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Christians should dump contemplative prayer
by Brian Flynn
Eleven years ago I walked away from the life of a New Age medium and
gave my heart to Jesus Christ. As a medium, I performed psychic readings
and, through meditative practices, contacted spirit guides. At the time,
I did not realize these guides were demonic. Now as a Christian, I no
longer have to chant, go into altered-states of consciousness or perform
rituals to find the peace and truth I found through the Lord and his
Word.
Three years ago, I read a book called "A Time of Departing,"
which claimed that many Christian leaders were teaching a
mantra-meditation technique. You can imagine my shock when I discovered
the New Age had infiltrated Christianity through such a technique, a
practice called contemplative prayer.
The technique involves repeating a word or phrase over and over until
reaching what is called "the silence." Sometimes, instead of a
word or phrase, the breath is focused upon, thus the name breath
prayers. The goal? Reaching an altered-state of consciousness in order
to communicate with God.
Contemplating God's Word is a good thing. But the contemplative prayer I
speak of is not. First practiced by monks centuries ago, it died out and
did not re-enter again until the 1960s when Catholic monks, Thomas
Keating and Thomas Merton, decided to introduce the practice to
mainstream Christianity.
Richard Foster, a supporter of contemplative prayer, writes a curious
warning about this practice in his book "Prayer: Finding the
Heart's True Home." "I also want to give a word of precaution.
In the silent contemplation of God we are entering deeply into the
spiritual realm, and there is such a thing as a supernatural
guidance," he explains. "While the Bible does not give us a
lot of information on that, there are various orders of spiritual
beings, and some of them are definitely not in cooperation with God and
his way! … But for now I want to encourage you to learn and practice
prayers of protection."
Then why do it, Mr. Foster? Why would God put me in a position to fend
for myself in this unknown spiritual realm surrounded by spiritual
beings that are not in cooperation with God and his way? He would not.
The Achilles' heel for Mr. Foster is that there is no scriptural support
for contemplative prayer other than this warning, "And when you
pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do. For they think
that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like
them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask
him" (Matthew 6:7,8).
What would martyrs of the faith who departed from Islam, Hinduism or
Buddhism say to us if they could speak of our intermingling Christianity
with Eastern mystical practices? As a former New Age medium, I know the
difference between Eastern meditative practices and biblical Christian
prayer. Sadly, too many in the Christian community do not.
Brian Flynn is the director of One Truth Ministries based out of
Minneapolis. His first book, "Running Against the Wind," will
be released in March by Lighthouse Trails Publishing.
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