THE DELUSIONS OF MADAME GUYON

The writings of Madame Guyon (1648-1717) are very popular today in
evangelical, charismatic, and ecumenical circles. Guyon was a Roman
Catholic who had visions and other mystical experiences and wrote
about them in her published works.

Guyon wanted to enter a convent when she was a girl but her parents
would not allow it and arranged her marriage to a 37-year-old man
when she was only 15. It was an unhappy marriage and she turned
increasingly to her mystical experiences and a search for "union with
God."

After he husband died in 1676, she gave herself wholly to her
mystical pursuits. She joined a group of ascetic Quietist Catholics
led by a Barnabite monk named Francios La Combe. She toured parts of
France, Switzerland, and Italy for five years with La Combe, from
1681-86. La Combe taught that meditation of God requires a passive
(quiet) state of contemplation that goes beyond the level of the
conscious thinking process.

Guyon claimed that she went through a series of spiritual states
through her mystical experiences. The first, which she called "union
of the powers," lasted eight years. During this time, she felt drawn
to God alone and drawn away from people. The second state, which she
called "mystical death," lasted seven years, during which she had a
feeling of detachment from God and was plagued with deep mental
depression and thoughts of hell and judgment. She frequently had
dark, weird dreams, which she considered a form of revelation. In the
third state, which she called "the apostolic state," she claimed that
she was absorbed into and united with God. During this time, she
preached, but she did not preach the gospel; she preached mystical
experiences.

As she fasted to the extreme and often went without sleep, her
mystical experiences increased. She experienced what she thought was
union with the essence of God. She had mental delusions or demonic
visitations such as envisioning "horrible faces in blueish light."
She went into trances, which would leave her unable to speak for
days. During some trances, she wrote things that she believed were
inspired (Guyon, An Autobiography, p. 321-324). She claimed that she
and La Combe could communicate with one another for hours without
speaking verbally. She believed she could speak in the language of
angels.

In 1688, Madame Guyon was arrested on heresy charges and imprisoned
in a convent for several months. In December 1695, she was again
imprisoned, this time for seven years. Released in March 1703, she
spent the final 15 years of her life on the estate of her son-in-law.

Her work on prayer, "A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer," was
first published in 1685.

THE POPULARITY OF GUYON'S WRITINGS

After her death, Madame Guyon's works were published by a Dutch
Protestant pastor named Poiret. In the 1700s, her books were popular
among some Lutherans, Methodists, and Moravians.

For many decades, Moody Press has published an edition of Madam
Guyon's Autobiography. It contains no disclaimer of Guyon's spiritual
and doctrinal errors. In fact, the introduction states, "We offer no
word of apology for publishing the autobiography of Madame Guyon,
those expressions of devotion to her church, that found vent in her
writings."

At its online web site, Campus Crusade compares Madame Guyon's
Autobiography with John Bunyon's Pilgrim's Progress and recommends it
without reservation.

On visits to evangelical colleges and seminaries, I have noticed that
Madame Guyon's works are featured prominently in the bookstores and
are used in courses on spirituality.

Madame Guyon was included in the book Women Used of God by Ed Reese.
The Joyful Woman magazine ran a half-page ad for the book in the
September-October 1994 issue. The book contains brief biographies of
50 "Women Leaders of the Christian Cause" and is described as "Ideal
for young people (especially girls) looking for role models." In
addition to Guyon, these "role models" include radical Pentecostal
female preachers Kathryn Kuhlman and Aimee Semple McPherson.

THE ERRORS OF MADAME GUYON

There are some correct and helpful insights in Madame Guyon's
writings, but taken as a whole they are unscriptural and dangerous.
Following are some of the errors:

1. SHE EMPHASIZED THE SURRENDER OF HERSELF TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
WITHOUT RESERVATION.

Madam Guyon spoke of her goal as "perfect obedience to the will of
the Lord, submission to the church" (Guyon, Autobiography). She was
referring, of course, to the Catholic Church.

2. SHE FOCUSED ON HAVING AN EXPERIENCE OF GOD RATHER THAN KNOWING HIM
BY FAITH THROUGH THE BIBLE.

This is the essence of mysticism. To the contrary, though, the Lord
Jesus exalted faith over sight and experience (Jn. 20:29). Paul said
"we walk by faith not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). And faith only comes
from the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). It does not come from within or
from experiences. Madame Guyon was not Bible centered in her
Christian walk, and that is a grave and fatal error.

3. SHE WARNED AGAINST "CRITICAL" EXAMINATION OF SPIRITUAL THINGS.

In the introduction to her book on prayer, Madame Guyon says,
"Beloved reader, read this little book with a sincere and honest
spirit. Read it in lowliness of mind WITHOUT THE INCLINATION TO
CRITICIZE. If you do, you will not fail to reap profit from it."

That is extremely dangerous and unscriptural. Everything is to be
proven by the Bible (Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:21; 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John
4:1). If we do not test everything carefully by the Word of God, we
are open to spiritual deception (2 Cor. 12:1-4). Jesus warned that we
must not allow anyone to deceive us (Matt. 24:4).

