THE “ISMS”
MYSTICISM
DR. JIM DIXON
1 TIMOTHY 4:1, 2 TIMOTHY 4:1
NOVEMBER 14, 2010
Our subject is mysticism and mysticism may be defined as the belief and practice that seeks a personal communication or experience with God through a direct encounter. So let me repeat that mysticism is the belief and practice that seeks a personal communication or experience with God through a direct encounter. If it is really mysticism, if the individual is really a mystic, he or she is focused on the inward. In the midst of this personal experience with God, in the midst of this direct encounter, whatever that direct encounter might look like, they are focused on the inward. The mystic wants to experience God intimately inwardly. The mystic wants to experience the presence of God intimately in the soul.
The Christian mystic generally says, “It is not enough for me simply to have the Bible, though it is the Word of God. It is not enough for me to just to study it, read it, to rightly divide it, to hear it taught, to hear it preached and proclaimed. It is not enough for me simply to understand it, obey it, submit to it. It is not enough for me to simply serve the cause of the kingdom of God on the earth. I need to experience God. I need to experience him inwardly. I need to feel him. I need to feel him in my soul.” Mysticism. Through the Christian centuries there have been some wonderful Christian mystics. There have been some really weird Christian mystics and there have been mystics who were not Christian.
What I would like us to do as we begin our look at this, I want us to look at the history of mysticism in terms of Judeo-Christian history. I want to begin by taking a look at God’s effort to communicate with mankind. Mysticism, on some level, has to do with communication between God and man and a desire to feel that communication. I want to take a look at, first of all, God’s effort to communicate with us. I want to do this biblically. The Bible makes it clear that God has sought to communicate with us through nature. The Bible does say that God seeks to communicate with the human race through nature. In fact, the Bible says there is enough communication from God in nature that unbelief is unacceptable to God. In Romans chapter one it says,
“The wrath of God is poured out from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For all that is known about God is plain to them, for God himself has revealed it. Forever since the creation of the world God’s invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity have clearly been perceived in the things that are made so that mankind is without excuse.”
We have this teaching in the Bible that God has communicated through nature. The creation reveals a creator. Albert Einstein saw this. Albert Einstein said that he could see in the creation evidence of the creator and he could also see something of his nature. He could see, for instance, in the creation that the creator is not malevolent but benevolent. Most human beings in the course of world history have agreed with this, that they could see something of God in nature. It is also true that many mystics, and we are going to take a look at this in a little bit, have tried to deepen their experience of God through time spent in the natural world and the world of nature.
God, from time to time, has sought to communicate more fully and more directly. So, God, the Bible tells us, from time to time has entered human history and God has communicated with mankind. God has done this supernaturally through the angels. The Bible says that God created a host of beings called angels and God himself is Jehovah Sabaoth, he is the Lord of Hosts, and there are myriads of myriads of angels, innumerable angels in festive gatherings. They are placed within the creation but precede man. The angels were created before God formed and crafted humankind. The Bible tells us that angels were created, it seems, even before God created the cosmos, even before God created the universe because the Bible says in the Psalms that the angels shouted for joy at the creation of the world.
There are angels holy and there are angels fallen, for there was an angelic fall. How the angelic fall has impacted the cosmos, we do not fully know. There has been an angelic fall and there are angels both holy and fallen and they are engaged in spiritual warfare. There is a battle amongst principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This battle has some influence upon the affairs of mankind, and yes, even human history. The word for angel in the New Testament is angeloi, the word for angel in the Old Testament is malakim; these words have the same meaning. The Greek word, the New Testament word means messenger, the Hebrew word, malakim, the Old Testament word, also means messenger. God, at least in some sense, crafted the angels for messaging. As human beings we understand the need for messaging. We have sought to improve and increase our ability to send messages throughout human history.
You have heard of the Pony Express, and I am not thinking of the Denver Bronco cheerleaders. the Pony Express was created in 1860. In 1860 the Pony Express was developed and it went from St. Joseph, Missouri, all the way to Sacramento, California. One thousand nine hundred and sixty-six miles, 190 stations, each station about ten miles apart, and there were 400 fast horses and 80 riders. The 80 riders were mostly teenagers. They were given $100 a month, $1,200 a year. The mail moved from Missouri to Sacramento at the pace of about 200 miles a day. Incredibly, mail could move from Missouri all the way to the west coast in ten days. The nation marveled.
