"ME" Under the Knife

…liberally plagiarized from the Reader’s Digest!

RD: You were ill?
Me: Sure was.

RD: How were you diagnosed?
Me: Right before my track meet, I had a stomachache. I’ve had these before so did not think much of it. But it got worse, during the meet. Next day I went to the school nurse’s office. Never been there before. She got her book out and showed me appendicitis to satisfy my curiosity. “I think I have that.” She laughed and sent me home to see the family doctor. He laughed too and said there were twenty other things it could be. But after his exam and blood test, he said, “You may be the first person to correctly diagnose himself on this”. His office was in Chrisman, so they packed me up in dad’s car and mom took me to Danville to the hospital where I delivered a beautiful nine-pound baby appendix.

RD: You’re kidding about the nine pounds, right?
Me: Really, the appendix is supposed to be small, just the size of a pinkie. But mine had grown several times that size and attached itself to everything else down there it could see or feel!

RD: How was the surgery?
Me: This was in 1952. Surgeries then meant real surgery. None of this laparoscopic stuff. He took this butcher knife and a meat cleaver and opened me up like a side of beef. The incision went from my belly button almost down to the groin. I looked like I should be hanging up with the other sides of beef (or was it pork?).

RD: Anything else we don’t want to know about?
Me: Sure. The surgeon was really friendly and helpful. He went in there with both hands and slowly peeled that appendix away from attachment to a bunch of other organs. Then he cut it away from the origin, whatever that is, and brought out a pretzel. Ugliest thing you’ve ever seen. I looked like I should be down and out for a month.

RD: How long were you out?
Me: Well now, I did lose that quarter of school, because I developed an abscess, which had to be treated. I now have two belly buttons! I guess I’ve been born three times!

RD: Do you have a big scar?
Me: Big? It’s so big it ruined my otherwise perfect body. Of course, it was covered by hair in a week.

RD: It’s a common perception that men are big babies when they get sick. What kind of patient were you?
Me: I’m the opposite. I wanted to run track the next day. But the doctor wouldn’t let me out of bed.

RD: Appendix is a funny word. Is there a funnier body part?
Me: Appendix is good. It means “worthless”, or “useless”. No one can find a use for it after birth. My nose is a funny body part, too. But I think spleen is funniest, although bladder has its points, too.

RD: Did you get good get-well gifts?
Me: I got something from the coach asking where I was before he threw me off the team. I think a relative sent me a card too. I seem to recall a little plant, which my mom immediately took away. It wasn’t even a plant by my standard. It was a tiny pot with dirt and a stick and lots of pages of instructions on how to care for it. With a bit of other stuff, it was better than my usual birthday. I wish I had another appendix, so that I could score again.

RD: Well, you have still got your spleen, right?
Me: I think so. I don’t know what else they did in that hospital. You can die without that.

RD: I think that’s another “extra” organ.
Me: Oh, good. I’ll have that one removed next.

End of story.

How Patient or Impatient are You?

“Patience is a virtue, hardly a woman and nary a man has it” goes the ancient vintage commenting on the vagaries of our race. It is been enlarged for many generations to include all youth and workers without end. I think Will Rogers or some other phrased it so that it came out as, “I finally began to gain a little patience in my old age, then I died”. Too late to apply it, and perhaps too soon to realize it. It all fits into the story of my typical marriage. Early on, my wife dubbed me “Mr. Patience”, because I didn’t have any. It may be a disease that is communicable, because we observe it all around us. What shall we call it? Perhaps ‘patientitis’ will do. It is most noticeable when trials and tribulation at any time and distance beyond the norm move into my little world. It immediately spreads to family, friends and neighbors by actions or comments. After all, “Misery loves company”. Let’s just spread it around. Woe is me!

But do trials and tribulation have a purpose? If you have been called into the family of the Living God, and seek relief by understanding His purposes and plans as Sovereign God instead of descending into self-pity, you will seek that which He has revealed in the Scriptures. The book of James describes several things for each of us to be aware of. James is concerned with behavior. His conviction is that saving faith transforms the life and is evident in conduct. Saving faith is alive and evident in the life a person lives. So it is really about faith, but faith as it is lived out in the life. We must manifest our faith in our actions! He gives 54 imperatives in the 108 verses of the letter!

Indeed one of the most difficult areas for all of us to deal with is the matter of testing and trials, and it is at this very point that James begins his letter. What is our response to trials and pressures that test our patience? Pressure does two things: it reveals character and it produces character. What kind of character? It can only be godly character in the face of trials while we appreciate the importance of those trials in producing that godly character. There are three areas of importance in regard to these trials and are covered in verses 2-4 of James 1: our necessary response, the reason for trials, and the results of those trials.

