Preface
Recently I’ve written a lot on the occult and mysticism. Over four years ago, in July 2020, I began drafting what would become this article. It’s interesting to see how my thoughts have stayed the same or changed over that time period.
When Catacomb Resident said that I was obsessed with Radix Fidem, he didn’t realize that I had been sitting on this topic for years. Rather than publish something without due consideration, I took a long time to consider it privately before responding to it publicly. To wit:
To the outside observer, it may appear as if my long screeds are attempts to attack someone else’s superior position (out of hate, jealousy, arrogance, or whatever) or to rationalize my own inferior position. It may appear as if I rely on long arguments to draw conclusions and determine my belief. In short, I appear to be a stereotypical Western thinker. It’s just a façade.
When I first read this I immediately intuited that it was wrong. My conviction was immediate and strong. I knew in my heart that what had been written was false. This was not objective, it was intuitive. I didn’t require any logic, evidence, or propositions to understand the spiritual reality.
This is very common. Most of the times when I write someone long and boring on this blog, it was initiated by a strong conviction, a conviction that defies the mind’s description or comprehension.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to convincingly communicate personal conviction to another person who does not share that conviction. For that, you need logic and reason to confirm what is already known. This is often tedious and difficult. All that follows is merely confirmation of the conviction, not the source of my belief.
But make no mistake, spiritual conviction predetermined the outcome.
It’s worth noting that I try never to publish anything that doesn’t have a conviction and a rationally (and biblically) justified conclusion. Being a solid spiritual conviction is not enough to merit publication. I’ve also sat on posts for years waiting to receive a conviction to publish or delete.
Except for a few links and a few sentence adjustments, almost all of what follows was written years ago. It’s held up remarkably well.
Introduction
While I’ve positively written on Christian mysticism in the past, it also presents a significant danger. Anyone who seeks to know God more intimately at the intuitive-level with their inner divine heart must pay special attention, lest they be deceived. Mystics—whether Christian or otherwise—are far more likely to touch the spiritual and have otherworldly experiences, be they positive or negative. It is thus essential to know whether one is receiving revelation from God or a deception from Satan.
This post is a response to Ed Hurst’s comment:
“I generally reject the intellectual foundations of the West, and Western evangelical Christianity in particular. [..] I contend that the Hebrew intellectual outlook is the only way we will ever grasp the Bible, and that such a background is distinctly not Western. [..] Jesus was God and man at the same time, even in the flesh, but we have to understand the implications of such statements on multiple levels, as was common among educate ancient Hebrews. Linear logic is inappropriate for understanding Scripture. Paul was a very Hebrew man writing mystical Hebrew thoughts in Greek. We can’t slice and dice how we understand what he wrote using Aristotelian logic.”
Ed’s philosophy is given here. He sees himself as a prophet of God and writes extensively under the prophecy category. His work is based on the exclusivity and superiority of Ancient Near East epistemology and an explicit reject of Aristotelian epistemology. This is a mystical Hebraic understanding.
Slice and Dice
Jesus—a Jewish rabbi—used logic to interpret Law and implored others to obey the Law as written in scripture, which he cited. Paul, Roman citizen and evangelist to Greeks, heavily utilized the faculties of reason (Acts 17; Acts 18; Acts 24; Romans). The Berean (Greek) Jews aggressively examined scripture because they were of a more noble character:
Acts 17:11
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
When it comes to prophecy, the Bible instructs us to test the prophets (Deut 18:22; Matthew 7:13-23; Romans 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12-14). When it comes to revelations by spiritual means, the Bible commands us to test the spirits (1 John 4:1-3). Far from being hostile to reason, the Bible praises it when it is directed towards God.
It is true that Westerners lack many insights into scripture due to cultural changes. We don’t readily understand various Hebraisms (repetition, hyperbole, chiastic structures, plays on words), but this is ignorance (the lack of knowledge), not an invalidation of logic or a repudiation of knowledge. It is also true that Westerners fail to differentiate between various literal and metaphorical uses, often misinterpreting. Logic and reason are tools that help us resolve this.
Logic and the Mind
While we don’t have to become Aristotelian philosophers, we must accept some measure of logic—especially the law of non-contradiction—to even make claims of exclusivity, or almost any other claim about scripture or prophecy.
To say that we cannot “slice and dice how we understand what [Paul] wrote using Aristotelian logic” is an excuse for ignoring scripture you don’t like. We must apply our mind to understanding of scripture. If you ignore logic (e.g. the Law of Non-contradiction), then you can make the Bible say whatever you want. Yes, scripture can often be understood in a multi-faceted or non-specific generalized way, but this still requires the use of logic and reason.
All revelation and prophesy is subject to rational examination by the church, not the other way around.
Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. — 1 Corinthians 14:39
…and…
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. — 1 John 4:1
Examining scripture is the way to differentiate between true and false prophecies (and miracles[1]) and true and false prophets. Yet, I see on Ed’s blog many teaching and prophecy pieces with no scripture citations. (NOTE: Since I wrote that in 2020, it remains the case. A scroll through the posts in the prophecy category shows very few scripture citations in reference to prophesy.)
As if this were not enough warning, Ed makes this claim:
“Of particular importance to what I do here is my assertion that holding to the Western epistemology guarantees you cannot understand the Bible. Your subconscious mind will be imbued with an arrogant assumption you do understand it, and better than those who wrote it. That’s wrong. Further, the Hebraic approach is what God designed as the proper viewpoint for humans in this world, so if you don’t embrace it, you fight God.”
We know this is wrong precisely because it explicitly does not allow for the examinations that the Bible itself requires. Public prophecy and revelation[2] are always secondary to the revealed Word of God in scripture. While prophecy is the greater gift, all prophets must submit to the church for examination. We are commanded to use the latter to judge the former, not the other way around. Ed has this to say in particular:
“[Our religion is] fundamentally super-rational, not cerebral. [..] We reject the notion that reason and intellect are the pinnacle of human capabilities. While we recognize that most people abuse the word “mysticism” as something useless and irrational, we contend that God will scarcely bother with addressing Himself to human intellect, but calls to us from far higher faculties. Revelation is inherently mystical. We assert that He gave us other forms of “knowing” that are hard-wired into human nature. We reject the Western dismissive attitude about anything not rational. Faith is above reason, not below it.”
This is almost a direct analog of the description of Gnostic mode of understanding:
“Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight.”
The Gnostics believed that mysticism—direct revelation—was the sole legitimate path to knowing the divine. Ed believes the same:
“God will scarcely bother with addressing Himself to human intellect.”
Modes of Being
Faith is superior to reason just as faith is superior to the heart. Any one aspect alone is insufficient to know God. One must know and love God with their complete being, which necessarily includes both the heart and mind. In the Bible faith is trust and assent to a proposition you understand and believe to be true. To understand and assent to Christ’s words is to trust that what He says is actually true and act accordingly. While two people can utter the same words—one with true faith and the other a liar—their actions will show whether or not their faith is genuine.
“Now faith is firm confidence in things hoped for, a conviction regarding things not seen.” — Hebrews 11:1
God is not limited to one mode (e.g. spirit, heart, or mind) for his revelations. Self-modality is a Persian/Greek concept. To the Pre-Babylonian Hebrew, you don’t have a soul, you are a complete soul. Upon death, you ‘sleep’ in Sheol, the grave. Yet, in Matthew 10:28, Jesus says this:
“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
The Jews didn’t agree on resurrection (Matthew 22:23), let alone modes of being. Jesus revealed a resurrection and a difference between the physical body and the spiritual soul (Matthew 10:28). We are told that at the resurrection, we will receive new bodies for our soul (1 Corinthians 15:35-58).
