INTERFAITH WORSHIP AND THE NEW EVANGELICALISM
THOMAS MERTON AND MYSTIC IDOLATRY
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in His holy
place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up
his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. (Psalm
24:3-4, ESV)
This is an excerpt from the next article in my "Do You Know Where Your
Mystic Teachings Comes From" series, this one will be concerning The
Mystic Monk Thomas Merton. If you want to better understand why
Merton's theology does not begin to line up with the historic orthodox
Christian faith you must start with the fact that he was a Trappist
Monk within the long apostate religious system of the Roman Catholic
Church. Therefore when Merton is talking about God, sin, and salvation
he is doing so at the more liberal end of the Church of Rome's already
corrupt theological system. Here I agree with Gary Gilley from his
series Mysticism, as in my own research I also find no indication
whatsoever that Merton ever became a Christian, and instead according
to Wikpedia the Mystic Monk:
finally achieved the solitude he had long desired in a hermitage in
1965. During these years he had many battles with his abbot about not
being allowed out of the monastery, balanced by his international
reputation and voluminous correspondence with many well-known figures
of the day.
A new abbot allowed him the freedom to undertake a tour of Asia at the
end of 1968, during which he memorably met the Dalai Lama in India. He
also made a visit to Polonnaruwa (in what was then Ceylon), where he
had a religious experience while viewing enormous statues of the
Buddha. There is speculation that Merton wished to remain in Asia as a
hermit. However, he died in Bangkok on 10th December 1968, having
touched a badly-grounded electric fan while stepping out of his bath
(emphasis mine).
Interspiritual Mystic Idolatry
Christian research analyst Ray Yungen further informs us in his
excellent book A Time for Departing that, just the same as Emergent
Prophet Tony Campolo today, Merton had a special affection for the
Sufis, which is the mystical segment of Islam. Yungen tells us:
In order to understand Merton's connection to mystical occultism, we
need first to understand a sect of the Muslim world-Sufis, who are the
mystics of Islam. They chant the name of Allah as a mantra, go into
meditative trances and experience God in everything. A prominent
Catholic audiotape company promotes a series of cassettes Merton did
on Sufism. It explains:
Merton loved and shared a deep spiritual kinship with the Sufis, the
spiritual teachers and mystics of Islam. Here he shares their profound
spirituality.
In a letter to a Sufi Master, Merton disclosed, "My prayer tends very
much to what you call fana." What is fana? The Dictionary of Mysticism
and the Occult defines it as "the act of merging with the Divine
Oneness" (59, emphasis his)
Yungen then goes on to describe this dialogue which The Mystic Monk
had with this Sufi Master in more detail. When the Muslim leader
informed Merton that Islam "does not subscribe to the doctrine of
atonement or the theory of redemption" Yungen reports that:
[Merton] responded:
Personally, in matters where dogmatic beliefs differ, I think that
controversy is of little value because it takes away from the
spiritual realities into the realm of words and ideas...in words there
are apt to be infinite complexities and subtleties which are beyond
resolution... But much more important in the sharing of the experience
of divine light,... It is here that the area of fruitful dialogue exists
between Christianity and Islam.
Merton himself underlined that point when he told a group of
contemplative women:
I'm deeply impregnated with Sufism.
And he elaborated elsewhere:
Asia, Zen, Islam, etc., all these things come together in my life. It
would be madness for me to attempt to create a monastic life for
myself by excluding all these. I would be less a monk (59,60, emphasis
Yungen's)
New Evangelical Cross-less Christianity
" 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because of your
false words and lying visions, I am against you, ' declares the
Sovereign LORD" (Ezekiel 13:8).
Men and women, doesn't the Church have enough backbone left at this
late hour to begin to at least draw the line somewhere concerning what
constitutes a true Christian witness? And do you still think that
apostates within the Emergent Church, which is a spiritual cesspool of
Gnostic mysticism, like Living Spiritual Teacher Richard Foster and
his friend another Zen Roshi wannabe Guru Brian McLaren pose no real
problem to the Body of Christ? These same pathetic words of compromise
spoken by The Mystic Monk Thomas Merton are now coming out of the
mouths of his Emergent disciples with their own twists on things
taught by demons. Just as their mentor Merton many EC leaders also
think the atonement "is of little value" and as I show in
"Evangelicals" Attacking The Atonement they are busy attacking it
themselves.