Our response is to acknowledge that God has a purpose in all things, whether we are just irritated or overwhelmed. James’ firmness is coupled with warmth and is very personal about trials that press upon a person from the outside. Trials are not something we seek or look for, but when we fall into them we are to function biblically. He indicates that these trials will come and there is nothing we can do to avoid them. The picture is one of falling into and being surrounded by trials, which threaten to overwhelm him. These are not his fault and there is nothing that could have been done to avoid them. God brings them for the accomplishing of His purposes.

Foundational to responding properly to trials is understanding what God is accomplishing in our lives through trials:
The knowledge that God imparts in His Word tells us why we can count it all joy when we fall into trials.

The testing of our faith is like gold that is revealed by the test of fire. Trials prove our faith, revealing its true character. And not only that but it produces endurance--Endurance is a compound word, hupo (under) and meno (to stay, abide, remain). It pictures someone being under a great load and resolutely staying there. Our faith, being purified by trials, produces a staying power, which enables us to live under pressure. There is an active character about this word. It is not a passive resignation to a situation but a confident stand when surrounded with overwhelming pressures so that we do not swerve from the course. It is a tenacity of spirit while awaiting God’s time for reward or dismissal. When James says it produces endurance, he is referring to a process that is in view, not an instant accomplishment. Don’t expect to be relieved in the next hour. Some trials can last a lifetime!

Finally, we need to realize that we cannot speed up the process by ourselves that God sovereignly uses to produce endurance in each one of us. The danger is that we begin looking for a way out of the trial rather than appreciating what God is doing with the trial. James therefore gives a command to allow endurance to have its perfect work. The producing of endurance in the life is not the end but part of what God uses to accomplish His purpose in the life of the believer. The ‘perfect result’ is working on the perfect or mature character that God intends to develop in each of His children.

God is in the process of making us everything we should be as His children. He intends for us to be mature, functioning in every part of our being exactly as He intends. For this to be accomplished, trials are necessary. They build in us an endurance, a steadfastness under pressure, which will develop us as mature men in Christ. What a tragedy that trials often become the occasion for complaining and discouragement. We become obsessed with getting out from under the pressure rather than from learning to stand firm and thus becoming everything that God intends us to be. Do you have these problems too?

The Seven Laws of the Harvest

The Seven Laws of the Harvest: Understanding the Realities of Sowing and Reaping. By John W. Lawrence. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1995 (original copyright, 1975). 130 pp.

In his classic work, The Seven Laws of the Harvest, John Lawrence responds to why the lives of many Christians are so ineffective. His thesis is simple and straightforward: Most Christians do not understand God’s spiritual laws which depict the realities of sowing and reaping (Gal 6:7-8). Throughout his book, Lawrence builds a strong case for God’s discipline now, in time. This is an element of reaping that many scholars and pastors too quickly pass over. Not Lawrence. He cites several cases of divine discipline in time throughout the Scriptures (e.g. Lot, Jacob, Israel, and David). He also includes numerous amusing—and some not so amusing—anecdotes and illustrations which powerfully drive home his point.
The seven chapters are devoted to defining and applying these seven laws: (1) Considering: We reap much that we did not sow. The first law focuses on the goodness of God. Whatever follows, it is important to recognize that the Lord has blessed us with His Son and His Word. (2) Identifying: We reap the same in kind as we sow. This chapter speaks to the effect of our sin upon our children. Since everything reproduces after its kind, God will never be mocked. Confession and forgiveness in no way stop the harvest (p. 39). (3) Waiting: We reap in a different season than when we sow. Lawrence states, "The harvest never comes immediately" (p. 48), yet it will come. Whether saved or unsaved, we will all reap what we sow. This chapter closes with "Dying Statements of the Unsaved" (pp. 54-57) and "Dying Statements of the Saved" (pp. 57-59). (4) Remembering: We reap more than we sow. The lives of Jacob and David serve to remind us that there are grave consequences for our sinful actions (pp. 62-71). Two OT verses are bolstered to validate this principle: Prov 22:8 and Hosea 8:7. (5) Doing: We reap in proportion as we sow. This chapter is a sermon on spiritual stewardship. Although the thrust of the chapter is financial stewardship, there are principles for every other area of our lives. (6) Persevering: We reap the full harvest of the good only if we persevere; the evil comes to harvest on its own. Lawrence writes, "The problem of the average believer today is not a lack of knowledge, but the application of truths he already knows" (p. 85). Stories from the lives of Paul and David are used to urge us to persevere by waiting on the Lord, dealing well with trials and discouragement, reading the Word, and living one day at a time. (7) Forgetting: We cannot do anything about last year’s harvest, but we can about this year’s. In this final chapter, Lawrence utilizes several rewards passages (e.g. John 15:5; 1 Cor 3:11-15; 9:24-27; Heb 6:1-8) to motivate his readers to make up for lost time and press on to maturity. His key for growth and maturity is a simple equation: "Discipline produces character which produces fruitfulness" (p. 117).
From cover to cover, this is an excellent book. It is concise, practical, and witty. GES members will appreciate much of Lawrence’s theology evidenced in statements like these: "So the Father gives salvation to all who do nothing more than to believe in His Son…We either believe the witness God has given concerning His Son that salvation is only through Him or we are still trying to be saved by and through our own deeds of righteousness’ (pp. 20-21). Especially noteworthy, is the concluding chapter where Lawrence unveils his understanding of Heb 5:11–6:8 (pp. 104-120). In this section, he insists that the recipients of Hebrews are Jewish Christians in need of "going on to maturity" (p. 106). Lawrence understands the consequences of not pressing on to maturity to be the loss of rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ (p. 111).
This book will continue to stand the test of time. More importantly, John Lawrence’s life will stand the test of time and eternity. Having had the privilege of calling Professor Lawrence a friend during the last six years of his life, I can honestly say that this book is a reflection of his life and theology. He lived a life of grace and finished well. He is now with the Lord and already reaping the blessings of a life devoted to teaching and practicing the Word of God.
Synopsis by Keith R. Krell, Associate Minister, Suburban Christian Church, Corvallis, OR

