As history shows, Judaism has fallen victim to influence from many pagan cultures and beliefs on numerous accounts. The real problem lies in the fact that much of these practices have in some form or another been incorporated into Judaism over time. As I left off with the Mishnah and Talmud in Part 2 of the series, I will begin this section discussing the controversy shrouding the Kabbalah and its invasion of the Jewish faith with the birth of "Jewish Mysticism". There is a significant gap in the timeline here, but I will cover Judaism during the span of 300 AD to the 13th century in the next series that will explain the history of Christianity and the Catholic church. The Catholic church most certainly finds its roots in paganism/occultism. More on that later...The Kabbalah's orgins are as mysterious as are the reasons that it is even practiced within Judaism. It is considered to be part of the Oral Law (the Mishnah) and is somewhat of a commentary of the Torah (First 5 books of the Old Testament) just as the Talmud is commentary of the Mishnah. The Kabbalah stresses reasons for an understanding of the events found in the Torah using mystical interpretations. It concerns topics such as the understanding of the spiritual spheres in creation and the ways in which God's universe works.
There are various legends concerning the origin of the Kabbalah. Most practitioners of the Kabbalah maintain it came from God. Some say God gave it directly to Adam, while others claim God taught it to a select angelic group. These angels later were kicked out of heaven in Lucifer's rebellion and became known as the "fallen angels". Afterwards the fallen angels taught it to Adam, the disobedient child on earth in order to furnish humankind with the means to return to their nobility and felicity. Really?? by FALLEN angels?? (I would like to point out that this is the belief that will lay the ground work for my explaination of how it was "in the days of Noah". Note that they claim it was the "fallen angels" that divulged this information to man and was passed on through the generations. But I will get into that topic later.) It then passed to Noah, to Abraham and Moses. Moses included the first four books of the Pentateuch, leaving out Deuteronomy, in the Kabbalah before he initiated seventy Elders into it. The Elders initiated others into it. Some even claim that David and Solomon were Kabbalistic adepts.
Supposidly, legend has it that when Abraham immigrated to Egypt and leaked some of the sacred teaching, that the Egyptians learned a portion of the knowledge. It was from Egypt that other Eastern cultures acquired the knowledge and adopted it into their philosophical systems. Moses, being privy to all Egyptian wisdom was first initiated into the Kabbalah in the land of his birth and later became more proficient in it during his wondering in the desert wilderness. It is also claimed by some that alot of this mystical wisdom was learned when Moses recieved the written and oral laws from God during his 40 days atop Mt. Sinai.
As can be seen, the Kabbalah is very much akin to Gnosticism (or knowledge of God. This of course is the foundation of Freemasonry).(Interestingly enough, some Freemasons claim that Solomon along with the 1st temple's architect Hiram, were the first Freemasons. And as noted previously, he was supposidly a student of Kabbalah as well. Funny how both of these practices seemingly parrallel one another. As you will see though, every pagan religion that exists, parrallels the ancient traditions that were supposidly imparted to man by "God" or by "fallen angels" in one form or another.) In both, sacred knowledge which God withheld from man was given to him by his adversary; the serpent in the Garden who tempted Eve, and the fallen angels who gave humankind the Kabbalah. The Freemasons (Gnostics) declare that it was Lucifer, the light-bearer, who gifted mankind with this wisdom in order that man find his inner godhood and as stated in Genesis 3, "be as gods". ( Note: it is this belief that is the core of the New Age Doctrine and almost every other occultic faith. Again, much more on that later.) The Kabbalah's mystical content is based on wisdom that was imparted by the "fallen angels" and passed down, yet it is argued by those who practice it that it came from God. (In fact, some believe that as part of the oral law found in the Mishnah, the Kabbalah consists of the mystical interpretations of such laws.) There is nothing biblical about mysticism. But, just like the Freemasons seek a "knowledge of God", of what "God" do they truly speak of?
During Christ's time around 30 AD and there after,both Gnosticism and the teachings of the Kabbalah were popular in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean. Those holding to either teaching believed they were the "elect" because they were enlightened by possessing the knowledge of the divine; those possessing such knowledge were transformed-to know God is to be God. Hello pantheism and New Age dogma...
