MY LIFE: #44 Mystical Illusions

Mystical illusions are phenomena that challenge our perception of reality and reveal self-imposed hidden mysteries of self-life.

MYSTICAL ILLUSIONS OF THE CROSS

Every reference to the "cross" and "crucifixion" in the entirety of the New Testament is applicable to one of the five categories: (1) the material object of the cross (2) the historical event of Christ's crucifixion on the cross (3) the theological significance of Christ's crucifixion on the cross (4) the Body of Christ's spiritual identification with Christ's crucifixion, and (5) the figurative usage of "taking up a cross." 

The light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.

(Revelation 18:23)

THE SYMBOLIC CROSS VS. THE REAL CROSS

Mystical illusions are phenomena that challenge our perception of reality and reveal self-imposed hidden mysteries of self-life. In other words, what we want to believe about reality. They can be found in nature, art, science, religion, and magic. Some people seek mystical illusions to experience wonder, awe, and transcendence of what is not. Others use them to manipulate, deceive, or entertain, like a magician, sorcerer, or demon pathology.

In this essay, I will explore the history, meaning, and significance of some of the most famous and influential mystical illusions about the Cross of Christ in human history.

When I was in 4th grade, my best friend was the son of a certified witch. His mother was my mother’s best friend, my adopted “aunt.” While my mother did not practice witchcraft, both of us observed a plethora of mystical acts of sorcery. As a young man, it embedded in me a passion to understand what I saw.

On one particular day, my friend and I walked through the front door of his home. His mother, my “aunt,” was sitting at the kitchen table. As she looked at us, she had a dark presence about herself. She said, boys, it is time to play ‘raise the table.’ If you’re not familiar with this demonic practice - it is touching a table lightly with your fingertips, calling on a spirit, then begin asking questions, while the spirit would raise the table and tap the floor - one tap for “no” and two taps for “yes.” My “aunt” asked the spirit if there was an enemy in the house. Within a split second, the table rose from the floor and pushed me out of my chair. Now comes the difficult part to believe. The table chased me until I ran up the stairway. Our family talked about this incident for years.

Needless to say, this developed in me a curiosity about mystical phenomena. While I tampered with the dark side of mysticism, my efforts ended in defeat. My “aunt” told me later that the dark side hated me because of the light that surrounded me. Today, I understand that it was the light of Christ. However, back then, it brought on more curiosity.

Much later in my life, after becoming an indwelt Christian, my mentor had to pray over me to cast off a demonic spirit that was oppressing me. He believed it was from the raise-the-table experience.

Most do not take seriously the ramifications of tampering with sorcery. Biblical Paul had to address several of his church plants with the error of mixing Christianity with sorcery and other fleshly manifestations.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

During my adolescent years, I was plagued with every one of Paul’s descriptions. Worst yet, these fleshly manifestations were connected directly to my tapering with the dark side of mystical illusions. Ironically, it covertly developed in my soul a self-justification of believing the mystical application of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

THE MYSTICAL APPLICATION OF THE CROSS

There are no Scriptures whatsoever to justify the mystical application of the cross of Jesus in an ongoing crucifixion experience. The continued crucifying activity advocated by these predominantly Protestant authors is of little difference than the continued crucifying activity that Roman Catholicism claims as transpiring in their Eucharistic (communion) mass.

Christian theology is based on the Grace activity of God, not upon the "works" and effort of the self-life of man. Within the indwelt Christian life, God's continuing activity is not reliant on our activity or refusal of sin. We do not affect Christian living by engaging in any particular activity, specifically self-crucifixion.

The Christian life is not a matter of "doing our best so God can do the rest” but of doing our part of releasing Christ to do His best.

Repetitive demands that the indwelt Christian should "die to self," "apply the cross," surrender and "be broken," all reveal a self-effort approach to a formulized (ruled-based) Christian life, which is a theology of "works" sanctification. Particularly rampant is the admonition to "reckon oneself dead,” so God can work. We need to walk in what is already true & that is done through the COMPLETED WORK OF CHRIST.

