Reverend Michael Cocks now in his 80's
Meet any serious Pentecostal and attend their mega worship drama and be certain to hear someone, anyone really, get up where they are and reveal some vision, a prophecy, or a dream.
This is Pentecostalism. Pentecostal congregations love it. Listening to what the Lord is revealing is part and parcel of their Christian philosophy.
But what if an old Anglican Priest was to reveal he too had such from the Lord. I might imagine an Anglican congregation might give a little shudder, express concern and doubt and possibly give time for the Rector to have a little respite at the Anglican Priest's farm for those who had 'lost it.'.
One such New Zealand Anglican Priest did reveal his, Reverend Michael Cocks, and other Anglicans of like mind saw something in this that required deeper meaningful investigation.
This was how The Ground of Faith magazine was initiated. Like minded people started to contribute. The non-contemplative will find it hard going. It's not for the faint hearted. And it's a member of the Australasian Religious Press Association.
This journal has been published six times a year since 2003, and aims to acquaint Christians what has been discovered about the realm of Spirit through credible human experience in modern times.
New Zealand North Island is a place of mysticism
It’s challenging stuff
For some of the reading material you might need a dictionary or have some familiarity with the sciences, philosophy, theology as the reader grapples with the thinking of Nobel Prize winning quantum physicists, starting with Max Planck, Einstein, Pauli, Josephson and many others.
These challenge the Materialist belief that the universe can be compared to a meaningless, purposeless machine, and that our minds are nothing but the play of electrons in our brains.
That wrong belief has poisoned the relationships of many to God, and produced a self-centred nihilism in the hearts of many. There is wide agreement now amongst such scientists, that everything is composed of Mind / Spirit, including the apparently solid and physical objects that surround us.
Everything is a kind of thought in the mind of a God who is in all, through all and above all.
See what I mean?
Mysticism of John's Gospel
Young seminarians could be introduced to the mysticism of St John’s Gospel, and the teaching of St Paul, with Christ the Word being the creator of all that is, visible and invisible. The concept that God is love, while we suffer in the absence of love.
Are you beginning to get the gist of this publication, 'The Ground of Faith?' There are many high issues discussed – things like God is never an angry punisher, and is there a rival god called the devil or is that terminology confusing. The story of the Prodigal Son says it all. Repentance and return to our heavenly Parent is always possible.
The Ground of Faith attempts to acquaint Christians with the world-changing discoveries now being made about 'the realm of Spirit' (Pentcostalism eat your heart out). And these discoveries will guide us to pay particular attention to the parts of Scripture most in tune with what is found.
Riding in a New Zealand Helicopter provides a sense of mysticism
How the magazine came about
Reverend Michael Cocks tells the story: He and a group of others found themselves in conversations with the spirit of Stephen the first Christian martyr almost two hundred times over a period of seven years (nothing new in this, this is 'mysticism 101' throughout church history). Ever since this occurred in the 1970s Michael has been trying to make spiritual, scientific, and theological sense of the experience, and his journal for the past 14 years, has continued the process.
Michael Cocks invites the reader to explore the present issue of The Ground of Faith, where the story is told in greater detail, and you can find how leading Christians have reacted to it.
Stephen’s teaching has much in common with that of the prominent Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr, who is admired by many Protestant theologians.
The Ground of Faith - http://thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02
Emma Seabrook
Emma Seabrook is a columnist with Christian Today and an administrator with a Business Degree. Emma is now studying a degree in nursing. Emma has a passion for Christ and an interest in reading, writing and music.