CRI article on Saint Augustine

I have written or mentioned quite a lot on Augustine and his Platonist influence that I believe influenced Calvin and scores of others into a "soft Gnosticism". Now I am not saying Augustine is not worthy to be read, on the contrary I believe him to have added some great thoughts to the historical Christian dialogue that continues even today.

Yet, many who push Augustine miss he was a Christian Mystic and influence many, including St. John of the Cross. Not only this but that Augustine was heavily influenced by Plato which could have gave a Gnostic twist to the Gospel.

Here is an article by Gordon R. Lewis at Christian Research Institute, (not to be confused with those whack job wannabees) which goes deeper into these ideas.

Ingrid's Hidden Contemplative Agenda

"Music Till Dawn will provide a relaxing contemplative atmosphere, where the Holy Spirit can speak to quieted hearts."

See their original version here.

For more humor try this!

What day is it anyway?

I am a bit in a tizzy as all the things happening in the last few weeks.

1. Mom went in for routine knee replacement and did both knees. One became infected so they needed to open it up again and remove the infection. They placed antibiotic "pearls" in for couple of days and then went in and removed them. Apparently someone neglected to tell me that these "pearls" were so potent that if one broke and got into her blood stream she would die instantly.... maybe it was good I did not know! She is doing better though it sound like she will need antibiotics for the rest of her life. She is doing well so far and has been up walking a bit.

2. Work has been hard. I was informed that there was a hire freeze. That pretty much cheesed me off... (Oh Brother Lawrence where are you!) They held a meeting and then let me know I could hire people after all. I have been working 6 -7 days a week and it is getting old as it has gone on since November.

3. I did a test where they hooked up a meter to me for 72 hours to track my blood sugars. I lasted 48 and just could not handle having a needle in my side. It was most likely bad placement as when I sat in a car seat the concave of the seat would, the seat would hit it. As I jumped in and out of the truck at work I would feel like I was going to pass out as the pain shot across my back. After about 48 hours I told TES to get it out of me as I was in tears from the pain. I felt sooooooooooo much better after it was out. They want me to try it again next week! LOL!

4. I thought I was going to get a 4 day week... not consequetively but at least on paper I saw I had 3 days off... well someone told me they were not able to help as they were already scheduled and a driver lost a relative in a car accident last night so I went in. Please prayer for her. I am not sure how this week will go now so also please pray for me.

5. I am also trying to get ready for the start of Kinship Groups (Vineyard's name for small groups). I am going to go through the book by Brother Lawrence called Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life. I already had someone on the leadership team comment (jokingly) about me teaching RCC stuff. Yet, I see that John Wesley and A. W. Tozer both recommended him. Yet, Lighthouse Trails who thinks everyone is a heretic/apostate thinks that he is just a dangerous contemplative mystic. (Funny that they have no issue with quoting Tozer (PDF) yet still condemns who Tozer recommended! Really makes me wonder....) = )

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step six

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step six

ON the sixth step the soul runs swiftly to God and touches Him again and again; and it runs without fainting by reason of its hope. For here the love that has made it strong makes it to fly swiftly. Of this step the prophet Isaias speaks thus: ’ The saints that hope in God shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as the eagle; they shall fly and shall not faint,’Isaias xl, 31.
as they did at the fifth step. To this step likewise alludes that verse of the Psalm: ’ As the hart desires the waters, my soul desires Thee, O God.’Psalm xli, 2 [A.V., xlii, 1].

For the hart, in its thirst, runs to the waters with great swiftness. The cause of this swiftness in love which the soul has on this step is that its charity is greatly enlarged within it, since the soul is here almost wholly purified, as is said likewise in the Psalm, namely: Sine iniquitate cucurri.Psalm lviii, 5 [A.V., lix, 4].



And in another Psalm: ‘I ran the way of Thy commandments when Thou didst enlarge my heart’;Psalm cxviii, 32 [A.V., cxix, 32].



and thus from this sixth step the soul at once mounts to the seventh, which is that which follows.

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step Six

Wherein are treated the other five steps of love.

