'Experiencing God' MisleadingChristiansW Mysticism
Dec 14, 2011 14:04:50 GMT -5
Post by shann0 on Dec 14, 2011 14:04:50 GMT -5
solasisters.blogspot.com/2011/12/bestseller-experiencing-god-misleading.html
Bestseller "Experiencing God" Misleading Christians With "Soft" Mysticism?
Posted by Christine Pack
From the Worldview Weekend website:
The best-selling book Experiencing God (by Henry Blackaby and Claude King) has sold in the millions, but are there serious problems with it? In a recent interview on Worldview Radio with Brannon Howse, Reverend Jack Hughes and Reverend Justin Peters say "yes" and explain in detail (with page numbers) how this book takes Scripture out of context and promotes the "soft" mysticism of hearing audibly from God.
Listen to the program here.
Note: This is such an excellent show, and I'm hoping that Brannon Howse will have it transcribed. Henry Blackaby is HUGE - beyond huge, really - in evangelical circles. My sister has a theory that the soft mysticism as taught by Blackaby leads to the hardcore mysticism of Richard Foster, Dallas Willard and the Spiritual Disciplines so big in evangelicalism today. In other words, Blackaby's Experiencing God book has primed the pump, so to speak, in helping Christians become attuned to the idea that they should be "hearing from God." In fact, in this interview, Reverend Justin Peters makes the point that Blackaby goes so far as to say that if you are not hearing from God, then something is wrong with your Christian walk! This is terrible teaching for the Christian, and absolutely not true. But once Christians have become opened up to this idea that they can and should be hearing from God on a regular basis, then they will be all the more open to the techniques and practices offered up in the Spiritual Disciplines which will ensure some kind of spiritual experience. But please note that while the experiences achieved through these techniques will be spiritual in nature, the fact remains that the techniques themselves are pagan and occultic in origin, and are thus forbidden to Christians. And that means that God will not reveal himself to man through occultic means......therefore, any "spirit" encountered through these techniques will not be of God.
In fact, a general rule of thumb for the Christian is this: we don't need any techniques or tricks for getting to God. We already have access to God, knowing that we can go boldly before the throne of grace because of the shed blood of Jesus. We also are counseled by the book of Hebrews (and elsewhere) that we are a people who are to walk by faith, not by sight, and that we must guard against the human tendency to insist upon tangibility in our encounters with God.
Additional Resources
Unbiblical Teachings on Prayer and Experiencing God: How Mysticism Misleads Christians by Bob DeWaay
Bestseller "Experiencing God" Misleading Christians With "Soft" Mysticism?
Posted by Christine Pack
From the Worldview Weekend website:
The best-selling book Experiencing God (by Henry Blackaby and Claude King) has sold in the millions, but are there serious problems with it? In a recent interview on Worldview Radio with Brannon Howse, Reverend Jack Hughes and Reverend Justin Peters say "yes" and explain in detail (with page numbers) how this book takes Scripture out of context and promotes the "soft" mysticism of hearing audibly from God.
Listen to the program here.
Note: This is such an excellent show, and I'm hoping that Brannon Howse will have it transcribed. Henry Blackaby is HUGE - beyond huge, really - in evangelical circles. My sister has a theory that the soft mysticism as taught by Blackaby leads to the hardcore mysticism of Richard Foster, Dallas Willard and the Spiritual Disciplines so big in evangelicalism today. In other words, Blackaby's Experiencing God book has primed the pump, so to speak, in helping Christians become attuned to the idea that they should be "hearing from God." In fact, in this interview, Reverend Justin Peters makes the point that Blackaby goes so far as to say that if you are not hearing from God, then something is wrong with your Christian walk! This is terrible teaching for the Christian, and absolutely not true. But once Christians have become opened up to this idea that they can and should be hearing from God on a regular basis, then they will be all the more open to the techniques and practices offered up in the Spiritual Disciplines which will ensure some kind of spiritual experience. But please note that while the experiences achieved through these techniques will be spiritual in nature, the fact remains that the techniques themselves are pagan and occultic in origin, and are thus forbidden to Christians. And that means that God will not reveal himself to man through occultic means......therefore, any "spirit" encountered through these techniques will not be of God.
In fact, a general rule of thumb for the Christian is this: we don't need any techniques or tricks for getting to God. We already have access to God, knowing that we can go boldly before the throne of grace because of the shed blood of Jesus. We also are counseled by the book of Hebrews (and elsewhere) that we are a people who are to walk by faith, not by sight, and that we must guard against the human tendency to insist upon tangibility in our encounters with God.
Additional Resources
Unbiblical Teachings on Prayer and Experiencing God: How Mysticism Misleads Christians by Bob DeWaay