Mysticism and New Age may be One and the Same

The Evangelistic strategy of Satan and his demons

These comments are centered in our view of Dispensational Eschatology. The church movements into mysticism are many but centered in the evangelistic strategy of Satan in Genesis 3 (four lies):

1. You will be like God (Pantheism)
2. You surely shall not die (Reincarnationism)
3. You will know good and evil (Relativism)
4. Your eyes will be opened (Esotericism)
   

Almost all such movements within the so-called Christian sphere can be summarized under the general category of one movement: The New Age Movement. They are not the same, but share elements of the above. What is the bottom line in these four spiritual flaws? It is the self-sufficiency of mankind, the belief that the source of all reality exists in the human mind. When we take a journey within, we find that we are gods; through channeling we contact masters who have preceded us. We can be the source of our own morality and discover the right technique to be spiritually fulfilled. On our own we can become all that we can be. We are told that man’s problem is not sin but ignorance. Man's problem is not sin but a disease. Through enlightenment, we can solve all of our problems and bring about a spiritual transformation that will bring peace and brotherhood to this world. All this comes by our own initiative and strength. We begin to worship knowledge and the creation, rather than the Creator.

The New Age Movement derives much of its inspiration from Eastern religions, but in this country Satan packages it for American audiences. Here its mood is upbeat, faddish, and success-oriented. It is a strange mixture of Hinduism, pagan mysticism, and American values – good health, wealth, and individualism. And it is selling well! We are in the midst of a huge cultural shift.

Beloved, take note. Books and teachers abound on self-esteem, channeling, spiritual meditation, prosperity gospel, self-enlightenment, transcendentalism, New Thought, Theosophy, Open Theism, psychoanalysis, the faith world, the Purpose Driven Church, the Emergent Church, the Word-Faith movement, entertainment totally replacing the gospel (success oriented), New Age Theology of God is all, all is God, and many more. It has most of the markings of the Babylonian religion condemned in Isaiah 47:8-11;

• The deity of man – ‘I am and there is no one besides me’
• A false belief in triumph over death – ‘I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children’
• Moral relativism – ‘Hear this , you sensual one’
• Esotericism, or private enlightenment through mystical experiences – ‘Your many sorceries…the great power of your spells’

Here are some New Age evangelists who are preaching and other advocates for Satan’s plan: Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Ferguson, Napoleon Hill, Jose Silva, Terry Cole-Whittaker, Werner Erhard, Edgar Cayce, Patricia King and Caleb Brundidge. The New Age is a revival of the Old Age. It is a day for discernment, but don’t lose the day for the opportunity to present the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. “He is risen”!