ON the sixth step the soul runs swiftly to God and touches Him again and again; and it runs without fainting by reason of its hope. For here the love that has made it strong makes it to fly swiftly. Of this step the prophet Isaias speaks thus: ’ The saints that hope in God shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as the eagle; they shall fly and shall not faint,.as they did at the fifth step. To this step likewise alludes that verse of the Psalm: ’ As the hart desires the waters, my soul desires Thee, O God.’

For the hart, in its thirst, runs to the waters with great swiftness. The cause of this swiftness in love which the soul has on this step is that its charity is greatly enlarged within it, since the soul is here almost wholly purified, as is said likewise in the Psalm, namely: Sine iniquitate cucurri.
And in another Psalm: ‘I ran the way of Thy commandments when Thou didst enlarge my heart’;and thus from this sixth step the soul at once mounts to the seventh, which is that which follows.

Tozer devotional: Truth Must be Lived

Tozer Devotional

Collective Writings from the Books of A.W. Tozer

That Incredible Christian

Chapter #28

To Be Understood, Truth Must Be Lived

Being Participants in Truth

Truth cannot aid us until we become participators in it. We only possess what we experience. St. Gregory of Sinai, who lived in the fourteenth century, taught that understanding and participation were inseparable in the spiritual life. “He who seeks to understand commandments without fulfilling commandments, and to acquire such understanding through learning and reading, is like a man who takes a shadow for truth. For the understanding of truth is given to those who have become participants in truth (who have tasted it through living). Those who are not participants in truth and are not initiated therein, when they seek this understanding, draw it from a distorted wisdom. Of such men the apostle says ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,’ even though they boast of their knowledge of truth.” Here is a simple but neglected doctrine that should be restored to its rightful place in the thinking and teaching of the Church. It would work wonders.

Prayer

Lord, teach me what it means to participate in Your truth that through it I may be free.

Scripture

The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is made up only of rules taught by men.'
— Isaiah 29:13

Thought

Some of us measure our commitment to Christ by the truth we mouth and the rules we keep--rules which may be man-made and not from God. But truth must be tasted through living if we are to be participants in it.

Responding to Ken Silva pt 2… the Mystics and Historical Christianity

Responding to Ken Silva… the Mystics and Historical Christianity

Ken Silva was once a Catholic. In that he saw some things that were not “Christian” in the sense that as other denominations, the RCC has strayed in many areas of what I prefer to call Biblical Christian faith.

I prefer to use “Biblical Christian Faith” as often Orthodox is misunderstood or abused or too broad or too narrow. In using the Bible as what is the basis of Christian faith I hope that we can understand some basic things that come from history and the bible.

I am responding to this little blurb, of which in itself is but a small part of an over all misunderstanding of history or our faith. I have read Ken’s view here and there but this attack piece on Shane Claiborne seemed to be the clearest in the way Ken speaks as to the real issue that is between ken and others which is his lack of Historical understanding and the Bible and how they often are truly relative in relationship with each other.

First here is the article from CRN. Note this is posted by the “editor” which is or is not Ken, yet this has “Ken Silva" all over it as all the links lead to Ken’s other site Apprising Ministries.

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Shane Claiborne Mystic Mumbo Jumbo
Published February 16th, 2008 by Editor in Emerging Church, Postevangelicalism
For those who may doubt it Shane Claiborne is definitely into the mystic mumbo jumbo of the Emergent Church. So-called "Christian" mysticism is a core doctrine of the emerging church movement from its very inception.

To be fair, Claiborne is hardly alone in using this perverted reference to experiencing God as one’s "lover"; and what follows from his book The Irresistible Revolution is classic language from those who practice contemplative mysticism: church history is filled with folks who followed God as singles–Jesus, for one; many of the disciples and martyrs, Francis and Claire of Assisi, the desert monastics, to name a few others…

At first it was a rational thing; I was attracted to the idea of God as lover. And then I began to experience God as lover, and I quickly became attracted to the Lover. I read Hosea and got the sense that life is a romance with the divine. I started meeting with a Catholic monk, who had taken a vow of poverty and celibacy. He told me, "We can live without sex, but we cannot live without love, and God is love." I had come to see God as lover and provider… (111)

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" For those who may doubt it Shane Claiborne is definitely into the mystic mumbo jumbo of the Emergent Church. So-called "Christian" mysticism is a core doctrine of the emerging church movement from its very inception."