Claiming "God" as the source of this wisdom is certainly a deception perpetrated by the enemy. This has decieved many people into accepting these practices and incorporating them into their own faith simply based on the principle that it originated from "God". Paul warned us to "test the spirits" as stated in 1 John 4:1"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Also, Jesus told us that it is by the fruits (deeds) of others that you will know the source of those deeds. (Matthew 7:20 "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.") We must be wise and use the Holy Spirit, which Jesus sent to us after he accended to heaven, to decern from what is of creator God and what is not. In these last days, we are warned of a mass deception that blankets the earth and how we are to refrain from it and be prepared for his return. (Matthew 24:4-8 "4And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows.")
Before Jesus accended, of every question he could ask his disciples, he asked if he would find FAITH upon his return as stated in Luke 18:8 "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Hebrews 11:1 defines faith for us... "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." According to this scripture our hope IS our proof. This would indicate that the faith you have, is planted by God. The more you seek him, the more faith that you will be granted. SEEK HIM. Our wisdom comes from God. Those who seek godhood are on a never ending track for god-knowledge, using texts like the Kabbalah in an attempt to harness this god wisdom. We as children of God must search HIM for our wisdom... not some mystical text.
Throughout its history, Kabbalists have chosen to keep their esoteric interpretations of the Torah hidden from the general populace and religious leaders. Many Kabbalists were persecuted and many others knew that their teachings contradicted accepted Jewish and Christian theologies. So, they practiced a self-imposed silence. Kabbalah however, continued to be passed down through the centuries.
Supposidly, the earliest documented Kabbalistic writing is called the "Sepher Yetzirah", or "the book of creation". One tradition claims that Abraham wrote the book and placed it within a cave. It was later discovered and published as the Sepher Yetzirah.
The Sefer Yetzirah claims that God created the world by the means of thirty-two secret paths of knowledge which are the ten Sephirah and the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. ( Also worth noting...The Hebrew alphabet and their relationship to numbers is how "the bible codes" have been deciphered in scripture.) It is believed that the ten Sephirah forming the Sephiroth were originally thought as referring to numbers but later representing emanations from which the cosmos was formed. This worldview presented is currently found in the modern interpretation of the Kabbalah.
In the 13th century, what is known as the "ecstatic" or "prophetic" Kabbalah appeared which emphasized a visionary and experiential aspect relying on novel approaches to the Hebrew alphabet and numbers as sources of the divine truth. These conceptions were mainly those of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, a mystic , and represent the mystic tendencies among the Kabbalists instead of theosophical and traditional speculations.
In the 14th century, Moses De Leon, a spanish Kabbalist and student of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, constructed the Zohar. This publication is extremely influential in modern Kabbalistic philosophy. Moses claimed that he had found the scrolls that the Zohar was comprised of and that they had been written more than a thousand years earlier. However recent scholars suggest that it was Moses ,that in fact, wrote the Zohar.
By the 16th century, the culmination of the modern Kabbalah had influences from Kabbalists such as John Dee, a mathematician and geographer, and Isaac Luria who is revered as the greatest Kabbalist of modern times. It was during this time that the Hasidic movement emerged, making the Kabbalah accessible to the masses. The Hasidims were considered Jewish Mystics. This Jewish Mysticism is very much alive and being practiced today.
By the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, many more Kabbalists had influenced the Kabbalah's development such as Gaon of Vilna in the 1800's and Rabbi Ashlag well into the 1900's.
Today the Kabbalah has been popularized and has gained tremendous popularity even with some celebrities. For instance, Britney Spears and Madonna both practice Kabbalah traditions. This popularization is condemned by traditional Jewish Kabbalists and they claim it is a misrepresentation of authemtic Kabbalah philosophy. Despite this, the modern Kabbalah IS a work in New Age philosophy. The Zohar is at the heart of Kabbalah practices and it explores New Age philosophy such as reincarnation, inner divinity, and pantheism. The bottomline is that the modern Kabbalah has inevitably evolved from one heresy deeper into another and its mysticism is certainly not biblical. I believe there may be some ancient truths of the Jewish Oral traditions within the Kabbalah, after all the Kabbalah is as much a commentary as the Talmud. However, the current Kabbalah and its implementation and promotion of Mysticism is nothing more than a collection of paganistic evil. This is a prime example of how the New Agers have infultrated Judaism and distorted God's truth.
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