[awareness]

Originally Posted by Jo S

No worries StG, I understand.

As far as "Christian mystic" goes, I believe that's an oxymoron.

I say that because mysticism is a method that relies on "secret" knowledge and certain mind altering practices in order to gain spiritual wholeness. It's antithetical to Christianity in that we are already complete in Him (Col 2:10).

A Christian doesn't have to work in order to gain a relationship with God. Through repentance, faith, and trust in God alone salvation comes to a believer. It's like a newborn, they don't have to do anything to receive love and attention from their parents. Just by virtue of being their child, they receive everything they need.

You don't have to work toward salvation through high-peak truths and repetitious practices, simply trusting God fully in our hearts and keeping this faith each and every day is what transforms us. And that transformation is very tangible, it's not imagined.

With that said, a mystic who calls themselves Christian, isn't Christian at all but a mystic looking at things through a Christian worldview.

A more accurate term for a so called "Christian mystic" is a gnostic.

The early church was constantly battling these mystics or gnostics.

Watchman Nee and Witness Lee were, in my estimation, gnostics.

Maybe that's cuz Jessie Penn-Lewis caught onto the Christian mystic Madame Guyon, and then so did Nee and Lee.