Here is a really effective way of attacking the Church:
Step 1: Choose something that is perfectly innocent and really useful to Christians
Step 2: Label it with some DREADFUL (but totally false) crime
Step 3: Sit back and watch the Church insist on banning it
Step 4: Laugh your head off at a Church determined to cut its own throat
For example:
False crime: Papist.
Purpose: Discourage outsiders from coming in.
There is a vast difference between furnishings that lead the eye and the mind to God, and furnishings that distract from God.
Even if the Roman Catholic statuary and Orthodox icons distract from God - and yes, they can go over the top occasionally - well, all right, quite often actually - it is no excuse for cold bleak barns decorated in canteen custard and shit brown and without the slightest trace of Christian symbolism or Christian witness except for an arrogant and poorly painted text over the pulpit.
It is ludicrously unscriptural to damn the slightest scrap of stimulation to any sense other than hearing. Why did God have Bezaleel and Oholiab go to so much trouble over the quality of the furnishings of the Tabernacle? Why so much careful imagery and beautiful decoration in Solomon's temple? Why the carvings in Ezekiel's vision of the new Temple?
False crime: Hindu.
Purpose: Stop Christians exploring their relationship with God.
Christian meditation goes back long before any contact with 'Eastern' religions.
Christians have been meditating for two thousand years, long before any contact with 'Eastern' religions. Meditation should be part of every Christian's life - just as thinking about your partner should be part of every relationship. Like every technique it is morally neutral. Use it for good purpose and it is good; use it for bad and it is bad.
Have you read Psalm 119 recently??.
False crime: New Age.
Purpose:Undermine the doctrine of the Trinity.
Jesus Christ's involvement in creation is established both in the Old Testament and in the New.
False crime: New Age.
Purpose: Bar a Christian from a real experience of God.
How a strand of Christianity going back to the earliest centuries of the first millennium can be derived from a system no more than thirty years old is beyond my understanding.
It would be interesting too to hear how someone can be a Christian without a real experience of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps it would be useful for the proponents of this view actually to read some mysticism? Charles Wesley's hymns are easily available and form a useful introduction to the area.
False crime: Antibiblical.
Purpose: Block a whole class of spiritual experiences.
The Bible makes clear that 'speaking in tongues' was practised both in the early Church (at Corinth, for example) and by Paul himself, and testifies that this was both profitable and approved of, provided it was done in a sound and proper context. It is the rejection of speaking in tongues which is therefore antibiblical.
That some charismatics have rejected the authority of the Bible is true, but you will find such people in every group.
My own experience is that most charismatics insist very strongly on the authority of scripture, and will only accept speaking in tongues and other 'gifts' within a strict biblical context - taking very seriously the command to 'test the spirits'.
In fact, I have heard some charismatics say that they have rediscovered the Bible and its authority as a direct result of their charismatic experiences.
And IF it's any business of yours, no I never have. Nor do I want to. I'm just not charismatic - in any sense of the term.
False crime: Quietist.
Purpose: Stop Christians growing.
I've never seen the problem with Quietism, personally. Perhaps it was a little lacking in selfglorification, and being so laid back was difficult to bring under the conventional structures, but some people might consider these to be virtues, rather than vices.
In any case, its use as an all-purpose stick to beat any form of personal devotion is quite unfair, and is becoming a proof of intellectual laziness. If there is an objection to some particular system, spell it out properly.