The Mystic Plague Catholicism Sets A Spiritualist Agenda -By Richard Bennett

The Roman Catholic Church is persistent in her quest to draw all to herself. One of her major venues is the marketing of mysticism under various guises. This is because, as different world religions begin to adopt the idea that they must work together for the well-being of civilization, Rome truly believes that "well-being" can only come through unity with herself as "the mother of all believers." Through crises such as famine, war, racism, human rights, ecological problems, and poverty, Rome is appealing for togetherness at the level of faith. Her attempted appropriation of Evangelicalism and false ecumenism with Christian churches to promote her gospel we have already documented. Very dangerous, and for the most part unnoticed, is her effort to bond with the pagan religions of the world. The common ground among them all is mysticism, which easily puts within her grasp the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Islam. Stemming from her own mysticism and that of these pagan religions comes the tide of secular mysticism now freely flowing through the Western world in health programs, education, and entertainment. Public programs and private services now openly promote a mystic agenda all around us, the consequences of which are becoming apparent in our society. Mysticism has always been the highway into the occult, as many seek to find their identity in God consciousness. Mystical God consciousness is an attempt to replace Christ's redemption and salvation. Mysticism is an attempt to gain ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that by-passes the mind. The strong influence of Catholic mysticism has helped immensely to transform the New Age Movement from being merely a counter-culture sub-culture to becoming a new source of spiritual vision for the world. Catholic mysticism has very effectively and subtly invaded many facets of life without being recognized or critically examined. This has been actively promoted through self-help medical, educational and psychological programs employing methods such as meditation, philosophical programming, and self-hypnotic contemplation. In melding Eastern subjective spirituality with Western self-assurance, Catholic mysticism has done much to effectively hijack public and private religious life and to invert core beliefs and values of the West. For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has assimilated to herself the mystery elements of pagan religions. Subjective religious experience, or mysticism, continues to be the meeting point of pagan religions and Catholicism, particularly so since Vatican Council II, when Rome changed her major strategy in an attempt to bring Protestants back under the papal fold. The marriage between Romanism and paganism is documented in official statements from Rome. Self-realization lies at the very heart of Buddhism… …now I realize what we all are. And if only everyone could realize this! …I suddenly saw all the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could or see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. A person of true faith travels, not without difficulty, towards the heart of mystery. Such a person, as Merton puts it, 'works his way through the darkness of his own mystery until he discovers that his own mystery and the mystery of God merge into one reality, which is the only reality.' DQ 180". These quotations are standard descriptions of the pantheistic myth that we are all in God. In their own minds, Merton and Shannon have literally transmuted God Himself into their own image, having exchanged Him for human beings as an object of worship. Have they not, in the words of Romans 1:23, "changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man… Buddhist sutras speak of Buddha nature as the seed of enlightenment that is already in every one's consciousness. Now our spirits are one… Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism! …Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence." Foster asks rhetorically, "What is the goal of Contemplative Prayer? To this question the old writers answer with one voice: union with God… Bonaventure, a follower of Saint Francis, says that our final goal is 'union with God,' which is a pure relationship where we see 'nothing.' Seeing "nothing" and the "wordless baptism" are just an Evangelical rehashing of Catholic irrational superstitious myth. The Catholic priest Thomas Keating agrees with Foster as he writes, "Contemplative Prayer is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions." Thus Keating depersonalized God to the nameless "Ultimate Mystery" in mythology. This impersonal, "Ultimate Mystery" is a non-speaking, non-judgmental, "god". Is Keating in the twenty-first century any better off than the men on Mars Hill to whom Paul spoke regarding their "altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship"? Nor is any morality derived from Keating's "Ultimate Mystery". Thus Keating Merton and Shannon with their pantheistic identification with God have attempted destroy God's self-sufficiency as Creator, and the Lord God Almighty. They have endeavored to clone God into the image of humans. According to Romans 1:25, have they not "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever"? In the place of the true worship of God, they have set about to establish pantheistic idolatry. The Pentecostal Word of Faith movement is simply a dramatized form of mysticism. Kenneth Hagin in Word of Faith says, "You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was. Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." Casey Treat, known for the infamous quote, "When God looks into the mirror, He sees me! When I look into the mirror I see God!," proclaims on his WebPage, "God dwells in you. God walks in you. When you walk, God walks. When you show up, God shows up. When you show up, a winner shows up. You won't lose." Paul Crouch, Benny Hinn, Charles Capps, Robert Tilton, Paul Yonggi Cho, Marilyn Hickey, Morris Cerullo, T.L. Osborn, and Jerry Savelle are just few more of the well-known names that stage-managed mysticism. As one might suspect, many of the gurus of dramatized mysticism promote fellowship with Catholicism. The Trinity Broadcasting Network, one largest radio and TV networks in the world today, through its founders, Paul and Jan Crouch, fosters fellowship with Roman Catholics, amid mysticism presented in the whirling garments of charismania. Catholic Charismatics have all the traditional mysticism of the sacraments, the Word of Faith movement, and Catholic and Zen Mystics from which to draw. In Biblical terms they are thrice dead in deceit, for what has been quoted here are pieces of insolence, blasphemy, and falsehood. The Copelands, the Crouches, Hinn, Hagin, and others like them would have you rejoice in the light within by claiming that you are a god within. This is a brilliant piece of political bridge building on the Pope's part. By citing experiences of "saints", he attempts to make these experiences universal standards of deep and authentic spirituality. High thoughts, vain imaginations, and carnal reasonings about the greatness of human efforts have always exalted themselves against the knowledge of God. If "a progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved" were true, there would have been no need of salvation by the Redeemer. True Christianity is unique among the religions of the world in that it is a rational-historical faith. For the Christian, salvation is based on something entirely outside of man. Salvation is found in the faithfulness and perfect sacrifice of the Christ of history. Catholic and Eastern mystics claim to discover God in the depths of their being. The true Christian looks away from himself to the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Before God, Christ's satisfaction for sin is a reality that is all-sufficient. It does not need to be supplemented by any other reality. God's verdict of justification is not grounded on any state of being within the believing sinner, rather it is established on Christ Jesus alone. The principle that man can save himself by his experience and by his own life has been the foundation of every pagan religion, as it is of Catholicism. What is so sinister about the present communion of Rome with paganism is that it is contaminating our entire society. The deadly deceptions of mysticism arrogantly advertise a way of direct access to the All Holy God and thereby repudiate any need of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Mediator between God and men. The believer's worship and approach to God is in the Lord's own words to be with "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." In the words of the Apostle Paul, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." The same Apostle warned believers, "Let no man beguile you of your reward …intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." The censure of the Lord God remains on those who have issued lies, "Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" Because of this debasement of Christ and His Gospel we again outline the essentials of historical faith. As Mediator, Christ Jesus is the only means of union between God and man, "that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; in him." Christ Jesus is exalted to "the right hand of the Majesty on high" as the One Savior. He and His Gospel are objective and oral sex real! This Gospel is not an idle tale, nor a piece of incomprehensible mysticism; rather it is the proclamation of the awesome historical work of redemption accomplished by God Himself. The Father appointed Christ Jesus as the guarantee of real salvation. Christ Jesus was glorified in finishing the Father's mightiest work. In Christ's own words, "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." He had fulfilled all the Father's will and so gloriously honored the Father. As Savior He is exalted high above "all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." He alone, and not some mystic charm of Rome or Buddha, has been given all authority in heaven and in earth. True faith involves a repudiation of the self-deceit of experiential mystical means of reaching God, "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The Lord Jesus stands ready to receive every sinner who will throw away his rebellion and pride and trust in Him alone for salvation! Preaching the real historical Christ and His Gospel is the answer to the mindless adumbrations of Rome and the ecumenical mystics. Thus alone can the true Church, God's People "go forth fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." The Gospel is a mighty deliverance from the groveling religious subjectivism of Rome and her pagan mistresses. To know God is life itself to a Christian, in the words of the Lord Himself, "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Knowledge of God, and faith in Him, are the means whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to the true believers. The Fulfillment of the New Age Aspiration? The goal of the New Age Movement has consistently been to bring in the Age of Aquarius when all will