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Mysticism - An Explanation |
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Written by Administrator
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Sunday, 28 January 2007 |
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This series of articles is from the Think on These Things ministry, written by Pastor Gary Gilley , senior pastor of Southern View Chapel in Springfield, IL. Below is an excerpt from Mysticism, Part 1. Mysticism - Part 1 (January 2005 - Volume 11, Issue)Mysticism, a Way of the Past, the Wave of the Future I am often asked what I see as the next important challenge facing evangelical Christianity. Such questions are asked in the wake of major movements that have changed the face of evangelicalism in the last two decades, including the market-driven church and the closely related “Purpose Driven Life” (PDL) campaigns that have so greatly impacted God’s people. The legacy of both of these movements will not be that the church discovered new ways of worship, or new methodologies to replace the outdated. Instead, I fear that they will be remembered by future generations for their undermining of the authority of Scripture. To be sure these movements were not the genesis of the lack of confidence in God’s Word – there have been many forerunners. Actually they have capitalized upon this trend and have taken it to a new level. It is not that everything the church growth experts and PDL espouses is wrong; it is that the authority for what the church now believes has shifted. It has shifted from the infallible Scriptures to psychological and sociological experts, opinions of the masses, trends of the moment and the philosophy of pragmatism. This shift hasbeen subtle, which has made it all the more dangerous. Few have bothered to deny the Bible itself, they just misquote it, abuse its meaning, force their opinion on it, and if necessary mistranslate it to give the appearance that the Scriptures are backing their claims. The affect of all of this scriptural manipulation is to both erode the authority of God’s Word and to give the appearance that what Scripture has to say isn’t really important. It is only a short step from here to a Christian community that no longer has much use for the Bible. As a matter of fact, if the increased popularity of people coming to church services without their Bibles, sermons being reduced to PowerPoint presentations and sermon note taking digressed to fill-in-the-blank outlines, are any indication, we may be there now.
The rest of Mysticism , Part 1 can be read or downloaded here. Parts 2 thru 5 can be found at the links below. Mysticism, Part 2 Mysticism, Part 3 Mysticism, Part 4 Mysticism, Part 5 All five sections in one pdf here |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 24 March 2007 )
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