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Mysticism Infiltrating the Church(es) ....

vja4Him

vja4Him

Member
Many churches are under attack from the enemy, with counterfeit revivals, demonic manifestations, occult practices, Mysticism, New Age ...

How could so many church leaders be easily misled, and continue to add to the deception, leading many people, even Christians into the world of Mysticism ....

Has anyone had experience with Mysticism?

What exactly is wrong with Mysticism?
 
vja4Him said:
Many churches are under attack from the enemy, with counterfeit revivals, demonic manifestations, occult practices, Mysticism, New Age ...

How could so many church leaders be easily misled, and continue to add to the deception, leading many people, even Christians into the world of Mysticism ....

Has anyone had experience with Mysticism?

What exactly is wrong with Mysticism?
Click to expand...
It depends on how exactly one defines mysticism.
 
vja4Him said:
Many churches are under attack from the enemy, with counterfeit revivals, demonic manifestations, occult practices, Mysticism, New Age ...

How could so many church leaders be easily misled, and continue to add to the deception, leading many people, even Christians into the world of Mysticism ....

Has anyone had experience with Mysticism?

What exactly is wrong with Mysticism?
Click to expand...
Some people in churches particularly the conservative ones think we are doomed for everything. To tell you the truth when I see people at church they seem normal nothing in your post would fit the bill of them they go to church and do normal church stuff.

I am however different. I don't mind burning incense at home here it smells nice and relaxes me after work i gave up alcohol and use that in place to trigger relaxation. As for mystical I defiantly seek to know god as closely as I can if that means long periods of prayer and quiet moments that may resemble eastern religions meditation after i read my bible, I don't care it draws me closer to god and feels great. I probably am a bit mystic . Being this way has only drawn me closer to god. I figure god made all things the incense too lol. Who cares who else uses it too it don't really matter at all.

I am not entirely sure about the term mystic Christian i think it is a catholic one.

I would place a higher risk to believers on what comes out of the televisions in our lounge rooms for corrupting and compromising Christians in churches. Every single day there is exposure to soft porn and its teaching you to be greedy and covet products in search of happiness and fulfillment. The ultimate modern idol worship device. lately i have noticed it telling our youth its ok and acceptable to pursue bisexuality and follow the current young role models of today. That TV It takes your focus off god like nothing else we have.
 
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Chris said:
Some people in churches particularly the conservative ones think we are doomed for everything. To tell you the truth when I see people at church they seem normal nothing in your post would fit the bill of them they go to church and do normal church stuff.

I am however different. I don't mind burning incense at home here it smells nice and relaxes me after work i gave up alcohol and use that in place to trigger relaxation. As for mystical I defiantly seek to know god as closely as I can if that means long periods of prayer and quiet moments that may resemble eastern religions meditation after i read my bible, I don't care it draws me closer to god and feels great. I probably am a bit mystic . Being this way has only drawn me closer to god. I figure god made all things the incense too lol. Who cares who else uses it too it don't really matter at all.

I am not entirely sure about the term mystic Christian i think it is a catholic one.

I would place a higher risk to believers on what comes out of the televisions in our lounge rooms for corrupting and compromising Christians in churches. Every single day there is exposure to soft porn and its teaching you to be greedy and covet products in search of happiness and fulfillment. The ultimate modern idol worship device. lately i have noticed it telling our youth its ok and acceptable to pursue bisexuality and follow the current young role models of today. That TV It takes your focus off god like nothing else we have.
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You bring up some very good issues .... I too burn incense, not everyday, but I enjoy the aroma. I do need to provide good ventilation though, because of my allergies.

The problems with Mysticism are very complex and not easy to explain in just a few sentences, or even a few paragraphs. I'm sure that many people who are involved with some aspect of Mysticism are not going to hell, just because they read the mystics, burn incense, or meditate, read their Bible for hours on end ....

There are real dangers though that many people are not aware of and do not understand. I've been involved with cults, the occult, and seen demons, and have seen and experience the destruction that deceptions from the enemy (Satan, the Father of Lies) causes, including much damage to my family and many friends.

Yes, Catholicism has been infected with Mysticism, but it goes much deeper than the Catholic church ..... There are demonic practices that some people get involved with when practicing Mysticism, which opens doors to the demonic spirits.