3. SHE EMPLOYED PAGAN METHODS OF EMPTYING THE MIND IN MEDITATION AND PRAYER.

Note the following quote from Madame Guyon:

"May I hasten to say that the kind of prayer I am speaking of is not
a prayer that comes from your mind. It is a prayer that begins in the
heart . . . . Prayer offer to the Lord from your mind simply would
not be adequate. Why? Because your mind is very limited. The mind can
pay attention to only one thing at a time. Prayer that comes out of
the heart is not interrupted by thinking" (Guyon, Experiencing the
Depths of Jesus Christ).

One of the types of prayer taught by Madame Guyon was a form of
meditation whereby the soul is emptied of all self-desire and
interest and passively awaits possession by God. This is exactly like
Hinduism.

Contrast 1 Peter 5:8, which says the believer is to be sober and
vigilant, continually alert for spiritual danger. The Bible does not
say the mind is not to be employed in prayer. To the contrary, the
believer is to gird up the mind (1 Pet. 1:13). We are to watch in
prayer (Col. 4:2). That describes a use of the mind. We are to love
the Lord with all our hearts AND all our minds (Lk. 10:27). The Bible
does not play the heart against the mind as Madame Guyon did. In
fact, the two are often used synonymously in scripture.

4. SHE LOOKED FOR GOD WITHIN HERSELF, RATHER THAN WITHOUT.

In her book on prayer, Madame Guyon says, "God is, indeed found with
facility, when we seek Him within ourselves." In her autobiography,
Guyon says that when she was 19 years old, a Catholic Franciscan monk
told her, "It is, madame, because you seek without what you have
within. Accustom yourself to seek God in your heart, and you will
there find Him." She was a Roman Catholic and she did not confess to
a scriptural salvation experience. Instead, she started from that
point forward looking within herself for God and truth. She prayed,
"O my Lord, Thou wast in my heart, and demanded only a simple turning
of my mind inward, to make me perceive Thy presence. Oh, Infinite
Goodness! how was I running hither and thither to seek Thee, my life
was a burden to me, although my happiness was within myself. ...
Alas! I sought Thee where Thou wert not, and did not seek Thee where
thou wert. It was for want of understanding these words of Thy
Gospel, 'The kingdom of God cometh not with observation . . . The
kingdom of God is within you.'"

Madame Guyon often misused Scripture, and she did so in this case
with Luke 17:21. Jesus was addressing the unsaved Pharisees, and He
certainly was not saying that the kingdom of God was inside of them.
He was saying, rather, that the kingdom of God was right there in the
midst of them, because He, the King, was there presenting Himself as
the Messiah and working miracles.

Jesus taught us to pray to God in Heaven, not to God inside of us (Matt. 6:9).

5. SHE BELIEVED IN SINLESS PERFECTION.

Madame Guyon believed that her mystical experiences would "devour all
that was left of self" and that she would be rid of "troublesome
faults" (Guyon, p. 73).

To the contrary, the great apostle Paul, who called himself "the
chief of sinners," testified that in himself "dwelleth no good thing"
(Rom. 7:18). We are taught in Scripture that the sin nature is not
removed after salvation (1 John 1:8-10), and if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves.

6. SHE BELIEVED SHE COULD ACHIEVE A COMPLETE UNION WITH GOD, AN
ABSORPTION INTO GOD.

Madame Guyon said: "So was my soul lost in God, who communicated to
it His qualities, having drawn out of it all that it had of its own."
She spoke of being plunged "wholly into God's own divine essence"
(Guyon, p. 239).

This is a pagan concept that has no basis in Scripture. The believer
is a child of God, but he is not absorbed into God and does note
partake of his divine essence. Only Jesus Christ, the only begotten
Son of God, can say that He is one with and of the same essence with
God. Christ alone dwells in the light "which no man can approach
unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see" (1 Tim. 6:15). In
Revelation 22:3, in the New Heaven and New Earth, the Bible says that
God is still God and "his servants shall serve him." God is God, and
though the believer is His child through Christ, he is not God and
never will be. When 1 Peter 1:4 speaks of being a "partaker of the
divine nature," it refers to partaking of God's moral qualities,
which is what the Bible means when it speaks of man as made in the
image of God. Adam was made in God's image morally, as an upright
being in whom was no sin. 1 Peter 1:4 refers to the same thing as
Ephesians 4:24, "put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness" and Colossians 3:10, "put on the new
man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that
created him."

7. SHE SPENT HER LIFE LOOKING WITHIN HERSELF AND SEEKING MYSTICAL
EXPERIENCES RATHER THAN OBEYING THE GREAT COMMISSION OF JESUS CHRIST.

Madame Guyon thought she was caught up with God, but really, she was
caught up with herself. She consumed her life largely upon her own
personal religious devotions. She did not know the true Gospel of
Jesus Christ for herself nor did she carry it to others. Though she
spoke of the grace of Christ, it was intermingled with Catholic
sacramental heresy.

This has been one of the great errors of Christian mysticism and
monasticism from the second century until now. God has not called the
believer to remove to a remote cave or mountain top hideout or
solitary cell, or to sit around looking inside of himself for God, or
seeking to put oneself into a mindless, passive meditative state, or
to be caught up in visions and trances. The Lord Jesus Christ and His
apostles did nothing like this. Their prayer and meditation was much
more practical than that. Christ has commanded His churches to go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark
16:15).

Beware of Madame Guyon and other Catholic mystics. They have truth,
but it is mixed with error. They are not the wise pattern for prayer
and spirituality that God's people need.