33 Bible Verses about Syncretism

You shall have no other gods before me.

"You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall fear the LORD your God; and you shall serve him only, and shall swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you; for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve the LORD. If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you keep limping between two positions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." But the people did not answer him a word.

Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

When the LORD your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; and when the LORD your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them; neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.read more.
For he will turn away your son from following me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God: The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

when you disobey the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you."

Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you do return to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the LORD, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."

Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they did not know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I did not command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

To this day they do what they did before: they do not fear the LORD, neither do they follow their statutes, or their ordinances, or the law or the commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel; with whom the LORD had made a covenant, and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.read more.
The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore. You shall not fear other gods. You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you; neither shall you fear other gods. But you shall fear the LORD your God; and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies." However they did not listen, but they did what they did before. So these nations feared the LORD, and served their engraved images. Their children likewise, and their children's children, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hephzibah. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.read more.
He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem." He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced sorcery, and practiced divination, and consulted mediums, and spiritists: he worked much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. He set the engraved image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever;

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.read more.
He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever." He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums, and spiritists: he worked much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God's house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever:

He said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here." So I went in and saw; and see, every form of creeping things, and abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.read more.
Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, 'The LORD doesn't see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.'" He said also to me, "You shall again see yet other great abominations which they do." Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? You shall again see yet greater abominations than these." He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house; and see, at the door of the LORD's temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the LORD's temple, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.

Thus says the LORD, "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

When you have come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.read more.
For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you. You shall be perfect with the LORD your God.

They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, practiced divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.

I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests, those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops, those who worship and swear by the LORD and also swear by Malcam,

If there is found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently; and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,read more.
then you shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you, and shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury. Thus will I do to this place," says the LORD, "and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth:read more.
and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

Contend with your mother. Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;read more.
For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can't find her way. She will follow after her lovers, but she won't overtake them; and she will seek them, but won't find them. Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.' For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand. I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies. I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,' and the animals of the field shall eat them. I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me," says the LORD.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." They called Barnabas "Jupiter," and Paul "Mercury," because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the crowds.

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.read more.
They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you? For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean." Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this. The evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?"read more.
The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

You cannot both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again? You observe days, months, seasons, and years.

Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

This is what the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts, says: "I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

Hear, Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

"You are my witnesses," says the LORD, "With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me. I myself am the LORD; and besides me there is no savior. I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses," says the LORD, "and I am God.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one. For though there are things that are called "gods," whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many "gods" and many "lords;" yet to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.