Evangelical Mysticism

Evangelicalism survives in part because of the myth that one's private emotions and introspection can reveal some special knowledge about God, or perhaps about his alleged "plan" for one's life.  It takes no more than several moments to recognize the multiple fallacies inherent in such a claim.  A feeling can never inform one of anything about reality except the existence and nature of that feeling (though sophistic apologists like William Lane Craig still pretend like one can even know that God exists through such experiences!).

This fallacy-riddled spiritual framework inevitably reduces down to mysticism, the pursuit of theological knowledge through non-intellectual means.  Since mysticism and rationalism are viciously exclusive, mysticism almost always features claims of personal experiences at its core.  Pure mysticism is rooted neither in reason nor in any particular religious text; it is based on personal experience and that alone.  Evangelicals do not go so far as to embrace total mysticism, but they certainly substitute mysticism for intelligence and Biblical exegesis in many areas.

Is there even any evidence at all that God has a particular plan for individuals--that if they do not get married to specific people or take certain jobs, they have deviated from God's will for their respective lives?  Does even a single Bible verse serve as actual support for this?  Evangelicals can only defend these supposed facts about God's will on the basis of subjective experiences, with the correspondence to any actual divine will being entirely unverifiable at best, as nothing in the Bible even hints at God having respective plans for the details of each person's life--and logic uproots any attempt to argue for such a thing.  Reason exposes all claims about knowledge of these plans as non sequiturs and instances of begging the question or circular reasoning.

There is nothing else that a person who claims to have discovered God's will for his or her life can appeal to besides mysticism!  That nothing in the Bible even suggests that God has plans tailored to the lives of each individual does not prevent evangelicals from mindlessly repeating the myth, as the idea that such plans exist anyway is deeply entrenched within baseline evangelicalism.  Then there is the amusing fact that one single act of disobedience, or even simple ignorance, could totally disrupt God's plans for many lives if God truly had specific plans for many events within each one.

Consider all of the ways that one ignorant or rebellious Christian would affect not just his or her life by straying from God's "plans," but the lives of many around him or her!  For example, all it would take is one marriage to the wrong partner for numerous other intended marriages to be averted, with the consequences passed on from person to person.  Ironically, this would render God's plans for individuals ineffective, something many evangelicals would not want to admit!

Evangelical mysticism is more destructive than its adherents realize, for it is irrational stupidity and extra-Biblical doctrine masquerading as something vital to the very lifestyles of Christians.  Not only is this mysticism asinine by nature of its non-intellectual foundation, but it can also lead to great hurt in the lives of sincere adherents who become frustrated with their lack of ability to identify divine plans that, at least in the way many define them, aren't there.  Confusion about God's alleged will for one's life and the potential associated frustration is easily avoidable if one embraces rationalistic and exegesis-rooted theology.