The Christian of the Future will be a Mystic, or he will not exist at all !!!!

The Christian of the Future will be a Mystic, or he will not exist at all - Karl Rahner

I am a future Mystic and in the last 10 years I've witnessed the rise and popularity of Atheism, the segregation and division of Christianity due to numerous denominations, the watering down of the teachings due to the east/west schism, and the slow but sure emptying of the church pews.

The Bible even predicts Christians will be persecuted and killed for their beliefs, and I see a time will come when a Christian will be a minority and will have to risk travesty were they to speak of their Faith. Which means the death of most of these denominations. However the good news is the Christian Mystic will be the keeper of the flame and will carry it on into the future.

For a Mystic does not just hold to a belief, faith, and dogma ....but tapers these with actually experiential testing. Direct experiences of Divine truths are what this is all about.

For myself, when I was a mere Evangelical, movies like Zeitgeist and a sudden emergence of larger numbers of Atheists on the college scene ready for debate, really put my faith and belief system to a test and had me on the verge of leaving. However the direct experiences kept me firmly established in unquestionable undoubtedness

I find it boils down to 2 parties. Those who have experienced the Divine, and those who don't. Those who don't are left with faith/belief in one camp (Religion), and complete skepticism which keeps them from even investigating or gaining towards an experience, in the other camp(atheism/agnosticism).

Overall, I have adjusted my system. I see OT as a bunch of reports, of how things went down, so I brush it off, but the NT is a system of life and their is an Absolute to strive for, which would be CHristhood, Love, Selflessness, or Enlightenment. This Enlightenment I also find in Buddhism and many philosophical systems of thought when doing cross comparative studies.

So there it is. My experiences, many of which happened after getting Baptized, hold me firmly rooted in the teachings of Christ being actual facts that lead to mystical experiences for anyone that follows them. I have since remembered pre-existing, had my third eye opened, many times psychic events take place randomly, and lots of energy channels open up inside my body, amongst many other things like merging with an Infinite Ocean of Consciousness here and there.

It is impossible for me deny these experiences for they have seemed more stable and real than the everyday realities we are all used to. I know directly that I am neither the body nor the mind, but a soul which inhabits this body and uses the mind for discernment. Love, joy, appreciating Art/Music, is of the Soul. Lust, greed, hatred, jealousy, and over all animalism is of the body/mind complex. There is a schism within us all and we are all called to transcend. Very little do.

(All this coming from an ex-atheist/agnostic)

Ah, the God who plays favorites. The God who reveals to certain individuals the divine order of the cosmos, and to the others who are not his favorites, he sends to hell.

I love this God as much as he loves me.

Originally posted by dominicus
My experiences, many of which happened after getting Baptized, hold me firmly rooted in the teachings of Christ being actual facts that lead to mystical experiences for anyone that follows them.

edit on 21-8-2012 by dominicus because: (no reason given)

I've taken quite a few baths and only experienced a fresh, clean feeling. What is the difference between a bath and baptism?


Soap.

reply to post by ztruthseeker

Ah, the God who plays favorites.

did I say he plays favorites anywhere in the above? (Nope!!! Assumption number 1)

The God who reveals to certain individuals the divine order of the cosmos, and to the others who are not his favorites, he sends to hell.

did I say he only reveals to some, like his fav's, and sends the others to hell? (Nope!!! Assumption number 2)

It's more like he's already everywhere, in you, all around you, it just requires tuning in like a radio station that's all fuzz, when it needs the dial turned half a millimeter to hear, and see, the Absolute!!!! Where this favorites and hell came from, may be the amount of knowledge and assumptions you have about certain things

I love this God as much as he loves me.

ahhhhh sarcasm, my good friend. I'm afraid in these matters, there really ends up being no choice in the matter. The real you comes from this source, and to this source shall return. This life here we put on forgetfulness and imagine we are who we are and imagine there is no God or imagine we don't know for sure.

reply to post by dominicus


I know exactly why the Church is in decline....
It's the message being spouted out by it's believers..

Maybe a little more

"Love one another; as I have loved you"

And none of

"If a man has sex with another man, kill them both"

There wouldn't be a membership crisis.

did I say he plays favorites anywhere in the above?

