Heresies in Mystical Authors
In class we discussed some of the errors common in Catholic mystics. As I thought about it however, we protestants might not be so innocent as we think.
The first and probably most common is the self-hatred. Many of the saints have taken the gnostic route of thinking everything physical or human is evil, but this is clearly not biblical. Doing extreme penances and flagellation they attempted to crucify their flesh. There is a certain place for hating ones life (Luke 14:26), but we are beloved of God, and far be it to hate what God loves. We must take up our cross and follow him, but our death to self was accomplished through our union with Christ so we need not crucify ourselves. In simply beholding his love for us we will lose ourselves in a far deeper way than we ever could by beating ourselves. When we beat ourselves we only trade one sin for another. If we were to succeed in attaining to some external standard of righteousness we would only bolster the strength of our pride rather than humbling us. To fight flesh with flesh is to trade one sin for another. The gardener is fully able to prune those parts of us that bear no fruit. We need not accuse ourselves, satan does that well enough. Related to this is an excessive introspection. I think coming from CFC perhaps I picked up a good deal of this fallacy. Not that I blame CFC at all, I was pretty introspective even before I got saved. Nor do I think that something like heart-motives has no place at all, on the contrary I believe that it can be a tool used by God to prevent us from thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. However, I can think of nowhere in scripture where we are commanded to search ourselves or look for things to repent for. We are commanded to seek the Lord and when we behold him our own sinful nature will be plain. Neither are we to try to access our own progress and journey in the Lord. Our current experience of our Christianity is not an accurate gage of our progress in the faith. Even when we feel nothing He feels everything, and even when we feel much our hearts are deceitful. God is our judge. He is the objective standard of righteousness, and because only he fully knows himself, is able to correctly evaluate our likeness to him. Another thing that some of the mystics had is an idolatrous view of Mary and the saints. It is far less prevalent in the Catholic church now than back then, and it is far more present in our protestant faith than we think. We too have enshrined many a missionary and reformer. Too often in presenting the power of God's work in the saints we leave out all the human struggles and mistakes they made. The danger comes when we put them in a class other than ourselves. We tend to place them in another category in order to shield ourselves from the demands that seeing a radical life puts on us. We ought to be provoked to life a great life by seeing Christ in them, but instead we treat those biographies as if they were fictional accounts rather than a testimony of Christ's power working through a weak human vessel. As Protestants tend to lift up Christian leadership far more than we ought to as well. Many a Christian practice (fasting, deep prayer, evangelism, studying the word) is relegated to the professional class of Christians. We make our pastor pray for us instead of having a prayer life. We have him lead us rather than following the voice of our shepherd. Pastors are meant to point us to the Good Pastor who laid down his life, not be our mediator and leader. We must honor those God has put in authority, but honor Christ above all.
The first and probably most common is the self-hatred. Many of the saints have taken the gnostic route of thinking everything physical or human is evil, but this is clearly not biblical. Doing extreme penances and flagellation they attempted to crucify their flesh. There is a certain place for hating ones life (Luke 14:26), but we are beloved of God, and far be it to hate what God loves. We must take up our cross and follow him, but our death to self was accomplished through our union with Christ so we need not crucify ourselves. In simply beholding his love for us we will lose ourselves in a far deeper way than we ever could by beating ourselves. When we beat ourselves we only trade one sin for another. If we were to succeed in attaining to some external standard of righteousness we would only bolster the strength of our pride rather than humbling us. To fight flesh with flesh is to trade one sin for another. The gardener is fully able to prune those parts of us that bear no fruit. We need not accuse ourselves, satan does that well enough. Related to this is an excessive introspection. I think coming from CFC perhaps I picked up a good deal of this fallacy. Not that I blame CFC at all, I was pretty introspective even before I got saved. Nor do I think that something like heart-motives has no place at all, on the contrary I believe that it can be a tool used by God to prevent us from thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. However, I can think of nowhere in scripture where we are commanded to search ourselves or look for things to repent for. We are commanded to seek the Lord and when we behold him our own sinful nature will be plain. Neither are we to try to access our own progress and journey in the Lord. Our current experience of our Christianity is not an accurate gage of our progress in the faith. Even when we feel nothing He feels everything, and even when we feel much our hearts are deceitful. God is our judge. He is the objective standard of righteousness, and because only he fully knows himself, is able to correctly evaluate our likeness to him. Another thing that some of the mystics had is an idolatrous view of Mary and the saints. It is far less prevalent in the Catholic church now than back then, and it is far more present in our protestant faith than we think. We too have enshrined many a missionary and reformer. Too often in presenting the power of God's work in the saints we leave out all the human struggles and mistakes they made. The danger comes when we put them in a class other than ourselves. We tend to place them in another category in order to shield ourselves from the demands that seeing a radical life puts on us. We ought to be provoked to life a great life by seeing Christ in them, but instead we treat those biographies as if they were fictional accounts rather than a testimony of Christ's power working through a weak human vessel. As Protestants tend to lift up Christian leadership far more than we ought to as well. Many a Christian practice (fasting, deep prayer, evangelism, studying the word) is relegated to the professional class of Christians. We make our pastor pray for us instead of having a prayer life. We have him lead us rather than following the voice of our shepherd. Pastors are meant to point us to the Good Pastor who laid down his life, not be our mediator and leader. We must honor those God has put in authority, but honor Christ above all.