Your Brother Daniel
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Experiencing
God or Knowing God: Examining Mysticism
Interest in mysticism –
the connecting to or “experiencing” of God through various techniques and
practices – has become rampant, especially among younger Christians in search
of church alternatives.
Suggested practices are
numerous – meditation (not on Scripture), silencing the mind, visualizations,
rituals, imaginations, and dream analysis. Others, like the deceased Catholic
priest, Henry Nouwen, have promoted the mindless repetition of words:
· The quiet repetition of a single word can help
us to descend with the mind into the heart…This way of simple prayer…opens us
to God’s active presence.
Is the expectation that we can connect to “Gods active presence”
biblical? For one thing, the Bible
never promotes mindless, understanding-less repetitions. The Apostle Paul had
warned that even the supernatural speaking of foreign languages – tongues - was
useless unless accompanied by understanding:
· Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and
speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some
revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? (1 Cor. 14:6)
This principle does not
just apply to the experience of speaking in tongues but also to mystical experience.
Whatever we do, we must proceed in the light of understanding.
This certainly shouldn’t
be an argument against experience, but against the pursuit of experience for its own sake. Of course, the Spirit is
always working in our lives, providing learning experiences even when we are
not aware of them. It has become a great joy for me to meditate on what God has
done for me – forgiving my sins and promising that I will be with Him, in a
place of bliss, for all eternity.
Similarly, the Bible
emphasizes seeking understanding, not
experience. Moses had arguably the greatest mountaintop experience. His
appearance was even transformed. However, when he returned to the Israelites,
he told them nothing about the experience and everything about the words God had given him (Exodus
34:29-34).
Jesus’ disciples also
had a great mountaintop experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. However,
God’s heavenly voice had nothing to do with learning techniques about
experiencing Him but everything to do with a doctrinal revelation of the Person
of Jesus:
· “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well
pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)
There is absolutely no Scriptural evidence that we can
experience God by repeating a set of words. In fact, there is evidence against such a hope and practice:
· “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like
pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”
(Matthew 6:7)
In addition to this, God
regards mindless rituals as an abomination:
· The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how
much more so when brought with evil intent! (Proverbs 21:27; 15:8; 28:9)
Even when prescribed
rituals are performed without “evil intent,” they are “detestable,” because the
offerer is not right relationship with the Lord. This raises a great concern
about mysticism, which presents an unbiblical God – a God who cares more about
technique and mystical methodology than about what God values – faith,
confession, repentance, sin and obedience. Mysticism implicitly communicates
that having a relationship with God and experiencing “God’s active presence”
are about practicing techniques and
not about what the Bible teaches.
Meanwhile, the Bible
claims that it is totally adequate in
itself, through the Spirit, to produce in us what God desires:
· All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the
servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim.
3:16-17)
However, the teachings
of the mystics implicitly deny this truth, claiming that we need their techniques in order to achieve the
blessings of God.
What do mystics experience when they claim that they are
experiencing God or union with God? Although the Spirit works within us, producing His fruit in our
lives, Scripture mentions nothing
about experiencing God in a mystical
manner. In fact, those Israelites who did experience the Presence of God were
terrified and not enraptured by joy!
The Israelites were
gathered around Mt. Sinai to experience the Presence of God. However, they
found that this Presence was the last thing in the world that they ever wanted
to experience again. Instead, they cried to Moses:
· “Speak to us yourself [Moses] and we will
listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Exodus 20:19)
Their experience was
typical, even for prophets, like Isaiah, who actually saw the Lord Jesus:
· “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a
man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes
have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)
In fact, Israel’s temple
communicated that only the High Priest could approach the Lord without being
struck dead. Even in the NT, contact with the Divine was a frightening thing.
The three disciples were terrified on the Mt. of Transfiguration (Mat. 17:6).
John was even terrified by the presence of a mere angel (Rev. 1:17).
So what is it that the mystics are experiencing? Do they know? Is it possible to coerce God into
intimate contact through a set of extra-biblical practices? They claim that if
we imagine that we are in contact with God, then we will be. In Celebration of Disciple, mystic Richard
Foster insists that:
· As with meditation, the imagination is a
powerful tool in the work of prayer. We may be reticent to pray with the
imagination, feeling that it is slightly beneath us. Children have no such
reticence. (172)
· Since we know that Jesus is always with us,
let’s imagine that he is sitting over in the chair across from us. He is
waiting patiently for us to centre our attention on him. When we see him, we
start thinking more about His love than how sick Julie is. He smiles, gets up,
and comes over to us. Then, let’s put both our hands on Julie and when we do,
Jesus will put His hands on top of ours. We’ll watch the light from Jesus flow
into your little sister and make her well. (173)
However, Scripture does
not give us the freedom to use imagination in worship, as Jeremiah warned:
· This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Do
not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with
false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the
Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The Lord says: You will have
peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts [“walketh after
the imagination of his own heart;” KJV] they say, 'No harm will come to you.'”
(Jeremiah 23:16-17; Ezek 13:2; Luke 1:51)
Instead, God requires us
to worship Him according to who He is, in spirit and in truth (John 4:22-24),
contrary to the assertion of the mystics, who want to bypass considerations of
truth and doctrine.
So what are the mystics experiencing? Their own imaginations, but perhaps something
even worse! Paul warned that demons can disguise themselves as entities of the
light (2 Cor. 11:14) and that when we worship in an unbiblical manner, we might
be opening ourselves to demonic fellowship:
· The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons,
not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. (1 Cor.
10:20)
How can the mystics be
sure that they are not participating with demons? Even Foster admits this
possibility, according to writer Roger Oakland:
· Richard Foster claims that practitioners must
use caution. He admits that in contemplative prayer “we are entering deeply
into the spiritual realm” and that sometimes it is not the realm of God even
though it is “supernatural.” He admits there are spiritual beings and that a
prayer of protection should be said beforehand – something to the effect of
“All dark and evil spirits must now leave.” (Faith Undone, 99)
Will the demons obey Foster?
How can Foster know that these evil spirits have left and that he now communes
with God? By departing from the teachings of Scripture, he cannot know!
Why are vast numbers of young educated people embracing mysticism?
I think that there are
many possible reasons for this:
1. They have never known the Savior.
2. They have rejected God’s Word.
3. Experiencing spirituality has become far more
socially acceptable than believing in a set of truths.
4. Experiencing, instead of accepting a demanding
set of doctrines, does not interfere with one’s lifestyle or politics.
In any event, mystical
pursuit represents a costly rejection of God and His Word – an attempt to set
up our own spiritual workshop and play-station.
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