The Pony Express was ultimately replaced by transcontinental railroads and the telegraph: better, improved methods of messaging. Today we have all of our sophisticated technology, with probably too much messaging going on today. God is also concerned with messaging and he has, from time to time, communicated in human history through angels. The Bible makes it clear that angelic visitation is rare, at least rare insofar as it is understood or known by man. The Bible says sometimes we entertain angels without knowing it. Many, the Bible says, have entertained angels unaware.
Angels are not just messengers, they are called watchers, they are called guardians, there are warrior angels that are dedicated to spiritual warfare. There is a hierarchy of angels: there are arc angels, there are thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. You have this whole realm of creation that is in the spiritual realm and distinct from man. It has to do, at times, with the effort of God to communicate.
God has communicated at times in human history through theophanies; a theophany is a physical manifestation of God. God appears to Moses on Mt. Sinai, Mt. Horeb, in the burning bush and speaks through the burning bush. That is a theophany. Theologians debate whether God has ever appeared in the form of a Christophany, whether the Son of God has actually appeared prior to his incarnation and his birth in Bethlehem. Did he appear in human history in the form of a Christophany? Some have suggested the possibility of Malchizedek, Genesis chapter fourteen. In Genesis, chapter fourteen, you read about Abraham and how he is returning from the slaughter of the kings and he meets this mysterious man Malchizedek, king of righteousness, he is also called king of Salem, perhaps Jerusalem. He appears to Abraham and the patriarch gives to Malchizedek a tithe of all of his spoils, a tithe of all he has. Malchizedek blesses Abraham. Then you come to the New Testament and to Hebrews, chapter seven. I don’t know how many of you have ever read Hebrews chapter 7. Let me just share just a little bit with you. It is mysterious.
“This Malchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him; and to him Abraham gave a tenth portion of everything. For he, Malchizedek, is first by translation of his name, king of righteousness, then he is also king of Salem, that is to say king of Shalom, king of peace. He has neither mother nor father nor genealogy, neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God he continues to preach forever. See how great he is! Abraham the patriarch gave him a tithe of the spoils. Those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, for they also are descended from Abraham. This one, this one who has not their genealogy, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who received the promises. It is beyond dispute the inferior are blessed by the superior. Here, tithes are received by mortal men, but there by one of whom it is said he lives. One might even say Levi himself who receives tithes, paid tithes, since he was still in the loins of his ancestor, when Malchizedek met him.”
What a strange passage. Did you ever read a passage in the Bible and think, wow, that is strange! Did you ever read a passage in the Bible and think, man, what in the world is that about? There are a number of passages like that in the Bible. This character Malchizedek is a strange one, maybe a type of Christ. Theologians and scholars debate. He may actually be Christ. It is Christ who is King of Righteousness; it is Christ who is King of Peace. It is Christ who has power to bless even the mighty. Maybe the Christ actually appeared in the time of Abraham before his incarnation, communicating with man. If you go through the Bible and see, in mysterious ways, God has, in his fullness, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, communicated with humankind.
It’s not just through angels, nature, theophanies, Christophanies. God has communicated through the prophets. You go through the Old Testament and you read the prophets, you read Ezekiel, you read Malachi, you read the major prophets, you read the minor prophets and you see the voice of God, you hear the voice of God. The Hebrew word “nabi” means to speak for or to speak forth. The Greek “prophetes” has exactly the same meaning: to speak for God, to speak forth God’s Word.
So, God has communicated, through history, through prophets. Prophets were not always popular; they were simply called to be faithful, not successful. Prophets spoke the prophetic word, they spoke against oppression, they spoke against the oppression of the poor, they spoke against immortality, they spoke against extreme materialism that resulted in the abuse of the poor. They were oftentimes run out of town on a rail. But when they died, they got a prophet’s reward if they were faithful. The office of prophet was established in the early church amongst the people of Christ, a gift of the Holy Spirit of God. Even to this day I believe he speaks through prophetic voice. So God communicated through the prophets.
God has communicated through the apostles, apostolos, those who have been sent forth. Jesus chose the twelve—they have special anointing, special gifting, often times spoke for God; much of the New Testament was crafted by the apostles, guided by God, the Scriptures themselves, God’s communication with us. All Scripture is God-breathed—theopneustos. It is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training and righteousness that the man or woman of God might be complete, equipped for every good work. So, God has sought to communicate with us through Holy Scripture. His breath is upon the book, so I feel like there is something kind of mystical for me. Every time I read the Bible, I feel like God breaths on my soul. At times I just sense his breath touching my innermost person, something mystical.
Supremely, God has spoken through his Son. This has been the supreme, ultimate, full manifestation of the Father, the Son. The Bible says, Hebrews chapter one, many various ways spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken through his Son, who he has appointed the heir of all things and whom through also he created the world. The ultimate communication of the father is through his son, Jesus Christ. He is the Word, the Word of God made flesh. We have God’s effort to communicate with us.
