How Biblical meditation is radically different from all other forms

Date:   4/21/2005 9:00:31 AM ( 19 y ago)

Meditation in the Bible is always the practice of filling one's mind with deep thoughts of God and his Word, pondering his teachings. A glance at Psalm 119 reveals this unmistakable fact. That this is completely opposite from the meditation in various other religions is quite obvious, as will be shown.

Yet in spite of this, the Christian church is largely unaware of the subtle teachings that have infiltrated it to an alarming degree. Terms like "contemplative prayer", "centering", and worst of all, "the silence" have become household words in places where they should be considered curse words.

This could only be possible if the church at large is "asleep at the switch", not being at all able to recognize these wolves in sheep's clothing due to neglect of the Bible and its doctrine. Even if church leaders are shown the great danger in these things, they bristle at the notion that these "positive" things are not the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the pastors who are supposed to be guarding the flock are instead welcoming the wolves with open arms.

So what is unbiblical meditation? It's all about emptying the mind, not filling it. Known by various names such as "the silence" and "the cloud of unknowing", the goal of emptying one's mind is to be filled with another mind, another entity, another reality. When one learns to empty the mind to this point, it is the realization of the "higher self". This can be achieved through drugs, but the preferred method now is to sit in silence, repeating a mantra (any word will do; Christians are told to think of the name Jesus or something like that) with each breath, known as "breath prayer".

I just finished reading two excellent books on this subject: Deceived On Purpose and A Time of Departing, which can be found at http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/researchtopics.htm . The first one is written by a former New Age (NA) practitioner named Warren Smith; the second is by eastern religions researcher Ray Yungen. In these books is revealed the strategies, terminology, and global goals of the NA movement, and the ease with which their teachings are subtly undermining the gospel. It is very much like the familiar illustration of the frog in a pot of water. The water is slowly brought to a boil, but the frog never jumps out to save its life because it doesn't perceive the gradual change in temperature.

The technical term for the core of NA teachings is panentheism (not to be confused with pantheism). Panentheism basically means that you keep your present religion but tack on the belief that "God is all in all", which does not mean what the Bible is talking about concerning the omnipresence of God. God is everywhere, but he is not in everything. That would make the Creator equal to his creation, which is blasphemy. I'm sure many well-intentioned churchgoers will scream, but one example of this subtle poison is The Purpose Driven Life (PDL), which Deceived On Purpose exposes as NA in Christian clothing. Remember, the author is a former NA practitioner, so he knows the jargon and understands the practices and teachings. He shows the many direct quotes of NA leaders in PDL, and how one of the "translations" used in that book (The Message) contains some unmistakable NA terminology. For example, instead of "on earth as it is in heaven", The Message renders it "As above, so below". This is a direct quote of a time-honored NA phrase (there is even a NA journal called As Above, So Below). What this means is that all/everyone is God(s) but we just don't know it.

You don't see the danger in this? Read this chilling quote from NA leader Barbara Marx Hubbard:

"All that hinders the manifestation of man's divinity must be driven from our planet... The crime of separation must be driven from this world... The fundamental regression is self-centeredness, or the illusion that you are separate from God. I "make war" on self-centeredness... one self-centered soul is like a lethal cancer cell in a body..." (emphasis mine)

"... the path will lead us through the valley of potential humiliation before the crown of godly pride is placed upon our heads... The cross Christ calls us to bear will be offered as a dream... Tremendous human energy is needed... to complete [God's] dream for our self-esteem." (emphasis added)

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