Mysticism

Now we get to the nasty word that can, and possibly will, be applied by others to all that I have been discussing both in this chapter and for most this book. If ever there has been a “shibboleth” that has caused one Christian to turn upon another, it is this word.

[Judg 12:5-6

5 And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;

6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

(KJV)]

George Muller has written the following:

“God then began to show me that the word of God alone is our standard of judgment in spiritual things; that it can be explained only by the Holy Spirit; and that in our day, as well as in former times. He is the Teacher of His people. The office of the Holy Spirit I had not experimentally understood before that time.

“It was my beginning to understand this latter point in particular, which had a great effect on me; for the Lord enabled me to put it to the test of experience, by laying aside

commentaries, and almost every other book and simply reading the word of God

and studying it.

“The result of this was, that the first evening that I shut myself into my room, to give myself to prayer and meditation over the Scriptures, I learned more in a few hours

than I had done during a period of several months previously.

“But the particular difference was that I received real strength for my soul in so doing. I now began to try by the test of the Scriptures the things which I had learned and seen, and found that only those principles which stood the test were of real value.”

[The Lord’s Dealings with George Muller. J. Nisbet & Co., London.

Muller could write of receiving real strength for his soul. And I can write of “the front door” and “the back door” and of a “Chicagoland,” and of Christ looking back at us when we look into the pages of scripture, and of our being transformed by that look.

And for that, both Muller and myself will be labelled “mystics,” and what we have said will be labelled “mysticism.”

But we will have been labelled that by those who believe they are alone inside their own heads and barely even believe that they are a spirit indwelling a body which has the Holy Spirit of God co-resident. But yet they will use the same Biblical language as Muller and myself. This is the difference between “shibboleth” and “sibboleth” as far as the things of God are concerned.

So what’s wrong with this word “mysticism?”

Well, for one thing it looks like a wicked word. It looks like it has associations with the word “mystery,” which in turn brings up ideas like “darkness” and “hidden things” and “secrets” and such like things. In literature, “mysteries” are the “who dunnit?” books about solving murders.

These are not associations that upright, wholesome, honest, and above boards Christian people care for.

Rom 13:12

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

(KJV)

1 Cor 4:5

5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

(KJV)

2 Cor 6:14

14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

(KJV)

I Jn 1:6

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

(KJV)

2 Cor 4:2

2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

(KJV)

And then there are the things that have been attributed to mysticism in the popular mind: astrology, alchemy, mythology, spiritualism, telepathy, telekinesis,clairvoyance, divination, and Extra Sensory Perception. And because of these attributions, mysticism has attracted to it people who have been downright unwholesome, dishonest, and decidedly below boards.

Also, the term “mysticism” has been applied to other religions. There is “Christian Mysticism,” ‘Buddhist Mysticism,” “lslamic mysticism,” “Hindu mysticism”, etc. etc. This has been taken by some to mean that “mysticisim” is a denial of the uniqueness of Christianity.

There is is even a webite with the label “Christian Mysticism” which uses the false Secret Gospel of Thomas (a Gnostic work) to promote the idea that Our Lord was ... Well, I will not write it. Suffiice it to say that the idea is as abominable as the website.

So these are the dark associations that the the word “mysticism” raises in many Christian minds, and the associations that many wicked people would like to keep current.

And these are also the mental associations that modern science and philosophy would encourage, even though modern science and philosophy has long left behind the idea of something being moral or immoral.

In science, if you say that there is a something, but cannot produce instrument readings showing the thing to exist, or cannot theorize it’s existence in any way congruent with existing scientific knowledge, then you will be called a “mystic,” and what you say will be called “mysticism.”

In philosophy, if you say that something can be known to the mind but the knowledge of it cannot be had by putting it into rigorously consistent symbols that can be grasped by another mind (i.e. via mathematics or language), then you will be called a “mystic,” and what you say will be called “mysticism.”

