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Podcast
Christian Mysticism
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt and today I want to talk about Christian mysticism, the idea that the
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leading of God can be known through subjective experience. My thesis is that the Bible does
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not endorse mysticism as a basis for decision making. The Merriam-Webster definition of
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mysticism is, quote, the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate
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reality can be attained through subjective experience, close quote. Mysticism is part
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of every world religion and cult. It's part of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and
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Christianity, but there's absolutely no mysticism whatsoever prescribed, sanctioned, or practiced
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by any of the people led by God in the Bible. Christian mysticism, thinking God told me,
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God called me, spoke to me, or led me, disavows spiritual responsibility and determines spiritual
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accountability. Critical thinking and personal responsibility are given up when we look at
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life mystically. With mysticism, faith becomes superstition. Superstition is a widely held but
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unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action
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or event or a practice based on such an event. That's a quote from the Oxford American Dictionary.
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Therefore, mysticism should not ever be a part of our spiritual life in any Christian. The
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Christianity of the Bible is uniquely non-mystical. Subjective superstition is not revelation. Although
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there are some, I've never heard anyone tell me that God told them something audibly in a verbal
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sentence. Most are quick to qualify their direction from God as not having been in the
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form of an audible voice speaking to them or writing words. They'll tell you their divine
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leading is consistent with the Bible but does not violate anything in the Bible. Biblical things
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happen because of it. For example, they were led to someone who received Christ, needed help,
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wanted an answer to a crucial question, or something else good happened. They then often
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find a Bible verse that seems to affirm their mystically obtained directive from God. But the
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calling, direction, or leading was not an application of Bible study. It was attained
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through subjective experience. It was an unjustified belief in supernatural causation
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leading to certain consequences of an action or event, the definition of superstition. These
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experiential leadings then tend to dominate their spiritual life. The source mystical Christians
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refer to for determining their spiritual leading, calling, or direction from God are subjective
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circumstances, usually from one of three sources. Feelings, meaning inklings, notions, impressions,
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or glimmers. Coincidences, events and occurrences, what they call divine appointments. Or from
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friends, suggestions from other believers. But we need to understand something when pursuing
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this line of thinking. Nobody in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation ever received personal
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direction from God that way. Nobody. The Bible tells us about a narrow band of people like Noah,
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Abraham, Moses, David, Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and the New Testament apostles who received
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direct revelation from God. That's what the Bible is, a record of God's revelation.
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But we're not Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, the apostles or prophets.
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Also, when these prophets were led by God, it was a clear directive from God. For example,
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when Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, we do not
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know exactly how the Spirit did that, but it was not some vague circumstantial puzzle Jesus had to
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figure out through circumstances, feelings, or advice from his friends. A common question is,
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couldn't God do that? If Christian mystics coincidentally run into someone at the airport,
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they might consider it a leading from God. Or if some or several friends mention something,
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then they hear some preacher on the radio say something similar, it might be considered a
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clue from God. They do not just mean everything is in the sovereign plan of God,
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they mean God specifically set up this for some reason, and they're supposed to figure it out.
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But couldn't God do that? Well, of course God could do that. But what God could do is irrelevant
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to the discussion of mysticism. The question is, did he do that? Does he do that? And how do you
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know that? Here is what we know. God never ever revealed his will, led, called, or communicated
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with anybody that way in the Bible. If God never did it then, upon what basis do we assume that
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he's doing it now? Humans are superstitious people. We knock on wood, wear our lucky t-shirts to the
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ball game, carry lucky charms. We believe things happen in groups of three. We believe black cats
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stepping on sidewalk cracks and walking under ladders is bad luck. Stop it. It's just a bunch
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of nonsense. If superstitions are true, then what causes them? God? If God caused my team to win,
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if I wear my lucky shirt, then I can maneuver God to do what I want by simply wearing my lucky shirt.
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That means I'm in charge of God. But most Christians would probably not think they
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were maneuvering God into making their team win if they wear their lucky shirt.
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Then what does cause it? Fate? Some unknown mystical force? Is it this mystical force
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that is separate from God? Well, if so, then God has competition. So if I believe in mysticism,
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then either I have power over God or something else does.
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Now it's very important to point out, I think God led me is very different than saying God led me.
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If you want to say, I believe God led me or called me, or I think God led me or called me,
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I have no problem with that because then you're just talking about yourself.
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But if you say God led me, or God told me, or God called me, or it was a divine appointment,
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then you're talking about God. You're speaking like a prophet.
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We all believe we can see God's hand in our lives in the past. And we certainly know God is sovereign
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and God is involved. Everything is predestined by God. But that's quite different from saying we
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know what he's doing or what he is calling or leading me to do now. If you say God led me or
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God told me, meaning he told me what to do, then you're talking about a knowledge of God outside
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of scripture. And I don't think you know what God's doing outside of what he's revealed in
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scripture. I don't think you know God's personal agenda. God criticized Job for thinking he could
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know what God was doing in his life. There's a biblical example of someone who tried to use
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circumstances to figure out what God was doing. Job was suffering because of a confrontation
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between God and Satan. It even involved the death of Job's children. Job's friends thought they had
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all figured out. For example, Bildad the Shuite answered, if your son sinned against him,
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then he delivered them into the power of their transgression. Zophar the Namathite answered,
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but would that God might speak and open his lips against you. Eliphaz the Temnite said,
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your own mouth condemns you and not I, and your own lips testify against you.
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Job's friends all concluded that they knew what God was doing.
