I've seen it while working with our pastors and church planters in India. I've seen it in America as the Hindu influence of eastern mysticism stokes the fires of sympathetic religion. (Sympathetic Religion assumes the activity you do stimulates god to do the activity you want god to do for you.) I've seen its manifestation in the lives of religious people around me, and it's enticed me too. It is the great temptation to follow the god of my own liking.
Ron Vandergriend identified it during last night's Journey Bible study of Hosea. He jolted me. The same threat facing Hosea and the doomed Northern Kingdom faces me. Satan's war against the One who will one day "crush his head" is still raging. His intentions are as unchanging as his fear of the One he hates.
II Peter says we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a people belonging to God. We've received mercy. We were in darkness but God called us into His marvelous light. We're now the people of God, and God won't tolerate His people flirting with possible replacements or substitutes. God will punish spiritual adultery, and find a way to bring us back to a monogamous relationship with Him in which we are exclusively His people.
When we go chasing after other gods (to see if there might be some momentary benefit to us) there will be consequences. If we go chasing after other gods - the gods of our own liking - we are no different than the people who cried out to Jehovah when enemies were at their gates, and prayed to Ba'al when it was time for the harvest.
Unfaithful.
If we start having sex in the Temple, hoping our god will be stimulated by what he sees us doing and he'll have sex with the land, we've left God for another - one who'll do what we want. (That's what the worshipers of Ba'al, the lord of the Babylonian fertility cult, did when they betrayed Jehovah. They saw the land as female, made fertile by god's rain. Their sex-rites assumed to gain the attention of their god and induce fertility. Their god became active. The (male) rains fell on the (female) land. Their magic got their god busy.
India inherited Ba'al worship. The Babylonian pantheon of gods still holds court in India (heir to Ba'al worship). Sympathetic Religious activity continues today and temple prostitutes engage worshipers as they chase after other gods to see what benefits may come their way. The most commonly worshiped symbol in India - said to be found "under every green tree and every high place" in India - is the "lingam." It's a phallic symbol. (Knowing that, you can read 1 Kings 14:23-24 and freak out.) It's called Sympathetic Religion and it's coming to America.
Be clear on this. God says (through Hosea and others) there is no future in spiritual adultery. Go whoring after other gods and you'll receive no mercy, you're as good as dead and you're going to face annihilation. Your only hope is God and you've been unfaithful.
Hosea's appeal was for fidelity. "Overcome! Overcome! Overcome! Don't flirt with others and think you can choose the god of your own liking. Be faithful, and God will take you as His bride, restore your land, bring you peace and comfort...and God will be your God."
The same advice Hosea offered God's people is given each of us. That's one reason I attend Journey Bible Classes and study the Bible. I encourage you to do the same.
If you missed class this week and want to catch up before next week's lesson, go here, and you can get up to speed so you're ready for next Wednesday's class.
Genesis 3:15 - I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other. I will make your descendants and her descendant hostile toward each other. He will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.
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True words, Mark. Yet at the same time, we’re faced with the fact that the Church has had little reservation in adopting the customs and festival dates of false religions into their own traditions of worship. We’re not ignorant of it - we wink at it, acknowledging each year in newspaper and television stories the fact that many of the practices and traditions involved in the two great holidays come from non-Christian cultures.
How is it much different than someone choosing to embrace the “lingam” of India into Holy, Christian worship or to use the date and practices of the Indian Dussehra Festival to now honor the Risen Christ? Is it simply a matter of sufficient history and popularity that now makes the syncretization acceptable?
This is not to condemn others, question their sincerity or suggest that they are worshipping other gods, but to raise a question. As a Royal Priesthood, called to praise and serve the one and only true God, should we not consider every act in our relationship with Him?
Deuteronomy 12:30) do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’
Posted by: Richard P. | November 12, 2009 at 03:45 PM
Last night, Ron led us in a wonderful bible study. It was so refreshing to open God's word and discover his message in a deeper way. Very powerful, and I can't wait for next week, and am working my way through 1 and 2 Kings.
Posted by: Jim Blechl | November 12, 2009 at 09:35 PM