Answer:
This is the core issue which I will state Ken misses that by throwing out all mysticism as wrong, misses that historically much what Ken believes was and is attributed to mysticism and its influence on our foundations of our faith and even later the Reformer themselves.

If we say “mysticism is tainted”, then we must go to the root of the mystic teachers and those who promote them. Yet, in saying they are tainted then brings the Fathers of our faith in to question and in that, the bible itself.

Now one of the most misunderstood things is that there is a great history of Christianity both eastern and western. Athanasius of Alexandria would be a great place to start. It was him (Besides the Apostles themselves but I will get to the biblical references for this later) that first wrote about the mystic way of Life of St. Anthony. Yet, if we just stop there we then miss that Athanasius of Alexandria was one that stood against many heresies of his day which includes Arianism and the Meletians who did not accept the Niceae Council's Creed.

Now, Athanasius was far from perfect, in fact his attack against Ariansim seems historically more of a caricature than the realities of what they believed. There was also controversy as to how he came to the position of Pope.

That being said, Athanasius did do some very great things.

“Athanasius is revered as a saint by the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches. He is traditionally regarded as a great leader of the Church by the Lutheran Church, the Anglican Communion, and most Protestants in general.” (Source Wikipedia)

Of his greatest accomplishments, Athanasius was the secretary at the First Council of Nicaea and also was a major influence in the development of the Cannons of Scripture. Which is why I am starting here. For if we are to question and assert as Ken Silva does, that all mysticism is wrong, then one of the most important figures in the development of the bible as we have it, let alone one of the greater participants of the Council of Nicaea, then we then must be aware that there is a grave issue in whether the bible and the creeds are trustworthy. Of course there is much more to this, but again my focus is on the idea that if a person is tainted with "mysticism", and all they do is tainted as Ken asserts with Shane Claiborne, even to attack the teaching "God is Love" as perverted by saying "God is our Lover"... misses that there are complete books of the Bible that teach just this. Again I see this as more ignorance which can be fixed with a little education if one cares to gain a bit of knowledge with their zeal.

I recommend that if anyone is interested, Covenant Worldwide has some great “free” courses online. I recommend Ancient & Medieval Church History taught by Dr. David Calhoun. This is a “reformed” school taught by a Calvinist. So in that there is some bias in the teaching, yet, I found it very informative and of great interest. I am now doing Reformation & Modern Church History and will be doing Calvin's Institutes in the next few months. I am not putting Mr. Silva down, yet will boldly state that ignorance does cause much hate. It is better to state things with a bit of grasp of history than to be ignorant and throw out the baby and the bathwater.

Be blessed,
iggy

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step five

5. The fifth step of this ladder of love makes the soul to desire and long for God impatiently. On this step the vehemence of the lover to comprehend the Beloved and be united with Him is such that every delay, however brief, becomes very long, wearisome and oppressive to it, and it continually believes itself to be finding the Beloved. And when it sees its desire frustrated (which is at almost every moment), it swoons away with its yearning, as says the Psalmist, speaking from this step, in these words: ‘My soul longs and faints for the dwellings of the Lord.’

On this step the lover must needs see that which he loves, or die; at this step was Rachel, when, for the great longing that she had for children, she said to Jacob, her spouse: ‘Give me children, else shall I die.’

Here men suffer hunger like dogs and go about and surround the city of God. On this step, which is one of hunger,[Lit., ‘On this hungering step.’]

the soul is nourished upon love; for, even as is its hunger, so is its abundance; so that it rises hence to the sixth step, producing the effects which follow.

From CHAPTER XIX of Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

Quoting Tozer: Isn't it Great that CRN is anti-mystics yet...

I find it so funny that CRN quotes Tozer regularly... and yet rants against many things Tozer taught!

