Mysticism

From a newsletter from ‘The Berean Call' (TBC) of October 10, 2021 I will take over the following.

'Mysticism is rapidly conquering cultural, political, educational and religious organizations.'

Undermining sound doctrine

Undermining sound doctrine is Satan's primary goal in his effort to shipwreck the faith and fruitfulness of believers. The strategy is to corrupt the Word of God by adding to or subtracting from it. Thus the scriptures are perverted by the input of the sinful and limited and finite man and the contributions of seducing spirits and teachings of demons (1 Timothy 4:1). Such changes destroy the objective truth of Scripture. The Bible no longer survives as God's Word when "adjustments" are made by other sources. Today this is happening in an unprecedented way, especially through the (re)introduction of mysticism.

Mysticism

Mysticism, the opposite of the objective Word of God, is defined by The Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience such as intuition or insight” and adds that it “vague speculation, a belief without sound basis”. Google defines: “belief characterized by self-delusion or dreamy confusion of thoughts, especially when based on the presence of supernatural qualities or mysterious authorities.” A mystical worldview, which is growing stronger in both the world and its religions, will form the basis for the coming one-world religion.

Universal religion

One of the many reasons for this is that mysticism has a universal appeal that will attract and unite all the religions of the world. Why? Because mysticism avoids doctrine (rules, regulations, commandments, obligations, demands, etc.). The doctrines of the Bible are God-given and must be obeyed; not obeying them is rebellion. That is the state of the world and unfortunately also the state of many within Christendom. The religions of the world also have doctrines, albeit false, which their followers often rebel against. Doctrines are divisive because people don't like rules that demand obedience. The stricter the rules, the less attractive the religion. To unite the religions it is necessary that the doctrines, the rules, become unimportant and for this Satan uses mysticism. So that all of humanity with the different belief systems can be caught in the spiritual web of satan and the antichrist.

So much for the newsletter – hereafter a short addition from my side.

The direct influence of demons in the soul of man does indeed bring about the abandonment of (especially the Biblical) dogmas. We already have that earlier seen: it leads to the fact that the Bible is no longer authoritative.
In a conversation someone once told me that there are many important things in the Bible, but the truth of it had to be experienced internally by him if he wanted to recognize it as authoritative. Later I understood how he had entered the contemplation and how this 'experiential belief' has become the real truth for him.

Satan is, of course, primarily out to strip God's Word of its power, and that is why Christians are especially his target. He already has the rest of the religions 'in his pocket', so to speak.

Years ago I saw a headline in Trouw above an interview with Jacobine Geel that read: 'The inside of all religions is the same'. I thought that was an intriguing headline and I've never forgotten it. The statement reflects exactly what mysticism does: the common and universal experience of the supernatural in (religious) man. As a result of the TBC newsletter, I searched for that headline again with Google. I didn't find it, but I did find a repeat of it that she later once said.

“But at the same time I believe that if you go to the mystical side, to the inside of the faiths, you will find that all those religions are similar.”

That is why religions can find each other and why, for example, Protestants and Roman Catholics increasingly 'grow towards' each other: the mystical experience they have is the same and the doctrine, the teaching, therefore no longer plays a significant role.

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