when you come into the faith. supposed to leave all that stuff behind and start your new journey in scripture in the ways of Yahweh and that is what’s going to help you to grow some people faster than others but little by little but you don’t retain the old pagan stuff.
Now there are other this is eye opening in itself about how they actually sanction the retaining of pagan stuff and doing pagan things but putting a Jesus sticker on it get one that’s more stark than that if you ever within Catholicism even if you’re not a Catholic you know the top dog within Catholicism is the pope the bishop of Rome as he used to be known or as the office used to be known but the pope Pope is top dog. However, have you ever heard him called by another name? In fact, another name he’s called is pontiff or the supreme pontiff. Okay. Well, that sounds rather interesting. We hear in the Bible, we hear the word priest. We’ve got that. We’ve got the word rabbi. We hear in some translations the word deacon or elder. But we don’t ever read or I’ve never read in any translation of scripture, even some of the more modern paraphrasing um translations that the word pontiff is used. So where does this word pontiff come from?
This is another thing that I picked up on my study of Roman paganism. Another thing that’s really opened my eyes here. This word pontiff comes from Roman paganism from wikipedia.org. Quote, “The pontifus pontifex maximus was the chief high priest of the college of pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion.” End quote.
What they’re saying here is this pontifus maximus was the top dog within Roman paganism. You had all the lower pontiffs, but you had one pontifex maximus or pontifus maximus, supreme pontiff. And this supreme pontiff was the top dog within Roman paganism. He’s the top priest just like the pope is within Catholicism. You got lower cardinals and bishops and priests and etc etc. But the top dog is the pope, the montiff of Catholicism.
But going on, the Catholics admit to this and they admit that it was paganism and it came from paganism. This is from the Franciscan media and that is Franciscan media.org. Quote, “In ancient Roman religion, the head priest was called the Pontifex Maximus, the greatest bridge builder.” Julius Caesar held this title more than 40 years before Jesus was born. After Christianity was legalized under the emperor Constantine, it became the state religion within 100 years. Adopting a title coming from Roman paganism became feasible then. End quote.
If that doesn’t just sum up the whole concept of syncretism within especially Catholicism, but more broadly all of Christianity. Yeah, that just sums it all up. adopting a title from paganism becomes feasible after Constantine made it legal and they started the Catholic Church in 325. It’s never feasible according to scripture. And like I said, we’ll get to that in the very next section. So hang on, we’ll get there. But the Catholics are trying, they intentionally say it comes from paganism. Why do we need paganism? We’ve got plenty of words and concepts from scripture. Why do we need paganism? We don’t. But they brought it in anyways. And they go on to say that you it becomes feasible according to who? According to the pope, according to Catholics, certainly not according to Jesus, and certainly not according to the Bible. In fact, it’s all against the Bible. This whole concept of syncretism. Leave the pagan words out of it if at all possible. Sometimes it’s impossible like with the days of the week we have now and the months of the year, etc., etc. But that’s a discussion whether it’s actually secular or religious. We that’s another story. But anyways, we need to do away with that whenever we can and as much as we can and adopting Roman or I’m sorry, adopting pagan titles for positions within scripture that we’ve already got even though pope is not a position within scripture. That was added later on. But anyways, we should do biblical things in biblical ways and biblical terminology whenever we can. We don’t need Roman paganism or the Roman pagan titles or Roman pagan holidays to be Christians. Fact, we should flee from that. Get away from it. Completely shun it and do away with it. If it was totally forgotten, it would be even better.
Scripture on Syncretism
So, we’ve read all this in history. We’ve seen some of the justification of Catholicism. We’ve seen what some early writers and some later writers wrote about syncretism. So, what is a little bit about what scripture says about syncretism? This comes from Deuteronomy 32- 22. And he said, “Let me hide my face from them. Let me see what their end is. For they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no trusting. They made me jealous by what is not l what is not God. They provoked me with their worthless matters. But I make them jealous by those who are no people. I provoke them with a foolish nation. For a fire was kindled in my wrath and burns to the bottom of Shol and consumes the earth and its increase and sets on fire the foundations of mountains. End quote. it. Secretism does not make Yahweh happy. This is just one one passage in all scripture amongst many. We’re going to get into a whole bunch more of that coming up in the next episode. Like I said, a lot of this corresponds together. Instead of making one big long episode, we’re divided up. We’re going to do more on the scriptural side next time. This is more on the historical side this time.
That is from Deuteronomy chapter 32 went on looking at Leviticus 17:7. And let them no longer slaughter their slaughtering to demons after whom they hoard. This is a law forever for them throughout their generations. So here is Yahweh saying that they can hold on to their pagan ways for a little bit longer because they can’t adjust and grow or be there by leaps and bounds. No. No. He says do away with all that. No longer slaughter to the demons that you were because paganism is worship of demons. Plain and simple. No matter how you put it, anything other than the true faith, other than the true religion is demonic. And this is going to ruffle some feathers, but it’s the truth. Anything other than what comes from scripture is demonic, and we should have nothing to do with that. As it says in scripture, what have we to do with darkness when it’s supposed to be we who are walking in the light?
Then looking at Exodus 22:20, he who slaughters to an Elohim, he who slaughters to another God except to Yahweh only is put under the ban. So time and time again, we’re told, “Do not syncretize. Do not bring in these pagan concepts. Do not worship God in the way that the pagans worship their gods.” This whole idea of syncretism is anti-biblical.
