There is much study that I am yet to do in this area. But today God made it clear to me, that throughout church history, there have been two streams of Christian spirituality. (1) The Prophetic–which is centered on Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). For “the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). This is the authentic prophetic/Charismatic anointing of tongues, dreams, visions, voices, healing, and miracles. This is the anointing from the Holy Spirit at Pentecost passed down from the apostles, the apostolic fathers, to the Desert Fathers, to the mystic saints and monks of church history, St. Benedict, Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, the Quakers, the Methodists, the Pentecostals, and the Evangelical Charismatics of today.
(2) Gnosticism–which, from the very beginning of the apostolic church, began to creep in as a counterfeit prophetic anointing. A “New Age” anointing from India, an anointing of syncretism with all religions and Christianity. Unknown to many, this counterfeit “psychic” form of Christian spirituality has never really died out. It appeared in the Middle Ages through groups like the Albigensians and Cathari. In the 16th century Paracelsus came around. In the Enlightenment period, Johann Goethe, Jacob Boehme, and others. Although many had a “Lutheran” background–these were not orthodox Christian mystics–but Gnostics.
In the 18th century, the Gnostic tradition was continued by Emanuel Swedenborg; in the 19th century, Helena Blavatsky–who called her movement Theosophy (and emphasized Hindu and Buddhist influences) and William Blake propagated Gnosticism; in the 20th century Edgar Cayce became the most visible proponent of Gnosticism (combining Christianity with Eastern mysticism and occultism); Carl Jung, a New Age psychologist and prolific writer, brought Gnosticism into the world of psychiatry; the modern Catholic monks Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and the centering prayer advocates are also Gnostics; from the 20th century to today the New Age movement is really the same old Gnosticism that has been continuing throughout church history. However, I am more than happy to know that the Roman Catholic Church has released official documents rejecting New Age meditation practices: Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation (1989) and A Christian Reflection on the New Age (2003).
It is one of satan’s tactics of deceiving prophetic people into a false anointing; and of causing confusion among Christian intellectuals on the nature of true Charismatic Christianity (that is, untainted by Gnosticism or New Age mysticism). It is my opinion that even the prophetic movement today needs to be purged of Gnostic influences. Some of the prominent prophetic writers are still quoting Morton Kelsey, Evelyn Underhill, and Carl Jung as if they were prophetic. A THOUSAND TIMES NO! THEY ARE GNOSTICS! We Evangelicals and Charismatics need the discernment of spirits!