recognize "the God with themselves". A major step towards this in the words of the New Age prophetess Alice Bailey, is "the regeneration of the churches." Her vision was that "The Christian church in its many branches can serve as a St. John the Baptist, as a voice crying in the wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world illumination may be accomplished." In a word, she desired the time when the "Christian churches" would embrace the New Age concepts of illumination and self-realization. The New Age plan to bring in world peace cannot fully establish the Golden Age of Aquarius until Biblical Christianity is outlawed or destroyed. Now that the Church of Rome has entered into liaison with paganism, she has again concocted another successful work of syncretism. As Catholicism has become the religion of the European Union, the desires of New Age leaders appear to be coming true. Even at the local parish level according to William Shannon "contemplative spirituality" has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism. With New Age convictions being voiced by leading Catholics and Evangelicals, it appears that the desired goal is closer to being achieved. The New Age aspiration to establish a one-world order lead by "a Christ Leader" is being met by the Pope and his Church. All of this ought not to surprise any believer, for the Bible has persistently warned believers of the enormity, growth and prevalence of the apostate church system and her mistresses. The ruin of the Antichrist's kingdom is declared by the Apostle Paul, "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." In our article, "The Antichrist Unveiled", much of the signs and lying wonders of the Papal System was pointed out. Its machinations, however, will have come to completion only when it has rejected the Christ of history, and has received "the christ of Satan", which "christ" is "enlightenment", "Ultimate Mystery" and "self realization". The Lord in His Word has foretold the destruction of Antichrist's reign as "…that Wicked… whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." In the meantime, the victory of the Gospel is present for those who wait on Him. His power has always been greatest in the day of utmost need. The character of God in His gracious Gospel is "the spirit of his mouth". What has been shown here regarding Catholic mysticism's outright invasion of Evangelicalism and its commandeering of New Age verbiage and paraphernalia, should cause serious individuals to examine carefully the foundation upon which his or her hopes are built. A mere "I hope I am saved" is not enough, nothing short of the full assurance of faith on the solid Rock, the Lord Christ Jesus, will suffice. It is in God's light, and in it only, that "we see light." True Christians interpret all religious experience by the normative revelation of God recorded for them in the Holy Bible. The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light! Mystics have not scrupled openly to equate the true God with "the god" within. They have thought to divest themselves of God Himself by turning to inward self-realization and enlightenment. Rather, the values that they set are based on personal inner feelings that are often incapable of reasoned explanation. The Gospel is the exact opposite, the historical message of the Cross of Christ for a lost world. The Gospel proclaims Christ Himself, and the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who in His love gave His Son to die for sinners. There is no valid excuse for true believers to be deceived by "false apostles", who transform themselves into the "apostles of Christ", "for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." There are many false prophets gone out into the world, if we study diligently these things, which God has recorded for our safeguard against the subtle deceptions of Satan, we will not mislead nor be misled. In 1986, Pope John Paul II seized the inter-faith initiative by gathering 160 of the world's religious leaders for a prayer summit at Assisi, Italy. They flew in from around the globe, Islamic Mullahs from nine nations, the Dalai Lama, (traditionally regarded by Buddhists as a living deity), native American Shamans and Indian cultists, African animists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Catholics and, of course, Protestants. Pope. The grand encore to this initial dramatization of Luciferian unity occurred in January 2002, as Pope John Paul II led 200 leaders of different religions once again at Assisi, Italy. By public demonstration, by official sanction, in countless books and seminars, as well as WebPages with broad ecumenical support, Popedom has set a mystical agenda, which the world loves and accepts. Any believer or confessing fellowship group that remains silent in the face of such bald-faced blasphemy inevitably lends credence to the Pope's deceit. For Rome still assumes her ancient legal principle to stand, "He who is silent is understood to consent." "The lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind," are Satan's strongholds in the souls of many as proud conceits; exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Yungen exposes in a clear, balanced, and documented manner Catholic, Evangelical and New Age mysticism. This book is a basic primmer to understand the creeping pestilence of mysticism that is enveloping Western society and Protestant Churches. To alert other Christians you can print and copy this article. Also freely available is the very important article "The Evangelical Attraction to Mysticism" by Alan Morrison on our Webpage.