God created the heart and the mind[3] and Jesus instructed us to use both. When we compare Deuteronomy 6:5….
“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
…with Matthew 22:37…
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
we find that both the Hebrew and Greek formulations mean the same thing: Love God with your entire being. But Jesus additionally included the Greek understanding that the mind (i.e. reason) is part of the whole. Spirit, heart, and mind are all to be used in the pursuit of God. But unlike Greek assumptions, they are inseparable conceptual aspects of one unit. To slice and dice the soul leads to doctrinal error, like mystical-oriented Gnosticism. Jesus didn’t distinguish between aspects of the soul.
Danger
The rejection of logic in favor of spirit- or heart-leading is ironically indicative of one-track, black-and-white, either-or, simplistic thinking (‘Linear Logic‘ is irrelevant). This is not exclusive to the Western mind. The intellectual foundations of the West come out of the Christian faith. Were it not for scripture’s insistence on worshiping God with all your mind, the West would not have been. Reason and truth are both reflections of God. You cannot have one without the other. Fundamentally, logic derives from truth and faith, not the other way around.
A pure mystic is just as mistaken as a pure rationalist, but he is also dangerously susceptible to being deceived by false spirits masquerading as angels of light.
Footnotes
[1] True miracles are defined as works of man that occur on rare occasions when the will of a man perfectly reflects the will of God, as it did with Jesus. Unlike Jesus, this is always temporary.
[2] Private revelation is another subject. If God tells you directly to do something, you can and should test the spirits directly, but ultimately you must obey the prompting of the Spirit.
[3] There is some irony to claiming that the mind is irrelevant when Ashkenazi Jews have the highest IQ of any ethnic group. If 1st century Jews in the Near East were somewhat comparable to the Ashkenazi Jews in intelligence, then they most certainly had significant intellectual advantages that they applied to their religious observances.
All of this is just another “peeing standing up contest” on who is more holy, more touched or more learned and who has the “inside” answer, and if “the rest of you just study history, learn Greek, Hebrew, and get the mindset of all these other ancient Hebrew thinkers, then and only then will you understand ‘what jesus really meant'”
The average Hebrew / Jew working as a fisherman, an olive press, or small farm / baker maybe could read and maybe write on a basic level. The Jews did have a bit higher literacy rate for that time than other congruent cultures…..
That said, Jesus didnt spend his time “talking to the mystics” deep inside the Temple, nor did he sit in the schools of the day debating every nuance of the Torah. He came and spoke with people who didnt have this luxury, and I hardly “believe” the 12 that He chose were deep mystics on “ancient hebrew thought”
This new, new lean on Real Man Christianity of being a “mystic” so to speak is just another way of making this faith out of reach for most……contrary of what we see daily in on how Jesus behaved from the Scriptures….but according to them, I am sure they are now “somehow wrong” and “not translated properly” and of course the serpent “did Jesus really say this?”
All of this is just another “peeing standing up contest” on who is more holy, more touched or more learned and who has the “inside” answer, and if “the rest of you just study history, learn Greek, Hebrew, and get the mindset of all these other ancient Hebrew thinkers, then and only then will you understand ‘what jesus really meant’”
Yeah i was just watching some latter-day -almost the end of the series ’95/’96 Married with Children episodes yesterday on COZITV and was thinking ”how did all these ”Conservative” ”Christian” MEN that start yelling ”REDPILL ,REDPILL, REDPILL,DOWN WIT DABLUEPILL” ”THEY LIED TO MEZ!!!” & ”women don’t think I deserve all das*x(I’m ”Conservativesz remembersz”?)like King David & Solomon WTF?” misses what that show was saying about modern MEN, Women, and Marriage?”
