Mysticism

Our world has been flooded by the strong waves of mysticism. The

word “mysticism” is a complex term that encapsulates a huge variety

of ideas. From a religious perspective, the word implies the union of

the individual with the Divine or Absolute in some kind of spiritual

experience or trance. This characterizes the worship experience even

of certain churches. The phenomena can vary in form and intensity,

but the tendency always is to replace the authority of the Written

Word of God with one’s own subjective experiences. In any case, the

Bible loses much of its doctrinal function, and the Christian remains

vulnerable to his or her own experiences. This kind of subjective reli-

gion does not provide a safeguard against any deception, especially

end-time ones.

Read Matthew 7:21–27. In light of Jesus’ own words, what does it

mean to build our spiritual house “on the rock” or to build it “on

the sand”?

There is a strong tendency in the postmodern Christian world to

downplay the relevance of biblical doctrines, regarding them as tedious

echoes of an obsolete form of religion. In this process, the teachings

of Christ are artificially replaced by the person of Christ—arguing, for

instance, that some biblical story or another cannot be true because

Jesus, as they perceive Him, would never have allowed that to happen

as it is written. Personal feelings and taste end up being the criteria for

interpreting the Scriptures or even for rejecting outright what the Bible

clearly teaches, often about obedience to God, which as Jesus said is so

essential to building one’s house on the rock.

Those who think that it matters not what they believe in doctrine,

so long as they believe in Jesus Christ, are on dangerous ground.

The Roman inquisitors who condemned to death untold numbers of

Protestants believed in Jesus Christ. Those who had “cast out demons”

in Christ’s name (Matt. 7:22, NKJV) had believed in Him. “The posi-

tion that it is of no consequence what men believe is one of Satan’s

most successful deceptions. He knows that the truth, received in the

love of it, sanctifies the soul of the receiver; therefore he is constantly

seeking to substitute false theories, fables, another gospel.”—Ellen G.

White, The Great Controversy, p. 520.

How can we fight the very human tendency to let our emotions

and desires cause us to do things contrary to the Word of God?