What's Wrong with Mysticism?

Gary: In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call, here is this week’s question: Dear Dave and TA: You guys are completely down on mysticism, yet isn’t there a biblically legitimate mysticism? Aren’t there mysteries in Scripture?

Tom: Dave, you just talked about that in our last segment. There are mysteries in the Scriptures; for example: the mystery of iniquity, the mystery of godliness, the mystery of the Rapture. I mean, there are all kinds of mysteries. But that’s not mysticism as we have been describing, is it?

Dave: There’s a big difference between a mystery and mysticism. I guess detectives try to solve mysteries, but they don’t do it by mystical means. They follow the evidence and come to a rational, evidential conclusion. We did explain it, Tom, that mysticism is the opposite - you’re not thinking carefully, you’re not coming to some understanding. For example, you mentioned the mystery of iniquity. Well, you would begin to think, What do you mean, iniquity is a mystery? 

Well, I could give you a lot of ideas. I mean, you could preach many sermons from that one verse. Iniquity: who is the big sinner, and who is the leader in this movement of iniquity? Well, Satan! It’s kind of a mystery, isn’t it? Why would Satan?—all he knew was the presence of God; all he knew was the perfection and holiness of God, the purity, the love of God! This was his whole being centered in this. He was brought forth to be right there in God’s presence. Why would he, in his heart...where would this sin, this idea, come from? Why would he, of all angelic beings, rebel? If anyone knew the power of God, he surely did. So, that’s a mystery - a mystery of iniquity.

And then, why would we go along with this? Why would anyone, knowing that God’s stronger than I am - you’re not going to win a battle with God - why would I continue in my iniquitous ways knowing that God’s judgment is going to fall upon me? I would say that’s a mystery, something that you could think about and you would learn a lot about the human heart. It’s deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

But, then mysticism? Oh, well, I’ll go into myself and I’ll find a place of stillness, of silence, where I’m not even thinking of anything.

No, not even close!

Tom: Dave, what I’m seeing in the emerging church from the writings of their leaders, they want to major in mystery, but they mix it with mysticism. For example, there were some things that God did not reveal in the Old Testament but that He reveals in the New Testament. The Rapture of the church, Christ in me, the hope of glory - these are mysteries, and certainly they are incomprehensible, but nevertheless, it’s laid out for us, and God will help us understand. But I like the way you’ve talked about it and written about it in articles, and so on, about faith, and then our ability to comprehend some things, and then things that go beyond our comprehension.

Dave: Right, yeah - faith: this is another argument of the atheists in these debates.Richard Dawkins, for example…Well, he defines faith as a refusal to face evidence. It's the blight of religion that you don’t have any evidence; you just take a leap in the dark, and believe something. And what you are saying, Tom, I mention it often: Faith follows the evidence as far as it will go. How can I possibly believe in Hebrews:11:3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
See All... “By faith we understand the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

Everything was made out of something invisible? That’s beyond my comprehension. However, God has given me so many prophecies. He has proven Himself in so many other ways, and I follow that evidence, and then when God asks me, "Well, I want you to believe this now; I can’t explain it to you - you’ve got a very tiny brain..."

Tom: We are finite and fallen.

Dave: Right. "I can’t explain it to you, but I’ve explained so much else that you know is true - that you have been able to verify,  - now I am asking you to take a step of faith." Okay?

Tom: It’s based on reason from a God who said, "Come, let us reason together," and created us to understand things. Dave, that’s my great issue that I have with the emerging church, because what they're their saying - whether it be Richard Foster, who is not in the emerging church, but his teachings are foundational to it; they are saying, "We can’t comprehend these things; we’ve got to experience them. It’s like Rajneesh saying, "Leave your sandals and your mind at the door" in front of his ashram when he was in Poona. It’s the antithesis of what you just said.

Dave: Right, and it’s not what God wants. God wants us to know Him, and shall I quote Jeremiah 9:23 and 24 again? "Let not the rich glory in his riches, the mighty in his might, and the wise in his wisdom, but let him that glory, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me.” With all your getting - you quote it often, Tom.

Tom: Proverbs:4:7Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
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Dave: That’s right, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting, get understanding.” God wants us to understand. This whole mystical trip is the opposite: don’t understand; feel it, experience it - and that is not what God wants for His children.