Many elements of Mysticism are not compatible at all with Christianity and the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches that we are all sinners. Mysticism would have us search for the inner light, or divine essence of God that is supposedly already in us, which is unbiblical.

Romans 3:23 (King James Version)
23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

The only way that we can find peace with God, is salvation through Jesus Christ, not by emptying ourselves and our minds, and seeking some mystical inner light, or whatever people want to call it (divine something).

1 Timothy 2:5 (King James Version)
5For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
 
what you have to trust is Jesus has been driving his church for 2 thousand years. It wil all be ok. Mystic practices have been around the whole time in one form or another.it is just less popular I think wearing abrown suit and sitting on a wooden pew with a bible and the old hymnal holds more attraction for many. Maybe different things suit different personalities. The churches are always fearful of some attack years ago it was the Pentecostals that were driven by the devil we were warned about lol. If this forum existed 25 - 30 years ago the threads would be about the impending doom the charismatics pose as a threat to Christians. and how utterly uunbiblical it all is. Unfortunately I think often in christian circles warnings come from people who possess only a limited knowledge of a subject and may not have thoroughly researched it themselves or heard about it off someone who heard about it off someone who heard about it off someone. the op is being good at least trying to find out if mystic practices are compatible that is good :)
 
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A sound mind..

IMO this stems from some strange perceptions of what (or should I say Who) the Holy Spirit is.. I often like to think of the Holy Spirit as the mind of Christ.. Paul alludes to this in 1 Cor where he speaks of the things which God has prepared for those who love Him, and how they are spiritually discerned.. even the deep things of God.

The Holy Spirit is not all the mumbo jumbo and craziness which so many seem to associate it with.. but rather it's peace and love and a sound MIND.. and we have the MIND of Christ..

This is why the word of God is so vital to a Christian.. He renews OUR MIND and with our MIND we serve the law of CHRIST.. this alone is the light for our path and if we start listening to men then it's so easy to get off course and things can get crazy real fast.
 
vja4Him said:
Many churches are under attack from the enemy, with counterfeit revivals, demonic manifestations, occult practices, Mysticism, New Age ...

How could so many church leaders be easily misled, and continue to add to the deception, leading many people, even Christians into the world of Mysticism ....

Has anyone had experience with Mysticism?

What exactly is wrong with Mysticism?
Click to expand...
It is surprising how some things that seem innocent can introduce demonics spirits and how other things that seem kind of dangerous really have little affect on anything.
 
Question: "What is Christian mysticism?"

Answer: The term "Christian mystic" is an oxymoron. Mysticism is not the experience of a Christian. Whereas Christian doctrine maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus, Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through intellectual means, typically by emulation of Christ. The Bible tells us that Christ-likeness is achieved only by dying to self—not by self-effort at emulating anyone—and that spiritual truth is discerned through the intellect as guided by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who lives in all believers (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:14).

The closest valid experience of a Christian that might resemble mysticism to an unbelieving observer is when the Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit. For Christians, it is evident that the extraordinary wisdom, boldness, understanding, strength, etc. that such spiritual believers demonstrate is the result of being filled with the Spirit, as it is set forth in the Bible. Unbelievers cannot correctly comprehend such things. The Bible tells us why: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ "(1 Corinthians 2:16).

Consciousness of God is part of the common definition of the mystic’s experience, but the only valid experience of this nature for the Christian is that which is allowed according to Scripture. "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Romans 8:16). Most modern mystical experiences suggest either things that don't really have much substance (make no meaningful contribution to the understanding of corporeal life) or things that would appear to challenge Evangelical Bible doctrine, which invalidates the experience.

The closest biblical account that an unbeliever might conclude was a mystical experience might be the Apostle Paul's Damascus Road experience (Acts 22:1-21) or the experience he described in 2 Corinthians: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell" (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).

As we examine this account from a Christian perspective, however, we notice particularly that Paul makes it clear God would not allow him to give the details of that experience. Thus it would hardly be reasonable for us to believe that God would be willing to divulge spiritual truth by the manner in which mystics seem to flaunt their experiences. It is His will to declare spiritual truth through the Apostles of the Church by the vehicle of the Holy Scriptures. "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17). "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message" (John 17:20). God said, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge†(Hosea 4:6), not from lack of a mystical experience.