"However the direct experiences kept me firmly established in unquestionable undoubtedness"

did I say he only reveals to some, like his fav's

"I find it boils down to 2 parties. Those who have experienced the Divine, and those who don't".

Was your reply serious? Or did you just fail to read what you have written?

Originally posted by dominicus


So there it is. My experiences, many of which happened after getting Baptized, hold me firmly rooted in the teachings of Christ being actual facts that lead to mystical experiences for anyone that follows them. I have since remembered pre-existing, had my third eye opened, many times psychic events take place randomly, and lots of energy channels open up inside my body, amongst many other things like merging with an Infinite Ocean of Consciousness here and there.

Studies have been made that show that Christianity arrived from an early fertility cult that used the sacred Amanita muscaria mushroom.
The research explains the New Testament as a metaphor for the highly guarded secrets of the early christian cult's use of the Amanita muscaria.

The Dead Sea Scrolls show this ancient Jewish Shaman cult's masterful writing giving hidden meanings behind the stories of the New Testament to maintain and pass down sacred knowledge.

Your experience reminds me of a study using '___' (which our body creates naturally for dreaming and dying) where the subjects experienced very similar experiences that have detailed above.

Maybe the early Christian cult and it's sacred psychedelic knowledge also where mystics who dared travel to meet the gods face to face.

but as far as today's church?
total garbage for sheep to eat while they wait around to die

reply to post by ztruthseeker

did I say he plays favorites anywhere in the above? "However the direct experiences kept me firmly established in unquestionable undoubtedness"

if there is one person who is "firmly established" in something, vs. someone who isn't "firmly established" in that same thing, does this mean there is a favorite? If you had kids, and one was "firmly established" in making model airplanes and all the ins/outs of that, but your other kid wasn't ....would you favor the model maker?

did I say he only reveals to some, like his fav's

"I find it boils down to 2 parties. Those who have experienced the Divine, and those who don't".

here's the thing, I witheld judgement, investigated the "blueprints" on how to experience the divine, followed them, and the result was direct mystical experiences (which is light years beyond any belief or faith). The question being was I a favorite? Of course not ....Im just an average joe, no different than anyone else, I searched, knocked, investigated, ....and found.

This is all repeatable as well. When you research mysticism, you'll find most mystics went through similar investigative and harvest periods in their lives. I've also given others' blueprints, (3 of them ex-atheists) they followed the blueprints, and also culminated in mystical experiences.

Was your reply serious? Or did you just fail to read what you have written?

I know where I stand when it comes to conceptual words/logic/reason and this discussion. However ur questions seem steeped in assumption

You are trying to explain a thing like parchuting out of a plane for people who belive there is no planes in the universe and that nothing can fly. Im sorry op they are not there yeet and I wished they where. You can tell them what christ conciousness is but they will not seek it since they are caught up in the idea that religons/science are counter each other (dualities). They are to conditioned on what religion is to see the thruths that are there and is playing around with ego/mind. Even if I know I should not I play around with ego and duality I do it. It is something to do while passing the time sometimes while I wait.

Thank you for being and thank you for being a little further on than I am in experiance. It is good for my ego to know that I know less than you and have experianced less than you.

reply to post by dominicus


But there is 2 ways of this can happen that I know of so not all will follow blueprint. The road where you seek mystical and get it from long studies. Then there is the road where you don't seek, get extreme need and goes thru amagydala fear overload and experiance sudden ego death and then you seek and find answers quickly.

I would recommend the first road. The other one can be very uncomfortable and can be harder to keep the mind/ego in check after gnosis.

reply to post by dominicus


Im shocked you used the word 'assumption'. Assumptions indeed.

Interesting read, in some ways I can relate.

reply to post by apushforenlightment

You are trying to explain a thing like parchuting out of a plane for people who belive there is no planes in the universe and that nothing can fly.

