Posted by fh on February 18, 2013 at 16:42:24
In Reply to: Re: nature of knowing God, walking by faith posted by ray on February 17, 2013 at 19:53:20:
Ray, I think we may speak much the same language, but we may not apply it the same way.
I agree with much in your assessment, although I cannot call it mysticism.
As goes for ‘direct communion with God’ there is one mediator only, that is true, so that is as direct as can be.
Abt transsubstantiation, if you think Luther subscribed to that, could you find that pls. As for me, whatever Luther thought of it, I think this is one of a series of sad superstitious dogmas in the RCC.
Is faith not apparent to the senses? We cannot see or feel faith, we cannot weigh it, that is true, but if we have faith in something we will live accordingly and thus faith will be apparent. If our faith is never shown in some perceptible way, then it is it useless faith, or dead faith. We have heard that Abraham was made righteous through his belief, but it was nothing mysterious in that, and although he was far from perfect he simply obeyed what God told him, that is how his faith in God became apparent (Gen. 26:4,5).
Even in Christian Mysticism they also believe in the practical application of one’s faith.
Although we now in many things see through a glass darkly, and to us lots of things are a mystery, meaning we do not understand it, this does not qualify as Christian Mysticism (CM).
CM have entirely their own lingo and nomenclature, which cannot be mistaken. Most sounds real good and pleasing, until you realize they are introducing a different Jesus and a different God. The little and carefully selected scripture they use and the religious pious approach is for little more use than to throw Christians off and render them defenseless, thinking this is the real deal.
Very briefly, Christian Mysticism is the idea that you have within yourself all the resources you will ever need. You search deeply within for the Holy Spirit, who, never mind your faith, will manifest itself and in turn lead you into all truth, ‘search the deep things of God’. They almost never focus on God’s Word as the leading beacon, but a god who usually is to be found more or less dormant within. Therefore there is no real guiding beacon, except what you may feel within, and pretty much all things are thus subjective and relative.
Most Christian Mystic websites will focus on scriptures like 1. Cor 2, 7 in their own special understanding of it, and often out of context as well. In short much of this is preparation for the next step which often is the esoteric teachings of theosophists and so on, mostly without the knowledge of the common people involved.
But all these dynamics we know only too well from our time in TF. Berg never focused on God’s Word… almost all that he published was his ramblings on his nonsense dreams, his sexual encounters with demons (godesses), his encounters with palmreaders and mediums, promoting promiscuous behaviours, etc. He wrote on some political analysis and other practical things, but most of that is so flawed that it is quite unbelieveable he could sell it. Sometimes he came back and said we need to go to God’s word for direction, but he did not then, as they don’t now in TF, mean the Bible, they mostly meant the older Mo-letters, and other TF pubs.
For some fascinating reading on this topic, I would suggest this letter, from 1983:
Here are a a few CM websites, and I think they are more or less self-explanatory. The lingo by itself will doubtless speak volumes.
(On this website, which is a jesuit one, you can read what I will call quite unsettling stuff. They speak of “month-long program of meditations” “thought experiments” “examinations of consciousness” “visualizations” and other strange things. As you may notice, they also have “spiritual directors” i.e. the same title that Peter and Maria now is using.
This above with the citation below has all the fingerprints of brainwashing and what may be worse.
“Usually retreatants will meet regularly in private with a spiritual director to discuss their experiences of prayer and reflection, and to receive guidance in praying with the Exercises, in thinking about what they are doing, and in the interpretation of what is happening to them.“