Choosing Mystical Union Over the Cross
http://onetruthministries.com/articles.html
by Brian Flynn
The goal to unify man through a shared mystical religious experience
is becoming more crystal clear with every passing day. The Sufis of
Islam have "Fana,"1 the Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) have "Amidah,"2
and the Buddhists and Hindus have TM. And now last but not least, the
Christians have contemplative prayer. Through contemplative prayer,
many evangelicals and post-modernists say we can join the shared
universal experience.
Listen to a few comments by dedicated New Agers and mystics who
affirm
their belief that the mystical element unites all humanity:
A highest common factor [is] ... the metaphysic that recognizes a
divine Reality ... [linking] every religious tradition.3-Aldous
Huxley
I would like to explore what I call interspirituality: a crossing-
over
boundaries that mysticism makes possible and concrete.4-Wayne
Teasdale
This mystical stream [contemplative prayer] is the Western bridge to
Far Eastern spirituality.5-Tilden Edwards
It is with great sadness and dismay I tell you now that this New Age
mindset has spilled over and is now invading Christendom. Evangelical
author and speaker Tony Campolo, in his book Speaking My Mind,
affirms
this union:
[M]ysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity
and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of
ecstatic union with God, which seem at odds with their own spiritual
traditions but have much in common with each other.6
Later he asks the question, "Could they [Islamic Sufis] have
encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism?"7 With
various examples, Campolo paints a picture of interspirituality
through mysticism. Referring to Muslim and Christian mystics, he even
tells us that the Christian mystics, such as St. John of the Cross,
were enriched by the teachings of Sufi philosophers. In comparing St.
Francis of Assisi with the founder of the Sufi movement, Campolo
says:
Both men sensed a sacred presence in everything and claimed to have
experienced a mystical union with God.8
The obvious implication of Campolo's statement is that God can be
reached through mystical experiences, regardless of one's religion
and
beliefs. This is common thinking among contemplatives who often state
that contemplative prayer does indeed provide a bridge to Divinity.
The Bible makes it clear there can be no access to God except through
Jesus Christ, but these writers negate this central claim in Jesus'
proclamation by their promotion of mystical union with God for all
religions.
Alan Jones, an Episcopal priest and a member of The Living Spiritual
Teachers Project(9) states is his book, Reimagining Christianity:
Christ and Buddha are not antithetical. They are not at cross-
purposes. Neither are they identical. The man on the cross and the
princely contemplative are different images telling different
stories.
But they are not at war. They can be in conversation. There is grace
in both.10
He later states:
Jesus is the Way to a new kind of life. Jesus and Buddha have this in
common with all great spiritual teachers--to make human beings more
conscious of themselves, to get more real.11
New Agers and postmodernist Christians are attempting to deny or
obscure the unique person and work of Jesus so He can be considered
the equivalent of Buddha and other spiritual teachers. Jesus Christ
is
God. Buddha was a man. Jesus is alive. Buddha is dead. Can they not
tell the difference? Emerging church leader Brian McLaren further
develops this attempt in his book, A Generous Orthodoxy:
This is how I feel when I'm offered a choice between the roads of
exclusivism (only confessing Christians go to heaven), universalism
(everyone goes to heaven) and inclusivism (Christians go to heaven,
plus at least some others). Each road takes you somewhere, to a place
with some advantages and disadvantages, but none of them is the road
of my missional calling: blessed in this life to be a blessing to
everyone on earth.12
McLaren wishes to be a "blessing to everyone on earth," but I wonder
how many of those, who are being blessed by him, will be deprived of
hearing the true gospel of Jesus Christ and believing in Him.
Contemplatives, such as Brennan Manning, believe we cannot even have
a
close relation****p with God without the mystical, contemplative
element. Manning states, "Intimate knowledge of God only comes
through
centering prayer."13 That would mean that without a mystical
experience of going into an altered state of consciousness there is
no
chance at all of knowing God intimately. Apparently, for Manning
these
experiences are more trustworthy and effective than the Word of God.
Combine McLaren's and Campolo's teachings that God can be found in
mystical experiences regardless of a person's actual beliefs, with
Brennan Manning's idea that we cannot even know God closely without
contemplative, and what do you get?--a new Christianity that excludes
Jesus Christ as being the only way of salvation.
Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). I view that statement as
good news. It is the end of confusion. It is the end of ambiguity. It
is the end of wishy-washy postmodernist ideas. It is simply good
news!
When I became a Christian it was a relief and a joy to finally know
the truth about God, to know who He is, to understand His nature, and
to know His will.
However, for these contemplatives, Jesus' claim seems to be a source
of embarrassment. They believe that the exclusivity drives people
away
from Christianity. Are they ashamed of Jesus' exclusive claim for
salvation? That appears to be the case. And yet, shouldn't Christians
follow the example of Paul, who in the end lost his life because of
his stand for Christ?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of
God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and
also for the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
Through their shame of the gospel, the contemplatives wish to erase
what they see as Christianity's exclusive claim. If only we could rid
ourselves of doctrine, disagreement, and certainty then we can join
with our brothers of the East and share our knowledge of God obtained
through meditation.
Alan Jones states: "A 'doctrine' is not like a fact to be believed
but
rather a way of being in the world that is validated by
experience."14
The New Age offers empty feel-good platitudes and subjective
meditative experiences. Sadly the contemplatives offer much of the
same. That is what they should be ashamed of.
(from Running Against the Wind, 2nd ed., pp. 185-188)
Notes:
1. The Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult defines it as: "The Act
of merging with the Divine Oneness."
