Nobody in the history of mankind has stirred up more controversy, caused more trouble than

Jesus of Nazareth.

I came not to bring peace, he but a sword not because he enjoyed conflict but because

truth and godliness were at stake. word think.

Synchretism comes from the Greek word son, which means with, and when we talk about syncopation or synchronization, we're talking about getting things

together with something else.

And so what syncretism is in religion is where you have a situation in a culture where

there are two coexisting religions.

And when you have two religions that are disparate, say for example, the Canaanite religion and the Jewish religion, totally different religions, you're inevitably going to have what?

Conflict between them.

You're going to have debates and arguments about religion.

Until somebody comes along and says, well, one thing I never argue about is religion.

And people will want to bring about peace between these disparate views of religion.

And why does religion cause so much controversy in history,

even wars at times?

Because it represents a conflict

of what you believe to be ultimately true and of

ultimate significance of ultimate value and of ultimate duty. Now if two people have a completely different understanding

as to what ultimate truth is and about ultimate righteousness and about ultimate value, you're inevitably going to have a titanic

struggle. And every attempt to pass over that in history has failed and will continue to fail.

And when people tend to say, look, obviously Christians are not called to be

involved in violent conflict, we're called to be at peace with people,

...