‘Mysticism is a system of belief that attempts to perceive spiritual reality apart from objective, verifiable facts. It seeks truth through feelings, intuition, and other internal senses. Objective data is usually discounted, so mysticism derives its authority from within. Spontaneous feeling becomes more significant than objective fact. Intuition outweighs reason. An internal awareness supersedes external reality.’ John MacArthur – “Charismatic Chaos”
(The following are excerpts from Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman L. Geisler)
The word “mysticism” is derived from the Greek word mustikos, meaning one initiated into the mysteries. Eventually, it was used in Christian circles as the branch of Christian theology that believes in the direct communion of the soul with God. In pantheistic context it usually refers to one who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain absorption into the Ultimate. In philosophy it often refers to someone who believes that intuitive and immediate knowledge of ultimate reality is possible.
Mysticism can be classed in many ways. In terms of worldviews it can be divided into Christian and non-Christian, or theistic and nontheistic. There are also forms of mysticism in most major world religions. [Is there any apologetic value to ‘mysticism’, i.e.,] does a mystical experience help establish the truth of the belief system of the one having it?
Religious experiences are notoriously difficult to define. Friedrich Schleiermacher said religion is a feeling of absolute dependence on the All. Paul Tillich defined religion as an ultimate commitment. Our own analysis found [religion] to be an awareness of some form of transcendent Other.
Religious experiences are of two basic kinds: general and specific. The first are available to all persons, and the latter are unique to only some. The former is public and the latter is private. Mystical experiences are private by nature. This does not mean that others cannot have similar experiences. It simply means that the experience is unique to the one having it. Also, the general public does not have such experiences at any time [(i.e, collectively at the same time)].
Some forms of awareness are general and others are particular. For example, the awareness of being married is a general one that one has at all times. But the awareness of getting married is a special experience that one has only while going through the ceremony. A mystical experience is more like the latter. It is a focused and intensified awareness of an Ultimate, whereas, a general religious experience is a continual and nonspecific awareness of being dependent on the Ultimate.
Mystical experiences of God are noncognitive. They are not mediated through concepts or ideas. Rather, they are unmediated and intuitive. They are direct contacts with God. They involve no reasoning processes. Although many mystics have attempted descriptions of their experience, most hasten to say that words are inadequate to express it. Many admit that they can only say what it is not. All attempts to be positive are purely metaphorical, allegorical, or symbolical. It can be experienced but not uttered.
[‘Increasingly our world is short on thinking and long on experience. Mix this with inner turmoil and a desperate need for answers from some higher source, along with the infiltration of eastern religions, and you can easily see why the mystical aspects of our culture are so predominant. Our generation would certainly far rather load all of their information in a computer and forget the agony on thinking, especially thinking biblically.’ Jim Elliff – “Led by the Spirit”]
Mysticism is not without value. As William James noted, it points to a state beyond that of the purely empirical and rational. Indeed, Christian forms of mysticism have been embraced by many orthodox Christians. However, our concern here is with the mystics’ claim of the self-evident truthfulness of their mystical experiences. They insist that [their mystical experiences] are as basic as sense perceptions, being a kind of spiritual perception. Others challenge this and offer many reasons for rejecting any truth value to such experiences.
While it is not necessary to deny that there are transcognitive mental states, it is often claimed by mystics that such experiences are self-authenticating. [It is common to have certain in the Charismatic movement claim that they ‘know’ that they are a child of God and are going to Heaven because of ‘mysticism’… i.e., because of a unique, special, experiencial encounter with God (e.g., Jesus healed me of my cancer and I felt His power go through me like electricity…).]
