That title was a crack I made around 2006 when I became aware of the new wave of false teaching entering the church. One aspect of that teaching hinted that our experience with Jesus was (should be?) sexual. (Christians who use a mantra, as in contemplative prayer, and go into an altered state of consciousness sometimes have erotic experiences, which they mistakenly believe to be “union” with God/Jesus.)
There was new interest in/promotion of the “bridal mysticism” of medieval nuns like Teresa of Avila: “Body and spirit are in the throes of a sweet, happy pain…and a spell of strangulation…swoon-like weakness…” There were quotes in Christian books, like Tony Campolo saying, “There is nothing wrong . . . with eroticism in worship.” And Ann Voskamp: “Mystical union…. God as Husband in sacred wedlock, bound together, body and soul… To know him the way Adam knew Eve. Spirit skin to spirit skin…” Ken Wilson: “I was having feelings of connection with the divine… [that] reminded me very much of the amorous feelings I have for my wife.”
You may not have connected the dots, but go back to the Old Testament (and general history) as a reminder that pagan religions typically include sexual ritual. And when believers in God step away from God’s path, it inevitably trends toward an “anything goes” sexual culture. There are loads of Scripture warnings against following pagan practices (ex: Deuteronomy 12:30-32)—not to mention any number of explanations of failures to obey those warnings (ex: 1 Kings 14:22-24). And at some point, says 2 Kings 23:7, the quarters of shrine prostitutes were actually “in the temple of the Lord”! Click here to continue reading.
Related Reading:
Tantric (i.e., Contemplative) Sex and Christianity—A Match NOT Made in Heaven
(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)
I witnessed what I think may have been the beginning of this sensual approach to the Lord (I don’t mean to offend; I don’t know how else to put it) sometime in the 1990s at a church which started out very well in the Lord. It was not largely accepted there then — there were wonderful older leaders in the church who were faithful prayer warriors and led by example and wise counsel, holding back what could have been a wave of this horrible stuff. I had never heard of Ann Voskamp then, but there was a woman who had an independent ministry apart from the church with a few other people, a close friend visited that ministry and few times, and she told me what they were teaching. I know it was true, because a younger woman assisting with that ministry casually mentioned something about it one time, in conversation. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”, and it’s dangerous when just a “little bit” of such teaching gains a foothold in a church or any type of ministry. As it is written, the little foxes (not always noticed) spoil the vines.
My son is a missionary in Spain and he told me several years ago the emergent, spiritual formation churches have a greater incidence of sexual immorality, according to reports. Also, if there is no hell, then church members are free to do whatever they want. There are no consequences for breaking God’s laws. In Love Wins, Rob Bell says all go to Heaven, there is no hell. I guess the N.T would say that so-called believers in Christ have perverted God’s grace and used it for licentiousness. Repentance is not needed. As we read through world history we see that all pagan religions practiced sexual immorality.
Ann Voskamp is sickening ro read. Her writings smack of a degrading filthiness of the flesh towrd Almighty God!