1. Tozer promoted "Christian mysticism".

Although many Christians cringe at the term “mystic,” A.W. Tozer used the term to mean, “that spiritual experience common to the saints of the Bible times and well known to multitudes of persons in the post-biblical era.” He referred to the evangelical mystic as one “who has been brought by the gospel into intimate fellowship with the Godhead.” from the back of the book: The Christian Book of Mystical Verse by A. W. Tozer

2. Tozer promoted "Free Will" Here is another source.




Tozer was asked by a young man studying at a Bible school, "Dr. Tozer when the boys begin to debate Arminian and Calvinistic theology, what position should I take." Dr. Tozer replied, "Son, when they begin that debate you go and get in your prayer closet and you cry out to God and in four years you will be closer to the Lord but those boys will still be debating Arminianism and Calvinism."


Now the real question is why would CRN quote Tozer and as I also do at times... being of emerging persuasion... I believe this quote sums it up.

Some wonder why "Tozer's writings are as fresh today as when he was alive. It is because, as one friend commented, "He left the superficial, the obvious and the trivial for others to toss around. . . . [His] books reach deep into the heart."

Yet, if one disagrees with someone to the point of name calling and often slanderous accusations... then why quote from someone that seems to back the ideas of your opponent... unless it is to show both are wrong. Why use one to show his ideals are yours when they are not? Now that IS the question that one need ask CRN.

Be Blessed,
iggy

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step Four

The fourth step of this ladder of love is that whereby there is caused in the soul an habitual suffering because of the Beloved, yet without weariness. For, as Saint Augustine says, love makes all things that are great, grievous and burdensome to be almost naught. From this step the Bride was speaking when, desiring to attain to the last step, she said to the Spouse: ’set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love—that is, the act and work of love—is strong as death, and emulation and importunity last as long as hell. The spirit here has so much strength that it has subjected the flesh and takes as little account of it as does the tree of one of its leaves. In no way does the soul here seek its own consolation or pleasure, either in God, or in aught else, nor does it desire or seek to pray to God for favours, for it sees clearly that it has already received enough of these, and all its anxiety is set upon the manner wherein it will be able to do something that is pleasing to God and to render Him some service such as He merits and in return for what it has received from Him, although it be greatly to its cost. The soul says in its heart and spirit: Ah, my God and Lord! How many are there that go to seek in Thee their own consolation and pleasure, and desire Thee to grant them favours and gifts; but those who long to do Thee pleasure and to give Thee something at their cost, setting their own interests last, are very few. The failure, my God, is not in Thy unwillingness to grant us new favours, but in our neglect to use those that we have received in Thy service alone, in order to constrain Thee to grant them to us continually. Exceeding lofty is this step of love; for, as the soul goes ever after God with love so true, imbued with the spirit of suffering for His sake, His Majesty oftentimes and quite habitually grants it joy, and visits it sweetly and delectably in the spirit; for the boundless love of Christ, the Word, cannot suffer the afflictions of His lover without succouring him. This He affirmed through Jeremias, saying: ‘I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth and tenderness, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness. Speaking spiritually, this denotes the detachment which the soul now has interiorly from every creature, so that it rests not and nowhere finds quietness. This fourth step enkindles the soul and makes it to burn in such desire for God that it causes it to mount to the fifth, which is that which follows.

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas Step two

The second step causes the soul to seek God without ceasing. Wherefore, when the Bride says that she sought Him by night upon her bed (when she had swooned away according to the first step of love) and found Him not, she said: ‘I will arise and will seek Him Whom my soul loveth.

This, as we say, the soul does without ceasing as David counsels it, saying: ’seek ye ever the face of God, and seek ye Him in all things, tarrying not until ye find Him; like the Bride, who, having enquired for Him of the watchmen, passed on at once and left them. Mary Magdalene did not even notice the angels at the sepulchre. On this step the soul now walks so anxiously that it seeks the Beloved in all things. In whatsoever it thinks, it thinks at once of the Beloved. Of whatsoever it speaks, in whatsoever matters present themselves, it is speaking and communing at once with the Beloved. When it eats, when it sleeps, when it watches, when it does aught soever, all its care is about the Beloved, as is said above with respect to the yearnings of love. And now, as love begins to recover its health and find new strength in the love of this second step, it begins at once to mount to the third, by means of a certain degree [The word in the Spanish is that elsewhere translated ’step.’] of new purgation in the night, as we shall afterwards describe, which produces in the soul the following effects.