From Mysticism into Occultism

Down the Slippery Slope of Mysticism
Mark Dinsmore writes in the current issue of the Berean Call:
“Yoga, Centering Prayer, Lectio Divna, Evangelical Monasticism, Practicing the Presence, Stations of the Cross, Labyrinth Prayer. These are but a few of the teachings and techniques we’ve noted that are bombarding evangelical churches of all denominations, largely in association with the Emerging Church Movement. But while much recent biblical discernment has been focused on the errors and excesses of the ECM, another “renewal” has been taking place in the revived Latter-Rain and Kingdom-Now camps related to C. Peter Wagner’s “New Apostolic Reformation” that poses equal concern with regard to the Emerging Apostasy…These hold key beliefs in common!” He then writes, “Not surprisingly then, is perhaps their greatest common denominator: an affinity for (and outright embrace of) Contemplative Spirituality. A visible example is the …organization of Patricia King called “Extreme Prophetic”….Her ministry promotes not just ordinary miracles but “extreme signs and wonders” as taught by a variety of Christian seers and psychics-such as interpreting dreams, providing spiritual readings for the lost, opening the heavens to release the manifest presence of God (oil and glory dust), working with angels, raising the dead, spirit-traveling to the third heaven (throne room of God), communicating with departed saints, and more.”
This is New Age occultism, but may becoming commonplace. “One of the more recent and blatant examples of new-paganism in the church is Patricia King's endorsement and embrace of trance-dancing as a Christian form of worship that she and Caleb Brundidge, one of her itinerant ministers call “Ekstasis Worship.” Brundidge is a traveling “prophetic” D.J. that calls his show “Club Mysterio”.” Repetitive “rave” or trance” music has been so-called because night clubs around the world use it to enable patrons to enter a euphoric altered state of consciousness-with or without the assistance of drugs such as “ecstasy”-though extended freestyle and sensual motion set to repetitive music tracks. It doesn't take an anthropologist to recognize parallels between modern trance dancing and ancient forms of ritual dance that is still used in many cultures to produce identical altered states and “spirit travel.” But what many may not know is the increasing popularity of “yoga trance dancing”, which could well become the “jassercize” that turns this form of Hindu worship into an aerobic activity for “everyday” gym members."
Here is a Brundidge quote or three from trance dancers:

“In searching for my personal connection with Shiva Nataraj, to best explain these roots of trance dancing from ancient India. I felt I needed to go deeper than books, however.”

“You no longer have to study the Word, when you're inside of an infused atmosphere, it becomes part of you.”

“Ekstasis worship is worship that when you go outside of your mind, and just release yourself into abandoned worship with God, going into the ecstasy [as in sensual union] of God.”

How did we get this way in the Evangelical church? Maybe this article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch under People in the News explains. It is headed by Lynch foundation to fund meditation scholarships:

Director David Lynch says his nonprofit foundation will donate $1 million to fund scholarships for students who want to learn a meditation technique taught at the Maharishi University of Management. Lynch, who directed “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” movies and the “Twin Peaks” TV series, is a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.
Lynch, 62, plans to give $1 million in scholarships for students to attend the university in Fairfield, Iowa, and learn TM. He started the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace in 2005.

How New is New in Mysticism?

Ancient Origins
I was asked, “Why is this new mysticism so prevalent in the local church?” Mysticism and asceticism are not new. From shamanism to other demonic influenced activities, it is as old as the Garden of Eden. Perhaps the oldest mystic Eastern Religions that we have records of are Hinduism and Buddhism. The twentieth century, which has seen so many revolutions, is now witnessing the rise of a new or revitalized mysticism within Christianity. But the question is ‘Can we find God or enhance our experience of Jesus by entering into an altered state of consciousness?’ The centuries past have all had their share of Oracles, Seers and Shamans. The few that others usually feared were respected or were burned at the stake. Sadly, the situation today is not confined to the gypsy at the local fair, with everyone and his brother jumping on the bandwagon. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I fear for the truth of Scripture when mysticism replaces the clear Word of God.

