The following is excerpted from Donald Whitney and Spiritual Disciplines: Spirituality Without Boundaries by Bob DeWaay, pastor of  Twin City Fellowship: 

The people who asked me to review [Donald] Whitney were concerned about mysticism. I am concerned too, not merely because Whitney is a mystic without qualifications (he is not), but that he has opened the door to mysticism by his pragmatism, lack of boundaries, and belief that there is some “inner voice” we can hear and be certain that it is God speaking new revelations to us. He himself then defines no truly mystical process likely to work for most people but points them to others like [Dallas] Willard and [Richard] Foster who do. When it comes to mysticism, Whitney would be the kindergarten and Richard Foster the graduate school.

As I showed earlier [in this article], Whitney offers a larger list of “spiritual disciplines” than what he addresses in his book [Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life]. The list includes “spiritual direction.” Having read true mystics like Foster and Morton Kelsey I know what these are. Spiritual direction is the Christian version of setting oneself under a guru. Because not everyone is that good at mystically hearing inner voices they find someone who is much more advanced in the art of hearing what they naively think must be the voice of God. The spiritual director can teach others the art and guide them down the path of contemplative spirituality and practice to be a better mystic. Supposedly the spiritual director is skilled enough to guide the novice into deeper contact with God (but actually to the spirit world where they think they meet God).

The spiritual director knows techniques that will work for anyone. As in the case of clairvoyants in the occult world, some seem to have an innate ability to hear from spirits in their mind by voices or see to them through visions. But becoming a psychic is something that can be taught. The main technique is to silence the mind using a repeated phrase in order to enter the silence. Once there, familiar spirits can speak. The “Christian” versions of this are called “contemplative prayer.” Richard Foster is famous for teaching this.

Whitney does not teach “spiritual direction” but calls it a spiritual discipline and praises Richard Foster several times in his book. Whitney’s version is much softer. He teaches no technique other than quiet contemplation. But what one does in Whitney’s version is to supposedly hear the certain voice of God. He says, “Other times silence is maintained not only outwardly but also inwardly so that God’s voice might be heard more clearly” (Whitney: 184). How do we know God’s voice as distinct from our own thoughts or other spirits? In reality we do not. That is why scripture alone is a valid principle and why the Reformers disregarded the Pope’s claim for authority because of his revelations. But many evangelicals, including famous ones, have bought the lie that there is some voice of God that we must learn to hear so that we can get personal revelations beyond Scripture. Whitney cites A. W. Tozer: “Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God’s presence envelopes you . . . Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it” (Whitney: 199). What exactly does God’s presence feel like and God’s voice sound like? We cannot know for certain, and surely Satan is capable of giving us an experience that we will think feels and sounds like God.

But worse, once people believe that they need to know how to feel and hear God, they will decide they are not very good at it (if they are honest with themselves). Then they must turn to the Fosters and Willards of the world, who have processes that are more powerful than Whitney’s. Silencing the mind eventually works for everybody, whereas Whitney’s unsophisticated version will only “work” for the naturally mystically inclined.

Whitney, Foster and Willard are pragmatists. That is, they judge their practices not by agreement with Scripture, but on how well they work. By “work” they mean some sort of subjective criteria that makes a person feel or think they are closer to God or more holy. The only boundaries that exist for pragmatists are subjective and rely on common sense. Whitney has more common sense than Foster, but his basis of judging the validity of a practice is the same. That is why I am alarmed that he is teaching in a seminary committed to Reformed theology. Once his pragmatism is taught as the foundation for spirituality, his students (if they are foolish enough to believe him) will become the next generation of Richard Fosters and Dallas Willards. It is hardly the case that we “need” more of them given the fact that the entire Emergent/postmodern movement is already committed to mysticism. We never “need” mystics! But conservative, Reformed theology has been one of the last places of hope for a vital evangelicalism committed to the solas of the Reformation and gospel preaching.

The article by Bob DeWaay, from which this was adapted, appears in its entirety at Critical Issues Commentary right here.

See also:

RICHARD FOSTER’S LEGACY ENDURES: CHRISTIAN LEADERS HELP TO MAKE IT SO

THE TERMINOLOGY TRAP OF “SPIRITUAL FORMATION”

“CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” BY RICHARD FOSTER AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THEOLOGICAL ERROR

EVANGELICAL RIP VAN WINKLES EMPLOY QUAKER MYSTIC RICHARD FOSTER FOR BEDTIME FABLES

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF RICHARD FOSTER ROOTED IN THE EASTERN DESERT AND THOMAS MERTON

WHO IS RICHARD FOSTER?

RICHARD FOSTER A RELIABLE SOURCE FOR PROPER CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY?