Have you any advice for combatting the infiltration of paganism into Christian assemblies in the mission field?
This text is from two letters written by David Gooding in 1990.
The mixture of sheer paganism with Christianity in the assemblies your friend has mentioned is horrifying. And when one considers the vague similarities between these pagan ceremonies of initiation and the Christian doctrines and symbols regarding death and resurrection, one is tempted to conclude that the similarities are not altogether accidental, but are part of Satan's devices for counterfeiting the truth. Such pagan rites involving symbolic death, burial and resurrection were widespread in the ancient world—compare the mystery cults widespread in Greece in the time of the apostles, the worship of the gods and goddesses of fertility in the temples of the Middle East, with all their religious ceremonies of cultic prostitution, and also the cult which was popular in the Roman army in which the members of the religious group were washed in the blood of their sacrifice—but the reaction of the apostles to these ubiquitous pagan religions was to positively preach the truth, and negatively to forbid the believers to take part in these pagan ceremonies (see 1 Corinthians 10; 2 Corinthians 6; Revelation 2:20–25).
I have not come across this kind of situation before in connection with assemblies in any part of the world, except, of course, that in England, Ireland, and more particularly in America, dear orthodox believers do have celebrations at Halloween—parties and suchlike things in their homes—without realizing that the origins of these celebrations are in ceremonies related to the worship of spirits of departed ancestors.
In the West, of course, these ceremonies have long since lost their significance, which is why believers continue them without realizing their original significance, though in other parts of the world the significance is still very much alive. In countries like Mexico, the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church are still a mixture of Christianity and paganism, which doubtless has contributed to the infiltration into the assemblies.
As far as I can perceive from the information you have supplied, it does not seem to me that the need is for some deep theological interpretation of Christian doctrine. The truth lies with the fact that the nationals are trying to understand Christianity in terms of their superstitions and giving them a Christian veneer.
The need is for sound, positive, sustained, healthy teaching of Scripture, carried on systematically over a long period. Good strong doses of Colossians and Galatians administered regularly at the level which the nationals can understand, and backed home by the illumination of the Spirit, would surely go a long way to rescuing the believers from their superstitions. But it would need a long term stay by a missionary couple, man and wife, not a flying visit from some itinerant teacher.
I understand your fear that the practice of some of these pagan symbols and ceremonies by professing believers may mean that they are not converted at all. This fear chimes in with Paul's sentiment in Galatians 5:2–4. On the other hand, it is instructive to see what extreme, wrong doctrine some of the early New Testament churches imbibed—witness 1 Corinthians 15—without apparently realizing its logical implications, that it contradicted the very basis of the gospel. It is similarly instructive to notice how loath the Hebrews (of the epistle to the Hebrews) were to abandon the practices of Judaism that really conflicted with the truth of Christianity. In all these circumstances and situations, there is surely a grey area where the question whether the professed believers are really saved or not, must for a while be left open.
Yet, where does the point come at which assemblies have been so invaded, not to say overcome, by the incursion of sheer paganism, that it would be impossible to regard them as truly Christian assemblies at all? Some of the assemblies in Paul's day were tainted with pagan practices; but presumably they responded to Paul's oral and written ministry and purged themselves from those undesirable elements.
In the specific mission field you have mentioned, do you feel that with sustained teaching the assemblies could be purged from their incipient paganism and thus preserved? Or do you feel that the paganism is so entrenched that the situation cannot now be saved, and the only hope would be for a new and independent work to be begun? In any case, the situation is beyond what any one lone Christian, however godly and devoted, can do. The only hope, it seems to me, would be that the Lord would send one or two married couples into that area.
Yours in the Saviour,