Source: What is Christian mysticism?
 
Alabaster said:
The term "Christian mystic" is an oxymoron.
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No, it isn't.

Alabaster said:
Mysticism is not the experience of a Christian.
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Not of most, no, but that is precisely because there is a lack of understanding as displayed by that first statement.
 
Free said:
It depends on how exactly one defines mysticism.
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Indeed. Some refer to Babylon in Revelation 17:5 as "mystical Babylon", technically meaning allegorical rather than literally pictured.

Also some might technically classify Paul's experience of being "caught up into the third heaven" and receiving a vision of God as a highly mystical experience. When we say it in the context of the occult we definitely understand it to have negative connotations, however it can be used in a positive sense of the supernatural and of things "naturally" beyond normal human understanding and experience.

However one should not necessarily seek out mystical or "spiritual" experiences wantonly and heedlessly, since we are told in all cases to test the spirits to see if they are from God (technically refering to words of prophesy, but it holds in general by principle).

Having read some Christian literature myself from authors who wrote in the 1800s, I found that the terminology of "mystic" and "mystical" was common and was used more often back then in contexts of receiving revelations from God. The word "mystical" is not used as often today though because of the often negative connotations that it has acquired.

God Bless,

~Josh
 
Free said:
No, it isn't.


Not of most, no, but that is precisely because there is a lack of understanding as displayed by that first statement.
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If explanations must accompany the use of the word, as a Christian I refrain from all that points to what the world thinks is mysticism. Calling mysticism Christian is oxymoronic, indeed.
 
Using the term 'mystical' in the sense I mentioned above as used by Christians in the 1800s, I would classify the visions and revelations such as Ezekiel and John in the book of Revelation as being 'mystical'. I can only imagine how bizzare some of the visions must have seemed at first (a seven headed beast with ten horns... spinning wheels with eyes all around them, etc...), but that is why they asked God for an interpretation of what they saw.

My :twocents.

P.S. I certainly frown on the so-called experience of "Christian mysticism" as you refer to and mean it here though.

God Bless,

~Josh
 
Alabaster said:
If explanations must accompany the use of the word, as a Christian I refrain from all that points to what the world thinks is mysticism. Calling mysticism Christian is oxymoronic, indeed.
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I've tried to maintain distinctions between the good and bad senses of this word, but as I just pointed out: the visions in prophetical books needed interpretations and explanation. People today even are still trying to figure out what the visions in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation mean. Some of them have heavy symbolism and sometimes allegory.

However, I realize that is not what you are speaking out against above. I'm just pointing out a distinction.
 
cyberjosh said:
I've tried to maintain distinctions between the good and bad senses of this word, but as I just pointed out that the visions in prophetical books needed interpretations and explanation. People today are still trying to figure out what the visions in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation mean.

However, I realize that is not what you are speaking out against above. I'm just pointing out a distinction.
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Thank you.
 
Alabaster said:
If explanations must accompany the use of the word, as a Christian I refrain from all that points to what the world thinks is mysticism.
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That really isn't a good reason to remain ignorant of what Christian mysticism may actually mean.
Alabaster said:
Calling mysticism Christian is oxymoronic, indeed.
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No, it isn't. It depends on how one defines mysticism.
 
Sam21 said:
It is surprising how some things that seem innocent can introduce demonics spirits and how other things that seem kind of dangerous really have little affect on anything.
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Even with little 'g'ods & NO thus sayeth the Lord, huh!:screwloose Matt. 4:4
 
Chris said:
There you go guys this guy is a missionary in India I saw this months ago but forgot it til now. I think he is fairly mystic.

YouTube - Bede Griffiths
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Sorry, but this guy has compromised his beliefs, adding a bit of paganism here and a bit there. He has polluted the message of Jesus Christ, and made it of none effect. Why did he mention the concept of 'mother', and why does he have an image of a pagan god there on display for all to see?

No, this man is not someone we need to listen to. He, in fact, needs Jesus.
 
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