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Christian” Mysticism 10/21/07 PM DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT Beware Of “Christian” Mysticism 10/21/07 PM Many “Christian” writers are turning to mysticism. Donald Miller: You cannot be a Christian without being a mystic. (Blue Like Jazz p. 202) Richard Foster: We are to live in a perpetual, inward, listening silence so that God is the source of our words and actions. (Celebration of Discipline p. 16) The mystic believes that he or she can enjoy an unmediated link to God through a superrational experience. John MacArthur writes: The mystic disdains rational understanding and seeks truth instead through the feelings, the imagination, personal visions, inner voices, private illumination, or other purely subjective means. They believe that their thoughts and mental impressions can be explained as the inner voice of God. 1. Beware Of A Mystical View Of Faith. Some are teaching that faith is not rational. “It cannot be explained—It is something you feel.” But God says: Isaiah 1:18a "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD . Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 2. Beware Of A Mystical Spirituality. We are to live in a perpetual, inward silence so that God is the source of our words and actions. (Celebration of Discipline p. 166) And I love this about Christian spirituality. It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul. (Blue Like Jazz p. 57) For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained. BLZ p. 115 And yet the Bible explains spirituality as Christian maturity and godly living. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 3. Beware Of A Mystical View Of The Scriptures Some are saying that we can never really understand the Bible, we can only experience it. The truths of the Bible were magic, like messages from heaven, like codes, enchanting codes that offered power over life, a sort of power that turned sorrow to joy, hardship to challenge and trial to opportunity. BLZ p. 59 Some today are moving away from a straight-foreword interpretation of the Bible to a more subjective slant. For them, the reader’s understanding is considered more important that the intent of the Biblical author. It can mean different things to different people, and they are all right. Some are even advocating that a passage of scripture can have multiple meanings. 2 God wants us to understand His Word. He didn’t give us some kind of secret code book that we have to try to decipher by some strange methods of interpretation. When we seek to understand almost any literature besides the Bible, we tend to use normal literal hermeneutics. We take words and sentences at face value. We expect that the author meant what he said and that he wants us to understand what he is communicating. This is how Jesus and the Apostles understood the Bible. They took it very literally. Jesus believed in the literalness of Biblical people and events Satan John 8:44 John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. Adam and Eve Mt 19:3-6; Jonah Mt 12:39-41 Jesus trusted the Bible down to the very word used. Mt 22:41-45 Jesus trusted the Bible down to the tense of a word. Mt. 22:31-33 Jesus trusted that the scriptures were divinely inspired by God. Jesus trusted that the OT had been preserved by God so that what He had in His day was accurate. 3 Jesus believed that the Bible was to be understood literally. Jesus believed that the Bible was so accurate that the very words and tenses were accurate and important. 4. Beware Of Mystical Prayer There is a big movement now for what is called contemplative prayer. Contemplative prayer is sometimes called “listening prayer.” It is said to be a way to receive God’s guidance in everyday life. One speaker has called it attentiveness to God’s whisper. Giving God an opportunity to talk to you Richard Foster emphasizes that we have to learn to distinguish the voice of God. He said that we do that by learning to distinguish its tone, spirit, and content. He says that we should keep a journal as we ‘listen to the thunder of God’s silence’. (Celebration of Discipline p. 108) He says that true service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside. We serve out of whispered promptings, divine urgings.’ COD p. 128 The Bible knows nothing about this kind of prayer. Biblical prayer is our communication with God. Our prayers are to be rational and intelligent, flowing from our intellect. 1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. 4 Gibberish and mindless prayer is never advocated in the Bible. We make requests. Philippians 4:6 We praise God. We confess our sins. 1 John 1:9 Where do they find listening prayer in scripture? One popular female speaker found it in God’s instruction the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew 17:5b "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" This is a classic case of a text being taken out of context. Other verses they appeal to include: Habakkuk 2:20 "But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." The context is judgment, not prayer. KJV Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The context is warfare. The New American Standard reads “Be still” as “Cease striving” If contemplative prayer is the way God wants us to relate to Him, why didn’t He give us instructions on how to pray in this manner? How could the Holy Spirit inspire the writing of the Scriptures and yet forget to include a chapter on mysticism. Why did He not give examples and instructions? Many are incorporating prayer labyrinths. (prayer walks) 5. Beware Of Mystical Worship 5 Richard Foster teaches that worship ‘is a breaking into the Shekinah of God, or better yet, being invaded by the Shekinah of God. We have not worshiped the Lord until Spirit touches spirit . [And] it all begins as we enter the Shekinah of the heart’ COD pp. 158-162 Linda Dillow: I think worship is spirit-to-Spirit communication. In worship my spirit flows to His and His Spirit back to mine. (Satisfy My Thirsty Soul p. 37) This is her own definition of worship. It doesn’t come from the Bible. It doesn’t come from the Greek or Hebrew words for worship. It doesn’t come from a Bible dictionary. Some take the vision that Isaiah had in Isaiah 6 as that which is to be normative for all believers. Cf Linda Dillow, Satisfy My Thirsty Soul She claims to have regular ecstatic encounters with God. Cf pp. 233-236 But only 6 or 7 biblical characters were given a glimpse of God’s glory. And that includes the 3 apostles who were with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Most had only one encounter in their lifetimes. The most was two. More and more Christians today say they go to a church where they can experience or feel God. Where in the Bible are we told that worship is to be a felt experience? But the Bible never tells us to seek an experience in which we feel the presence of God. 6 Christian Schwartz writes that growing churches are characterized by inspiring worship services. “People who attend inspiring worship services unanimously declare that the church service is fun.” “Fun” has become the criterion by which are large number of people are choosing the church they will attend. Genuine worship is a response to Divine truth. It is passionate because it arises out of our love and appreciation of God. True worship is God-centered. When we are looking for that which pleases or excites us, our worship becomes self-centered, not God-centered. David Wells found that 58.9 percent of the praise songs he analyzed had no doctrinal grounding or basis for the praise.
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