With our newly found ‘Spirituality’ and all manner of meditation, visualization, channeling, spirit guides, goddess worship and Gaia, all we have succeeded in doing is throwing the doors open to demonic activity of every kind. Some charismatic movements have become more and more mystical in the past century. We have openly invited evil to cross the threshold. Consider the past as obtained from several online sources:

Hinduism has perhaps the oldest tradition of mysticism. In Hindu philosophy hundreds of years before Christ, and particularly in the metaphysical system known as the Vedanta, the self or atman in a person is identified with the supreme self, or Brahman of the universe. The apparent separateness and individuality of beings and events are held to be an illusion (Sanskrit maya), or convention of thought and feeling. This illusion can be dispelled through the realization of the essential oneness of atman and Brahman. When the religious initiate has overcome the beginningless ignorance (Sanskrit avidya) upon which depends the apparent separability of subject and object, of self and not-self, a mystical state of liberation, or moksha, is attained. The Hindu philosophy of Yoga incorporates perhaps the most complete and rigorous discipline ever designed to transcend the sense of personal identity and to clear the way for an experience of union with the divine self. Mysticism has traditionally been the province of the sadhus, who sometimes go to extremes of asceticism in the course of their devotions, for example by standing for years on one leg or eschewing clothing. Such pursuits are held to be a necessary corollary of the spiritual struggle to achieve mystic liberation.

Developing out of Hindu traditions and building on Hindu concepts, Buddhism perpetuates the mystical strain of Hinduism by its founder Gautama (c. 560-480 B.C.). The historical Buddha himself practiced Yoga for years, before abandoning it for a more moderate regime, and Buddhism can be seen as a reform movement opposing the severest excesses of traditional Hindu mysticism. Buddhism can properly be styled a purely mystical religion, since its sole purpose is to enable all its practitioners to achieve mystical transcendence in the state of nirvana, either in their present incarnation or in a future one. Buddhism has no secular clergy in the Christian sense, only monks and nuns, who strive to achieve enlightenment through spiritual exercise and right living, thus shedding the burden of karma which keeps them in the world of perpetual reincarnation.

Though all Buddhism is mystical in emphasis, some sects are notably more so than others. This condition partly arose out of traditional Buddhist emphasis on the transmission of doctrine in voluminous sutras and on elaborate metaphysics, whereas mystical experience is often felt to transcend language and rational distinctions. The Zen school of Buddhism, which first arose in China in the 6th century AD, partly as a result of cross-fertilization with Daoism, and later spread to Japan and other countries, concentrates on immediate realization of the voidness of things by the demolition of conceptual structures. Zen teaching thus often uses apparently meaningless riddles (koans) or even blows in order to break the mold of the recipient's mind and free them for nirvana in the present life. Esoteric Buddhism, especially Buddhist Tantra, also developed a mystical discipline in which masters lead disciples to enlightenment by rigorous physical and mental exercises, creation and contemplation of mystic designs or mandalas, and the communication of secret truths through gestures and postures known as mudras.

In China, Confucianism, which dominated Chinese life almost from its beginnings until the 20th century, is formalistic and anti-mystical, but Daoism, as expounded by its traditional founder, the Chinese philosopher Laozi (Lao-Tzu), has a strong mystical emphasis. Daoism emphasized the relativity and fallibility of the rational distinctions developed through thought and language in order to understand and control the world, and advocated their removal to restore the mind to undifferentiated unity with the universe, a condition called the “Uncut Block”. A Daoist adept would thus achieve mystical harmony with the way of things, possessing a mirror-like heart which would spontaneously reflect the universal order. The Daoist sage Zhuangzi (3rd century B.C.) compared such a state in his ecstatic writing to that of a swimmer able to navigate torrents like a fish or a skilled cook able to dice up an ox with perfect ease. Daoism thus developed organized monasteries and a tradition of genuine mystical contemplation, but in contact with early Chinese chemical science it also spawned pseudo-mystical alchemists who sought elixirs of immortality rather than just union with the Infinite.

The philosophical ideas of the ancient Greeks were predominantly naturalistic and rationalistic, but an element of mysticism found expression in Orphism, the Eleusinian mysteries and other rites. A late Greek movement, Neoplatonism, was based on the philosophy of Plato and also shows the influence of the mystery religions. Plotinus was perhaps the most gifted exponent, and his thought exercised considerable influence on early Christianity! Mysticism of the pre-Christian period is evidenced in the writings of the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo Judaeus.

Islamic Sufism embraces a form of theistic mysticism closely resembling that of the Vedanta. A relatively early development in Islamic history, Sufism focuses on personal union with Allah. Through ascetic and contemplative disciplines, Sufi mystics seek direct union with God achieved through divine favor. The ecstatic language of unity with the Divine with which Sufis describe their experiences, and the positively pantheistic doctrines developed by some, have led to charges of heterodoxy. In 922 the Sufi al-Hallaj, who was accused of having asserted his identity with God was executed in Baghdad. It was left to the 11th-century philosopher al-Ghazali to reconcile Sufism and orthodox Islam. Doctrines of Sufism found their most memorable expression in the symbolic works of the Persian poets Mohammed Shams od-Din, better known as Hafiz, and Jalal-ad-Din Muhammad Din ar-Rumi, and in the writings of the Persian al-Ghazali.

