Counterfeit Christianity - mysticism

We continue this week with our sermon and Bible class series on Counterfeit Christianity. We examine the false teaching of mysticism.

Mysticism at its root – is paganism. It is not satisfied with a God who has already laid everything out for us in His Word. It doesn’t want a God that we can trust. It wants a God that we can manipulate, and contact, and control, and kind of barter and bargain with. It doesn’t want a God that says, “This is the way it is, believe it.” It wants a God that gives you the authority to find and divine the way that your world acts and connects with you.

All of us – even as Christians – desire to be mystics. We want to be like Jonah, hearing God’s voice speaking to us clearly. Or like Moses, who got to see God on the mountain. Or like Paul who knew God’s will.


But that’s not the way God works today. He speaks to us in His Word. He comes to us in the waters of Baptism. He enters our mouths in the Lord’s Supper. We hear His voice in the words of absolution and the benediction. We learn about His will for our lives in the liturgy – the confession of sins, the Glory be to the Father, the Creeds, the Holy, Holy, Holy, and the Agnus Dei. It is God’s Word and His Sacraments that counteract our counterfeit Christianity. Learn more this Sunday, so that you might receive the antidote for the poisoned dish of mysticism. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Max Lucado - False Doctrine

I love the way author Max Lucado writes. He is a great storyteller and a fantastic wordsmith. I have a number of Lucado's books on my shelves and receive his daily paragraph devotions. However, as popular as he is, as many books as he has sold, as many lives as he has touched with the Gospel, he still proclaims false doctrine. I still remember being told at the Seminary that you can generally tell a pastor's theology based on the kind of books he has on his shelves. Though our WELS pastors may have a few books by Lucado, Covey or even some fiction by Peretti, they had better have the majority of their books be sound, Lutheran, biblical doctrine. Martin Luther, The People's Bible commentaries, The Book of Concord, People's Bible Teachings, C.F.W. Walther, Francis Pieper, Werner Franzmann, etc. I mention this because of the devotion I received via email from Max Lucado on Friday, June 12 entitled "Saved by Faith." In the devotion he calls communion and bapti...
Read more

Jesus has prepared a place for you - A funeral sermon for Jim Hermann

Image
John 14:1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  2  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  4  You know the way to the place where I am going.” “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Did you catch the difference between what I read just now and what I read in the Gospel lesson? The Gospel lesson was from the NIV. The second verse I read was from the King James Version. If you’re older than 50, that’s the version of the Bible that you heard in church and learned in catechism class. But, even if you’re older younger than 50, you know about the mansions. “The mansions of heaven” is a term Christians use pretty...
Read more

Water into blood and water into wine

Image
Here are some thoughts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s sermon. The Old Testament lesson for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany is the account of Moses turning the water of the Nile River into blood. The first of the ten plagues God used to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Exodus 7:14-24 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not ...
Read more