The focus of many Exchanged Life teachers who put an emphasis on co-crucifixion is that they tend to lead the Body of Christ astray. They are preoccupied with "self," instead of Christ in the believer; preoccupied with getting rid of sin, instead of the Savior who became sin on their behalf; preoccupied with death, instead of His inward Life; preoccupied with the cross, instead of the finished work of the Cross of Christ. As a result, they are inventing a new form of works-oriented Grace that involves the proactive work of suppressing self, which, by the way, leads to “gracialistic confession-ism" of sin. They do not understand the "finished work" of Jesus Christ and the Grace provision of God that terminated the need to regurgitate Catholic methodologies.

A warning to Christ-as-Life teachers.

People of the Cross tend to act like elitists, which is cultish thinking. Oftentimes, they cultivate attitudes of exclusivism, wherein they regard themselves as more "spiritual," more "mature," acting as God's special people, the "remnant" of God's true followers. The spiritual pride underlying such attitudes is evident in many teachers of the Cross. All indwelt believers are God’s people, whether they understand Christ as Life or not! The lion’s share refers to the "deeper Christian life" and the "victorious Christian life.” Some of the writers indicate that the Christian can arrive at a level of Christian experience where he/she no longer sins – also called “sinless perfection.”

KEEPING THE CROSS FULL

All of this mounts to the ideological symbol of the cross becoming a mystical object that allegedly serves as an agent of God. With these “believers,” the cross is personified and attributed with the fundamental power to work within “Christian” lives in order to enact a continuing crucifixion, thus, keeping the Cross of Christ full of sins.

The evidence of forgiveness unto others is the evidence of the state of belief of the “Christian.” In exposing the unbiblical mystic applications of the cross, we must not overreact by failing to proclaim the eternal VALUE of Christ's death on the cross and all the implications it offers. The death of Jesus on the cross is indeed a central factor in the whole redemptive and restorative action of God's grace. By His death, Jesus took on our deserved death in order that we might have His life. He did not take our death so that we might have His death.

The message of the cross is the message of the completed, finished work of God in Christ. The message of the cross is the message of an empty cross, whereupon all crucifixion activity has ceased, for Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and come to live within the indwelt Christian. The message of the cross is the message of liberating freedom to be all that God intends us to be by His grace in the out-living of His character within the frail human temperamental soul of man.

The message here is not sinless perfection, it is appropriating the existing forgiveness ONCE accomplished on the Cross of Christ for past, present, and future sins. Thus, the authentic believer thanks Jesus for His single and final eternal act OF forgiveness.

The Empty Cross is the only "good news" available to mankind -- through the grace (unearned favor) of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Paul refers to "preaching the gospel" in 1 Cor. 1:17, and then, in the next verse, refers to the content of that gospel as "the word of the cross," which he continues to explain “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). The "good news" of the gospel is not the "power of the cross," but the "power of God,” demonstrated on and through the Cross (Romans 1:16).

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Rom 1:16)

What does it mean to be ashamed of the gospel? If one is ashamed of the Gospel, what does that communicate about the power of God? I call believers who integrate mystical illusions with the Gospel lost believers within the context of God’s reality. To eliminate this lost condition, one must STOP practicing sorcery, which is, as the Hebrew text reveals, witchcraft - the craft of a servant of Satan.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of God’s love, redemption, and salvation for everyone who believes. Mystical illusions are expressions of self-generated wonder that can inspire but yet deceive. Both of them can act as sources of joy, hope, and peace for many people. However, since one is an illusion and the other is an eternal reality, the Gospel of Christ is the single solution to the error of blending sorcery with Christianity.

If you're stuck in a mystical illusion of Christianity, remember its basic derivative - illusion comes from ill-usion, people who are ill from the demise of deception.

Coming up next is #45, “Self-Effort Grace.”