Now, this label of “mysticism” is not meant to be a moral judgement by science or philosophy. It is meant to be a classification. Just has the legal profession concerns itself solely with what is legal and illegal - and not with what is moral or immoral - science and philosophy concern themselves only with what is science and philsophy. Mysticism is not considered science or philosophy because of the intangibles it deals with.

For example, science and philosophy will both affirm that there is such a thing as the color blue. Science will affirm it with instrumentation. Philosophy will affirm it as a verbal symbol that means one thing and not another. But if I ask the question “Is the color blue I see in my mind when I recall a blue object I’ve seen the same color blue that someone else sees in their mind when they do the same?”

Is this a valid question? Yes. Is it a scientific question? Not presently. The instrumentation isn’t there. Is it a philosophical question? It used to be, but now it has been relegated to being a question about the use of language. So the question is considered a mystical question.

But the Christian layman continues to think that science and philosphy do make moral judgements about things - and especially things like mysticism. And the scientist and the philospher is not loath to encourage that misconception if it serves their turn. Science and philosophy have long fought a very hard battle to keep mysticism out of science and philosophy. And the mass beliefs of non-scientists and non-philosophers have long been the source of mysticisms that try to creep back into science and philosophy.

So when science and philosophy cast their baleful eyes on statments made by George Muller and myself and pronounces us to be “mystics” - and what we say to be “mysticism.” - there are upright, wholesome, honest, and above boards Christians sitting in the stands above who will yell down “Atta boy, science and philosophy! Now go and kick’em while they’re down!”

But then after the said kicking is administered, these very nice upright, wholesome, honest, and above boards Christians will take out their Bibles, quote from them, and then be stunned when the scientists and philosophers turn on them and label them mystics and say that what they are quoting is mysticism.

The Bible speaks of a God who cannot be entirely captured by any human system of symbols, and cannot be detected on any instrument of human observation. And so now these wholesome Christians also get to feel the sting of what feels like a moral judgement.

Clearly, the problem is with the use of the word mysticism. The problem is not with the word itself, but with how it is used. Lets break it down for our understanding.

First of all, are all of the mental associations with the word myticism to be completely shunned by Christian people? I think not. Darkness does not always have evil connotations in the scriptures:

Gen 15:12-16

12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

(KJV)

Deut 5:22

22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.

(KJV)

2 Sam 22:7-12

7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.

9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

12 And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

(KJV)

Nor does “hiddeness”:

1 Cor 2:7

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

(KJV)

1 Pet 3:4

4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

(KJV)

Rev 2:17

17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

(KJV)

Nor does “secret”

Deut 29:29

29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

(KJV)

Judg 13:18

18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?

(KJV)

Ps 25:14

14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

(KJV)

And even the apostle Paul uses the word “mystery” to expound Christian truth:

Rom 11:25

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

(KJV)

Rom 16:25-27

25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.

(KJV)

1 Cor 15:51-52

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

(KJV)

Eph 1:9

9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

(KJV)

So lets start getting at the root of the matter. Where does the word mysticism come from?

It comes from the word mystic. Mysticism is what a mystic says. It’s what comes out of a mystic’s mouth.

And what is the root and orginal meaning of the word mystic?

The word mystic comes from the Greek word mystickos. Mystickos means "belonging to secret rites." It in turn comes from the Greek mystes, which means "one initiated."

“Not what,” you may ask, “does that refer to?” And I will answer.

It refers to the private Greek mystery religions that grew up along side the public worship of the Greek idol gods.

In any age, human beings who give themselves to the worship and service of vain idols find that despite whatever external benefits they think they receive in life, or evils they think they avoid in life, their thoughts still turn to what happens after life when the Unseen receives them into its eternal realm. There is always the quesiton of what happens to the “I-guy” after all has been said and done on earth.

In the pagan mind, the answer to this question was found, not in the public worship of their communities’ idols, but in private, secret devotions that were personalized between a worshiper and his idol through secret initiations, ceremonies, rituals, and myths. These secret religious observances where to the soul of a pagan man, what the public religious services were to the body of a pagan man - a personal space that was as unique to him as his “I-guy” was. So that meant these rites had to be and remain secret, and not something to be revealed and shared with “just anyone.”