And going on looking in the Britishes and this is great. This little passage from Acts chapter 15. This is the Jerusalem council when they’re deciding what to do with new converts, people who are just coming into the faith. And pay attention to this and compare it to the letter from Pope Gregory that was written to Mitus Abbott Mitus. Remember what he wrote in there? We’ll compare it to what this says here in the book of Acts.
Acts 15 19- 21. Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the nations who are turning to Elohim, but that we write to them to abstain from the defilements of idols and from whoring and from what is strangled and from blood. For from ancient generations Moshe has in every city those proclaiming him being read in the congregations every Sabbath.
You’ve probably heard that before, but it’s bears repeating over and over and over again until you can quote it word for word because this is a very important part, very important teaching, especially as it relates to Christians and church today. And again, when I say Christians, I mean Messianics. That’s the correct title, but most people use the word Christianity. Anyways, what they’re saying here is that when believers come into the faith, they’re to immediately start doing four things. Number one, abstain from the defilement of idols, to abstain from whoring, to abstain from what is strangled, and to abstain from blood or the eating of blood. Those four things. Then they go on to say that from ancient generations from way back in the day, ever since then all the way up till now and even into the future, they have Moshe in every city being read in their congregations every Shabbat. Not every Sunday, but every Sabbath.
So what they’re saying here is that once these people come into the faith, they are to immediately stop their idolatrous and pagan ways immediately. Right? and not continue in it, not just put a Jesus sticker on it. No, not secretize it. No, they’re saying get rid of it. You want to get away from anything idolatrous. That’s the defilements of idols. From whoring, hopefully that’s doesn’t need explanation. From what is strangled, not eating things that are strangled or things that are that still have the blood in them, don’t eat the blood. Those four things immediately stop doing. And then you will grow by going and hearing the word taught and read every Sabbath. You will grow in your faith. They’re saying here, but you’ve got to immediately turn from your gentile ways and turn towards Messiah. That stands in stark contrast to what Gregory said to Mitus. You don’t keep the old pagan stuff. You destroy it. You get rid of it. You turn from it.
1 Corinthians chapter 10:14. Therefore, my beloved ones, flee from idolatry. Paul saying, “Hold on to these holidays that you used to do in paganism and just, you know, put a Jesus name on some of the stuff.” Nope. He says, “Flee from idolatry. Get away from the paganism. Don’t continue in it.”
1 Corinthians 10:es 20- 21. No, but what the nations slaughter, they slaughter to demons and not to Elohim. And I do not wish you to become sharers with demons. You are not able to drink the cup of the master and the cup of demons. You are not able to partake of the table of the master and of the table of demons.
So here, this kind of reminds me of the whole water analogy we did back at the very beginning. You got the pure undefiled religion. The faith that was handed down to our fathers that was handed down from Yahweh to Moshe who wrote it down in the Tanakh to the prophets to the judges to etc etc. And then it goes on and we’re getting rid of and it comes from Yeshua to the apostles to the disciples. It’s handed down to their believers and it was supposed to be the same thing. this whole pure and undefiled faith. But it’s not that pure cup of water. Going back to the analogy, that pure cup of water that was handed down to us, well, these pagans come in, they start dropping cyanide and start dropping arsenic into that water. Well, they had arsenic before and they think it’s okay to still have arsenic now. But at the end of the day, they’re just diluting and polluting the actual true faith through their syncretism.
And once again, this is just a few verses on other gods or syncretism or paganism. We’ll get into a whole bunch more scripture coming up next week or next episode. So, make sure to stay tuned for that. But yeah, that’s what syncretism is and especially from a historical extra biblical outside of Bible stance from the early writers to the Catholic Church, etc., etc., etc. So hopefully this wasn’t too long. Hopefully I got shorter than last time. I tried to cut it down a whole bunch and try to go quick, but I don’t think I did what I was wanting to do.
Summary
Anyways, in summary, syncretism is the combining of different forms of beliefs, practices, religions, cultures, or ideas. The Greeks really ran with syncretism. Even though they didn’t have as much of the world to interact with as we do nowadays, they still interacted a whole lot more than people had before them. So, they started really running with this whole concept of syncretism. Then the Romans took that syncretism and they really ran with it. They took it to a whole another level. The early writers and even the later writers as we saw with the writers from the reformation, they abhorred syncretism at least the truly faithful did. Anyways, certain practices were still brought in although from outside meaning pagan sources and they had a lot of times were officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church like we saw in those previous quotes and writings and scripture as we saw from just a few verses that we read scripture absolutely prohibits syncretism and that’s just the God honest truth.
something to keep in mind as we go forward because not next episode, but when we get into a rebuttal, we’re going to be looking at a like another brother in Messiah who uh does a lot of work. He is well, he’s I don’t want to give the name right now, but he’s rather prominent. He is on videos and all kinds of debates and stuff like that all all over the world even. He goes to the UK, Britain, and all kinds of places. And he does a lot of work. He’s very smart, very well educated. But he did an episode on his podcast about Christmas and that it was pagan, but so what? It’s still okay. So remember that when we or I’m sorry, remember this point on secretism when we get into that particular episode when we do the rebuttal against his take on Christmas.
Anyways, we’re getting far ahead of ourselves. I just want to thank you for joining us for this particular episode on syncretism as it relates to our study and our series on Christmas. We do hope that you got something out of it. And if you did, go down below and let us know what you got out of it or what really stuck out in your mind from this particular teaching.
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