Dark night of the Soul By St. John of the Cross.

The mystic ladder of Divine love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas

WE observe, then, that the steps of this ladder of love by which the soul mounts, one by one, to God, are ten. The first step of love causes the soul to languish, and this to its advantage. The Bride is speaking from this step of love when she says: ‘I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that, if ye find my Beloved, ye tell Him that I am sick with love.’

This sickness, however, is not unto death, but for the glory of God, for in this sickness the soul swoons as to sin and as to all things that are not God, for the sake of God Himself, even as David testifies, saying: ‘My soul hath swooned away’. —that is, with respect to all things, for Thy salvation. For just as a sick man first of all loses his appetite and taste for all food, and his colour changes, so likewise in this degree of love the soul loses its taste and desire for all things and changes its colour and the other accidentals of its past life, like one in love. The soul falls not into this sickness if excess of heat be not communicated to it from above, even as is expressed in that verse of David which says: Pluviam voluntariam segregabis, Deus, haereditati tuae, et infirmata est, etc. This sickness and swooning to all things, which is the beginning and the first step on the road to God, we clearly described above, when we were speaking of the annihilation wherein the soul finds itself when it begins to climb this ladder of contemplative purgation, when it can find no pleasure, support, consolation or abiding-place in anything soever. Wherefore from this step it begins at once to climb to the second.


From CHAPTER XIX of Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

Calvin and the Mystics that influenced him…

Calvin and the Mystics that influenced him…

It seems rather sad that some are so bent at calling Christian Mysticism wrong… even satanic. They miss that many of the reformers were highly influenced by the Mystic Saints. Case in point is John Calvin who was greatly influenced by Augustine who is considered a Christian Mystic and also St. Bernard. (This is well noted in “Institutes: written by John Calvin as he refers often to both of these Christian mystics and build his thought from their thoughts.)

Noting first that both of these men were of the Catholic persuasion, then that they were “mystics” make me truly wonder at many who call themselves Calvinist today. I think they really have a short term understanding of history and even more how their own “system” of Theology came to be.

To cast Christian mysticism as satanic as many have, seems then that without realizing it, they have condemned Calvin to the pit of Hell for being influenced by two Christian Mystics.

Can one separated the influencer from the one influenced? I do see that one can, yet often without thinking we act as if Calvin or Luther just fell out of the sky one day and came up with something new, or as some say, reclaimed the old.

Yet, influences are that, they guide one to think on terms that they might not have considered, and it seems that Calvin himself was at least more open to things than many who claim his name…

(A bit of a side note here: I cannot ever be a Calvinist as it goes against the teachings of Paul in 1 Cor 1 where Paul is stating that we are to follow and be baptized into the Name of Jesus… so I see that by this I cannot take Calvin’s name as Calvin did not die for my sins, nor did he raise from the grave the third day… as far as I know he is still in his own grave waiting for the day of Resurrection. I am baptized into the Name of Jesus and am content in that as my identity.)

I see that anyone who blindly calls all Christian mysticism as Satanic have missed and possibly are missing a very important element in their faith… and that is intimacy with Jesus Christ. Calvin called this "unio mystica" or the "mystical union".

Blessings,
iggy

Great Quotes: Tozer on Doctrine and Experience

I have heard people say that Only doctrine is important. Would they leave no room for Christian experience? Consider the preaching and the example of the famed Jonathan Edwards, used so mightily by God in the Great Awakening throughout New England in the 18th century. But you say, Jonathan Edwards was a Calvinist!

