Too Many gods

 

“You shall have no other gods before me.  Exodus 20:3

 

This week I got a call from someone who had been invited to a wedding that was going to be held in a mainline church but the minister had agreed to research Wicca and include some of their ceremony practices into the service.  You see, the groom was from the mainline church (at least his family had been) and the bride practices Wicca.  My friend was confused and a little concerned about this – as she should be.   

She loves the young man who is getting married and wants to attend the wedding to be supportive but she does not want to show approval of any worship except for Jesus Christ.  Wicca worships nature and as I read some websites I am sure they are very nice people –they would not hurt anything, they have gods and goddesses that may be different for different people practicing.  They call themselves “pagan and polytheistic”  on one website. (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080825134257AAFBtXU) 

I am bothered that a minister of a church that identifies itself as Christian would allow this to be brought into a Christian wedding ceremony.  It is syncretism: “the attempted reconciliation or union of two different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.”  Christianity and Wicca are opponents.  Wiccan worship the creation (some of them, if they want to, there are other gods as well) and Christianity worships The Creator.  There is a huge gap between the two.  

As I thought about this I realized that this church is openly doing what many mainline churches are doing these days.  This particular minister is able to name the opposing religion she is including.  Most of them pretend that they worship Christ and Christ alone.  But other gods and idols fill the church and the pews.  

I grew up attending a mainline church.  In her later years, I was having a conversation with my mother about that church and what we learned there.  She said, “love your neighbor, love your neighbor, that is all we heard there.”  I know that when I was saved by God’s gift of faith in Jesus Christ the words “born again” were new to me.  John 3:3 says, “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  I know that that verse was not preached on as I was growing up.  

I did hear about Jesus at Christmas and Easter but there was not a lot of discussion about His sacrifice.  Without saying the words they preached a universal gospel.  I remember hearing a pastor once teach that, “You were saved when Christ died on the Cross, you were saved when you were baptized, and you are saved when you are confirmed.”  The fact that these things were not in the Bible did not seem to matter much. 

I have talked to a lot of people who have grown up in these churches that have fallen away from teaching the word of God.  They worship a form of Jesus and a form of God but they don’t like the commandments or they think He was hard on the Israelites in the Old Testament so they have softened Him up a bit…..or they just pretend the Old Testament does not exist.  When they do teach about Jesus they teach about Him as a great Teacher and a wonderful example to follow.  

Indeed, He was a great teacher and a good example but also much more.  He said He and God the Father were One.  He said that He was the only way to God.  He said that with Him we would have everlasting life – without Him we would not.  These are serious claims when you consider that He also taught that only those who believe in Him will have that eternal life – not belief that He was a good man and a great teacher – faith that he was the Son of God sent to save us from our sins.  

We need to heed the warnings that God has given us in the scripture.  He is a jealous God.  Speaking to the Israelites about other gods the Lord God said this to them, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me.”   

God has also said He will not be mocked.  In Galatians 6:7 Paul warns people, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”  I fear that a minister who invites and participates in a ceremony including the worship of another god is deceiving the innocent lost to believe that this is acceptable to God.  She has been entrusted with a church, she wouldn’t teach something that did not please God, right?  

In Jeremiah 10:21 Jeremiah said, “For the shepherds are stupid and do not inquire of the LORD; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.”  The church where this ceremony is to occur has lost most of it’s membership over the years, the flock has scattered.  I fear this minister hopes to attract this young couple to her congregation by being so accommodating.  From the words of scripture I can know that she did not “inquire of the Lord” before agreeing to invite another god into a supposedly Christian ceremony.  It does just seem stupid to me.   

This is a time when I want to follow the example of Jesus – in fact I would like to quote Him from Matthew 4:10 when He said, “Be gone, Satan!  For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.'”