I want to take a moment and look at man’s effort to communicate with God. This is what has, through the centuries, produced mysticism, the mystics who are longing to increase and enhance their experience of God and their communication with God. There are those mystics who focus on nature; we return for a moment to nature. Within the world of mysticism, there are nature mystics. Some of them are in the Christian arena. In the nineteenth century you have Therese of Lisieux. She was a Carmelite nun. She was a French Catholic. She only lived 24 years in this world. She died of tuberculosis, but her life was precious. Fortunately, she wrote her autobiography and it has been translated to many of the world’s languages. You read her autobiography, you see her love for Jesus, you see her love for Holy Scripture, you see her love for the gospel, but you also see her experience. You realize that for her, her experience of Jesus was almost always in and through nature—a walk in the woods, the unfolding of a flower, a walk beside the lake, a roaring river. The touch of God, she felt it in and through nature. There have been Christian mystics like that, who just want to get away and get out in nature.
I think of Jonathan Edwards. Most people, certainly most Christians have heard of Jonathan Edwards. I marvel, though, how few seem to know anything of his life. Jonathan Edwards was, perhaps, the greatest American theologian, one of the greatest theologians in Christian history: the president of Princeton University, missionary to the Indian nations, and preacher extraordinaire. You read his writings and he explains again and again and again how, for him, the experience of God was primarily in and through nature. One of his writings called Personal Narrative describes how he has felt intimacy with Christ when out in the world of nature.
I can resonate with that. One of the hardest things for me about living here in Denver is not the cold; the cold doesn’t really bother me that much. In fact, I love a blizzard, a snow storm, a fire in the fireplace. Cool deal. The hardest thing for me is just the absence of color in the winter time, and the absence of leaves and green grass and flowers. I love flowers. It used to be when I was a younger man I thought, I am a man, guys can’t love flowers, unless they are colliding and crushing each other or something. I actually love flowers. I love the delicacy of a flower, I love the range of color and the beauty of it. Like so many of you, I can sense and experience God in nature.
Outside of the Christian world, there are many mystics who also look to nature. That has always been the case. You have Henry David Thoreau and those who are like Henry David Thoreau and Walden Pond, the son of a pencil maker, graduate of Harvard, again and again and again explained how he could only encounter God in the world of nature. John Muir, son of a preacher, felt like he could really only encounter God in the glory and majesty of the Sierra Nevada mountains. You can walk the John Muir trail today and see what John Muir saw, seeking mystical intimacy with God. The problem with all of this is nature is not a substitute for the assembly. Christ wants his people to know, “I will build my church, and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.” “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” So, it is not enough to take a walk in the woods, to look at the unfolding of a flower. It is a beautiful thing but no substitute for the call to assemble as a church.
It is also true that one of the dangers of mysticism, as it takes a focus on nature, is pantheism. We can look at human history and find many in the world of mysticism who became pantheists; they begin to worship nature, thinking somehow God is nature and is summed up in nature when the Bible gives us a very different view. God created the creation but stands separate from it. God created the time-space continuum, but he transcends it. He is not summed up by it. You can’t fall into the worship of nature and think that in any way it pleases God.
Another danger of mysticism, as it focuses on the world of nature is animism. Many of our missionaries, as they go to Africa and parts of Asia, find animists and tribal animists. They have taken forms of pantheism that moves into animism, and they believe that spirits and supernatural entities inhabit trees and flowers and rocks and mountains and they begin to pray to them. We go into these cultures, and we experience this, we see this, and strangely enough, even today in the New Age movement, you see some of this. In the cult of Oprah, you see some of this kind of pantheism, you see some of this animism.
When our daughter Heather graduated from Colorado State University, we went to her graduation party for her department. The head of the department, who was a wonderful lady, she concluded the deal. I have shared this with some of you. She was not a Christian, but she had some love of spiritualism. She concluded her deal saying, “Let me conclude this meeting with you parents by saying a benediction.” Barb and I looked at each other and wow, she is going to say a benediction, is she going to ask the Lord to bless us and keep us? No, you know that wasn’t it. She gives the benediction and she puts her arm up and she says, “In the words of the Apache Indian Nation, ‘may the great eagle fly over you, soar over you, watch over you.”‘ That is animism and it is tragic. It is based on the belief that supernatural spirits inhabit animals and plants and you can pray to them, you can receive blessing or cursing from them. What a crazy world in which we live. There are dangers of mysticism, even in this world of nature.