British Professor F. F. Bruce writes, "If there was one eastern religion more than another cultivated by Romans in Britain as elsewhere, it was Mithraism and not Christianity, Mithra was the god of light and truth in Iranian mythology; his cult was introduced to the Romans towards the middle of the first century B.C. and by the middle of the third century A.D. it had spread so widely that an impartial observer might have concluded that Mithraism and not Christianity would become the dominant religion throughout the empire. It envisaged the world as a battleground between light and darkness; worshippers of Mithra must take part in this warfare in order to attain union with him. Those who did attain it were purified by mystic rites in which he was believed to escort them through the seven planetary spheres to the highest heaven, where they might expect to live in eternal light. Mithraism made a special appeal to serious-minded men, and particularly to soldiers, as is perhaps natural when we consider the military language in which its principles were expressed. Three temples on Hadrian's Wall (in Britain by the occupying Romans), and Mithraic inscriptions and symbols there and at York and other places in the north of England indicate that it had its votaries in the Roman army in Britain. No such evidence exists for the knowledge of Christianity there, even in the fourth century A.D."

The monastic movement in Christianity produced both somewhat mystics and wholly ascetic monks. Among the principal contemplatives of Christianity from post-Apostolic times to the Reformation are Clement of Alexandria , Origen , St. Augustine , the false Dionysius the Areopagite , Cassian , St. Gregory I , Erigena , St. Peter Damian , St. Anselm , St. Bernard of Clairvaux , Hildegard of Bingen , Joachim of Fiore , Richard of Saint Victor , Hugh of Saint Victor , Hadewijch , St. Gertrude, St. Francis , Jacopone da Todi , St. Bonaventure , Thomas Aquinas , Ramon Lull , Dante , Eckhart , Tauler , Suso , Ruysbroeck , Groote , Thomas à Kempis , Nicholas of Cusa , Rolle of Hampole , Walter Hilton , Juliana of Norwich , Margery Kempe , St. Bridget of Sweden , St. Catherine of Siena , Gerson , St. Bernardine of Siena , and St. Joan of Arc . The Catholic tradition was continued by St. Ignatius of Loyola , St. Theresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross , St. Francis de Sales , and St. Theresa of Lisieux. Orders that have given their name to types of mysticism are Carmelites , Carthusians , and Cistercians . Among great Protestant mystics are Jakob Boehme and George Fox , founder of Quakerism, the foremost Protestant mystical movement. In the 17th and 18th century, much literature of the contemplative life was written by the metaphysical poets and by Henry More , William Law , and others. Extremes in post-Reformation mysticism are seen in Jansenism and in quietism ; and Emanuel Swedenborg may be regarded as a Protestant mystic. Also included in the mystic tradition were the Hermetic philosophers and the Alchemists. In Judaism the mystical tradition represented by the kabbalah was continued in the modern Hasidism .

Mystical Practices Enter the Christian Culture

PIETY AND EXPERIENTIAL ZEAL

The pietism movements of the middle ages progressed rapidly in Roman Catholicism. This, in turn, produced an experiential theology among monastics and others that exhibited great zeal on the part of the participants. But Christian zeal can be misplaced when based on other than the scriptures. In the Christian church today it has produced a lack of proper moderation and balance. Ephesians 4 indicates this with an outline of God's method for moderation. This is not new to the New Testament. There are many sources in the Old Testament which testify to the need for scriptural knowledge and balance (Ho 4:6; Isa 29:13 and Mt 15:8). Mysticism in the modern church has many fingers and is producing a pendulum effect from one extreme to the other:

• Academic versus Experiential


• Reason versus Faith


• Objective versus Subjective


• Mind versus Heart

As it goes back and forth, we are reminded that God made all things very good (Gen 1:31), then it was perverted by sin. Things are not sinful, but the use of them, including the intangibles of thoughts, reason, motivations and even philosophy can be unclean (Rom 14:14), just as in the amoral issues.

MYSTICAL PERVERSIONS

We have mentioned before contemplative prayer, labryinth praying, imagination and visualization. Now add piety and experiential zeal. Rom 10:2 says, "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Knowledge of the Word of God with good rules of interpretation is paramount.