Im sorry op they are not there yeet and I wished they where. You can tell them what christ conciousness is but they will not seek it since they are caught up in the idea that religons/science are counter each other (dualities). They are to conditioned on what religion is to see the thruths that are there and is playing around with ego/mind.

this is exactly why only the mystics will survive, not just in Xtianity, but any religion. Those that go to church that operate on faith/belief, are easily swayed by the group you mention above, and many leave and become the group above. Very few get slammed face first into the Infinite Beingness

Thank you for being and thank you for being a little further on than I am in experiance. It is good for my ego to know that I know less than you and have experianced less than you.

thank you for being. But that let the rest of that sentence sway you. There is no "further along" or having experienced "more/less " than anyone as that is all conceptual mind illusion. The Infinite is the source we all come from and all return to. It's just a matter of tuning in, letting go (Neti Neti), meditation, studies, etc


reply to post by ztruthseeker

Im shocked you used the word 'assumption'. Assumptions indeed.

well then either I was right, or there was some huge loss in translation somewhere down the road based on assumption, im assuming

reply to post by dominicus

Got any links for us to start our research?

reply to post by phroziac

Got any links for us to start our research?

Just google "mysticism" "christian mysticsim" "Union with God" "Nonduality" "Apophatic theology", then when you know those, you can compare to buddhism, zen, dzogchen, etc etc....

the thing here is, that at first your merely reading about these topics, conceptually/mentally wrestling with them in the mind in the form of logic and rational thought.

However to experience these things goes beyond thought, concepts, mental realm. It would be like reading about life instead of directly living and experiencing life. Same goes for this whole thread.

When you study these subjects, you ultimately come across "testimonies" or stories on how others have reach enlightenment and/or Union with God. These testimonies (No matter the religion or philosophy) are basically blueprints which can be applied to your own life and direct experience for the sake of testing them out. You and your own life becomes the laboratory, and the blueprints are the experiments, however sometimes certain experiments have to be tried for long periods of time, or re-tried, and so forth

reply to post by dominicus

I find it boils down to 2 parties. Those who have experienced the Divine, and those who don't. Those who don't are left with faith/belief in one camp (Religion), and complete skepticism which keeps them from even investigating or gaining towards an experience, in the other camp(atheism/agnosticism).

And that's it in a nutshell. It's interesting that the 3 Abrahamic religions have their mystical counterparts in Sufis, Kabbalists, and Gnostics. It comes down to experience and once you've had that direct connection, dogmatic religion kind of falls away because it becomes the intellectual understanding rather than the experiencing if that makes any sense.

reply to post by dominicus





I agree.

After delving into spirituality head on, & moving through the light at the end of the tunnel, I took on Christ as my Father. There is just about everything you can imagine once you leave your body & re-immerse into spirit. When you realize that you have christened atoms since the beginning of existence within you (every one of you), the Creator & Christ become a very useful ally in the light/dark. I am very much a mystic & see truths as well as historical truths in many religions (east/west).


Our definitions of these things will surely alter in these next years.

reply to post by dominicus


You can't mix truth with error.

You are happy to compromise your faith so you won't be killed off for God's sake? The coming test of faith you describe is their to weed out the lukewarm/compromising believes. After the test (the false coming of Christ carried out by Satan and getting people to compromise their allegiance to the Creator by getting them to obey a man made law, worship on Sunday the day of the pagan sun god, versus keeping God's Divine Law fully, testing the 4th commandment Sabbath day commemoration to the Creator....exactly where the protestant reformation collapsed on at the Council of Trent).

At this stage you seem to be a poster child of comprise (so at this stage during the Tribulation period you would be found written out of the Book of Life based on what you have said in your OP) but lament the watering down of teachings while encouraging others to embrace Luciferian teachings against God as well

It seems kind of like an odd mix of desire going on here...

If you lament the watering down of teachings then go to a denomination that doesn't water down its teachings, remains true to the Bible alone and doesn't compromise....

reply to post by JesuitGarlic


You do realise that after experiancing god faith is no longer neccesary. Who do you think can teach you about god the best. God himself or a book? And read that bible with god explaining how the message should be interpeted and the story becomes very different. You are reading the shell of an onion but I think you are missing the core.

I do not need any dogma or worship of god. I love god as you love a best friend that is always there for you where you been thru so much that you don't care to keep any masks between the two of you. The only threat to me is my own sometimes smallminded ego and I keep tabs on it and god gives me the tools to keep it at bay. Thank you god for being. Love the little one.