Some people seek communication with God through the relational dimension. There are some mystics think, I can best experience God through people. They might base it on the Imago Dei, the image of God given to man and just think, because man is created in God’s image and likeness, I see God through people and if I give more of my life to relationships with people, I will experience more and more of God. The problem with this is, the Bible tells us, people are fallen and we are all sinners in need of grace and the image of God is, at best, residual in us. Even as Christians you might think, because of regeneration, and the indwelling presence of Christ, I can experience Christ best through other people and spending more and more and more time with people because they have the indwelling presence of Christ. Again, as Christians, we are also fallen, and we also are sinners in desperate need of grace. I can promise you whatever you see of Christ in me is distorted. Ask anybody who really knows me. You have these Judeo-Christian movements, from the kibbutz to the commune, thinking that this form of relational mysticism will produce this unique intimacy with God. Sometimes it leads people into some really strange stuff and leads them astray. I am not going to deny, we need each other, and the Bible makes that clear.
I am not going to deny that we can experience something of God in each other, something of Jesus in each other as Christians, yes, but don’t think that God is primarily experienced through human beings. God, in his fullness, is holy, and wholly other, and awesome.
There are those in their mysticism have sought to encounter intimacy with God through asceticism. Instead of trying to experience God by getting together with people, you experience God by getting away from people: asceticism and monasticism. Throughout Christian history you have seen a whole bunch of Christians, mystics, who have sought God through asceticism. Look at the founder of the monastic movement, Anthony of Egypt, also called Anthony of Thebes, and he believed that by getting away to a desolate, lonely place and by self-denial—rigorous self-denial—by asceticism somehow there might be opened up the ability to see and hear and feel the presence of God. As you separate yourself from this world and the things of this world and distractions of the world and you go into a separate place, you can begin to experience, uniquely, the presence of God. Or maybe, as you make these sacrifices and you are willing to suffer and you deny yourself, maybe God will be so impressed he will reveal himself to you.
Some of the mystics entered into the practice of monasticism and asceticism, and there was a whole group called the Stylites. I don’t know how many of you have ever heard or studied the Stylites. The word stylite comes from stylos, this word means pillar or column. In Christian history the Stylites were Christian monastics who lived on pillars. The founder of the movement was Simeon Stylites, who lived in the fourth century, and he went and lived for 30 or 40 years of his life on a pillar six feet in diameter. He slept up there, he ate up there, he had attendants who took care of him and provided for him, but the idea was that through all of this self-denial and through the suffering of it all, somehow, he might be able to see God or God might appear to him. You have this whole movement of pillarsitters.
Here is the strange thing: they became really popular in the religious and secular world both. People would go to see pillar-sitters. So, Simeon Stylites, he had three emperors of Rome visit him and two popes came to visit him. These pillar-sitters would have crowds gathered bringing lunches and they would come sometimes by the thousands and the pillar-sitters would begin to preach. So, pillar-sitters would become preachers and they would preach from the top of their pillars. Of course, the irony is they were trying to get away from people and now here they are with multitudes everywhere. Behind that whole monastic- asceticism is this effort at least at some level to experience intimacy with God.
Today you can read books by Richard Foster and you can read books by Dallas Willard and these are Christian men who really love Christ. We have had both of them here at the church; Richard has come and spoken here. Dallas has come and spoken here. These are Christian brothers who love Christ. They are very concerned with spiritual formation, so if you read their writings, you will always find there are sections in there where they talk about a little bit of asceticism: a little bit of self-denial might be good for the soul. They talk about a little bit of monasticism, getting away from the hustle and bustle of life and trying to find some intimacy with God. It is a good thing. They are well-balanced, and they have a balanced view of the Christian life.
I have had dinner with Richard Foster and I can tell you he didn’t deny himself a whole lot. These are normal guys, but they are just saying, “In a balanced walk with Christ, yes, there is some room for some mysticism even in the form of some asceticism.” Here is the problem. A lot of people read books and, though the book is balanced, they don’t read the book in a balanced way. They just focus on one part of the book and just go whole hog. You see a lot of that in the Christian world. I encounter a lot of Christians who I think have gone into some extremes and entered excessively into the world of mysticism. There are a lot of Christians out there, and even non-Christians, who seek encounters with God through the supernatural. Some of this leads into occultism, and is an abomination to God. There is a lot of quest for supernaturalism within the New Age movement and a preoccupation with visions and dreams. I know, biblically, that there is a place for visionary dreams and visionary experiences.