Piety is the desire to have the Chrisian life experienced as more than just an academic, theological or intellectual discussion or feeling. It occurs in the modern church because of the decline into ritual, confession and cold intellectual discourse. It has its roots in four pivotal players of pietistic practice:

• Arndt - looked for the Kingdom of God within; zealous for a changed life
• Spener - was more aggressively experiential
• Francke - expanded the emphasis on changed life and missions
• Von Zinzendorf - spoke of and developed the "theology of the heart"

The children and grandchildren of pietism generated first the use of the Scriptures for the basis of their experience while still advocating the need for individual experience. Second generations of children stressed experience but often without a proper biblical basis. And the grandchildren in the third generation questioned the practice or individual experience not backed by authority to have it. The Scripture has been lost as the authority to them, and a new authority is sought. The "default" of the human experience is the flesh, consequently in the absence of scriptural authority human reason or subjective experience fills the void. The pendulum is swinging, swinging and swinging. Where it stops nobody knows.

The great-grandchildren of Pietism is deism, skepticism and rationalism. In the fourth generation by following the logical path of their forebears, they are now "liberated" from the traditions of the previous generations. They are free to experiment with new and "better" experiences. It becomes more "mystical", ...in feelings, experience and relationships. Here are the new freedoms:

• Freedom #1 - deism: God is there but transcendent and not dictating what experiences are proper so one can use his own reason to get to a religious experience if one is desired; if not just be rational and live your life
• Freedom #2 - skepticism: Who knows if God is there anyway? Doubt replaces certainty; authority is one's own mind. Nothing can be certain except you probably will not have to answer for anything, will you?
• Freedom #3 - rationalism: The charade is over; you and your reason are all that is left. Matter is the only absolute and morals are baseless except as agreed upon principles of reasonable parameters of behavior. Pragmatism reigns or is preparing to reign.
• Freedom #4 - Freed from the shackles of the absolutists and their mindless subjection to tradition but repulsed by a world that has no "spirit", reason is abandoned for the more spiritual subjective experience. Knowledge, too, has been abandoned.
• Freedom #5 - Insecure with no tether to hold them, a new generation seeks the old ways with a robust skepticism toward both human reason and emotional excesses. Thus, a new, revived pietism begins all over again.

When will the pendulum stop?

:Understanding Mysticism

VISUALIZATION
The end of the thought process of those who are really into mysticism is visualization. There is a legitmate use of visualizing things as done by the artist, the architect, the farmer or the athlete. They visualize the end product and then use their gifts or talents or hard work to make them into a reality. But visualization is also an occult practice shaped by demonic activity of altering the natural world, people in it, conditions under which one lives by casting spells, having visions, contacting spirits, and other means without personal work to get it done.

It was and is a genuine foundation for the positive- and possibility-thinking gurus such as Peale, Schuller, and even Zen Buddhism. Further, in the world of sports it is the plan for bettering yourself. In some mega-churches the zeal for self-betterment sounds off in improvement of self-esteem and urging to find the "better you". Today, in the Word-Faith Movement, it is often the creation of a new reality:

• In the spirit of man, a new concept or desired item is imagined and then visualized in the mind of one. An action or reality is now conceived.
• Faith is applied to this visualized item and it is now in incubation.
• Through faith, the item visualized and conceived in the spirit world is now realized or birthed in the natural world and is spoken into being. This is increasingly popular in Word-Faith churches.
• The visualized item is now materialized in the natural world. "We have what we see; we get what we speak."

Mysticism is the tool for bringing the spirit world into the natural world:

• The mystic clears his mind as with the method in contemplative prayer.
• He is now free to receive images from God.
• He may visualize "Jesus" so much that he senses he is not only having a direct communication with Jesus but can actually "touch or feel" Him.
• The visualized object may not and usually is not Jesus but another manifestation such as a deceased relative, famous person or one unknown to the mystic who guides him into some "new truths" he is to live by or some revelation of conditions about which the mystic knew nothing prior to this experience.

Understanding Mysticism

IMAGINATION
Imagination is the gift of God to every individual who was created in God's image. It is part of our being made in His image:

• God created all material things out of the "nothing" - He "imagined" what they looked like and made them that way
• It is the foundational tool in our ability to "create" things - invention, etc.
• It is the foundational tool for teaching our children the way of life - Psalm 19:17
• It is the tool whereby we can understand the appearance or nature of an item being described to us by another
• It is one of the tools used to understand the Word of God
• It is the tool Moses had to use when making the items for the tabernacle from the things which he had seen in God's presence
• It is one source from which we are able to create art, literature, drama and music

Our imagination like the rest of our being has been stained and affected by sin:

