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THOMAS À KEMPIS AND MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM (PART II)

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“The Noetic Quality of Mysticism” By Prof. Hanko | Professor Emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary Introduction In our last article we introduced the subject of mysticism in the Middle Ages by describing the life of Thomas à Kempis, a late medieval mystic from Germany, who spent most of his life in the Netherlands. We also spoke of his most famous book, The Imitation of Christ, a book that continues to be read and appreciated to the present. In this article and following ones we shall discuss the characteristics of mysticism and why it constitutes such a threat to the church of Christ. The Prevalence of Mysticism I mentioned in my last article that there is scarcely a period in the history of the church when the church was free from all forms of mysticism. Already in the early church, the Montanists, to which Tertullian joined himself late in life, represented this mystical tendency to which many in the church were inclined. The Medieval Perio...
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THOMAS À KEMPIS AND MEDIEVAL MYSTICISM (PART I)

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“ The Life of Thomas à Kempis, a Late Medieval Mystic ” By Prof. Hanko | Professor Emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary Introduction The error of mysticism has never been absent from the Church of Christ in the new dispensation. It appeared early in the Montanist movement in the third century and has, in a remarkable way, maintained itself to the present. The Church has always had to fight off mysticism. Not a single period in the Middle Ages was without its mystics. Sometimes they were present in multitudes; sometimes only individual mystics kept the flame of mysticism burning. But never did the Church free itself from them. In fact, the Church had no interest in condemning the mystics. They were never considered heretics. One gets the impression, on the contrary, that the Church encouraged them. I suspect there were good reasons for such encouragement. The mystics were, almost without exception, faithful and loyal members of the Church and ...
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SCRIPTURE CANON & BIBLE VERSIONS (PART IV)

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“Bible Translations That I Would/Wouldn’t Recommend” By Akin Ojumu In the last installment of this commentary series, we described the developmental evolution of Bible translations. We alluded to the universal agreement on the content of the Old Testament. This consensus is the result of the meticulous record keeping of Jewish Rabbis. The oldest complete copy of the Old Testament, in the original Hebrew, is called the Masoretic Text. Generally speaking, this is what Bible translators use when translating the Old Testament.  Because of the many different Greek manuscripts available to scholars, the New Testament presented a more difficult challenge. Generally, the available manuscripts fall into three main categories, namely the Western, Byzantine, and Alexandrian manuscripts. These manuscripts have been used to produce several English translations of the Bible, some of which were discussed last time. At the last installment of the commentary series, we indicated that the Bible tran...
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SCRIPTURE CANON & BIBLE VERSIONS (PART III)

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“How We Got the English Translations of the Bible” By Akin Ojumu Because the history of Christianity and the Church is not a subject that the vast majority of church folks care to know or find fascinating, there’s a massive hole in their knowledge of the historical events that occurred in Christianity between the Book of Revelation and the present day. This knowledge gap is the reason many Christians confuse Bible canonization with Bible translation.  A Bible canon is the officially accepted list of inspired books (e.g., 66 in Protestant, 73 in Catholic) that constitute Scripture, serving as the “measuring stick” for faith. A Bible translation is the rendering of the original texts of Scripture into different languages (e.g., KJV, NIV), focusing on wording and interpretation (Source: Google AI). There are a lot of different translations available these days – from old ones like the King James Version to new ones like the English Standard Version. In today’s commentary, we’ll try to...
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SCRIPTURE CANON & BIBLE VERSIONS (PART II)

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“How We Got the Canon of Scriptures” By Akin Ojumu This commentary series is an attempt to clear some of the confusions I have observed among my Christian friends with respect to the difference between the Canon of Scriptures and the various Bible translations and the resulting Bible versions. The meaning of the Canon of Scripture is the subject of today’s iteration of the commentary series. In subsequent installments of the commentary, we’ll discuss the evolution of the translations into English of the Bible. The difficulty in determining the biblical canon is that the Bible does not give us a list of the books that belong in the Bible. Determining the canon was a process conducted first by Jewish rabbis and scholars and later by early Christians. Ultimately, it was God who decided what books belonged in the biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God’s convincing His human followers which books shou...
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SCRIPTURE CANON & BIBLE VERSIONS (PART I)

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“Stick to Scripture, and You Won’t Fall into Error” By Akin Ojumu Scripture is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith, doctrine, and conduct. The LORD God is a God of order and not of confusion. The Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture. He inspired men to write what He put in their hearts to write.  2 Peter 1:20-21 “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation. For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Scripture is the inspired written Word of God given to us so that we may know Him, His will, and purpose. Scripture is the final authoritative source of the TRUTHS of God and about God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “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 comple...
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CHRIST PLUS MYSTICISM

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By Pastor John MacArthur | Monday, January 8, 2024 It is easy to feel inferior to someone who knows something you don’t – especially when they hold information that you earnestly desire. For centuries, religious mystics have been working overtime to insinuate that the church suffers from the same kind of information void, supposedly a void that only they can fill.   When the apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the church in Colossae, the believers there were being intimidated by people who claimed to have a higher, broader, deeper, and fuller union with God than Christ alone could give. They were the mystics. They claimed to have interacted with angelic beings through visions and other mystical experiences. Paul said of them: Colossians 2:18–19 “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit tog...
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