[‘A mystical experience is primarily an emotive event, rather than a cognitive one… Its predominant qualities have more to do with emotional intensity, or “feeling tone,” than with facts evaluated and understood rationally. Although this is true, it alone is a woefully inadequate way of describing the mystical experience. The force of the experience is often so overwhelming that the person having it finds his entire life changed by it. Mere emotions cannot effect such transformations.’ Arthur Johnson – “Faith Misguided”]
By their own admission, the experiences mystics have are not public but private. As such, then, they are subjective and not objective. But subjective experiences have validity only for the subject experiencing them. As William James noted in his landmark Varieties of Religious Experience, mystical experiences hold no authority over those not having them. [Thus, their mystical experience can only be theirs, and should not, and can not, be transferred to others… that is, it is not reasonable to expect others to have the same ‘experience’ in order for them to be a ‘Christian’, or ‘baptized in the Holy Ghost’, or ‘filled with the Spirit’, etc.. The Mormons use the ‘burning of the bosom’ phenomena as a ‘general’ mystic experience, that is, all Mormons universally should encounter this when discerning right from wrong…]
When a mystical experience is used to support the truth claim of the belief system of the one having it, it is without value for the simple reason that people with conflicting belief systems have mystical experiences [(i.e., Zen Budhists vs. Mormons vs. Pentecostals)]. But if the same kind of evidence is used to support opposing beliefs it is self-cancelling. The evidence must be unique to one over the other for it to count for one over the other.
No attempt here is made to deny that some people have a mystical experience. Nor is it denied that they may feel that it is self-authenticating. Neither do we challenge the fact that it may appear to them to come with its own self-interpreting label. It is simply argued that there is no evidence that this is so. Similar experiences by people from different worldviews appear to them to vindicate their particular worldview or religious system. However, that fact in itself shows that it does not vindicate it, since opposites cannot be true. In brief, such experiences are not self-labeled and, hence, they can he mislabeled [(misinterpreted)] by the one having them.
[Mystics] may believe in God and feel God, but they have no positive knowledge of what it is they are believing or feeling. They acknowledge a mystical realm, but they must remain silent about it. Since religion, at least in the theistic sense, involves a personal relation with God, it is difficult to understand how one can have this if he knows none of the qualities of the Beloved.
(Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman L. Geisler)
‘When we speak of spiritual union or mystical union with Christ, we must be careful not to fall into heretical forms of mysticism. In Eastern forms of mysticism the religious goal is a kind of unity (unio) with the deity by which the individual is so absorbed by the ‘ultimate one’ that personal identity is obliterated. In Christian mystical union, the self is not lost or erased by being merged with some oversoul or universal essence.’ R.C. Sproul – “The Purpose of God”
The following is an excerpt from the free eBook The God of End-Times Mysticism, which is available from Way of Life Literature, www.wayoflife.org —
Mysticism is Uniting Charismatics with Catholics
From its inception in the 1960s, the charismatic movement’s mysticism has brought it[self] into close association with Roman Catholicism. This was illustrated at the New Orleans ’87 conference that I attended with press credentials. The 35,000 attendees represented some 40 denominations, and one-half were Roman Catholic. Of the two main leaders of the conference, one was Pentecostal and the other Roman Catholic. Many of the speakers were Roman Catholic, and a Roman Catholic priest headquartered in Rome delivered the closing message the final evening of the conference. The bookstore area featured titles about Mary visitations, papal authority, and salvation through the sacraments. There were books exalting Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa. There were crucifixes and Madonnas and pictures of the saints for sell. Each morning there was a Roman Catholic mass, and the Pentecostal leader even urged everyone to attend mass the following Sunday.
What created this amazing unity? Mysticism. The crowd was not united in doctrine and not even in the gospel. The things that united them were spirit “baptism,” tongues, prophecies, spirit slaying, and above all, the powerful contemporary praise music that dominated the conference.
[‘The mystic rarely questions the goodness and value of his experience. Consequently, if he describes it as giving him information, he rarely questions the truth of his newly gained “knowledge.” It is this claim that mystical experiences are “ways of knowing” truth that is vital to understanding many religious movements we see today.’
Arthur Johnson – “Faith Misguided”]
Mysticism is Uniting Evangelicals with Catholics
Evangelicals have been drawn into association with Roman Catholicism in a myriad of ways over the past 50 years. It has happened through the ecumenical evangelism that was pioneered by Billy Graham. It has happened through parachurch organizations such as Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ, and Youth With A Mission. It has happened through the rapidly growing charismatic influence within evangelicalism. It has happened through the wholesale adoption of mystical Contemporary Christian Music, which is radically ecumenical by nature and which has a strong Roman Catholic associational element.
