A Open Letter to Pastor Pete Scazzero

Dear Pastor Scazzero,

I heard you give your powerful and passionate talk at the Bethel Gospel Assembly on “race.” As you, I too grieve and about the state of the Church and our stunted Christian lives. I, therefore, applaud your program to address this lack of Christian growth.

However, frustration can lead to desperation, and desperation to some ill-advised remediations. I am referring to your recommendation to get back to the spirituality of the “Desert Fathers” and “Monastic traditions.” From my reading, it seems that these traditions have often replaced meditative techniques to experience God for the actual priorities and teachings of God – meditation on Scripture, prayer, confession, repentance, faith, and obedience. Regarding this, Ray Yungen has written:

·       "One meditation scholar made this connection when he said: 'The meditation practices and rules for living of these earliest Christian monks bear strong similarity to those of their Hindu and Buddhist... the meditative techniques they adopted for finding their God suggest either a borrowing from the East or a spontaneous rediscovery.'" (“A Time of Departing,” p. 42, 2nd ed.)

·       "The desert fathers believed as long as the desire for God was sincere--anything could be utilized to reach God. If a method worked for the Hindus to reach their gods, then Christian mantras could be used to reach Jesus." (43)

Do we need their techniques, when we have teachings and biblically prescribed means that are able to make us complete unto every good work?

·       All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

If this is so, Christian growth should take us no further than God’s Word. Envisioning the apostasy of the last times, Paul did not suggest that Scripture was not adequate to bring about growth and that we had to find some new methods. Instead, he counseled Timothy:

·       Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

The mysticism of the Desert Fathers represents a entire body of myths – myths that tend to de-emphasize those things that are central to our Lord. After all, if we can connect to God through visualizations, the repetition of meaningless words, and imaginations, then the Bible, confession of sins, and prayer are relegated to a secondary or tertiary position. And this is precisely what we have been observing in the past several decades.

Perhaps even worse, resorting to mystical techniques is an affront to God:

·       "O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the LORD. For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with eastern ways; They are soothsayers like the Philistines…" (Isaiah 2:5-6)

Later, Isaiah admonishes his people:

·       And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

We have to meditate on the Word both day and night (Psalm 1). This is God’s way; it must also be ours.

Thanks for your considerations and for bearing with a little word of correction, my brother.

Sincerely,

Daniel Mann

LECTIO DIVINA, CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER, AND HEARING THE SPIRIT

A Bible-study leader had been concerned about one of her group who was reluctant to study Scripture but instead was determined experience it. She had been practicing a technique called Lectio Divina (LD) and wrote me for whatever insight I might have to offer.

I consulted Wikipedia and found that:

• In Christianity, Lectio Divina (Latin for divine reading) is a traditional Benedictine practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's Word. It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word. 

• Traditionally Lectio Divina has 4 separate steps: read, meditate, pray and contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.

• The focus of Lectio Divina is not a theological analysis of biblical passages but viewing them with Christ as the key to their meaning. For example, given Jesus' statement in John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you" an analytical approach would focus on the reason for the statement during the Last Supper, the biblical context, etc. But in Lectio Divina rather than "dissecting peace", the practitioner "enters peace" and shares in the peace of Christ.

We all have our own ways of approaching Scripture and prayer. We find that certain ways work better for us than others. I have my own methods. I like to pray as I am walking. Praying on my knees is a sure prescription for discomfort, while praying in bed guarantees sleep. Walking helps me focus on my Savior.

However, I would never suggest that you have to pray as I do in order to receive prayer answers from God or to experience Him. However, this tends to be what a wide variety of mystics claim – that if you don’t use their techniques, you will miss out on the blessings of God.

Implicit in this insistence is the denial of the sufficiency of Scripture:

• All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17) 

In many ways, Scripture informs us that God has given us all of the counsel we need to be “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” However, the mystics, in claiming that we require their techniques, deny this truth.

However, the LD practitioner would object:

• This isn’t a matter of promoting our techniques but rather the teachings of Scripture.

Perhaps I’m being a bit picky here. While Scripture does require meditation on Scripture (Psalm 1), it does not seem that Scripture requires LD meditation. In this regard Wikipedia claims:

• When the passage is read, it is generally advised not to try to assign a meaning to it at first, but to wait for the action of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind, as the passage is pondered upon.

Although traditional Christians all acknowledge the vital role of the Spirit in illuminating Scripture (1 John 2:19-20, 23-27; 1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 3:14-18), non-mystics trust in this illumination and guidance apart from any practice of waiting, listening, sensing or silence.

However, this not what should cause any alarm or division. Rather, it’s LD’s insistence upon approaching Scripture apart from mental understanding. Can Scripture benefit apart from understanding? Not according to Paul! Even speaking in unknown supernatural tongues, if not accompanied by understanding, was useless for spiritual growth:

• Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? (1 Corinthians 14:6)

Can the Spirit illuminate while the mind is trying grasp the meaning of a passage? There is a mistaken assumption that the Spirit cannot illuminate our minds while our minds are actively engaged in thought and prayer. However, in many ways, Scripture shows us that the Spirit is not sidelined by our thinking. Rather, He works in conjunction with our mental activity:

• Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2) 

Knowing God’s will or leading is not a matter of turning our minds off but of transforming them. We therefore cannot separate the serious study of the Scriptures from the Spirit illuminating Scripture. They go together.