What is it going to take for spiritually obtuse evangelical leaders
today like Chuck Swindoll to see there is simply no place in the true
Christian faith for Merton/Foster/McLaren interspiritual dialogues in
Gnostic mystical encounters? For proof we need only look at The Mystic
Monk's nauseatingly pathetic example itself, because by the time the
Lord ended his days (see-1 Kings 22:20-22) Merton had for all intents
and purposes become a Buddhist himself. And how utterly contemptible
that he would bow down to, and then grovel at the feet of, a Sufi
Master and deny Christ-the Master of all masters-Whom Merton claims he
served. Merton's acceptance of the false religion of Sufism as
actually being from God is even evident in Conjectures of a Guilty
Bystander (CGB) where Merton says that a vision by "the young Sufi
mystic, Ibn al' Arabi" had been "seen clearly through a divine
gift" (208, emphasis mine).
This is hardly the testimony of a true born again minister sent by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Is the evangelical leadership actually so afraid
of, and/or deluded by, Satan's servants that they really believe these
men are trying to preach the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ in their
"interfaith dialogues?" O please; if you believe that then you very
surely need to have your spiritual heads examined. Read the mystic
musings of these seducing spirits as I do and you will not be reading
about the authority of Scripture or about pastors and teachers. No,
instead you will see a flat out avoidance of God's Word save for the
Gospels, talk of "spiritual directors" and so-called "mystical"
experiences. Mr. evangelical leader, today the Lord wishes me to
inform you that you had best heed His warning in Revelation 2 -
"Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the
things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and
remove your lampstand from its place" (v.5).
True Interfaith Dialogue From Scripture
In closing we quickly contrast the message concerning mankind's state
before a holy and just God from The Mystic Monk Thomas Merton with
that of the inspired Apostle Paul, who was personally taught the
Gospel of our God by the Risen Christ Himself (see-Galatians 1:11-12).
One would have to imagine this would be a pretty good Source. Merton
said, "it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of [men's]
hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor
self-knowledge can reach,...At the center of our being is a point of
nothingness which is untouched by sin" (CGB, pp.157,158). But Paul
said - "As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned
away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does
good, not even one' " (Romans 3:10-12).
And now let me show from the Bible the most likely result of a true
interspiritual witness for our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. We
turn to Acts chapter 18 and again we use the example of the Apostle
Paul:
Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews
and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted
himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus
was the Christ. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he
shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on
your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go
to the Gentiles" (Acts 18:4-6).
And this is most certainly not the kind of reaction we are seeing from
the secular world regarding the witness of new evangelical darlings
like Rick Warren or Richard Foster or Brian McLaren or Joel Osteen. Or
for that matter, sadly even that of Billy Graham their spiritual
father and friend of apostate Rome. In fact, it's quite the opposite
in the case of these Christian leaders. However, the Words of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth-faithfully recorded by the Apostle John-the Lord
these men say they serve, still ring true - "If the world hates you,
keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it
would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates
you" (John 15:18-19).
So we must ask: Why the broad acceptance in the public arena of this
new evangelical message of Gnostic mysticism in the contemplative
spirituality being spewed forth today from the Devil's Ecumenical
Church Of Deceit? You might not like the answer, but it's the only
answer. And it really is quite simple. God the Holy Spirit tells us
through the words of that same faithful and inspired Apostle John:
they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from
God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not
listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of
error (1 John 4:5-6, ESV).
...."if anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him
acknowledge that what I am writing to you is of the Lord"...
Posted by Ken Silva, pastor-teacher at May 22, 2006 03:29 PM
Copyright (c) 2008 by Ken Silva. All rights reserved.
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