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They all said Job was suffering because of some sin for which God was punishing him.
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They went on for days trying to get Job to believe that. And Job agreed in principle,
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but he was also trying to understand what he'd done to deserve this suffering from God.
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One thing Job agreed with his friends about was that a person should be able to figure
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out what God's doing in his life from his circumstances. So Job wanted an explanation
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from God. Well, in chapter 38, one to four, the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind.
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And he said, who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your
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loins like a man and I'll ask you. And you instruct me, where were you when I laid the
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foundation of the earth? God went on to give Job a science quiz, asking him if he knew what God had
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done. But Job did not know any of the answers. Then in chapter 42, verse seven, we read,
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it came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job that the Lord said to Eliphaz the
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temnite, my wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends because you have not
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spoken of me what's right. The theme of the book of Job is that we cannot figure out what God's
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doing from our feelings or our circumstances or the advice of our friends. And what God's
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doing in our life is none of our business. It's crucial to understand that God is involved in our
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lives. The Bible describes an involved God. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God is working
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in your life. The Holy Spirit leads us, guides us. Here's some examples. Number one, the Holy
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Spirit gives us an assurance of our salvation and future glorification. Quoting from Romans 8,
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the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we're children of God. He is the spirit of truth who the
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world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides
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with you and will be in you. Second, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. We're being led by
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the Spirit of God, not when we receive mystical messages, but when we're putting to death the
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deeds of the flesh. For our gospel does not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the
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Holy Spirit with full conviction, 1 Thessalonians 1.5. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you'll not
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carry out the desires of your flesh, that from Galatians 5. Third, the Holy Spirit helps us
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understand the Bible's true. A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for
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their foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they're spiritually appraised.
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All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
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training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work.
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Believing the truth of the Bible is the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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Four, the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual wisdom that allows us to see through the world's lies, 2 Corinthians 4.4.
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For example, the world believes in evolution with zero evidence. The spiritual wisdom says that's
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contrary to God creating all things from nothing. Yet we do speak wisdom among these who are mature,
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a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away,
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Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.6. These are the kinds of things God's doing in our lives
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experientially. He assures us of our salvation, convicts us of sin, helps us to understand and
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apply the Bible, gives us spiritual wisdom. Another common question is what about
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hearing a still small voice of God? The basic problem with the idea that God communicated
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with a still small voice is that it never happened. Nothing in scripture ever records
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anyone ever hearing a still small voice or even a small voice of God according to the
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numeric standard Bible. Apparently, some preacher made up the phrase, used it as a metaphor of
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mystical revelation, and others kept using it. But neither the phrase nor the mystical revelation
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idea exists in the Bible. The passage being used is when Elijah was hiding from Jezebel in a cave
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near Horeb, the mountain of God. We read in 1 Corinthians 19, 12, and 13,
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After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, a sound of a gentle
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blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in a mantle and went out and stood in the entrance
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of the cave, and behold, a voice came to him. King James says there came a voice unto him and said,
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What are you doing here, Elijah? The Bible does not say there's a still small voice,
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but more importantly, observe what it does say. It says there was a voice. It was not a feeling
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or a coincidental set of circumstances that Elijah was to use as clues to figure out the call of God.
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This was a distinct audible voice from God giving a message to Elijah in complete rational sentences.
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Can we know what God's doing today? There are two things we can know God's doing today.
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One, Christ is building his church, and two, God's conforming his church, us, to the image of Christ.
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But notice those things are things he is doing. They are not things he is asking us to do.
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We have no specific knowledge of exactly how he's doing that.
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The Bible doesn't tell us, so we would have to know more than the Bible knows.
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David knew two things God was doing in his day. One, God was establishing Israel as a nation,
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and two, God had already anointed David as king when he was a boy. On two different occasions,
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1 Samuel 24 and 1 Samuel 26, David's friends looked at the circumstances and determined God
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was leading David to kill Saul as a means of accomplishing God's purpose for David.
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We read, the men of David said to him, Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you,
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Behold, I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him that seems good to
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you. That's from 1 Samuel 24. But David refused to kill Saul, God's anointed king, because he looked
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at what God was doing through God's revelation, not through his circumstances, not through his
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circumstances, nor through the urging of his friends, even though David knew God was
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sovereign over the circumstances. Well, as a conclusion,
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mysticism, the idea that God told me, called me, led me, or spoke to me,
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reduces faith to superstition, a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural
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causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event.
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Biblically, faith is trusting, reasonable evidence. Superstition is a perversion of faith
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held by all the world's religions and cults. God gave us real verbal, audible, and written
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revelation through his prophets with many convincing proofs, Acts 1-3. But he asked us to
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trust that revelation. He did not ask us to go looking for an ongoing, personal, unjustified
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belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event.
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Could God do that today? Well, of course he could, but he never did that in Scripture,
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and to claim God is doing something different today, and we know specifically what that is,
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seems unlikely. Do we think God was working personally in our lives? Of course we do,
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but that's about ourselves, what we think, not a pronouncement of what God's doing.
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Does God actually work in our lives? Well, of course he does. He answers our prayers,
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assures us of our salvation, convicts us of sin, helps us apply the Bible, and gives us spiritual
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wisdom. But there's nothing in Scripture that says he works in mystical ways to be determined
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through superstition. Ezra 7-10, Ezra had a sight set in his heart to study the law of the Lord,
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and to practice it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
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Well, thank you for listening. A longer paper with more references
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is available on our website relationalconcepts.org.