I know and that is my point. Edwards was acknowledged by society to have been one of the greatest intellects of his time. Yet he believed in genuine Christian experience so positively that he wrote a well-accepted blood, Religious Affections, in defense of Christian emotion. Charged by some that his revivals had too much emotion, Edwards stood forth and proclaimed that when men and women meet God, accepting His terms, they experience an awareness that lifts their hearts to rapture. What higher privilege is granted to mankind on earth than to be admitted into the circle of the friends of God! ~ Tozer

Tozer: The Sanctification of the Secular Chapter 13

Recently A.W. Tozer has been being used by some as one that would approve of a hate/judgementalism/shame based faith. I would beg to say this is far from the truth. These same people condemn and write against Christian mystics yet then quote Tozer proudly as one of themselves. This just goes to show the depravity of the "religionists" in their hatred to the Grace, Mercy, and Freedom that is in Jesus Christ. They argue over "words" like "meditate", "contemplation" and such as if these words are evil in and of themselves... they twist "mysticism" to be an unholy thing as if seeking after God was also evil. Here is a great chapter that should show that Tozer was actually writing against these people who proudly post his comments and twist what he taught to mean something quite contrary to what he did teach.

Blessings,
iggy


The Sanctification of the Secular (Chapter 13)

THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES that all things are pure to the pure, and I think we may assume that to the evil man all things are evil. The thing itself is not good or bad; goodness or badness belongs to human personality.

Everything depends upon the state of our interior lives and our heart's relation to God. The man that walks with God will see and know that for him there is no strict line separating the sacred from the secular. He will acknowledge that there lies around him a world of created things that are innocent in themselves; and he will know, too, that there are a thousand human acts that are neither good nor bad except as they may be done by good or bad men. The busy world around us is filled with work, travel, marrying, rearing our young, burying our dead, buying, selling, sleeping, eating and mixing in common social intercourse with our fellowmen.

These activities and all else that goes to fill up our days are usually separated in our minds from prayer, church attendance and such specific religious acts as are performed by ministers most of the week and by laymen briefly once or twice weekly.

Because the vast majority of men engage in the complicated business of living while trusting wholly in themselves, without reference to God or redemption, we Christians have come to call these common activities "secular" and to attribute to them at least a degree of evil, an evil which is not inherent in them and which they do not necessarily possess.

The Apostle Paul teaches that every simple act of our lives may be sacramental. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And again, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

Some of the great saints, who were great because they took such admonitions seriously and sought to practice them, managed to achieve the sanctification of the secular, or perhaps I should say the abolition of the secular. Their attitude toward life's common things raised those above the common and imparted to them an aura of divinity. These pure souls broke down the high walls that separated the various areas of their lives from each other and saw all as one; and that one they offered to God as a holy oblation acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Nicholas Herman (Brother Lawrence) made his most common act one of devotion: "The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer," he said, "and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

Francis of Assisi accepted the whole creation as his house of worship and called upon everything great and small to join him in adoration of the Godhead. Mother earth, the burning sun, the silver moon, the stars of evening, wind, water, flowers, fruits-all were invited to praise with him their God and King. Hardly a spot was left that could be called secular. The whole world glowed like Moses' bush with the light of God, and before it the saint kneeled and removed his shoes.

Thomas Traherne, the seventeenth century Christian writer, declared that the children of the King can never enjoy the world aright till every morning they wake up in heaven, see themselves in the Father's palace, and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as celestial joys, having such a reverent esteem for all as if they were among the angels.

All this is not to ignore the fall of man nor to deny the presence of sin in the world. No believing man can deny the Fall, as no observing man can deny the reality of sin; and as far as I know no responsible thinker has ever held that sin could ever be made other than sinful, whether by prayer or faith or spiritual ministrations. Neither the inspired writers of Holy Scripture nor those illuminated souls who have based their teachings upon those Scriptures have tried to make sin other than exceedingly sinful. It is possible to recognize the sacredness of all things even while admitting that for the time the mystery of sin worketh in the children of disobedience and the whole creation groaneth and travaileth, waiting for the manifestation of the children of God.

Traherne saw the apparent contradiction and explained it: "To contemn the world and to enjoy the world are things contrary to each other. How can we contemn the world, which we are born to enjoy? Truly there are two worlds. One was made by God, and the other by men. That made by God was great and beautiful. Before the Fall it was Adam's joy and the temple of his glory. That made by men is a Babel of confusions: invented riches, pomps and vanities, brought in by sin. Give all (saith Thomas a Kempis) for all. Leave the one that you may enjoy the other."