I know that the prophet Daniel had visions and John the Apostle had visions. Daniel had supernatural dreams and was a dream interpreter. Even, I will confess to you, I have had in my life a visionary dream. You are probably thinking, oh wow, Jim, bad mushrooms. I really did have a visionary dream: actually, it was a visionary experience. I woke up and in my waking state I had a vision, and I could sense the presence of God and I was overwhelmed by his presence and I felt like he literally just captured my mind and he begin to take me through passages of Scripture in the Old and New Testament. I just went and sat in my study and I felt like a stream of consciousness, but coming from God. It had to do with the vision of what we are going to be like when we get to heaven and the wonderful things he has prepared for us.
But, whenever you have anything like a vision, you need to run it through the grid of Scripture; you need to test it by the Bible. You need to test everything by the Bible and if it doesn’t agree with the Bible, it is wrong. I, once in my life, had a dream that I believed was a visionary dream and I woke up and I knew it was no normal dream. It was a message that I needed directly from God, I believe that, but I have not lived my life in quest of such things. You see, part of the problem with mysticism is that if you give your life to mysticism, instead of studying the Word and submitting to it and growing in the Fruit of the Spirit and growing in the holiness of Christ and instead of focusing on serving Christ in a fallen world and serving the cause of heaven on this earth, you begin to go inward. You begin to want another buzz, another fix. There are many people who give themselves to mysticism and are almost of no earthly good or heavenly good because they become so enamored with the supernatural inwardly.
Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement have some dangers with regards to mysticism. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I am not a cessationist. I have brothers and sisters in Christ who are cessationists and they believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the end of the apostolic age. I don’t believe that. I believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit continue to this day. I see nothing in the Bible that would lead me to conclude that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the end of the apostolic age. Indeed, I can look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and Romans 12 and Ephesians chapter four and 1 Peter chapter three and I can see a variety of gifts given by the Holy Spirit. I see 32 gifts, but allowing for overlaps, maybe 21 gifts or so. They are all beautiful; I believe they are viable; I believe the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts in accordance with his will.
Some of those gifts are very mystical. Word of knowledge is very mystical; prophecy, glossolalia, speaking in tongues corporately if there is interpretation, but privately in a prayer language in your own home, there is an inward intimacy to some of these gifts. I believe they are real. The problem when you just focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the problems with certain aspects of the charismatic movement and Pentecostalism is, again, you think that is more important than it really is. The Bible tells us that the Fruit of the Spirit is way more important than the gifts of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 13 says,
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I have prophetic powers and understand all knowledge and all mysteries and have all faith as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.”
So, the Fruit of the Spirit should be our greater focus and the service of Christ and his kingdom as we seek first the kingdom of Jesus Christ. One of the problems of Pentecostalism is the tendency to elevate yourself above others if you think you are unusually gifted. “I have a gift you don’t have so I am better than you,” or, “you have a gift that I don’t have so you are better than me.” The Holy Spirit has come to bring us together as the Body of Christ, that we would love each other and value each other. The Holy Spirit is not meant to divide us.
There are certainly dangers in the whole world of mysticism. When you meet somebody that is really caught up in mysticism, they will even take the sacraments and distort them. I love communion. Every time we celebrate communion here at the church, for me, it is a very special time. We celebrate communion bi-monthly and we have times during the week when we celebrate communion. We take communion to shutins in obedience to Christ. We understand that it has been established and set apart by Christ and we remember his body broken and his blood shed and we sense his presence with us as a body, as a family, in those special times.
I have met some people into mysticism to such extent they can only experience Christ through communion. That is the only way they can experience Christ now. They have this idea that when they take the bread and when they take the cup, they are ingesting Christ inwardly and they are merging Christ with their soul and they just can’t get enough of it, so they want to celebrate every week. I have met Christians who want to celebrate communion every day. Heck if it is true, that you are actually ingesting Christ in your soul, why not every minute? It represents false theology and a dangerous mysticism that takes you away from a balanced experience of Christ and the beauty of Jesus that we experience everyday whether we are at work or in our neighborhood or at church or with our family or at a football game. Christ said, “I will never leave you or forsake you, I am with you always.”
I think sometimes mysticism is so dangerous because it becomes superstitious about things. It becomes almost superstitious. Here is the deal. You can look at history of Christian mysticism, and the best and brightest of Christian mystics had two tests. They would ask this question: has my intimacy of Christ and has my experience with Christ, has this inward experience I claim developed the Fruit of the Spirit within me? Then secondly: has my experience of Christ furthered the cause of the kingdom of Jesus Christ? Does it further the cause of the kingdom of Christ and does it develop the Fruit of the Spirit in me or is it just narcissistic?