Then i remembered most of them were the ”I’m too holy even to dare subject my eyes and ears to a few minutes of that gross p@gan TV show-even though I like my Muslim bros in the lands of the Prophet do enjoy watching B@ywatch as I yank & crank to it dudes.” and ”My Pastor/Priest/Elder board tells me if I am married I will get all das*x I want, as women just live to pleasure and serve such MENZ”
Or as you said:
This new, new lean on Real Man Christianity of being a “mystic” so to speak is just another way of making this faith out of reach for most……contrary of what we see daily in on how Jesus behaved from the Scriptures….but according to them, I am sure they are now “somehow wrong” and “not translated properly” and of course the serpent “did Jesus really say this?”
IOW?They like to falsely boast(which should be excluded as seen further below) how Holy they are without any works or fruit of the Spirit so they think of Scripture like the following to be only for P@gans and wayward blue pilled Jews:
Romans 3
Amplified Bible
All the World Guilty
3 Then what is the advantage of the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Great in every respect. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God [His very [a]words]. 3 What then? If some did not believe or were unfaithful [to God], their lack of belief will not nullify and make invalid the faithfulness of God and His word, will it? 4 Certainly not! Let God be found true [as He will be], though every person be found a liar, just as it is written [in Scripture],
“That You may be justified in Your words,
And prevail when You are judged [by sinful men].”
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God is not wrong to inflict His wrath [on us], is He? (I am speaking in purely human terms.) 6 Certainly not! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But [as you might say] if through my lie God’s truth was magnified and abounded to His glory, why am I still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, (as some slanderously report and claim that we teach) “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”? Their condemnation [by God] is just.
9 Well then, are we [Jews] better off than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) are under the control of sin and subject to its power. 10 As it is written and forever remains written,
“There is none righteous [none that meets God’s standard], not even one.
11
“There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God.
12
“All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13
“Their throat is an open grave;
They [habitually] deceive with their tongues.”
“The venom of asps is beneath their lips.”
14
“Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17
And they have not known the path of peace.”
18
“There is no fear of God [and His awesome power] before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the Law [of Moses] says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that [the excuses of] every mouth may be silenced [from protesting] and that all the world may be held accountable to God [and subject to His judgment]. 20 For no [b]person will be justified [freed of guilt and declared righteous] in His sight by [trying to do] the works of the Law. For through the Law we become conscious of sin [and the recognition of sin directs us toward repentance, but provides no remedy for sin].
Justification by Faith
21 But now the righteousness of God has been clearly revealed [independently and completely] apart from the Law, though it is [actually] confirmed by the Law and the [words and writings of the] Prophets. 22 This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all those [Jew or Gentile] who believe [and trust in Him and acknowledge Him as God’s Son]. There is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are being justified [declared free of the guilt of sin, made acceptable to God, and granted eternal life] as a gift by His [precious, undeserved] [c]grace, through the redemption [the payment for our sin] which is [provided] in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God displayed publicly [before the eyes of the world] as a [life-giving] [d]sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation (propitiation) by His blood [to be received] through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness [which demands punishment for sin], because in His forbearance [His deliberate restraint] He passed over the sins previously committed [before Jesus’ crucifixion]. 26 It was to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus [and rely confidently on Him as Savior].
27 Then what becomes of [our] boasting? It is excluded [entirely ruled out, banished]. On what principle? On [the principle of good] works? No, but on the principle of faith. 28 For we maintain that an individual is justified by faith distinctly apart from works of the Law [the observance of which has nothing to do with justification, that is, being declared free of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not also the God of Gentiles [who were not given the Law]? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed it is one [and the same] God who will justify the circumcised by faith [which began with Abraham] and the uncircumcised through [their newly acquired] faith.
31 Do we then nullify the Law by this faith [making the Law of no effect, overthrowing it]? Certainly not! On the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the Law [since it convicts us all of sin, pointing to the need for salvation].
The Real MAN Christians need none of that Scripture(except) praise for their effeminate vanity,s*x, and plenty of other goodies as they have declared themselves as just like God.
Pingback: Constructive Criticism, Part 6 - Derek L. Ramsey