Everywhere we look, evangelicals are turning to Roman Catholic styles of contemplative spirituality, such as rote prayers, chanting, silence, centering prayer, the use of prayer beads, the Stations of the Cross, lectio divina, labyrinths, and “the daily office.”
The cover story for the February 2008 issue of Christianity Today was “The Future Lies in the Past,” and it describes the “lost secrets of the ancient church” [(i.e., RCC)] that are being rediscovered by evangelicals. The article observes that many young evangelicals dislike “traditional” Christianity. It is too focused on “being right,” too much into “Bible studies” and “apologetics materials.” Instead, the young evangelicals are lusting after “a renewed encounter with a God” that goes beyond “doctrinal definitions.”
This, of course, is a perfect definition of mysticism. It refers to experiencing God sensually beyond the boundaries of Scripture.
Christianity Today recommends that evangelicals “stop debating” and just “embody Christianity.” Toward this end they should “embrace symbols and sacraments” and dialogue with “Catholicism and Orthodoxy”; they should “break out the candles and incense” and pray the “lectio divina” and learn the Catholic” ascetic disciplines” from “practicing monks and nuns.”
Christianity Today says that this “search for historic roots” will lead “to a deepening ecumenical conversation, and a recognition by evangelicals that the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are fellow Christians with much to teach us.”
What Does the Emergent Church Believe about Mysticism in the Emergent Church
Does the Emergent Church practice mysticism? Yes. The Emergent Church takes more of a subjective stance on their faith. Rather than look to the scriptures for guidance and truth, the Emergent Church employs mystic practices to lead them to “truth”. [Some believe] that a person can learn and gain knowledge about God through mystical meditative-like experiences. Some of these practices include walking labyrinths, breath prayers, contemplative spirituality, repeating mantras and Christian Yoga. God makes it clear that his word is sufficient.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (17) That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Emergent Church leaders often encourage their congregation to walk labyrinths. A labyrinth is a maze like pattern that has no forks in the road or dead ends. It simply winds its way into the center. There is only one way in and one way out. Labyrinth walkers will often repeat a mantra or meditate while they journey to the center. Once in the center the labyrinth walker will sit and meditate, opening themselves to the divinity of their choice. After they finish meeting with their divinity, they will exit the labyrinth. Walking a labyrinth is a subjective mystical experience where the walker believes that they are really communing with a god. This creates situations where people elevate their own personal experiences above what God has clearly stated in His word. The other obvious problem is that walking a labyrinth is a pagan practice. It did not originate with Christianity. God abhors when His followers take a pagan practice and then preform it unto Him (Due 12:13-14, 18:9).
Contemplative spirituality is the practice of using meditation and similar mind emptying practices to experience “God”. I put God in quotes because I doubt they are connecting with the Holy God of the Bible. Rather than focus on careful study of what our God has already revealed to us, the Emergent Church prefers to empty its mind and seek an experience. Again, this is for the purposes of trying to gain new information about God and to have a [unique] experience with God.
Contemplative Spirituality is not a Christian practice or movement. It is an ecumenical (drawing all faiths together into one) movement.
“We come from a variety of secular and religious backgrounds and we each seek to enrich our journey through spiritual practice and study of the world’s great spiritual traditions. We desire to draw closer to the loving Spirit which pervades all creation and which inspires our compassion for all beings.” Center for Contemplative Spirituality
Our God does tell us to meditate on his word. This is not the practice of emptying our mind and expecting an experience. Meditating on God’s word is the practice of filling our mind with his word. And we are not to just repeat a scripture over and over in our head like a mantra. We are to dwell on a scripture, thinking about its meaning and praying to our Father to help us be renewed by his word.
Ps 119:148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
Ps 77:12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Ps 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
A practice included under the banner of contemplative spirituality is the repetitive use of breath prayers or mantras. Emergent Church leaders will encourage the vain repetition of prayers or short bits of scripture.
Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (8) Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
This is a practice that did not originate with Christianity but with ungodly mystics. Again, let’s fill our minds with God’s words. Let’s think on His words. Let’s pray with a purpose and not annoy our Father with vain repetition.
Youthapologeticstraining.com