Such souls as these achieved the sanctification of the secular. The church today is suffering from the secularization of the sacred. By accepting the world's values, thinking its thoughts and adopting its ways we have dimmed the glory that shines overhead. We have not been able to bring earth to the judgment of heaven so we have brought heaven to the judgment of the earth. Pity us, Lord, for we know not what we do!

Great Quotes: Tozer on Christian Mystics

"Some of the great saints, who were great because they took such admonitions seriously and sought to practice them, managed to achieve the sanctification of the secular, or perhaps I should say the abolition of the secular. Their attitude toward life’s common things raised those above the common and imparted to them an aura of divinity. These pure souls broke down the high walls that separated the various areas of their lives from each other and saw all as one; and that one they offered to God as a holy oblation acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Nicholas Herman (Brother Lawrence) made his most common act one of devotion: “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer,” he said, “and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

Francis of Assisi accepted the whole creation as his house of worship and called upon everything great and small to join him in adoration of the Godhead. Mother earth, the burning sun, the silver moon, the stars of evening, wind, water, flowers, fruits-all were invited to praise with him their God and King. Hardly a spot was left that could be called secular. The whole world glowed like Moses’ bush with the light of God, and before it the saint kneeled and removed his shoes.

Thomas Traherne, the seventeenth century Christian writer, declared that the children of the King can never enjoy the world aright till every morning they wake up in heaven, see themselves in the Father’s palace, and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as celestial joys, having such a reverent esteem for all as if they were among the angels."

~ The Sanctification of the Secular by Tozer

"Thinker up has "Hot List" about "emergent" beliefs and authors!!!!!"

Kennyo said...
the purpose of this list is not for commentary on the authors but rather an aid in helping identify who those involved in the Emergent church like to read and are influenced by.
1:05 PM

This is in the comments as if an after thought... but here is the "list" of "evil" emergent practices and authors that we read... according to ThinkerUp

Emergent Beliefs and Characteristics:
• Redefine the Christian Faith to accommodate "post-modernity"• Redefining the doctrine of hell as not being literal
• God's judgement interpreted as simply being embarrassed by your sin or an inability to gratify your desires
• Reinterpreting the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross
• Questioning the inerrant authority of scripture
• The bible primarily as a "story" or narrative• Conversion as becoming a part of "His story"
• Planetary salvation (Restoring the entire earth to it's original Creation and "rhythm")
• Proclaiming of the Kingdom of God being established on earth in present history more than the gospel of salvation
• Promoting a "social gospel"
• Defines themselves as "missional"
• The Protestant Reformation as possibly an ongoing process
• Believes Emergent could be a "Second Reformation"
• Questions are esteemed higher than answers
• Social and environmental activism
• Anti-war and political liberalism
• Promoting spiritual disciplines (meditation, fasting, contemplative prayer, breath prayers, centering prayer, labyrinth prayer walks, guided imagery, Lectio Divina, Ignatius Examen, stations of the cross)
• Promoting the mystical, the sensory and the experiential
• Anti-establishment
• Truth is determined by cultural influences or tradition* Truth is not propositional
• Teaching should be multi-sensory and creative rather than linear
• Traditional preaching is replaced by discussion and dialogue
• Reluctant to call homosexuality a sin
• Occasionally use profanity to get point across
• May become worldy to reach the world
• Life experiences determine theology and orthodoxy
• Language is oriented around self – feelings, opinions, and attitudes
• Community, relationships and unity are highest priorities
• Uncomfortable with historic christian orthodoxy as having an exclusive claim on truth
• Tolerate ideological and theological differences, very inclusive and ecumenical