• As with other items of nature which can be seen in Romans 14, imagination is not sinful but our use of it can be
• It is the tool in which people have imagined themselves carrying out some sin
• It has been the tool for creating unspeakable inventions of terror and suffering
• It has been the source of much deceitful behavior and stories
• It is the tool for creating fear in ourselves and in others
• It is the source of idolatry - Rom 1:21
• In sinful use, it is the source of all manner of wickedness - Gen 6:5
• Sinfully, it is used by the adversary to deceive us - 2 Cor 10:3-5
• Trained only by sin, it is the prison of the "gentiles" - Eph 4:17ff
• It is also a tool to enter into the realm of the "mystic"

The use of imagination is and has been a hotly contested issue over the centuries of church history and development. Next time.....visualization.

Mysticism-a Scourge of the Modern Church

In a recent copy of The Berean Call, T. A. McMahon titles his article “All mystical roads lead to Rome”. He then traces his own experiences as a Roman Catholic before conversion on to the evangelical church today, covering the ecumenical movement (and mentioning many names) and The Passion of the Christ movie. He does not mince words as he names more names in the Emergent and Seeker Sensitive movements by pointing out that Catholic mysticism is thoroughly subjective and experiential like its parent Eastern mysticism. “...the goal of mysticism is union with God, i.e., the merging of one's soul into God. This is an impossibility that reveals mysticism's pantheistic and panentheistic roots, that God is everything and is in everything. No, God is infinite and transcendent, absolutely separate from His finite creation.”

He then goes on to comment on such things as The Sacred Way, Centering (or contemplative) Prayer practiced by the popular Beth Moore, the Jesus Prayer, Lectio Divina, Ignatian Examen, Prayer Labyrinths, and occultism (that is, occultic practices of mysticism).

A member of my SS class brought in a brochure for a Catholic Taize Prayer Evening, to experience prayer in the style of Taize. Bill Keller appeared on a Fox News broadcast this past week to comment on the New Age mystical approach of America's most popular woman, Oprah Winfrey. He tried to present the basis of the gospel in Jesus alone by faith alone, but the Fox reporter was too busy defending Oprah to give him any leeway or to listen to him.

I received a prayer rug (made out of paper) from the St. Matthews Churches of Tulsa, OK a short time ago. Promising health and wealth, all I had to do was to enter into their prescribed repetitive prayers, put my offering in the envelope and mail it in. “Look into Jesus' Eyes you will see they are closed. But as you continue to look you will see His eyes opening and looking back into your eyes.” This is the height of mysticism.

Why does Mysticism exist?
Since the fall of man, man has attempted to connect himself to the “other” realm of reality: the Absolute, the Divine, the All. Rather than come humbly by faith to the Creator of man and all that is, he attempts to find that reality in his own terms and with his own power as was done in the garden of Eden. He knows there is a transcendent, unseen reality concurrent with this existence that is greater than his own existence and usually defines or has created the world in which he lives. Man seeks to create a harmony with his out-of-harmony world and the harmonious world of the other reality. The end result is a surrendered ego-less state in which, in the mind of the seeker, the external world synchronizes with the mystic's assumed true nature and purpose.
Characteristics of Mysticism
One aberrant output of the Emergent Church is a pilgrimage or the journey of mysticism. This is an awakening to the possibility that the world as it has been explained or taught to him may not be true (cf. Satan in the garden denying the reality of death and slandering the character of God). It brings a kind of self-awareness to one's imperfection, finiteness and unworthiness -what can be done? It is said to bring illumination -consciousness of the “other” reality and the gaining of a new world view and future. Another describes the dark night of the soul – a period of purging or suffering in which the seeker experiences confusion, helplessness, stagnation of the will and withdrawal from the Presence however it has been understood by the seeker. Finally, comes union with the divine, the absolute, the other. But, what “other”?

Mysticism in the church has a new vocabulary with new words, and new meaning to old and familiar words. Like some secret organizations, there can be rites of passage, from initiation through the deepest levels. And it does not neglect superstitious practices believed to invoke or appease the power (s) of the “other”.

Mysticism also includes purification practices, re-education into a new definition of reality; a new worldview – not a biblical worldview. And finally in this regard, we see the establishment of shamans or mystical leaders as those believed to be in union now with the “other” in such a way as to invoke its powers and declare its will and teachings, however bizarre.
All involve rituals, visual symbols, paranormal experiences, contemplative prayer techniques, meditations and mantras, and the ascetic. Indeed, all roads lead to Rome and practices from the Eastern cults developed over the centuries. Experience, not the Word, is the name of the game.