But since they were secret and had to stay secret, how then did they get communicated from one generation to the next? The solution was the idea of “initiation.”

The secrets would stay with a select few, who would “initiate” a young newcomer, who would then grown old in the mysteries and later initiate another young newcomer. Thus were “the mysteries” passed down. And thus was a mystes a “one initiated.”

Since the whole business was about the survival of the “I-guy,” the idol god a pagan chose to built a mystery rite around was usually one that had an existing death-and-resurrection myth. Take for example, the Eleusinian Mysteries. Here is a Wikipeda article on them that gives flavor of what they were like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries#The_Mysteries

Eleusis was a small town located about 30 km NW of Athens. It was an agricultural town, producing wheat and barley.

The Mysteries were based on a legend revolving around Demeter. Her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped by Hades, the god of death and the underworld. Demeter was the goddess of life, agriculture and fertility. She neglected her duties while searching for her daughter; the earth froze and the people starved— the first winter. ... Finally Demeter was reunited with her daughter and the earth came back to life— the first spring. ... Persephone was unfortunately unable to stay permanently in the land of the living, because she had eaten a few seeds of a pomegranate that Hades had given her. Those that eat the food of the dead may not return. A compromise was worked out and Persephone stayed with Hades for one third of the year (winter, as the Greeks only recognized three seasons, skipping autumn) and with her mother the remaining eight months.

The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated Persephone's return, for it was also the return of plants and of life to the earth. She had eaten seeds (symbols of lives) while in the underworld (underground, like seeds in the winter) and her rebirth is therefore symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life during the spring and, by extension, all life on earth.

So a participant in the religion of the Eleusinian Mysteries was one who hoped to link his personal “I-guy” to the drama of death and resurrection as played out by Persephone, and thereby possibly gain the survival of his “I-guy” after death.

In a way, this is the same idea as beating on a “strength” for physical benefits, but now it has been transformed into receiving the “spiritual” benefit of surviving the death of the body.

Because mystery religions provided this “payoff,” there have been attempts in the past to portray Christianity as a Jewish sect that got turned into a mystery religion. But this superficial comparision does not take into account the following from Ps 50:16-21:

Ps 50:16-21

16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?

17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.

20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son.

21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

(KJV)

If there is one clause in the whole book of the Bible that summarizes idolatry in a nutshell it is this: thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself. The essential ingredient in every form of idolatry is the attempt by the creature to remake his creator into a being like himself. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Rom 1:24-25, KJV).

The idolater wants a god who is like himself so that he can have a god who will fellowship with that self. Israel’s unseen He-Who-Is is not a Being who can be so moulded. And His manifestion in human form as the Son of God from heaven is likewise not a Being who can be so moulded even though He is a man. The cross He bore is the proof of that. His cross was our remaking back into His own image, not the other way around. This is divine severity, divine condescension, and divine mercy.

In the Greek mystery religions, there as a large amount of “kidding” of the self. The requirement of a moral life (where that was even a consideration) as mostly for “show.” And there were few exclusive initiations. If you initiated yourself into one mystery, you could still initiate yourself into another. This had something of the flavor of “covering all your bets,” as the 2nd century’s The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius makes fun of a character who is so “devout” that he had himself initiated into just about every mystery cult there was. At some point these mystery religions became pretty much like joining a Moose Lodge or an Elk’s Club.

But notice what has happened. A word, mysticism, has been coined that refers to the “inner” or “spiritual” experiences of a religion as opposed to the “outer” or “material” expression of it. This is how a Christian’s inner experience of the Holy Spirit of God can come to be labelled “mysticism,” even thought the origins of the word have nothing to do with Christianity.