Emergent Preferred Authors and Speakers:
• N.T. Wright
• Brian McLaren
• Henri Nouwen
• Dallas Willard
• Richard Foster
• Donald Miller
• Tony Campolo
• Rob Bell
• Dan Kimball
• Doug Pagitt
• Erwin McManus
• Gregory Boyd
• Andy Crouch
• Chris Seay
• Tony Jones
• Leonard Sweet
• Shane Claiborne
• Brian Walsh
• Miroslav Volf
• Brennan Manning
• Walter Brueggemann
• Dr. Robert Webber
• Steve Chalke
• Alan Mann
• Matthew Fox
• Tom Hohstadt
• Bono
• Ryan Bolger
• Spencer Burke
• David Bosch
• Eddie Gibbs
• Tilden Edwards
• Marcus Borg
• M. Scott Peck
• Jacques Derrida
• Karl Barth
• Søren Kierkegaard
• Carl Jung
• Thomas Merton
• Thomas Keating
• Cynthia Bourgeault
• C.S. Lewis
• Sue Monk Kidd
• Anne Lamont
• Rowan Williams
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• Madam Guyon
• Jürgen Moltmann
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• William Blake

Emergent Preferred Catholic Mystics, Desert Fathers and Monks:
• St. John of the Cross
• Ignatius of Loyola
• Peter Faber
• Dionysius
• St. Francis of Assisi
• Juliana of Norwich
• Thomas Merton
• Meister Ekhart
• Basil Pennington
• St. Teresa of Avila
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• Pierre Teilhard d Chardin
• Richard Rolle
• The Cloud of Unknowing (anonymous monk)
posted by Kennyo at 7:43 PM


That is quite a list isn't it...

Now, there are many I have never heard about and will definitely look them up... Some I agree are not that good and some i will say are just weird to see and really wonder what was going on in this persons head?

Really this goes to show that most emergents are pretty well read

Yet, I will add a few that are not on this list i have encountered...

• Jesus (in the Bible and our hearts)
• Paul and all the other writers of the Bible inspired by the Holy Spirit
• Fancis Shaffear
• Pual Viera
• Pete Greig
• Frank Viola
• Wayne Jacobs
• Jim Wallis
• Scot McKnight
• Karen Ward
• Michael Frost
• Alan Hirsch
• John Piper
• John MacArthur
• Frank Page
• Steve Taylor
• Brian J. Walsh
• Sylvia C. Keesmaat
• George Barna
• Maj Ian Thomas

This is really a good list and you can see that there is a mixture of some great things and a few not so great things... though I would disagree with many things on the list, I have seen in many traditional churches these same things... but hey, why look at your own log when you can point out splinters in others.

What i don't see on the list is really telling... and here are some core things that would never be found in emergent circles.

• hatred
• justification of judging other (condemnation)
• Someone to be the Holy Spirit for you
• someone who tries to control you
• someone who accepts you only if you tow the company line

I am sure there are more... so go ahead and add to the list.

Great Quotes

"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars. "

"All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired."

"Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail."

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

"I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men. "

~ All Quotes From Martin Luther

A.W. Tozer and Christian Mystics.

I have come across many anti emerging sites that often quote A.W. Tozer. Many of these same sites rail against contemplation, meditation and "Christian" mysticism... I was looking into some new books and came across a wonderful book by A.W. Tozer called "The Christian book of Mystical Verse" which has some great poems and prose by some of his favorite "mystics"...





Here is a quote from the back of the book:





"Although many Christians cringe at the term "mystic," A.W. Tozer used the term to mean, "that spiritual experience common to the saints of the Bible times and well known to multitudes of person in the post-biblical era." He referred to the evangelical mystic as one "who has been brought by the gospel into intimate fellowship with the Godhead."





Here is one of the "gems" in the book... I might in the future share more.



Cooling Streams by Na­hum Tate
Nicholas Brady, 1696.


As pants the hart for cooling streams,
When heated in the chase,
So longs my soul, O God, for Thee
And Thy refreshing grace.
For Thee, my God, the living God,
My thirsty soul doth pine;
O, when shall I behold Thy face,
Thou majesty divine?
Why restless, why cast down, my soul?
Hope still; and thou shalt sing
The praise of Him Who is thy God,
Thy health’s eternal spring.
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
The God Whom we adore,
Be glory as it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.






Blessings,
iggy

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