2. From "Kabbalah Made Easy": "An indication that one need not be a
mystic to meditate is a passage from the Code of Jewish Law regarding
the daily prayer, called the "amidah," which is recited three times a
day. 'This is the way the pious prayed, they would meditate and focus
their minds on the prayers until they reached a state when
physicality
was nullified, and the intellect was strengthened until they reached
a
state close to rophecy.'" (http://www.kabbalah
made easy. com/
prevarticles/meditation.html, accessed 6/ 2005).
3. Ron S. Miller and New Age Journal, As Above, So Below (New York,
NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1992, p. 2, citing Aldous Huxley, Perennial
Philosophy).
4. Wayne Teasdale, "Mysticism as the Crossing of Ultimate Boundaries:
A Theological Reflection," op. cit.
5. Tilden Edwards, Spiritual Friend (New York, NY: Paulist Press,
1980), pp. 162-163.
6. Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind (Nashville, TN: W Publi****ng Group,
Div. Thomas Nelson, 2004), p. 149.
7. Ibid., p. 150.
8. Ibid.
9. The Living Spiritual Teachers Project (http://www.spirituality
health.com/newsh/items/blank/item_ 3635 .html, members include
Buddhist Monks, New Age Gurus, Zen Masters and so forth. They
include:
Marianne Williamson, Ram Dass, Andrew Harvey and Thich Nhat Hanh).
10. Alan Jones, Reimagining Christianity (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons, 2005), pp. 146-147.
11. Ibid., p. 194.
12. Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (El Cajon, CA: Zondervan),
2004, p. 113.
13. Brennan Manning, Gentle Revolutionaries(Denville, NJ: Dimension
Books, 1976), p. 104.
14. Alan Jones, Reimagining Christianity, pp. 207-208, op. cit.
A lot of people pull away from New Age Spirituality once they have
discernment ....and they should. The Bible warns people of a false
mystical world spirituality and system (Mystery Babylon) and tells
people to come out of it or face destruction.
(Rev 18:4-5 NIV) Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come
out
of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that
you
will not receive any of her plagues; {5} for her sins are piled up to
heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
Coming out of Babylon, what does this mean?
Following the 11th September tragedy in 2001, I wrote some comments
in
which I said that I thought that God is saying to us, His people, to
"Come out of Babylon" (Rev 18:4). In this introductory article I want
to examine what this means in practise. How do we come out of
Babylon?
Introduction.
The idea of coming out of Babylon is similar to Paul's comment in 2
Cor 6:16-18, which refer to separation and purity:
(2 Cor 6:16-18 NIV) What agreement is there between the temple of God
and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
"I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God,
and they will be my people." {17} "Therefore come out from them and
be
separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive
you." {18} "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and
daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
My Story - Brian Flynn - former new age medium
http://onetruthministries.com/my_story.html
I was born in Albany, New York the youngest of three children. My
father was Catholic and my mother was Episcopalian. I was raised
Catholic and attended church almost every Sunday. When I was ten my
father decided that we were not going to church anymore. He said the
church was getting too modern. Conducting folk masses and having
people on the pulpit that were not ordained was too much for him. I
believe the real reason was that my father had lost his faith or he
never had a very strong one. I had no objections to leaving the
church. It had no meaning for me anyway, it was all very boring and
pointless to me.
I left home when I was eighteen and joined the Air Force. I attended
church on occasion but not that often. I would only go at out a sense
of guilt not out of a desire to know God.
Like many people in my position who felt that Christianity was not
the
answer to life's questions, I began to explore other beliefs and
religions. I ventured or perhaps waded into Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Transcendental Meditation. I eventually embraced the New Age.
A friend of mine was attending a year long course that he said was
helping him to become aware of himself and his identity in the
universe. He told me that it was giving him the peace that he had
always sought. In the same course you could also learn how to perform
psychic readings. I wasn't interested in the psychic aspect, but I
was
looking for meaning in my life and perhaps this would help. I
attended
the course and at the end of it I was able to perform psychic
readings
and was quite good at it. Now make no mistake, it does work but there
is a reason for that. I will explain why before I finish.
There was still something missing in my life, a community, and a
sense
of belonging. There isn't one in the New Age. A friend of mine
invited
me to her church. She said I might like it and I did. The pastor's
message was positive and I really enjoyed the music. The church was
rather large and I enjoyed the fact that I could remain anonymous. My
friend also knew I was a very logical and analytical thinker. She
told
me about a seminar taught by a scientist who had come to faith in
Jesus Christ. He would be discussing the evidence to sup****t the
Bible
and the authenticity of the story of Jesus. I've always been a good
debater and I thought it might be fun to put the teacher on the
defensive. I was sure that when it got down to the facts, he would
rely on some type of a "blind faith" answer. I couldn't have been
more
wrong. The facts began chipping away at all my mis-information I had
about the Bible, Jesus and Christianity. On the night of the last
class I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior.
I did have one more "demon" to conquer. In the week following I
experienced much opposition from the voices of my "guides", the ones
I
utilized to perform readings. They said that my newfound faith was
not
real. It was then that I realized that the voices were in opposition
to my new found faith, because it was the opposite of theirs. I knew
right then that I had been in the wrong place my whole life and that
my spirit guides were not of God.
The reason that my psychic readings "worked" although not all the
time, is that it does have to work on some level other wise you
wouldn't stick with it. The guides or more accurately the demon's
goals, are to keep you dependent on them and from seeking or even
finding the truth about God. It was that realization that convinced
me
that I had been wrong my entire life and that I needed to continue to
build towards a closer relation****p with Jesus Christ.
For more references:
http://www.cephas-library.com/na/new_age_mystical_deception_files.html
http://www.lighthousetrails.com/atimeofdeparting.htm
|