In fact, this is what is meant by “Christian Mysticism” as opposed to another religion’s mysticism. It refers to the inner experiences of Christianity that some Christians have, rather that to the outward expression of it. The word mysticism does not necessarily deny the uniqueness of Christianity. But there have always been writers on Christian Mysticism who have tried to make it seem so.

There is also another thing to notice. The terminology used to describe a mystery religion sheds light on why the apostle Paul used the word mystery to describe the revelation of the Christian age.

As the book of Acts makes clear, in Paul’s time, nearly every city in the Hellenic world had a synagogue where Moses was taught:

Acts 15:21

21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

(KJV)

This teaching had distinct external elements to it: the invisible God, sexual morality, and dietary directives. There was also the separation of uncircumcised gentiles from the worship meetings (though females gentile converts were completely accepted, and the males unwilling to be circumsized could often stay in the background as “God fearers.”) .

When Paul began his missionary journeys into the Greek world, he had to find a way of explaining why some things were now different from the way they had always been in the synogogues. In Christian assemblies, Jews and no-Jews mixed together in the worship meetings. And there was now the Messiah, revealed as the eternal Son of God yet incarnate as a man and now seated on His father’s throne in the heavenlies. Sexual morality remained (though you wouldn’t know it from the Corinthians) And food issues got dicey from time to time because there were those who’s conscience would not let them feel that the dietary laws of Moses were “a shadow of things to come”, of which Christ was the realilty.

While Paul was preaching the revelations he had been given directly by Christ from His heavenly throne, Paul had to explain why the revelations had some differences from what had always been heard in the synagogues.

Paul was aware that his target audience was well familiar with the Greek mystery religions, and so he couched his messages in the familiar terminology of the mystery religions. He could speak of “mysteries” - things implicit in the Hebrew scriptures, but now revealed - things now made manifest by Christ’s walk amongst men, and the revelations given to Paul.

He could talk to his listeners as if they were “initiates” into those “mysteries.” But since he was openly preaching and writing out these doctrines, this gospel he was preaching was not really a mystery religion. He could couch the Christian revelation as a whole in terms of being a mystery because the essence of it - communcation wth the Father, in the name of the Son, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - was as intensely internal and personal a thing as any mystery religion had ever been known to be. This made for some very flexible language ...

.... in proclaiming the Christian revelation as a whole ...

Rom 16:25-27

25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

27 To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.

(KJV)

1 Cor 2:7-11

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

(KJV)

Eph 1:3-10

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

(KJV)

... and for explaining things that were specifically revealed to Paul ...

1 Cor 15:51-55

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

(KJV)

Eph 3:1-6

1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

(KJV)

Eph 5:31-33

31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

(KJV)

Col 1:25-27

25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

(KJV)

So this is again how the term mysticism came to be associated with the internal, spiritual events of a Christian’s faith. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

But there was an actual historical moment when Christians did start to explicitly use the word “mystic,” “mystical,” and “mysticism” to describe their internal experiences of Christ through the Holy Spirit of God that was within them.

What seems to have happened is this.

Like those of us in the modern age who know Christ through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, and have seen Him look back at us in the pages of the scriptures when we have given Him the time that honors Him, there were also Christians in the time of The Desert Fathers who had experienced the same things. “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32, KJV) Like David of old, they found Him to be the apple of their eyes, and yearned for more.

But like most of us, they had the responsibilities and duties that come of living in this busy world. As young people, they had a duty to the parents who gave them birth to marry and have offspring so that their parents could be cared for when they were old and unable to care for themselves in a pre-social security world. And then having married a spouse, there were the duties toward that spouse as well as to the spouse’s family. Then came all the reciprocal duties to the extended in-laws, and the duties to one’s own children and all the children of one’ extended family. And then came the reciprocal duties to all one’s neighbors and their children (for it does take a village to raise a child - unless one wants to be driven to distraction).

So from the extention of oneself into one horizontal relationship, a myriad of others spring into being, and the time for one’s single, fervent, fierce, and vertical relationship to God is reduced as each horizontal relationship springs into being, and as material needs expand and drive one forward into near-ceaseless labor.

