Loving the Feeling: Mysticism in the Church
The Gospel that Jesus proclaimed and passed on to us through the apostles was (and still is) one based totally on cold hard facts. It was a gospel that had nothing to do with how you felt about anything. When that Gospel was preached, it slayed men. Then it gave them a new, different life.
But years went by and gradually certain false brothers crept in to twist this Gospel of our Lord. The shift and modifications were not major, and so they went undetected for years.
Now, several thousand years later, the popular false gospel of our day is a gospel based on feelings and experiences. Let us look at one popular example:
Cold Hard Fact: “Where two of you are gathered, there I am in the midst of you”.
The New Gospel: “When I walked into that meeting, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in that place. I knew God was there”.
In truth, the above statement that seeks to verify whether the Lord is present in a place or not by feelings or by an experience is a serious expression of deep sin: the sin of unbelief. People who do this do not believe our Lord. They have no faith in His words.
The development and growth of the Pentecostal movement has produced generations of professing Christians who live by feelings and experiences instead of by absolute faith in God’s word. They live by subjectivity instead by the inerrant word that has been handed down to us.
So, how do we know that the Holy Spirit is at work? When we feel a heat on our heads? A cold shiver down our spine? Laugh uncontrollably? Fall down “under the power”? Witness miracles? Experience the euphoria of huge crowds?
No; a thousand times, no!
We know that the Holy Spirit is at work when we see men turned from falsehood and lies over to truth and righteousness. For, He is the Spirit of truth.
We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (John 4:6)
Note that when the apostle John mentions “us” in that verse, he isn’t refering to us, but to the apostles. In other words, the way to discern between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error is to check up whatever anyone says or does against what the apostles said.
If it follows what the apostles taught, that’s the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of God at work. If it does not, that is a spirit of error dancing around.
When men talk of “feeling the presence of the Lord” in a place, know that the apostles spoke of no such feelings with regards to the presence of the Lord. You may very well feel goose-pimples at a meeting, but make no mistake of supposing that was the presence of the Lord.
Look at the following phrases that are often used to describe the popular experience-based gospel:
- “Creating an atmosphere of worship”
- entering in
- breakthrough
- experiencing the glory cloud
- feel His presence
- feel His love pouring over you
- come and experience God for yourself
You won’t find any of these in the vocabulary of the apostles or of Christians in the book of Acts. The Gospel of Christ is not built on the sensual and emotionalism. It is built on truth alone. Many times, these sensations are manufactured or the results of well-crafted mesmerism and hypnotism.
Hype people up enough and they will feel something. It is such an old trick that it is amazing that we still fall for it. Drum up certain music types, and people will feel something. Use stage lighting in a certain way, and you can produce ceratin feelings in those present.
Most of our modern “gospel” music also have this feeling thingie woven into them. Of course, our music is the product of our theology, so that is not surprising.
Supposed Christians even now judge by feelings. One woman told me she felt a certain way about me. I asked her what I had said or done to make her “feel” that way. She had no answer but insisted that she had a right to feel that way about me. That was one deluded woman.
In addressing this issue, I asked a brother if it was okay for me to wake up one morning, ring him up and tell him that I felt he was a fool. Are we allowed to do that? Are we really entitled to feel any way about anyone, irrespective of whether or not the person had done or said something to warrant it?
Are feelings bad? Not necesarrilly. But should we build or run any aspect of our faith on them? Absolutely not. Our faith in Christ is in a knowing according to revealed (Biblical) truth and not a feeling.
The greater danger of walking by feelings is that unknowing, many have crossed over into mysticism. They may not be aware that what they are experiencing is that, but mysticism it is all the same. It is the world of soulish manipulation that generates voices, images, and myriads of physical manifestations – and none of those things from the Lord. This is where the real danger lies.
It is the real of mind over matter, the realm of metaphysics – and the Church is swallowing the bait, hook, line and sinker. I will be dealing with this subject some more in the future. I already have a detailed work examining much of what is called the manifestation of the Spirit. May we stop loving the feeling, and instead hold on to the truth of God’s word.
Biblical truth is our anchor, the more sure Word that we are to build on and run with.
