Is Ken Becoming Mystic?
Ken recently wrote this in his article entitled Does it Really Matter What I Believe
In this postmodern culture we live in, people will often need to be reminded that God is truly beyond our comprehension, as He transcends knowledge, time, and space by infinity. We must help people to understand that God is an all-powerful, disembodied, ultra-dimensional Spirit–Who exists outside any continuum that we can access. In other words, the Creator of the entire universe is way bigger, smarter, and more powerful than we can ever be. You may have heard the old saying: “You ain’t from around here are ya?†Well, not only is God not from around here, the fact is He’s not even anything like us at all!
This sounds alot like contemplative mysticism Ken! Have you joined the dark cult of the ECoD? As long as God “transcends knowledge, time, and space by infinity” we must at least acknowledge that He is “truly beyond our comprehension”. For a man who believes this, you certainly make alot of definitive decisions about what God thinks.
![Image of The Prodigal God (An Unabridged Production)[2-CD Set]; Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Jl6fhDLxL._SL75_.jpg "The Prodigal God (An Unabridged Production)[2-CD Set]; Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith")
8 Comments(+Add)
I thought that was a quote from Brian McLaren! HA HA…
it only goes to show that Ken has no real grasp at what is being taught in the emerging circles… he believes what most emergents teach… at least by this quote!
Blessings,
iggy
God is like Ken has described Him. I believe that he is concerned about people meeting a divine transcendent being who is not God at all. The real God is so powerful that he doesn’t need people to try to meet Him by doing such things as repetitive chanting or having a little labryinth toy to draw a path on as they meditate.
This issue is more significant than any of your issues with Ken Silva.
Amy,
where did you get chanting and labyrinth toys? That has nothing to do with this at all. I think that most people have a really skewed view on what contemplative prayer is. It is not eastern meditation or sitting and chanting. It is all about being still and hearing from God.
When Ken says that God “transcends knowledge, time, and space by infinity” and then proclaims that he has direct revelation from God, there is a problem. What Ken described is also what mystics within the Christian church would also describe.
Nathan,
I think that “contemplative prayer” means different things to different people. One of the problem’s with it is that a Christian who becomes interested in it can be led into all types of practices to meet with the divine-with little or no warning. For example, with little warning, by going to the Renovare website (at least as it was a year ago – I haven’t looked at it lately.)
Chanting, “repetitive prayers” is one way that is recommended to bring one into stillness -I heard about this from a southern baptist who was practicing it, and articles that recommend it.
Labryinth toys – I saw this on the internet, and cannot say if it was recommended by a Christian group or not. I mention it simply because I think that it makes one stop and think twice about the whole labyrinth concept. It was advertised in the same way that labyrinth’s are talked about by some, that there can be some mystical power at the center of them.
But may I ask you to reconcile these two things: You say that contemplative prayer is “all about being still and hearing from God.” Yet you seem to have a problem with Ken having “direct revelation from God.” (Or are you only having a problem with him having a direct revelation from God in conjunction with saying that God “transcends knowledge, etc.”)
Can one or can one not hear directly from God?
Amy,
I posted at length on labyrinths in response to your question about pagan rituals on the other article.
Neil
Nathan,
If you respond to my post maybe you can just try to answer what is the difference between “hearing from God” and having “direct revelation from God.” If the discussion veers off to Ken Silva’s claiming/not claiming, having/not having direct revelation it will be a never-ending discussion that has already happened.
I don’t think he’s saying that one cannot hear or have a revelation from God. The point I think he’s trying to make is that what Ken said sounds like something Brian Mclaren or someone ‘emergent’ or ‘emerging’ would say. He’s not saying it’s wrong, just that it sounds like something they’d say and that some people get called ‘mystics’ for saying things like that.
Nathan said, “When Ken says that God “transcends knowledge, time, and space by infinity†and then proclaims that he has direct revelation from God, there is a problem. What Ken described is also what mystics within the Christian church would also describe.”
The problem is not that he is wrong, or that he can’t have a direct revelation from God, but that he is saying something very similar to what Christian ‘mystics’ say and are criticized/condemned for.
Amy,
I am reacting to the fact that Ken is allowed to sit and hear from God, but when people do just that but call it “contemplative prayer”, they are deemed heretics by him.
I am also reacting to the fact that Ken here seems to imply that there are mystical elements unknown to man, but Ken acts as the authoritative voice of Him.