What Does the Bible Say About Mysticism?

1 Corinthians 2:12-16 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 John 4:1 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 Timothy 4:1 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 ESV / 10 helpful votes

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

1 John 4:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

2 Peter 1:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Leviticus 20:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

Hebrews 13:8-9 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

John 16:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Colossians 2:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

2 Chronicles 33:6 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

James 2:19 ESV / 5 helpful votes

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

John 3:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 1:14 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Matthew 7:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 4:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

1 Samuel 15:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Romans 1:1-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, ...

Isaiah 6:1-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” ...

Isaiah 2:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

Genesis 2:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Revelation 22:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

2 Peter 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

2 Timothy 3:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Acts 19:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.

John 14:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Leviticus 19:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

John 8:44 ESV / 1 helpful vote

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 1:1 ESV / 1 helpful vote

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Matthew 24:4 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.

Isaiah 45:18 ESV / 1 helpful vote

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Isaiah 14:13-14 ESV / 1 helpful vote

You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

Exodus 20:5 ESV / 1 helpful vote

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

41 Bible Verses about Mysticism