When a Hollywood couple marriage broke up they asked if the husbands religion of Scientology had affected their marriage.In a statement reported by People magazine, his wife denied that Scientology was any problem in the marriage. “Well, what do YOU believe?” the reporters wanted to knowand she answered: “A little bit of Buddhism, a little Scientology.” Then she adds: “I was raised Catholic and a big part of me is still a Catholic girl.”
And the question that has to be asked is this how can you be in diffent religions with doctrines that are incompatible: can a person live by both Scientology and Catholicism? Are those two religious philosophies compatible enough that you can be both simultaneously? A few years ago it was revealed that basketball coach Phil Jackson was embracing Buddhism and practicing some of its forms of meditation . . . and an accompanying story explored how many people, actually, who are Christians — and consider themselves to still be Christians — are “trying out” Buddhism at the same time. Can you be both a Buddhist and a Baptist? A Mormon and a Methodist?
The dictionary calls this “syncretism,” where you try to marry or bring into union two opposing philosophies or religions. Can such a dual marriage of incompatible beliefs survive? Is it possible to serve the God of Christianity and also be devoted to the beliefs of an Atheist, I think not?
It reminded me of the story in the first book of Kings in the eighteenth chapter, the twenty-first verse: “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? This is what it seems to me that the "Progressive Seventh-day Adventists " are faced with, a “syncretism” and the one-foot-in-both-camps attitude of the Children of Israel that they faced on the top of Mount Carmel. You remember that God’s people in this story had lapsed into almost total apostasy, worshiping the false god Baal. There were priests of Baal, altars set up to Baal, “groves” where devotees of Baal could worship the so-called “rain god,” this pagan deity “riding the thunderstorm as its divine chariot,” as scholars put it. And yet it appears that many of these Israelite worshipers still were holding onto a vestige of their former faith in the God of heaven. They knelt down to Baal, but they wanted to keep a picture of Jehovah in their purse, so to speak. In other words, they wanted to have both at the same time. The worship of Baal was sensual, high-energy, exciting andover at Baal’s temple . . . well, it was quite a time. And so people thought: “I’ll keep one hand on the back doorknob of God’s tabernacle, but for a good time, I’ll be at Baal’s temple . I’ll have the best of both worlds.”
So their we have Elijah the prophet and Ahab the king, and Ahab says to Elijah:
“Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” The prophet of God comes right back and fires at the king:
“I have not made trouble for Israel. But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed Baal.”
Then Verse 19:
“Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary describes the mountain this way:
“A range of hills about 15 miles long, with its northwestern promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean. The hills are about 550 feet high at the promontory and about 1,700 feet high at the southeast. The height affords a beautiful view of the Mediterranean, the plains of Esraelon and Sharon, and of much of Samaria.”
Apparently it was also possible, from the lower foothills, to clearly see what was happening up at the summit, so this was an ideal place for the people of Israel to gather for the great moral conflict. In Prophets and Kings, E. G. White wrote this:
“Before the drought, Mount Carmel had been a place of beauty, its streams fed from never-failing springs, and its fertile slopes covered with fair flowers and flourishing streams. But now its beauty languished under a withering curse. The altars erected to the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth stood now in leafless groves.”
So the people of Israel, knowing how badly they’ve strayed from the path of righteousness, hike up Carmel, seeing all around them the failure of their honeymoon with Baal. The wonderful rain god has completely dried up on them; for three years their prayers have gone unanswered. And remember, they still have that picture of Jehovah in their back pockets. They’ve tried, in their own clumsy, stupid way to have their cake and eat it too, to keep both sides happy. And it hasn’t worked.
The prophet Elijah gets right down to brass tacks. Verse 21 of chapter 18 is one of the great clarion calls, the flinging down of the gauntlet:
“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
Essentially Elijah is saying, “How long are you folks going to waver on the line, sit on the fence, try to have it both ways, play both sides of the chess game simultaneously? Enough’s enough! Either fish or cut bait here. If Baal is God, then let’s worship him all-out. If Baal is not God, if the Lord God Jehovah is really Ruler of heaven and earth after all, then let’s stop dancing around between two opinions. . . and once and for all choose to follow the Lord God Jehovah”
And the question that has to be asked is this how can you be in diffent religions with doctrines that are incompatible: can a person live by both Scientology and Catholicism? Are those two religious philosophies compatible enough that you can be both simultaneously? A few years ago it was revealed that basketball coach Phil Jackson was embracing Buddhism and practicing some of its forms of meditation . . . and an accompanying story explored how many people, actually, who are Christians — and consider themselves to still be Christians — are “trying out” Buddhism at the same time. Can you be both a Buddhist and a Baptist? A Mormon and a Methodist?
The dictionary calls this “syncretism,” where you try to marry or bring into union two opposing philosophies or religions. Can such a dual marriage of incompatible beliefs survive? Is it possible to serve the God of Christianity and also be devoted to the beliefs of an Atheist, I think not?
It reminded me of the story in the first book of Kings in the eighteenth chapter, the twenty-first verse: “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? This is what it seems to me that the "Progressive Seventh-day Adventists " are faced with, a “syncretism” and the one-foot-in-both-camps attitude of the Children of Israel that they faced on the top of Mount Carmel. You remember that God’s people in this story had lapsed into almost total apostasy, worshiping the false god Baal. There were priests of Baal, altars set up to Baal, “groves” where devotees of Baal could worship the so-called “rain god,” this pagan deity “riding the thunderstorm as its divine chariot,” as scholars put it. And yet it appears that many of these Israelite worshipers still were holding onto a vestige of their former faith in the God of heaven. They knelt down to Baal, but they wanted to keep a picture of Jehovah in their purse, so to speak. In other words, they wanted to have both at the same time. The worship of Baal was sensual, high-energy, exciting andover at Baal’s temple . . . well, it was quite a time. And so people thought: “I’ll keep one hand on the back doorknob of God’s tabernacle, but for a good time, I’ll be at Baal’s temple . I’ll have the best of both worlds.”
So their we have Elijah the prophet and Ahab the king, and Ahab says to Elijah:
“Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” The prophet of God comes right back and fires at the king:
“I have not made trouble for Israel. But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed Baal.”
Then Verse 19:
“Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary describes the mountain this way:
“A range of hills about 15 miles long, with its northwestern promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean. The hills are about 550 feet high at the promontory and about 1,700 feet high at the southeast. The height affords a beautiful view of the Mediterranean, the plains of Esraelon and Sharon, and of much of Samaria.”
Apparently it was also possible, from the lower foothills, to clearly see what was happening up at the summit, so this was an ideal place for the people of Israel to gather for the great moral conflict. In Prophets and Kings, E. G. White wrote this:
“Before the drought, Mount Carmel had been a place of beauty, its streams fed from never-failing springs, and its fertile slopes covered with fair flowers and flourishing streams. But now its beauty languished under a withering curse. The altars erected to the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth stood now in leafless groves.”
So the people of Israel, knowing how badly they’ve strayed from the path of righteousness, hike up Carmel, seeing all around them the failure of their honeymoon with Baal. The wonderful rain god has completely dried up on them; for three years their prayers have gone unanswered. And remember, they still have that picture of Jehovah in their back pockets. They’ve tried, in their own clumsy, stupid way to have their cake and eat it too, to keep both sides happy. And it hasn’t worked.
The prophet Elijah gets right down to brass tacks. Verse 21 of chapter 18 is one of the great clarion calls, the flinging down of the gauntlet:
“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
Essentially Elijah is saying, “How long are you folks going to waver on the line, sit on the fence, try to have it both ways, play both sides of the chess game simultaneously? Enough’s enough! Either fish or cut bait here. If Baal is God, then let’s worship him all-out. If Baal is not God, if the Lord God Jehovah is really Ruler of heaven and earth after all, then let’s stop dancing around between two opinions. . . and once and for all choose to follow the Lord God Jehovah”
