Editor's Notes
The number of people who have left the Church to reinvent spirituality away from the Church is over 100 million in the US and Canada. If we include the rest of the world, it more than doubles in numbers. Many are questioning the ways of the Church during this time of scandal and discontent. These disillusioned souls include not only the seculars, but men and women of the religious order. Antiquated Church doctrines, especially interpretations of the Words of the Bible as Good vs. Evil and theoretical reductionism that forces Moral law onto its followers, are the cause of much their discontent. The religious institution has been exerting their control over followers of Christ by controlling them through, in part, the idea that we are all sinners and the threat of eternal damnation. As a result, we have accepted material ideas as constants in the form of doctrines based on good and evil.
The Church has defined this type of morality to self-manage and control good and evil among the faithful by preaching a punishing God and inflicting the fear of death on us. Now, many question this theory, yet the vast majority of people leaving the Church still consider themselves spiritual seekers.
For those who are frustrated by the present teachings of the Church, alternatives that continue to share in Christ’s hope and love do exist. One of these alternatives is spiritual mysticism. Mysticism is a belief that a union with Christ is attainable through absolution and self-surrender. It is not a new phenomenon in Christianity. It is as old as Christianity itself. During His time on Earth, Jesus trained all of His apostles to be mystics, as evidenced in all four gospels. In fact, in the Acts of the Apostles and their Letters, it is further evidenced how all His apostles turned out to be mystics. The mystic’s work, then and now, is a continuation of God’s work as long as God loves and cares for His creation. We, too, can experience this but we must develop a trusting, loving, and entirely dependent relationship with the Holy Spirit whose function is to help us delve into the mystical depths of any phenomenon such as this.
Mysticism, more specifically, Christian mysticism, is living in Christ with wisdom as the source of our intelligence and willpower. It allows for unimaginable healing, joy, prosperity and peace. Mystical is a direct contrast with the physical sense of our physical being and the attachment to any worldly, and material being is a hindrance to our spiritual journey. For the author, all through his life, he struggled with material knowledge and was led by God into mystical reality in every aspect of life. In this book, the author explains how glorious connecting with Christ Jesus on a mystical plane can be and how it can be accomplished. Traditionally, even in other religions such as Hinduism, mystical phenomena such as Consciousness and Self-Realization remain complicated and philosophical and out of reach for ordinary people. This book breaks these phenomena and provides an explanation consistent with modern scientific discoveries in Quantum physics and cosmology.
For all of those seeking answers and change, this book communicates a message that all the answers and enlightenment the faithful seek are there in the Bible and within reach for all Christians baptized in Christ and the Holy Spirit. In fact, hope in Christ for a totally fulfilled life in Christ is what is in store for us as a benefit from reading this book.
— Karen Szudzik