In Christianity, the intial impulse to celibacy came from just this consideration.

1 Cor 7:32-33

32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.

(KJV)

Later this would harden into matter-hating, gnostic, “forbidding to marry” type heresies (1 Tim. 4:3), but initiallly it was about getting the precious “apple of the eye” time with God.

But then something happened. The honest impulse to seek time to be alone with the Lord started to get “professionalized” into a whole discipline for doing so. The monasticism stuff started happening.

This flew in the face of revelation. There is an aside in one of Paul’s espistles where he writes against the idea of “leaving the world.”:

1 Cor 5:9-11

9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people--

10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

(NIV)

The proper and true relationship of a Christian to The World is to be “in it, but not of it.”

Matt 5:13-16

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

(KJV)

But no, these argonauts of the spirit went ahead and removed themselves to where it was just God and them, and the desolate wilderness. They had to go see what God would make of them, and what they could make of God. They were undistracted and completely free to consentrate and look with unveiled face onto Him who looks back.

There is was a Catholic monk called St. John of the Cross. His writings were suppressed after the coucil of Trent because they were deemed “too Protestant” when the Protestant Reformation got underway. John of the Cross was famous for saying that there was such a thing as “spiritual” gluttony - or gluttony in regard to spiritual things. These argonauts of the spiritual realm were to find that out.

Yes, some of them were marvelously transformed. And people would come out to the desolate places just to see them and learn from them what they had learned from God. And that would be enough to get them yanked them back out of their caves and back into useful service in the world. The law of unintended consequences at work. And a demostration that a limited time of being alone with the Lord can reap some good if it does not go overboard. The apostle Paul spent some time alone after his conversion in order to assimilate what had happen to him, and he came back from that a fierce knife of a man for the Lord.

But there were others who made shipwreck of their faith. In my essay on the nature of occult phenomena (http://twentysevenmetaphors-graspofhappiness.blogspot.com/2005/01/appendix-necromanyrecarnation-and-last.html), I’ve said that the way one becomes aware of the spiritual world is by becoming as unaware of the physical world as possible.

Some of those poor isolated nimrods became very aware of the spiritual world. So much so that some of them developed what Watchman Nee has so decorously refered to as “the latent powers of the soul.” The importunacy of their souls went over into the extreme of occult phenomena. They experienced visions, voices, and nonsense. They became the playthings of lying spirits. And they went on to play a part in adding unscriptural traditions and attitudes to the Christian revelation. This all played a part in the drift of Christianity that eventually led to the Reformation.

But their main contribution was to take the private spiritual experiences a Christian has with His Lord, and cause them to be labelled mysticism. These freelance monks started calling themselves mystics - “initiated ones” - just because they had professionalized what had been freely available to any Christian who cared to seriously pray and read his or her Bible.

Then they started to write about the things they had experienced and their writings went on to be called “mystical philosophy” or “mysticism.” And of course all the ones who went haywire got to attach all their weirdness to this term too.

The words “mystic” and “mysticism” did not immediately get as much traction in Western Christendome as it did in Eastern Christendome. The reason for that is that the Christians in the West were rightly suspicious of a word that originated with the pagan Greek mystery religions. They’d already caught a whiff of the dirty word it would be made into.

What Christians in the West had been calling their private times with the Lord was something they called “contemplation.” A much more wholesome looking word, which comes from the latin for “with a temple.” One lets one’s mind become a temple of the Holy Spirit by prayer and reading the scriptures.

But then came the further professionalization of Christianity. It came to be divided between “lay people” and “the religious.” And so being a “mystic” and spouting “mysticism” became the province of a select group of “religious.” In fact, if you were a “lay” person, and later started to get inclinations to seriously pray and read the Bible, the authories would come along and dub your a “reglious” and toss you into the nearest monastery or convent they could find so you wouldn’t infect ordinary people.

