Spiritual Formation as taught by Ministry Magazine

[Tom Wetmore]

I came a cross yesterday, a 1992 Manual for Ministers (Adventist), Chapter 2, was called, as it is today, Spiritual Formation..

When people are full of hate, they seem to cease thinking in any logical manner.

I would add to that a just as potent force that causes people to abandon logic and rational thought - fear.

[JoeMo]

Quote:

Characteristics of Christian Meditation/ Prayer

1.Christian meditation and prayer provide a respite from stressful thoughts and feelings.

2. Reasoning powers of the brain must be active during the meditative prayer process.

3.The beta brain wave in the frontal lobe predominates, which fosters active reasoning.

4.Our highest intellectual powers, including spiritual reasoning, reside in the frontal lobe.

Eastern Meditation and Mystical Prayer

1. Eastern meditation is in sharp contrast to Christian meditation.

2. An alpha brain rhythm is present instead of beta rhythm.

3. This signifies a trance-like state in which information bypasses the frontal lobe.

4. Like hypnotism, thoughts are repressed and reasoning is absent.

5. The meditator is open to mind control.

A very fair and (IMO) accurate comparison, Jackson. Thank You!

[CoAspen]

Some people find it easy to dismiss others connection with God if it does not fit their own beliefs. That we need to be very careful of doing. A personal connection with God is very essential. It is the H-S that guides our understanding of scriptures. Lets be careful in calling others methods 'mystical' or 'false'. There is too much fear of 'feelings', they were God designed and are a part of the Godhead.

[Patrick Lawrence]

No fear of feelings. As I said only problem is fear of bypassing reasoning and the scriptures. And that is exactly what the people like Richard Foster and others who introduced these things to Adventist are pushing.

By the way I believe there is good Bible based meditation like has been mentioned. But that does not mean ALL Adventist are ONLY talking about good meditation. Not only that they can suggest good things but then suggest books that are full of errors. And this is not speculation it is happening.

[joeb]

"

They claim biblical support for this by quoting James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. ....." But this is only found in the revised Bibles translations.

The King James Bible says in "James 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed, Additionally, 1Tim 2:5 says "For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; "

[Gail]

That is how I understand it, too, not the third party confessions.

[Textus Receptus]

http://www.scu.edu/jst/academics/integralformation.cfm