Once there, if you continued to be serious about praying and reading the Bible, and started having spiritual experencies because of it, presto! You were a mystic! And what came out of you mouth would be called mysticism, good, bad, or indifferent.

Because of the undercurrent of bad doctrine in Christendom back then, a lot of what came out of a mystic’s mouth was both very good and very bad. As I mentioned, St John of the Cross turned out to be so Protestant that what he wrote was later supressed by the Catholic church when the Reformation got started.

Madame Guyon suffered a like fate. She had always thought of herself as a dutiful daughter of the Catholic church. But then she wrote something called “A Short and Easy Method of Prayer,” and it turned out to be a document advocating that believers to cut out the “intermediaries” and go directly to the Father in the name of the Son. That kind of thing got her clapped into prison. After her death her writings became very popular among Protestants.

But then there was also Richard Rolle of “The Fire of Love,” (c. 1343) which has the following passage in it.

Another [woman] rebuked me because I spoke of her great bosom as if it pleased me. She said, "What business is it of yours whether it is big or little?" She too was right. The third [woman] jokingly took me up when I appeared to be going to touch her somewhat rudely, and perhaps had already done so, by saying, "calm down, brother!" It was as if she had said, "It doesn't go with your office of hermit to be fooling with women."

The anounymous author of “The Cloud of Unknowing” would later rebuke Rolle for his very physically based attitude to mysticism. (Rolle made a big deal out of feeling a sensation of “fire” in his chest.)

But the real damage was done during the Protest Reformation.

When the Reformation got started, the great men of the newly rediscovered word of God (sola scriptura!, scripture alone!) came forward to challenge the doctrinal drift that Catholic doctrine had undergone during its long centuries. One of the ways the Catholic church reacted was to bring out their mystics and say “look here, their visions support our positions.” And the nascent Protestant churches then reacted by leveling their new secret weapon: Newtonian science. In very short order Protestants came to see “mysticism” as “something those nutty Catholics do.”

So now we’ve come to this heritage in the Protestant churches were there is a strong tradition of unicycling (Scripture alone!), where anything that smacks of “mysticism” is considered suspect, both for its historical support of bad doctrine (even though it also supported good doctrine), and because it is “unscientific” and is considered to have a taint of the occult on it.

But in Protestantism’s long history, there have continued to be people who have seriously prayed and read the scritptures, and had synchronistic communications from God happen to them from to time, which let them know that God was really with them in their daily lives and not just in Bible stories.

Take, for example, John Nelson Darby. None one will accuse JND of mysticism, or of being a mystic. But yet there was a time when someone tried to talk him out of the doctrine of the divine inspiration of every word in the Bible. (http://www.johndarby.org/beginning/)

This person said to Mr. Darby “But do you really think that no part of the New Testament may have been temporary in its object? For instance, what should we have lost, if St. Paul had never written the verse, 'The cloak which I left at Troas bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments'?”

And Mr. Darby replied right back, “I should certainly have lost something; for that is exactly the verse which alone saved me from selling my little library. No! every word, depend upon it, is from the Spirit, and is for eternal service.”

There you go. JND had been trying to decide if he should sell his little library, and he had taken his Bible reading of that day as God’s opinion on the matter. Even Mr. Darby was alert to synchronicities.

Why have I been going on this long about a single weird word?

Well, I am not really trying to defend it. I shun being called a “mystic” because there are some circles in which that would be considered “cool” because of some of the word’s associations in the popular mind with occult phenomena.

I’ve gone on this long about the word because if you, as a reader of this book, set yourself to pray concretely and make yourself sit and listen to the Bible, there are going to be well meaning people, well meaning Christian people, scientists, philosophers, and Protestants who are going to call you a mystic and what you are doing mysticism. I want you to be prepared in your own mind for when that happens. The word essentially means that you are someone who has communications with God, both sending and receiving. But there are a whole host of other associations the word has that you may not like. Don’t get upset about what other people call it. You have no control over that.